Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Beacon is Unbreakable
by The Inkasters
Summary: "To live with his friends and family, safe in their homes as his grandfather had dreamed? That was what Higashikata Josuke fought for." Written by: gorilla fingers
1. Prologue

**A/N: As the summary credits suggest, flying solo on this one. A story I can write and edit myself so we can get updates out when the editing process gets bogged down. A measuring stick for my own individual growth. The next update of A: TPP and another short story are in the editing stages. Enjoy**

Beacon Academy, Vale

The sun tickled her face as she slowly cracked open her eyes. She'd been awake for a little while, as she tried to eke out every last bit of sleep possible before the sun rose. However, as alarms finally blared out their cacophonous melodies, the three other occupants of the dorm stirred awake. After they blinked the sleep from their eyes, the gazes of the four young women met each other.

Which prompted from the four members of Team RWBY a long, weary sigh..

The end of the semester was as boring as they feared it would be.

The morning passed on as mornings usually did; fights for the bathroom, hurried runs for the dining hall to get something in their stomachs before the long day, tired hellos exchanged with their sister team JNPR and finally a mad dash as they tried to make it to Professor Port's lecture early. After all, if they didn't hurry, the best seats would be taken; the seats in the back row, where those of them inclined to just sleep through the verbose lecture could do so without being noticed.

Ruby Rose had never necessarily liked that she and most of her friends and family found Professor Port so dreadfully boring. Hunter stories had been some of her favorites, and the ones Qrow had told as part of his class were always exciting. Port's, on the other hand, just went on for entirely too long and didn't really seem to have much of a point. The man seemed more interested in his own adventures than in being sure they were taught anything Sure, if you pierced through the endless rambling mess his inflated ego would toss their way, you could have possibly produced a good gem of knowledge from time to time, but more often than not he just sat there and spun stories that may very well not have been true.

She, and the rest of the team, had gladly left it to Weiss to scrape out what was actually good from bad. Ruby smiled slightly as she yawned, while Port's lecture tried its hardest to lull her back to sleep. Her entire team owed her partner for being the only one of them with the patience to stand Port's rambles. It was especially important if they expected to make it through the end of semester exams, after all.

The day bled by much the same as previous days had. Oobleck had always done better with their attention, if only because you needed to keep absolute focus in order to have any hopes that you had understood him in the first place. Goodwitch's sparring classes were probably the highlight of the day, but even these had lost their luster after an entire semester. It wasn't just that the matches had become repetitive as people set into patterns of who they could and couldn't beat. When you stopped an armed robbery before even having been accepted into Beacon and then stopped another huge robbery in the middle of the semester, it just made these spars feel less meaningful in comparison.

It reminded Ruby of what she was here to learn to do; she wanted to be a huntress, to be a hero. She appreciated that she needed to go through her time at Beacon in order to get there, but when she had been constantly thrown into the adventure she knew had waited for her outside the school, she couldn't help but feel like the busy work and the day to day grind of Beacon was just hollow in comparison.

Not that she'd ever say that to any of the staff, mind.

Her friends, on the other hand?

"Finally, thought that this day was gonna go on forever." Ruby nodded at Yang's outburst as they sat around for dinner, as the blond bombshell ran a hand across her face in exasperation. "I swear, Port's classes just feel like they're getting longer and longer."

"Maybe that's his semblance; the more he talks, the more time slows to a crawl around him." Blake said softly, while a small grin formed at the corner of her lips. Ever since the dock incident, she'd been closer to the team and slowly became an integral part of it. Heck, she even started to throw in quips like this more and more often. It was a small miracle that Ruby had been thankful for.

"OH MY GOSH! It all makes sense now, how he was able to beat all those crazy Grimm in his stories: he just spoke so much that time froze around him and he was all 'Hee-yah, wah-cha'!" The group of eight shared a laugh at Nora's excited proclamation, Lie Ren just shook his head slightly at his partner's antics as the rest of the group recovered.

"That would certainly explain how he earned his place at Beacon. A time-stopping semblance would be quite the tool for any hunter." Pyrrha spoke next, a slightly ring of laughter still remained in her voice

"It would be. Sadly, I think we just have to chalk up the drag on time to the fact that Professor Port seems to be running out of material… I swear, his stories are starting to run together at this point. It's all becoming a blur of bravado, wrestling and mustaches" Weiss gave an annoyed whine as she lightly banged her head on the table.

"Don't worry Weiss-cream, we appreciate your sacrifice." Yang said with a wide grin as she continued to dig into her food. "We'll find a way to pay you back. Promise."

"Oooh, a promise. That and about five lien will get me a cup of coffee. Then again, that would help with staying awake." The group shared another laugh before they continued to eat, the silence broken up by some small talk here and there between the two teams.

"Oh, before I forget, we're heading out to the Emerald Forest for some more hands on training here in a couple days." Jaune's sudden interjecttion had drawn Team RWBY's attention to him. "Nora's been getting a little stir-crazy with all this studying and exam prep, being cooped up in classes, the dining hall and our doom room just… well, it hasn't been good for her."

"Or any of us for that matter. Every time I look I swear we're losing a little bit more of our luster to this crushing monotony! Our youthful and unbreakable spirits are slowly being corroded by this endless nightmare of lectures and bookwork!" Nora waved her hands in an exaggerated manner towards her team, all the while she poured on the melodrama, to great effect. Ruby had to admit, Team JNPR did look a lot worse for wear after two solid weeks of exam-prep. Though, if Ruby had been honest, her own team probably wouldn't have taken home any prizes for youthful vigor either.

"So I figured that some live training in the forest might do us some good. Some fresh air, some Grimm to slay, some time away from Beacon, some time away from textbooks…" The last was muttered under Jaune's breath, just low enough for those at the table to hear him. "I thought that we'd ask if you all wanted to come; we haven't had much chance to hang out these past two weeks, and we figured you all'd jump at the chance to get out." The blond-haired knight offered with a friendly grin, one which was readily returned by Ruby and her entire team.

"Ah you know us too well, Vomit Boy!" Yang exclaimed as she reached over and punched Jaune on the arm, the blond laughing good-naturedly as he tried to play it off, before he rubbed his arm to sooth the pain. "You all already know I'm up for it." The blond immediately turned her lilac eyes to the rest of the team, a pleading look in them as she stared down the rest of Team RWBY.

"Hmmm… well, I did have a book I wanted to read… but I guess I could put an earmark in it for later. Yang would probably throttle me if I said otherwise." Blake rolled her eyes slightly as she looked towards her partner, a sly grin formed on her face as the blond nodded.

"Ah, one semester as partners and you can already read my mind Blakey." Yang turned his gaze to Weiss and just leaned forward slightly. "Let's see if you can figure out what Rubes' is thinking, Weiss." Yang was met with a sigh as Weiss just shook her head.

"I would prefer if we spent some more time studying for these exams, but I imagine I'm about to be outvoted." Weiss did her best to look annoyed, and to her credit, the Schnee-heiress certainly put up a good front. However, as the team looked to Ruby, her gaze out towards the Emerald Forest, they all grinned.

For Ruby, the answer was clear. An afternoon spent out in the sun and fresh air, while they fought the monsters that posed the worst threat to humanity surrounded by her closest friends and family? Ruby's mind was made up before the question itself was even fully asked.

To go out and fight, to be a hero, to make a difference in the world. That's what Ruby Rose lived for.

"You all can count on us to be there." With that, the group turned back to their food and continued their small conversations, although all a little more upbeat than they had been previously.

* * *

The Frontier, Grimmlands

The sun tickled his face as he turned his gaze to meet it. He'd been awake for a while now, having drawn the short straw and so he'd gotten stuck with the last watch for tonight, or last night, he supposed. As the sun rose he released a slight yawn as he jumped down from his perch in the tree, his two friends, brothers really, slowly but surely stirred thanks to warmth of the rising sun. With slight yawns, they turned their gazes towards him, and their eyes met.

He smiled at the two of them, which they returned in equal measure..

The night had been as quiet as they had hoped it would be.

The morning passed as it usually did; they'd take it in turns to run off to a nearby river or stream to do their business while the other two would work on clearing out the campsite They dug through their bags and pulled out their supplies and tried their best to have a good meal; they had some small talk and generally did their best to keep their spirits up in the middle of the Grimmlands. After all, if they allowed something as small as a poor morning or an empty stomach affect their mood, they'd might as well have asked the Grimm to show up..

Higashikata Josuke fell into the motions along with his friends. He had quickly fixed any nicks or bumps that the other two had left over, Koichi scouted out fifty meters above and around them to keep an eye out for any others or the Grimm and Okuyasu removed any trace that they'd even been in this particular spot in short order.

They had been set to be picked up and replaced sometime that day, so the three young men took their seats around their former campsite. Before boredom set in, Okuyasu pulled out a deck of cards and Koichi quickly shuffled them.

"You'd best not cheat this time Josuke, I'll be keeping my eye on you." Okuyasu said, his gravelly voice was playfully suspicious as Koichi dealt out the hands.

"What? Me? Cheat? Come on Okuyasu, when have you ever known me to do something like that?" Josuke said with a knowing smile as he lifted his cards. "After all, we both know that Koichi's the one who'd pull something like that, isn't that right Koichi?" Before Koichi could defend himself, Okuyasu just nodded his head in grim agreement.

"I suppose you're right. You know what I heard; I heard Koichi stole some food from the supply train and ate it by himself, even while his family was famished." Okuyasu said with a disappointed sigh as he shook his head.

"No dignity, that kid." The pompadoured teen spoke with a shake of his head, Koichi's face red as a beet.

"Come on you guys, cut it out…" The two had a laugh at Koichi's expense, though the two apologized before they continued their game.

"Anyway, I'm just saying Josuke. You always seem to have just the cards you need when you need them, and you and I both know how you get them." Okuyasu just smiled as he looked at the cards he had in hand, a slight snicker escaped his lips

The corners of Josuke's mouth had crept up into a small grin as he placed two cards down. "Well, even if what you were insinuating was true, you're just jealous because if you tried something similar, you'd just end up losing cards all-together."

"Oh-ho, keep that talk up Josuke, and you'll see if I don't reach over and scrape that big, ugly, stupid-looking…" The scarred young man held the last word slightly, a wide grin on his face as Josuke's expression had taken a dark turn, which in turn had Koichi's expression twisted into one of panic and worry. "... grin off your face."

Okuyasu barked out a laugh as Koichi sighed in relief while Josuke just laughed and patted his pompadour slightly.

"Okuyasu, do you really have to go and do stuff like that? You nearly gave me a heart attack." Koichi whined slightly as he threw three cards down into the pile, while the scarred teen shrugged his shoulders..

"Come on Koichi, we're huntsmen. Gotta have a little thrill and danger in our lives, don't we?" A wide grin stretched across his face, even as Koichi's expression had taken a turn towards disbelief.

"What, are the Grimm not enough for you?" Koichi muttered under his breath, to which Okuyasu barked out another laugh.

"I guess that's a good point. Though, that doesn't mean as much with how quiet this trip was." Okuyasu took his turn, while Josuke just nodded his head slightly.

"Yeah. I'm honestly kind of surprised; we're pretty far out from Morioh, you'd think we'd have seen a few Grimm running about." A smile had spread across the teen's features as he looked around. "It's pretty great."

It was a sign of progress, or at least, the three huntsmen hoped it was. They'd have to wait and listen in back at town for how other trips went to know for certain. However, if everyone else ended up like they did...

The three young men snapped their heads to the sky as a shrill noise reached their ears, a shadow of a beast swooped through the trees. It reached Koichi and, with a small shower of dust, disappeared into his back.

"Echoes must've spotted our pickup."

"Even more good news, then." Okuyasu said with a wide grin as he looked over at Koichi. "We can finish up this hand and then we'll be ready to go-"

"Royal flush."

"WHAT?!"

Okuyasu and Koichi snapped their heads back to the card game and, sure enough, Josuke had set out a royal flush right in front of him, a cheeky grin on the young man's face. "I take it that neither of you two have something to match that then?" He asked, the surprised looks on their faces told him as much. "Ah well, looks like I win." He quickly gathered up the cards, including the ones in their hands, as he reshuffled the deck.

"NOW YOU WAIT JUST ONE DUST-DAMNED MINUTE, JOSUKE!" Okuyasu roughly grabbed the cards from Josuke's grasp before he quickly looked through all the cards in the deck. One of each, no extras and no missing cards. Okuyasu just grumbled a bit as he handed the deck back into his pack. "This is why I don't gamble with you Josuke." He muttered under his breath as Josuke just smiled at the scarred teen.

"Okuyasu, like I'd cheat a friend out of their stuff like that. You know me better." Josuke stood up and patted the dust and dirt off of himself as he offered a hand to help Okuyasu up. The teen just looked at the proffered hand warily for a moment, before he took a firm hold of it. "Besides, I never cheat, I'm just this good."

"Yeah, yeah." Okuyasu rolled his eyes, while Koichi sat off to the side, a warm smile on his face as he watched his two, relatively, new friends. "Hey, you can't miss out on this moment here Koichi, go on, tell Josuke off for being a filthy cheater." Okuyasu grabbed up Koichi, the smaller boy yelping slightly as Okuyasu stood him up.

"Uh, uh, I dunno Okuyasu, we've technically never caught him doing anything like that…" Koichi muttered slightly, which earned him a laugh from Josuke and a betrayed look from Okuyasu.

"See, Koichi's not a sore loser like you are, Okuyasu."

"... Traitor." Okuyasu muttered under his breath, while Koichi just mewled out nervous laughter. It hadn't been long before the sounds of hoof beats reached their ears and, not long after that, six people on horseback rode into the clearing.

"Alright then; Higashikata Josuke, Nijimura Okuyasu, Hirose Koichi, your replacements are here. Let 'em get their supplies out and ready and then the rest of us can head back to Morioh." The four who jumped from the horses were a bit older than the trio, the two groups just exchanged quick hellos as Josuke's team helped them unload their horses.

Before long, Josuke's team had loaded up and had ridden off from the forest, a serene smile on Josuke's face as they rode out from the Grimmlands and back towards Morioh.

This was what Josuke had been looking forward to for most of their mission. A warm bed, a hot bath, and a good home cooked meal with his friends… provided Koichi's folks weren't back in and his own mother was, of course. Otherwise, it'd just be him, Okuyasu and whatever the two could manage to not burn. Even then, Josuke would have felt content.

To live with his friends and family, safe in their homes as his grandfather had dreamed? That was what Higashikata Josuke fought for.

"This is going to be great." Despite it being whispered under his breath, Koichi and Okuyasu couldn't help but share a smile with their leader, as they all rode back in comfortable silence.

* * *

 _The Unknown Continent. The Frontier. Morioh. A town of a little over 10,000 souls, the continent Morioh stands on is one shrouded in rumor and death._ _Once the limits of civilization's expansion against the Grimm, it was the home to members of all races and to the citizens of all kingdoms. These people fought bitterly against one another as the human nations of Remnant warred and clashed in order to secure their right to humanity's new home in the Grimmlands._

 _Then came "The Reckoning". Hordes of Grimm, tens of thousands strong, stormed through The Frontier, destroying all in its wake. Whispers were sounded of a horrifying demon at the front of this army of monsters, who could command the Grimm as a general could command soldiers. The Four Kingdoms of Remnant assumed that the people of The Frontier were doomed, as no scouting parties could make it back through to the cities. Any cities they had found were destroyed, right down to their foundations and not a trace of human life, save for blood stained stone, remained. The Grimmlands had ended humanity's expansion and, thus, began humanity's slow decline in the face of the Grimm.._

 _Or so it was thought._

 _With the strength of their souls, forged into powerful visions, the men and women of The Frontier fought against the Grimm threat. Lead by William Zeppeli, Robert Speedwagon and Jonathan Joestar, these stalwart men of their day, humanity had once again fought for its survival and won. It was to be in a small town, situated by the mouth of a river, that humanity would make its stand._

 _Morioh has stood proud the last human city of The Frontier, and no man, woman or faunus has been denied, no citizen of any Kingdom turned away from this bastion of hope that Joestar, Zeppeli and Speedwagon sought to give them._

 _Now, One Hundred Years later, Morioh still stands. The lines between Mantlean, Valean, Vacuoan and Mistrali, between human and faunus, have faded and its people now stand united and strong, ready to tackle the challenges of this new century._

 _Joseph Joestar, grandson of Jonathan Joestar, has moved forward with a plan that will accomplish his grandfather's sole dream; the reunification of the Frontier with the rest of humanity._

 _His efforts will result in the most bizarre adventures yet seen by Remnant._

 **Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Beacon is Unbreakable**

 **-To Be Continued-** **Welcome to Vale (Act 1)**


	2. Welcome to Vale (Act 1)

Beacon Academy, Vale, Months before the Second Semester

"Lastly, we have Mistral's Team SSSN, led by one Sun Wukong, marking Haven's third team to participate in the Vytal Festival. With that, I think we've covered all the participants for the upcoming tournament, James." Ozpin leaned back in his chair as he spoke with a holographic projection of James Ironwood. The two headmasters had parsed out the list of participants for the upcoming Vytal Tournament in Vale, as part of their security preparations.

"Indeed. Status update on my end: the new line of Atlesian Knights and the Paladin will be ready for some presentations around the time Atlas' own will be heading for Vale. A good show for the people should keep spirits high and hopefully demoralize our would be adversaries." James Ironwood spoke in a grim, serious tone. This wasn't the time for levity or lighthearted banter with his long time associate. If they failed to plan for their enemies' moves, who knew what would happen.

"I wish you wouldn't be so heavy-handed James. A show of force like that may indeed lift some morale…" Before Ozpin could have continued, Ironwood interrupted him with a slight roll of his eyes.

"'But it could also stoke fears as to Atlas' true intentions with the upcoming festival'. I know, I know Ozpin, we've been over this before. It's worth the risk: you've already got some criminal element brazenly stealing massive amounts of Dust right under our noses for who knows what reason. I'd rather scare some folks rather than make it seem like we're ready to be pushed around."

Ozpin took a moment as he considered his ally's argument, before he calmly readjusted his glasses. "We'll simply have to disagree here… and I'll simply just have to let you bring your toys, James. Not much I can do to stop you, is there?" Ozpin asked, a smile finally slipped onto his face, one that was quickly matched by the Atlas Academy Headmaster.

"No, there isn't.." James reached over off of the hologram and pulled a coffee mug to his own lips. "Mmmm… sent over some good brew Ozpin."

"It helps me relax in these trying times James. I feel overwhelmed with just my work as the Headmaster of Beacon, so I have to imagine that you're set to snap at any moment with all your extra responsibilities." The two men laughed slightly as they drank from their respective brews, relieved sighs escaped their lips before they set their mugs aside.

"Well, as much fun as it is to just sit and chat, if we're done here I think it's best that we call it a-" James Ironwood was interrupted as the doors to Ozpin's office opened. In walked a woman, employed by Beacon Academy if her dress was any indication, with a heavy blushed painted across her features. Gripped in her hands was a white envelope, sealed with a red wax stamp.

"H-Headmaster Ozpin, Headmaster Ironwood." She stammered slightly as she quickly curtsied to the two men, both of whom raised their brows as they watched her.

"Miss May, is something the matter?" The bespectacled Headmaster asked, somewhat perturbed by the interruption.

"Oh nothing's the matter sir, nothing at all…" May said, somewhat dreamily, before she shook her head. "I-I-I mean, no sir, nothing's wrong, it's just, well, you've received a… a letter." She held up the envelope and showed it to Ozpin and Ironwood, both of whom wore surprised expressions.

"A letter? Really? Why not send a message straight to your scroll?" Ironwood inquired as his hologram leaned forward onto a desk, while Ozpin rubbed his chin.

"Unless it was something they didn't want potentially intercepted over the network. Miss May, did the man who delivered this letter give any indication as to why he brought it? Was it Qrow?"

"Yes sir and no sir. He said that it was a request for a team to participate in the Vytal Festival, Headmaster." Both Headmasters at that point just blanched in disbelief, each leaned forward against their respective desks..

"Okay… well, give the letter here Miss May. Thank you for being so… timely. You're dismissed." Miss May rushed out a nod and a curtsy as she turned on her heels back towards the door, her blush still displayed prominently on her features. "... A request to participate in the Festival?" Ozpin quickly unsealed the letter as he raised his coffee mug to his lips.

"Seems something pretty banal to go through the hassle of sending through a letter instead of sending a message over a scroll. Hardly seems worth the effort if you ask-"

Ironwood's thoughts were interrupted quite suddenly as Ozpin choked on his coffee, eyes widened in surprise and glued to the parchment in his hand as he beat a fist against his chest. Without a single drop of coffee spilled onto his desk, Ozpin swallowed and took deep breaths as he read and re-read the contents of the letter.

"Ozpin, what's gotten into you?" The general was astounded; never before had he seen Ozpin react to something in such a manner. Ozpin took a moment to gather his breath and reread the contents of the letter one last time, before he spoke aloud.

"To the current Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I would like to extend my greetings to you and whatever audience may be gathered to read this letter on behalf of… the people of The Frontier. For the past one hundred years, the people of The Frontier have been struggling against the Grimm in order to hold onto humanity's enclave on the Unknown Continent and I am proud to say that we've met with smashing success. While it was touch and go for many of the early decades, our home of Morioh is now more populous and secure than it has ever been.

"It has long since been the dream of our huntsmen and huntresses, the people of Morioh, to reunite with the rest of humanity, and it has been decided that we are ready to reach out and make that connection. Having learned about the Vytal Festival during one of my outings to the rest of the world, held in Vale at the time, funnily enough, it has been decided by myself and my closest advisers that this would represent a prime opportunity for The Frontier to show it's best to the other kingdoms..

"I do hope to hear back from you as soon as possible, and hopefully with an affirmation to our simple request: that the Frontier Hunters be allowed to send a team of our choosing to the Vytal Festival to compete, interact with the youths of the continent and to show the spirit of The Frontier to the rest of the world.

"Yours truly, Joseph Joestar, 3rd Head of The Frontier." Ozpin concluded as he leaned back in his chair, the letter slipped from his grasp as he reached a hand up and placed it against his forehead. A look of wonder, shock and awe played across his face as he took in this information.

The Frontier. Could it be true?

Ozpin was snapped from his thoughts by a scoff from Ironwood, who just shook his head. "Guess it wouldn't be a Vytal Festival if we didn't get some nonsense thrown our way." James clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he leaned back in his own chair. "Think hard about that name Ozpin; where have you heard of Joseph Joestar before?"

Ozpin blinked a few times as he stroked his chin. Joseph Joestar, Joseph Joestar…"Ah!" Ozpin snapped his fingers. "The character from Stroheim's biography."

"Yep." James sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Looks like someone got a copy of _'The Post War World'_ and decided they wanted to have a bit of fun with you." The Atlesian general glared at the letter as he spoke. "I swear, if I could I'd round up every last copy of that book and throw them into the ocean."

"You have to admit, it's an interesting read." Ozpin offered as he released a slight sigh of disappointment.

"It's an interesting read because it's pure nonsense, Ozpin. Stroheim claimed that he watched a 19 year old launch himself and some age-defying, millennia-old monstrosity into the stratosphere with a volcanic eruption! The early augmentations were always thought to be a risk, but the degree they messed with that poor fool's head was insane."

"Well, let's see if our little prankster decided to stick around. I'm sure the both of us could use a bit of a laugh after all this serious business." Ozpin muttered slightly as he reached for his scroll, tapping a few commands into it. "Miss May, is our guest still-"

"Ooooooh~" Ozpin and Ironwood both blushed heavily as the low moan rang through Ozpin's scroll. "S-S-Sir, please, we shouldn't be doing this in such a public place. My boss, he's only-"

"Only in a very important meeting that will be sure to take up his time, especially considering the message I was asked to deliver, **mademoiselle**. I'm sure you and I can take the time to get to know each other while he contemplates it." A low, masculine voice with a lilting accent was heard soon after, and a feminine giggle followed it.

"Mmmm, but, it's so… so indecent, sir. It's barely noon." Ozpin pulled at his collar slightly as his face turned a dark red, Ironwood's jaw unhinged as he stared at the device.

"Anytime is a wonderful time for love, **mon ch** **é** **r**. Also, please, do not refer to me so formally. I would love to hear that wonderful voice of yours sing my name." A scandalized gasp echoed from the scroll.

"J-Jean Pierre~"

"Please, my dear, call me-"

"Miss May!" Ozpin shouted suddenly, as a loud ruckus could be heard some way from his door and immediately from his scroll.

"OH OZPIN, I MEAN PROFESSOR, I MEAN HEADMASTER, SIR! What can I do for you!?" The sound of the scroll on the other end of the call being jostled around echoed as May's voice became clearer.

"Is our… guest still with us?" Ozpin asked sternly, a bit of laughter accompanied by a quiet 'that was quick' heard on the other end of the line, while May offered only a quick affirmative. "Excellent. Would you mind sending him in? General Ironwood and I would like to have a word with him." Ozpin deactivated his scroll and placed it to the side. Ozpin brought both hands up and cupped his face, a deep groan echoed slightly from his hands as he fought to diminish the color on his face.

"Sounds like our guest is quite… colorful." James spoke with a clearly displeased tone to his voice, as he readjusted his collar. "Let's see if yellow is one of those colors." The general whispered under his breath as his holographic image turned so that it faced the door, Ozpin nodded his head as he kept his gaze locked on the entrance to his office.

What stepped through those doors wasn't what either of the two Headmasters had expected.

Though nearly half a foot shorter than either of them, the man's silver hair gave him a good few inches in the appearance of his height: a tall, flat-topped pillar of hair rose from a slightly receding hairline. From his ears hung two ruby red earrings of two-halves of one heart, dangling from his ears and swinging with each movement of his head. A tight-fitting black shirt with red strings criss-crossing the front of his chest and gold trimmings on the holes around the shirt's shoulders, all of which accentuated the man's very muscular physique. A pair of beige pants that flowed into a simple pair of boots completed the look of this very strange, blue-eyed and pale stranger.

" **Bonjour, mes amis**." The lilting, yet masculine, accent of the man met their ears as he bowed deeply to them. The posture and attitude of the man suggested a very brash confidence, though one that had been tempered over years of experience and age. As he rose out of his bow with a practiced flourish, he gave the two of them a winning smile as he approached.

"I'd like to thank you for having taken this into consideration so quickly. The sooner we get this business settled, the sooner we can begin making preparations." As he approached the desk, he slapped his forehead slightly and a chuckle escaped his lips. "Ah, but of course, how rude of me. I haven't even properly introduced myself to you gentlemen." Once more, he bowed before them. "My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff, though my friends refer to me as Polnareff."

The two older men had just gaped and stared at the stranger who had so casually strolled into Ozpin's office. The charm offensive put on by this very bizarre young man had disarmed the frustration of the two headmasters, if only to have replaced it with confusion and curiosity. Ozpin had recovered first between the two of them, as he coughed into his fist to try to knock Ironwood out of his own surprised state.

"Yes… well… thank you for your very kind words, Mr. Jean Pierre. It was hardly an issue for us to take the letter you brought into consideration as soon as possible. It presented a very… interesting set of possibilities." Despite his previous annoyance, Ozpin had not found it in himself to address Jean Pierre more harshly than that. He had expected the would be prankster to have ran for the hills, or to have tried to avoid his and Ironwood's reprisal through begging. Yet, here he stood, congenial and friendly, as he gave the two of them a very understanding look.

He didn't believe the young man or his letter a bit, even still, yet he couldn't quite bring himself to dislike a man of his demeanor.

"Ah, I understand completely, my good men. It has been quite some time since The Frontier has made official contact with any of the Four Kingdoms. I would apologize on behalf of the people of Morioh, but I'm sure you all understand: the sheer mass of Grimm in between our city and the rest of the world would've been nearly impossible to overcome or circumvent even a short fifteen years ago." Jean Pierre's expression turned to a joyous grin as he spread his arms out towards the two men. "Which is what makes this little meeting of ours so joyous, no?"

"Yes… joyous…" Ironwood muttered under his breath as he recovered from the initial shock of Jean Pierre's entrance, the Atlesian general stared him down as he leaned forward on his own desk. "Not at all unbelievable or in anyway total nonsense."

"James…" Ozpin turned to look at the holographic projection of his friend, as Jean Pierre just placed a hand to his chest.

"Pardon, **monsieur**?"

"You think you're the first man to have ever walked up to an Academy headmaster or a member of one of the governing councils, claiming to be from the Frontier? We've been dealing with this sort of nonsense ever since the Frontier was officially lost one hundred years ago. Hell, you tipped your hand by using that ridiculous character from Stroheim's biography in your letter." Jean Pierre quickly grasped what Ironwood had insinuated and, though an annoyed expression briefly crossed his features, his face and tone quickly took on an apologetic edge.

"Ah, I see, you have your doubts. However, I must implore you both to believe me. This letter comes from my leader and close friend, Joseph Joestar. The Frontier is ready to rejoin the rest of humanity, and we wish to do so through this festival of peace and brotherhood you have set up during our absence. You must believe our sincerity." Ironwood seemed ready to lash out further, however, a raised hand from Ozpin silenced the Atlesian headmaster.

"Please understand our position. This is a rather fantastical claim you're presenting. It could be a cover for any number of things you might actually wish to do… some more dangerous than a simple lie or joke gone too far." Ozpin's tone calmed both Ironwood and Jean Pierre, the latter nodded in understanding.

"Of course. I supposed we should have suspected as much. There was just so much excitement when the decision was made I suppose we overlooked the reality of the situation." Jean Pierre scratched his chin lightly as he looked at the two headmasters. "Is there anything I might be able to do to prove to you that I'm telling you the truth?"

Ozpin hummed to himself as the bespectacled headmaster thought on this. As he sipped from his coffee, a flash of inspiration struck. With a small smile, Ozpin waved a hand towards Ironwood.

"As my associate here said, we have trouble believing you because the name of your leader in the letter is the same as a character from a… let's call it controversial, biography from the old Mantle days." Ironwood rolled his eyes at the description, yet Ozpin continued. "However, there was one phenomena in it that I found to be quite interesting. The idea described to Stroheim by Joseph Joestar and the other Frontier hunters as… what was it, Stand Power?

"If you can demonstrate this Stand Power for us, Jean Pierre, then Ironwood and I will consider our concerns moot and your message the honest to Dust truth." Ozpin spoke with a calm certainty as he looked Jean Pierre in the eyes. It had been a more even-handed approach than what Ironwood would have offered, to be sure; instead of a show of casual disregard while he threw the good man out, Ozpin decided to give him a chance to own up to his lie or embarrass himself if he attempted to-

"Oh, is that all? I can do that quite easily!"

Ozpin's smile fell into a slight frown as he arched an eyebrow. "Oh, is that so?" Ozpin exchanged a short glance with Ironwood, who nodded back to him slowly. The two, wordlessly, had agreed to expect some sort of trickery involving this man's semblance.

"Indeed it is! I was worried that you might ask for something that would pose a little bit of a challenge, but this will work just fine!" Jean Pierre gave a wide smile as he reached into his pants pockets and pulled out four silver coins. He juggled them in between his fingers for effect, his gaze never left either Ozpin's or Ironwood's the entire time.

"I'll have to ask you all to watch carefully, as while I would gladly indulge in repeat performances, time is of the essence, no?" Ozpin resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he nodded at Jean Pierre, all the while he brought his mug of coffee to his lips. Jean Pierre, with a wild grin and a confident flash in his eyes, tossed the coins up into the air.

" **[Silver Chariot]**!"

This time, Ozpin's coffee did end up splattered all across his desk while Ironwood just gaped and muttered incoherently.

* * *

Beacon Academy, Vale, First Day of The Second Semester

"Jaune! Hey Jaune, over here!"

The blond knight turned his head towards the sound of Ruby's voice, and grinned as he spotted JNPR's sister team, Team RWBY, as they ran over in his direction. His team took notice as he waved back at them, Ren, Nora and Pyrrha smiled as they saw the bundle of paper gripped in the hands of the all-girl team.

"Hey there RWBY." Jaune greeted his other group of friends as they walked up, but flinched when he saw the insulted expression on Yang's face.

"What? So we're just chopped liver compared to Ruby? Jaune, I thought we were friends!" Yang crossed her arms, Weiss and Blake followed up with some disgruntled huffs of their own.

"W-W, no! Of course I wanted to say hi to you all too, I just said RWBY because I meant your team, not Ruby, but I meant Ruby too, don't get me wrong, but don't think that I meant her more than you all, it's just-" Jaune's rambling went on for a solid minute before Yang broke out into a fit of laughter, one that was met with a pair of grins from Blake and Weiss.

"Ah don't worry Vomit Boy, we're just messin' with you." A solid punch was thrown into Jaune's arm, as the knight just smiled sheepishly and rubbed at the pain.

"R-Right, pretty funny guys." Jaune said with a bit of a laugh as he nodded at the papers the girls held. "You guys got your schedules too?" At that, Team JNPR brandished their own set of schedules.

"Yep yep!" Ruby said with a wide grin as the group of teens huddled together. "Figured we could quickly look over our schedules to see what classes we'll have together."

"You know, try to maintain this feeling of excitement for the new semester before school wears us down and we all start wishing for the next break." Blake added afterward with a slight roll of her eyes. Despite the joke and generally jovial air around the two teams, the group shared a sigh as they realized the truth of Blake's little quip.

"Sounds about right, unfortunately." Pyrrha offered with a small smile, while Nora just nodded in vigorous agreement and Ren gave his own calm affirmation.

"If we have Port again, I'm not writing notes for you all again. I've done my time. I deserve a break!" Weiss stamped her foot to emphasize her point, the rest of RWBY chuckled a bit nervously.

"I… suppose we still do owe you, don't we Weiss-Queen?" The blond bombshell quickly raised a finger to her nose. "Not it!"

"Not it!" Ruby called out close behind, a finger pressed to her button nose, as Blake just blinked in confusion.

"Wait, what?" The black-haired ninja looked at the rest of her friends, who all gave her pitying looks.

"Looks like you're the one taking notes for Port this semester Blake. Enjoy; he really likes to go over how he wrestles the Grimm into submission." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes, while Blake narrowed her amber eyes after she realized what had just transpired.

"How is that fair? I didn't even know what you two were doing!"

"Gotta react a bit faster there Blakey. How can you call yourself a ninja if you get outclassed by Ruby and me." Yang offered with a smug shrug of her shoulders, one that was quickly copied by Ruby.

"Seriously, you're giving the secret ninja villages a baaaad name, Blake." Nora reprimanded her friend with a wag of her finger.

"Nora, if they're secret, how do you know about them?" Ren raised a questioning eyebrow at Nora, as the orange-haired, pancake loving huntress just looked side to side conspiratorially before she leaned close to Ren.

"They're really, really bad at being secret."

"Ah, of course." Ren nodded his head, as if that explained everything, while everyone else just laughed at the two's antics. Blake, who had glared at the two sisters on her team through the exchange, just smiled a bit in response.

"Well, hopefully we won't actually have Port this semester." She said, with some hope, as she raised the schedule to eye level. "Grimm Studies II, Port… literally the first class of the day." Blake dropped her schedule from her hands, which freed them up as she palmed her face and allowed long, pained groan of disappointment to escape her lips.

"Weeell aside from that, let's see what other classes we have on the schedule." Ruby moved the group along from Blake's misfortune, as the seven remaining huntsmen and huntresses went over their schedules. "History with Oobleck, check. Sparring class with Goodwitch, so far so standard. Special Topics, interesting. Flora and Fauna of the…"

"Wait, what?" The group had spoken in near perfect unison, as even Blake picked her schedule up to confirm with them.

"Special Topics… that's new." Pyrrha said slowly as she tilted her head to the side.

"No professor listed either. All it has besides the room and time is this little asterisk here." Jaune pointed out the star-shaped symbol next to the class, trailing his finger down the page to find the matching one. "'Free period until further notice'." The blond knight quoted the schedule as he just stared at the page in confusion.

"Well, hey, I mean, free period. Certainly not gonna look my nose down at that." Yang offered with a grin, as she tried to just shrug off the odd addition to their schedule.

"You think anyone else has this on their schedule?" Ruby asked with a blink of her silver eyes, before the bell rang and signaled their first class.

"I'm sure we can ask around in between classes. For now, let's just make sure we aren't nearly late… even if it is Port." The group agreed and immediately made for class.

To the sister teams' continued confusion, they did in fact find that the student body of Beacon Academy had this anomalous 'Special Topics' somewhere on their schedule. Some had it earlier in the day, some had it later, but every student they came across, and the students those students had asked previously, had the class somewhere on their schedule. Older students, like Velvet, even confirmed for them that they hadn't seen something like this happen before.

This hadn't been the end to the confusion for teams RWBY and JNPR. If it had just been this, the teams might've passed it off as some special lecture series or class that had popped up as an experiment on Ozpin's behalf. However, that weirdness was topped of by the way the teachers of their various classes had acted. The whole lot of them acted, if not like total weirdos, then at least slightly off the entire day. Port had been his portly self, as always, but the man seemed even more incorrigible than before. His frame buzzed with a nearly visible excitement as he moved through his lecture. Amazingly enough, it seemed as though Port was distracted from his own stories, rather than having been distracted by them.

Goodwitch had limited herself to having had caught the first year body's eye. The woman, previously content to let spars go on until a suitable winner and loser was decided, had put their spars on a timer for the various classes she had taught that day. By the end of the day, every first year student in Beacon Academy had been through a set of matches and Goodwitch had taken a seemingly prodigious set of notes on each one of the students in their various fights. Her body language was stiff, more so than usual, even if she managed to keep her composure as far as her attitude was concerned, unlike the increasingly excited Port.

This had repeated with professor after professor, class after class. Some were excited, some were tense, some were out and out nervous, but all tried their best to keep their composure and, when prompted, didn't tell any students just what was up. This continued all the way to the end of Team RWBY and JNPR's school day with Oobleck's class. Oobleck still buzzed through his lecture at a barely comprehensible speed as per usual, and yet he seemed the most conflicted out of all the professors. The man seemed equal parts excited and nervous, his mood switched rapidly from a very thrilled up to a very anxious down..

As class approached its end, it seemed Weiss had finally had enough of the professors' attitudes.

"Doctor Oobleck?" Weiss raised her hand and called out to Oobleck, who paused in his lecture and turned his attention to her.

"Yes, Miss Schnee? Do you have a question about the material?" The history professor asked quickly, as he looked at Weiss from over the rim of his glasses.

"Not, so much the material, Doctor." Weiss admitted somewhat sheepishly, as Oobleck seemed ready to continue on with the lecture. "It's about the behavior of the Beacon staff today." Oobleck seemed to pause as Weiss spoke, the man arched an eyebrow as he motioned her to continue. "Everyone's noticed it by now: the entire staff has been acting… off, like something's wrong or that they know something we don't. No one's given us any answers as to why yet, and, well, that's been something of a concern." Weiss finished as she sat back in her chair, arms crossed as she looked Oobleck in the eye.

The green haired man stared back at Weiss, before he turned his gaze to the rest of the class. "I assume this is true for the rest of you as well?" Oobleck was met with a slow round of agreement from the rest of the students, save the especially slow or uncaring. Oobleck seemed to take a moment to think as he took a deep drink from his thermos. Before long, the man released a deep sigh as he rubbed his forehead. "I figured as much. The news has been a bit of a shock to most of our systems; even those of us with particularly strong poker faces haven't had much luck in keeping our… feelings about this down. I can't imagine how a man like Port's been handling it."

A distant, very Port-esque shout of excitement suddenly erupted from down the hall, which surprised most of the class. Oobleck, on the other hand, just shook his head as he took another drink from his thermos.

"Ozpin wanted this to come as more of a surprise. Although he didn't strictly order us to keep it from you, it was generally agreed upon that if you heard the news early, your natural reaction would be to disregard it immediately as nonsense… a not entirely incorrect reaction, mind you, but still, hardly a helpful one." Oobleck took a long, hard swig of his thermos and smacked his lips as it ran dry.

"How many of you have heard of The Frontier?"

A low mutter broke out in the class. Less than a fourth of the students raised their hands confidently, while another tenth warily raised their own. The rest, comprised of students like Jaune, Cardin, Ruby, Nora and Yang, seemed utterly ignorant.

"Not surprising; for many of you, this would be considered old history, barely worth your attention. To keep it brief: The Frontier was a collection of human and Faunus colonies in the Grimmlands on the Unknown Continent. Everyone wanted this new land, for various reasons. As an example; Vacuo was already in the process of becoming the desert we know it as today and wanted greener pastures the unclaimed continent promised.

"Aside from any kingdom specific reasons, the four kingdoms wanted this land simply to keep it out of the hands of the other kingdoms. This was in the time leading up to the Great War, and tensions were quite high. All the kingdoms were looking for whatever advantage they could get over the others." Oobleck explained calmly as he set his empty thermos to the side and leaned back against his desk.

"One hundred years ago, all contact with The Frontier went dark. None of the Four Kingdoms received so much as a letter from any of their colonies. When the Kingdoms attempted to send parties to figure out what happened, what they found was… discouraging, to say the very least." Oobleck calmly plucked his glasses from his face as he produced a small cloth. "Roving bands of Grimm, tens of thousands strong, with some sources going so far to guess that they totaled somewhere in the hundreds of thousands." As Oobleck cleaned the lens of his glasses, the previously uninformed members of the class erupted into a series of shocked murmurs, while the rest just nodded along to a story they knew, or at least, were familiar with.

"In the end, the Four Kingdoms had come to the decision that The Frontier had been swallowed back up by the Grimmlands, and that any human presence beyond their own borders had been effectively lost. Only the pair of islands off the southern coast remain in Vale's hands, the last remnant of humanity's attempts to colonize that dreaded place" Oobleck placed his glassed back on his face once satisfied with his handiwork, as he turned his gaze back to the class. "Yesterday, Ozpin informed the staff of Beacon Academy that he had allowed a team of Frontier huntsmen to participate in the Vytal Festival. They're set to arrive within the week."

The reaction of the class was mixed, to say the least. Some, like Ruby, were excited; a story of humanity having had survived such tremendous odds was up their alley. Others were in shocked disbelief, the turn of events being a bit more for them to chew. There was one reaction, however, that few in the class expected.

"What? Excuse me?" Weiss scoffed as she absorbed what Oobleck had just said, the white haired teen shook her head in disbelief. "You're joking, right? You're kidding? Ozpin, of all people, actually bought into that nonsense?"

The student body gathered in the lecture hall snapped their heads towards Weiss, surprised at the normally polite heiress' reaction.

"Weiss! How could you say something like that? This is something to be happy about, right?" Ruby asked in disbelief, as a number of other students nodded their head in confused agreement. Weiss, on the other hand, could only roll her eyes at their reaction.

"Please. Everyone in Atlas has already had their fill of this Frontier nonsense. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most people outside of old-Mantle wouldn't know better, but i would figure someone as educated as an Academy Headmaster would be at least minimally aware of _The Post War World_." Several students blinked in confusion at Weiss' proclamation.

"Uh, Doctor Oobleck, what's Weiss talking about?" Jaune asked the green-haired professor, whose gaze was locked on the white-haired heiress.

"Miss Schnee, it seems you're quite familiar with the topic at hand. Tell the class about Rudol von Stroheim's _The Post War World_. There'll be some credit in it for you." Oobleck offered with a small nod to Weiss who, after some consideration, sighed with a shake of her head.

"Fine. Sixty years ago, an officer from old Mantle, Rudol von Stroheim, came before the governing council and claimed to have made contact with The Frontier through a set of huntsmen and huntresses he had met while on a secret assignment. The Four Kingdoms were in between the Great War and the Faunus Rights Revolution, and the peace established at Vytal was tenuous at best. There wasn't a lot to hope for in those days, so the idea that The Frontier was still alive and ready to get back in touch with the Four Kingdoms was considered a sign of good fortune.

"Stroheim helped his case by presenting fantastic and alluring claims about what he had witnessed with these hunters. Tales of strange powers that could grow vines from people's hands,allow them to manipulate life energy and summon a being that could manipulate, of all things, bubbles. All set against a trio of ancient, Grimm-like monsters that had been set on destroying all human life on Remnant that Stroheim merely referred to as 'The Pillar Men'. All junk that eventually ended up in his biography"

"Wow… that sounds… SO! COOL!" Yang suddenly exclaimed as she turned to an equally excited Ruby. "Sis, we have to get this book, it sounds amazing!"

"I know right?!" The silver eyed teen practically squealed with excitement, as Weiss just coughed loudly to draw the attention back to her.

"ANYWAY!... Mantle agreed to send Stroheim out to the Grimmlands with a small army, so that he could re-establish contact with The Frontier, using a set of directions he claimed to have gotten from these hunters." Weiss said with a disgusted click of her tongue, as the class listened in to the tale.

"So I'm guessing they didn't find The Frontier?" Weiss snapped her head towards Jaune's question, the blond knight yelped in surprise as he ducked behind his partner.

"No they didn't, you dolt. All they found in that wasteland was hordes of Grimm. The army that Mantle sent out was decimated, only Stroheim and a small group of soldiers survived to make it back. In a time when Mantle was already on the verge of collapsing into just Atlas, this was a travesty. Stroheim tried to save face by publishing his story as a biography, to convince people he wasn't crazy." Weiss rolled her eyes as she said this. "The only thing he did was convince everyone he was absolutely crazy."

"Plus, when you read it, you start to realize that it reads like a pretty cliche adventure story." The class turned to Blake as she spoke up. Those who knew the black-haired faunus weren't all that shocked that the well read young woman had read this book herself. "I mean, the mysterious woman that Joseph Joestar meets turns out to be his long-lost mother? What a twist."

"Spoilers, jeez!" The sisters of team RWBY yelled as they glared Blake, who just playfully rolled her eyes at her partner and leader's antics.

"What Miss Schnee and Belladonna have said here is quite accurate." Oobleck stepped in, which drew the class' attention back to him. "Ever since Stroheim there's been a strong bias towards dismissing any claims of The Frontier in all the Four Kingdoms. Any attempt to follow up on them has either been met with a scam, an outright lie or more Grimm." Oobleck stated calmly, as he cast his gaze across the entire class.

"However, both Ozpin and General Ironwood claim to have sound reasons for believing this claim." If Weiss had seemed ready to interrupt, the mention of General James Ironwood had quickly silenced her. "If these two are right, then this is quite the historic moment for Remnant… for better or worse."

"Doctor?" Ruby called out cautiously as she raised her hand. "What could be bad about it? Isn't it great news that people might've survived out there?"

Oobleck sighed as he reached his hands up to rub at his forehead. "Yes, Miss Rose. It is good news in and of itself. However, there is so much more to this news than that, and so much more to these people that we must consider." Oobleck removed himself from his desk and paced in front of the class, the gazes of his students locked onto him.

"Consider for a moment, The Great War. A consequence of it was the Color Tradition: all of you in this room have been given names that signifies a color. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Cardin Winchester, Pyrrha Nikos, et cetera, et cetera. The people of The Frontier, if they have survived, never participated in the war. Having never been a part of The Great War, the Frontier, therefore, wouldn't have this new tradition. From a purely historical perspective, it will be fascinating to see all the ways in which The Frontier's separation has preserved old traditions.

"However, the Color Tradition wasn't the only consequence of The Great War. From that war, we also have our principle belief in individualism and our understanding in how counter-intuitive conflict between the kingdoms truly is in the face of the Grimm. The Vytal Festival, which these outsiders wish to participate in, was born of that conflict and the desire for peace it created.

"Then there's the Faunus Rights Revolution, which these people may have very well never even heard of…" Many in the class went dead silent as Oobleck laid this out. Team RWBY turned their gazes towards Blake, whose eyes had widened slightly at the insinuation Oobleck had just made. Her bow twitched as she heard hushed whispers from Cardin Winchester and his team, an undercurrent of excitement at the prospect that made Blake snarl.

"A whole community of Cardin Winchesters. Fantastic…" The black-haired Faunus muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the rest of Team RWBY to hear.

"I'm not saying these people will be worse than us simply because their culture hasn't experienced what ours has. To believe that is to demonstrate an ignorance of the highest level, and a withering, disappointing arrogance. However, there can be no denying that the people of The Frontier, if they are still alive, will be very different from us. That will be a reason to celebrate as a curiosity…" Oobleck sighed wearily as he lowered his head, "-and a reason for us to be very, very cautious."

The bell rang, and class was dismissed. As students got up and got ready to leave, Yang noticed that Ruby was still at her seat, her normally energetic sister seemingly in deep thought.

"Yang?" Ruby whispered a bit as she got up and turned to her sister. "You don't think that what Blake and Oobleck said is…"

"Hey, don't worry so much about it Rubes." Yang said with a grin as she rubbed the top of her sister's head, much to the latter's annoyance. "Maybe these guys will be world-class jerks like Oobleck and Blake think they might be, maybe they won't be. No point in getting worked about it till we meet 'em, right? Besides, I doubt these guys could possibly be the kind of jerks that those two downers think they could be."

"You think so?" Ruby asked, a small smile at the corner of her lips. In truth, Yang hadn't been sure herself. Politics, history, race issues, these were more her partner's bread and butter, and Weiss' to a different extent. As far as she knew, Blake was right and they were gonna be in for something completely horrific in the next week.

However, she knew why her sister was upset. The young girl who cherished stories of heroes and the deeds thereof, who wanted to be a huntress so that she could protect people and save them from the Grimm, wanted to believe in this story. That these people who, against all odds, survived the Grimm and thrived... that they could show that there was still hope for not only humanity's continued survival against the Grimm, but for more than that. That there was reason to hope for a better future.

She didn't want to believe that these people could potentially be worse than the Grimm. Brothers be damned if Yang was going to step all over Ruby's hopes and dreams or let anyone else try.

"Absolutely." Yang made sure she hadn't left even a trace of her own doubt in her voice as she gently patted her sister on the shoulder. "I mean could you imagine a bunch of jerks like Cardin or Torchwick being able to stomach those kinda odds? Forget surviving a hundred years, they'd be dead in a week. Only the really heroic type could do something like this." As the two sisters turned to leave the classroom and head back to their dorms to change, Ruby just gave her sister a grateful smile.

"Thanks Yang."

"No problem Rubes."

* * *

Morioh, The Frontier

Josuke grimaced a bit as he rubbed his ears. They felt extremely hot to the touch, almost to the point that they felt like they had been burned.

'Great. Hopefully I'm not coming down with something'. The pompadoured teen thought somewhat sourly, as the other three men in the room turned their attention to him.

"Something the matter, Josuke?" Koichi asked with a concerned edge to his voice. Okuyasu nodded with his smaller friend, while the third man just watched impassively from his own seat.

"No, no. Ears are just feeling a little hot is all." Josuke waved his friends off, who just sighed slightly at their leader.

Sat in front of the three teens was a man who easily stood at six feet and three inches standing up, with an extremely muscular build that suggested many, many years as part of the Morioh Hunters as well as simple, good breeding. Pale skin and short, black hair contrasted well off each other and helped his green eyes, inherited from a coastal-Mistrali grandmother, pop.

The uniform the man wore was in stark contrast to the three young men sat before him: while Koichi, Josuke and Okuyasu wore some variation of a black or green button up jacket with matching slacks and simple, but useful, boots, Jotaro's jacket and slacks were white. The difference in color and style of the uniform clearly marked him as an experienced, superior huntsman, a bit of Mantlean influence in the melting pot that Morioh had become. Studded throughout his jacket and on a simple, white hat that he wore were metal buttons and trinkets, gained over time from missions in The Frontier and from his journey through Remnant twelve years earlier.

Kujo Jotaro was a known quantity in The Frontier; easily the most powerful huntsman in Morioh and, generally, accepted as the logical successor to his grandfather, Joseph Joestar. To Josuke and in the fullness of time his team, Kujo Jotaro was just Jotaro, the man who had helped them mold their Stands and was, to Josuke, a close… friend.

"Get yourself checked out after this, then. We wouldn't want you to come down with something at a moment like this." The trio of young men blinked at the grim seriousness of Jotaro's tone. Although not that far off from his usual tone of of voice, the three had long since keyed in to when Jotaro was being more serious than usual. Before they could have asked what was up, the older huntsman continued. "Now then, for the past couple months, Joseph Joestar has been in contact with the Headmaster of Beacon Academy in the Kingdom of Vale." This quickly ensured he had the three teen's absolute attention, as they all leaned forward in response to this news.

"If you all remember the Vytal Festival from my stories, it's set to take place in Vale this year." A slight pause as Jotaro took in the three's reaction. Satisfied when he saw that they understood him, he continued. "All the arrangements have been made and confirmed: The Frontier is being allowed to send a team of hunters to attend the Festival and compete in the tournament."

"No way!" The three huntsmen practically leaped forward from their seat, only the relative close-quarters of the room kept them from doing so. Jotaro, for his part, only nodded

"I'm sure the three of you understand just how important this moment is for The Frontier. A good showing from us would go a long way towards convincing the rest of the world that we're ready and worthy of being a part of the rest of Remnant again. In addition, having the upcoming generations of hunters from all four kingdoms interacting with ours would be a good way of establishing future relations. For these reasons, we want to send our very best team of young hunters, if not our best hunters, to ensure that we make the most of this opportunity.

"You three are at the top of that list; on behalf of Morioh and The Frontier Hunters, we want to send you three to Vale."

"WHAAAAAAAT?!" The team of three screamed aloud as they took in what Jotaro had just offered them, which caused the older huntsman to flinch slightly. Okuyasu and Koichi each had amazed, overjoyed expressions on their faces, while Josuke seemed a bit more shocked and surprised than his two teammates.

"No way, no way, we got picked to go out to one of the Four Kingdoms?! " Okuyasu was positively giddy, even more so than Koichi, as he stood up from his seat and turned to his friend.

"We'll get to go see one of the major cities on the continent. Oh my gosh, this is amazing! Most people don't even get to see the outside of the Grimmlands, but we'll get to go right to the heart of one of the kingdoms. Maybe we'll get to see an airship!" Koichi was up on his feet alongside Okuyasu, as the two teens turned began to feed off the other's excitement.

"Forget the airships Koichi, we'll get to see those giant buildings. Five, no, ten stories high!" The scarred teen raised his hands far up above his head in an exaggerated swing, while Koichi nodded his head vigorously.

"Not to mention that stadium that Jotaro told us about, the flying one! Can you even imagine that kind of sight, and we got picked to see it out of all the other teams in Morioh! I'm so happy!" A slightly creepy expression crossed Koichi's face as the boy was overtaken by his own joy, Okuyasu just laughed and laughed as he wrapped an arm around Koichi's shoulders and swung him around a bit, being mindful of the other occupants in the room.

"Josuke! How friggin' awesome is this?!" Okuyasu finally turned with Koichi still gripped in the crook of his arm, when both boys suddenly deflated. "Errr, Josuke?"

Josuke sat in his own seat still, his eyes stared off to the side of the room slightly as he chewed on his bottom lip. Far from the exuberant excitement of his team, Josuke seemed far more subdued and even conflicted.

"Josuke?" His teammates called out, their voices uncertain, as their leader just sighed.

"Jotaro… is it alright if I have some time to think this over?" Josuke's gaze met Jotaro's as the older man stared him down slightly.

"Of course, it'd be irresponsible of us if we forced you to make a decision immediately. I will tell you, though; our ride will be arriving in the outskirts in a few days. I wouldn't recommend waiting until the last second to make up your mind." Josuke understood this and, with a wave to Okuyasu and Koichi, quickly excused himself from the room. It was quiet for a few minutes after Josuke left, before Koichi just sighed, worked his way out of Okuyasu's grip and took a seat.

"I guess we didn't consider what Josuke would think about this. Got a little bit wrapped up in the excitement of it all... " Koichi muttered as he sat back in his seat while a feeling of guilt ate at his gut. "Obviously he wouldn't just jump on this... it wouldn't be right to him." Okuyasu nodded in agreement, the scarred teen sat down and supported his head in his hand.

"Yeah, kind of a dumb move on our part." Koichi frowned, but nodded in agreement with Okuyasu.

"You don't think he'll feel guilty if he doesn't accept, do you? I wouldn't want him to feel like he let us down."

"Well technically he would be letting us down just a little bit." Okuyasu stated flatly, as Koichi just glared at him. "What? It's the truth."

"I swear, you're so dumb sometimes Okuyasu…"

"Josuke will make the decision he feels is best for Morioh. That's all we can ask of our huntsmen and huntresses." Jotaro sighed as he reached into a pocket in his jacket, from which he pulled out a package of coffee-flavored gum. " **Yare yare** , but who knows what he'll decide is for the best.

"A shame too, the old man was pretty excited for you all."

* * *

Josuke walked around the city of Morioh for a while, hands behind his head as he took his time. The offer Jotaro had made not even fifteen minutes earlier still weighed heavily on his mind, and he felt that he needed some time. He hadn't wished to return home either: his thoughts would have drifted if he was home alone for too long, and he wanted to make this decision cleanly… or at least, as cleanly as he could.

However, in the end Josuke found that there was nothing Morioh needed from him at that moment. No walls has broken down that could have used his Stand to fix, no one was seriously injured that required the help he could have provided and generally... things just seemed to be okay for Morioh, with or without him. The things that helped keep Josuke busy in his off time ,that made him feel like he was still doing his part for Morioh, were all fine.

So, as the clock ran down, Josuke found himself at the entrance to his family's house: a small, one floor, three bedroom, one bathroom affair, done in a minimalist architectural style that had become the norm in Morioh after The Reckoning. With a heavy heart, Josuke opened the door to his home and stepped inside.

His mother's shoes had still been nowhere to be found. She had probably still been out on her own scouting mission, if Josuke had to guess. In a well practiced routine, Josuke carefully kicked his own boots off at the threshold of the house and stepped inside. He practically glided across the floor to one of the back rooms and cracked open the door.

From the window, a light shined into the room. To the right was a closet with various uniforms, studded with minor awards and commendations, which were hung and pressed neatly. So much care had been taken to ensure that they'd be preserved for many years to come. To the left, a series of family photographs hung on the wall, various portraits of himself, his mother and an older man, as they all sat or stood together.

In the back of the room was the family shrine, where a single photograph sat atop it. The photo was of a kindly old man with graying hair who, distantly, shared a few of Josuke's own features.

Higashikata Ryohei. A middling huntsman of Morioh and Josuke's grandfather.

Josuke stood in front of the old shrine and sighed, as he clapped his hands and bowed his head. Josuke hung around the room for a moment, before he finally departed and made his way to the living room.

As Josuke collapsed on the couch, the dark atmosphere of his family home was all that surrounded him. The sounds of crickets signaled the approach of dusk, but otherwise, the room was silent for the young man. As he feared, being in his own home, so near his grandfather's old room, caused Josuke's thoughts to take an altogether unpleasant turn.

'What am I even thinking…' Josuke sighed as he palmed his face in his hands while his thoughts lobbed accusation after accusation at him. 'I've honestly been considering running off from Morioh after everything that happened, after what I promised him. "Oh, sorry gramps, I would've stuck around Morioh and helped protect the city you gave your life for, that you loved so much and wanted our family to be able to live in peace in, but you know, now seemed as good a time as any to go off and play tourist in Vale."

'"Well yeah, obviously I'd be leaving mom, the only family I have left, behind to do this. I mean, sure I promised you I'd protect her, but it'd just figure I'd eventually abandon her, right? Really, you shouldn't be surprised in the slightest. I mean, I am his son, after all. Just in the genes at this point I guess..."' Josuke groaned into his hands as he shook his head.

"Just great…" The pompadoured teen muttered amidst a weary sigh as he lifted his face out of his hands and propped up his chin on them. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of footsteps outside of his home. He perked his ears up as he tried to identify the owner and, after a moment, a small smile crossed his lips.

The door creaked open, a feminine yawn sounded out and a pair of light footsteps strode into the threshold of the house. Josuke turned his head in time to see the form of his mother, Higashikata Tomoko, as she stretched, yawned and kicked the door closed behind her. A woman in her mid-thirties, she had short, black hair that was kept in line by a hair band that had kept errant strands away from her, admittedly still quite attractive, face. Of average build and height, Tomoko was a woman that still saw a few wolf calls from time to time, much to the chagrin of the poor fools who had made the attempt.

Her manner of dress was simple, a uniform much like other huntsmen and huntresses wore, with a few signs of her seniority. As she cracked open an eye to take in the sight of her home, she had caught a glimpse of Josuke. Her lips immediately turned up into a smile as she kicked off her shoes and walked over to her son.

"Good evening, Josuke." Tomoko said with a slight laugh as she threw her arms around her son in a loose hug, much to Josuke's own embarrassment. "I wasn't expecting you back before I was, but it's a good surprise. Now I won't have to sit around worrying about my poor, poor son and his team, out on their own in the wilderness." The woman laughed slightly as she stood up and walked over to the small kitchen that was attached to the living room.

"It's good to see you too mom. I have to admit, I was a bit worried when I saw that you didn't beat me back here a few days ago." Tomoko scoffed at her son as she turned on her heel to face him, a faux-annoyed look on her face as she regarded her only child.

"Please, I'm not some helpless old lady yet. I've still got plenty of kick in me. You should remember that, son." Josuke just chuckled as his mother used her foot to pry open the icebox.

"Don't worry mom, I remember. No one should mess with you, or else. I haven't forgotten." He said with a light chuckle and a roll off his eyes, one that hadn't been returned by his mother, as she stood silently in the kitchen.

"Is that so?" She asked, a dangerous edge to her voice that Josuke recognized all too well as 'you're in for it now, you brat'. He swallowed a nervous lump in his throat as he turned to face his mother, and saw that she had, in her hand, a snack cake with a bite taken out of it. "Then would you explain why exactly it is you keep eating my snack cakes?" Josuke paled a bit as his mother slowly stalked towards him. "These aren't easy to get Josuke! I have to wait for the scouts to get back from the outskirts with these, and that's if those islands have even gotten any in! I really look forward to having them whenever I get the rare chance to! So why do I have to constantly remind my dear, sweet, only child that he needs to STOP EATING THEM!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Mom, look, it's just one bite right? I just wanted a quick bite after some dinner, that's all. Nothing to get worked up about, right?" Josuke quickly brought his hands up to defend himself as his mother stared him down. Tomoko frowned at her son for a few seconds before she sighed, reached out a hand and flicked her son's ear.

"You're lucky I'm so happy to see you right now, otherwise you'd get it, brat." Neither of them could help the grins that formed on their faces as this familiar routine slowly played out. Tomoko yawned a bit as she stuffed part of the snack cake into her mouth as she walked back to the kitchen. "So, tell me, what have you gotten up to while you've been back?"

"Nothing much honestly. My team's round was pretty quiet. No one's needed me to fix anything or anyone up, so these past couple days have been just us relaxing." Josuke spoke as he yawned slight and stretched out on the couch.

"So pretty 'great' then, right?" Tomoko smiled as she pulled out stuff for dinner. Josuke started to nod, before his body went a bit stiff. The teen's mind flickered to that bombshell Jotaro dropped on his team. Josuke kept his face turned away from his mother to hide his frown, as he just nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

"Y-Yeah, totally…" Josuke immediately cursed that small stumble, as the sounds from the kitchen immediately stopped.

"Is that so? You don't sound too certain of that Josuke." The pompadoured teen inwardly cursed as he heard his mother turn of her feet back towards the living room, bullets of sweat started to run down Josuke's face as he just tried to laugh it off.

"No, i-it's been a great day mom, nothing that you need to worry about." Tomoko's footsteps approached the back of the couch, Josuke practically felt his mother hover over him as she leaned down.

"Josuke…."

"Okay okay okay okay! I'll talk!" Josuke jumped up from the couch to face his mother who just stood there behind the couch, her arms crossed over her chest expectantly as she looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.

'Jeez, are all moms this scary…' Josuke thought to himself as he bit his bottom lip.

"Earlier today, Jotaro called us in for an important meeting. He told us that the Headmaster overseeing the Vytal Festival has agreed to let The Frontier send a team and that we're the team that Jotaro and the others want to send." Tomoko blinked a few times, surprise etched all across her face as she stared at her son. Before long, a wide grin broke out across her face as she leaped forward and wrapped her son up in a hug.

"Oooooh Josuke! That's amazing news! That's absolutely wonderful! You've been working so hard with Okuyasu and Koichi and it's all paid off. You're going to go to Vale to represent Morioh? Oh, wait till everyone hears about this! OOOOH! I'm going to rub this in SOOOO many faces! Those old hags aren't going to believe it!" Tomoko laughed and laughed as she hopped in place. "Oh I'm so proud of you!" Tomoko finally looked up at her considerably taller son and her celebration quickly died down as she took in his expression

"Yeeaaah… about that…" Josuke muttered as he pulled a hand free from his mother's hug and scratched his cheek. "You see… I may have told Jotaro that I needed some time to think about this."

"... Uh huh…" Tomoko said in a low tone as let go of her son and crossed her arms again, her brow furrowed as she looked up to him.

"... And while I was sitting around here, I may have come to the decision that I shouldn't go to Vale." Tomoko blinked at Josuke as he said this, the pompadoured teen did his best to not meet his mother's gaze.

"... I see…" That had been all the warning Josuke had received, before he suddenly found his ear gripped in his mother's fist, as Higashikata Tomoko bodily dragged Josuke down to her eye level. "Josuke… my dearest son, my most darling and only child… tell your mother why you decided to make such a boneheaded decision, would you? Please?" The sickeningly sweet tone his mother used disguised the fact that this was an unquestionable demand, and that if he knew what was good for him, he'd comply.

Josuke, in that particular moment, hadn't known what was good for him, however.

"M-Mom! Listen, I made this decision myself, because I think it's what's best for my team and Morioh. I don't have to tell you wh-AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!" Tomoko turned Josuke's ear in her fist, which elicited a sharp, very unmanly scream of pain from the teenager.

"Tell me or I'll rip your ear off, Josuke." Josuke's gaze met Tomoko's as he had sought to call his mother's bluff.

"You wouldn't! You know I can't fix that..." Josuke's assertion died on his tongue as he saw the look in Tomoko's eye, the pompadoured teen bit his bottom lip slightly. "O-Okay, but you couldn't, right? I mean, I'm not my Stand, but I'm still tough." At that, Tomoko sighed slightly and let go of Josuke's ear, the teen internally celebrated this minor victory.

Up until a ghostly limb appeared from his mother's arm and grabbed his ear.

'Oh Dust! She would and she can!' Josuke's mind flew into a panic as he raised his hands in a placating manner.

"Okay okay okay okay I'll talk, I'll talk! Just please, don't have your Stand tear my ear off, I still need it!" Satisfied that she had gotten her son's cooperation, Tomoko dismissed her Stand's arm, but quickly replaced its spot on her ear with her own hand again.

"Good, so I'll ask you again. What on Remnant convinced you to make such a boneheaded decision Josuke? This is the opportunity that we've all been dreaming of ever since Jonathan Joestar brought The Frontier together in Morioh. Why would you do something so stupid as to shoot that opportunity down?"

Josuke sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Look… when gramps died, I promised that I'd look after you and Morioh, alright? Gramps loved this town and he loved us too. He did everything he could in order to help everyone, to protect the two of us... and he gave his life to do so. If I left you and Morioh just so I could run off to Vale, then I'd just be scum. That's why I decided not to go, alright?"

"Josuke…" When his mother had finally let go of his ear, Josuke sighed in relief. He knew that if he just explained it, she would understand. His grandfather had meant a lot to them, and-

-And her Stand appeared, grabbed Josuke by the collar and shook him so hard he was at risk of whiplash.

"Aaaaah! Mom!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

"What the Hell am I doing? You should feel lucky that your grandfather isn't alive to hear you spout that kind of nonsense! If he were here right now he'd rip your pompadour out by the roots and then force feed you it if he heard you say something so utterly stupid! You're supposed to be the smart one on your team Josuke, or has Okuyasu finally passed you up?

"Morioh's been counting on an opportunity like this for decades! This is something we all want and need! If you went out to Vale and did the best you could in the Vytal Festival Tournament you'd help us all so much! You'd be doing more than you could just hanging around here going off to scout out the Grimm, for Dust's sake! Oh, and by the way, let's not forget that I'm a grown-ass woman and perfectly capable of taking care of myself. So I don't need my sixteen year old son feeling like he has to sit at home and watch me like I'm the child in this relationship!

"You're so much smarter than this Josuke, I don't understand why you would think that your grandfather wouldn't think you'd be helping-"

"What if that's not the reason I'd want to go?!"

Josuke's question snapped Tomoko out of her temper-fueled rant as she just stared at her son, the young man's eyes met hers with an equal level of frustration as he took deep, steadying breaths.

"E-Excuse me?" Tomoko asked, somewhat shocked, as Josuke just looked down to the side, his visage slowly overcome by shame.

"... What if I'm not thinking of Morioh or The Frontier when I think about going to Vale? What if I'm not thinking about how much help this would be, or how much good it'd do? What if I'm not thinking of the old man?" Tomoko blinked as Josuke rattled off these questions, as the single-mother caught a glimpse of her son's eyes.

Amidst the shame, the disappointment, the frustration and anger, she caught a shine of something else in those blue eyes of his. A spark of excitement that bordered on manic. Of wanderlust and desire. It snapped into place for Tomoko, even before Josuke spoke up.

"... What if the only reasons I can think of wanting to go to Vale are stupid and selfish ones."

Higashikata Josuke may have been one of the better behaved young men Tomoko had ever met in her entire life, a relief for the single mother to be sure, he may have been a responsible and able leader for his team and may have been one of the strongest huntsmen of his generation. However, past all that, he was still just a sixteen year old boy. One who desperately wanted to go on an adventure and see the world he'd only ever read about.

And that desire disgusted him.

"Josuke…" As Tomoko dismissed her Stand and placed her hands on his cheeks, the teen huntsmen didn't flinch. As he turned his head to face her, he saw a smile on his mother's face, a mix of pride, love and slight amusement danced across her eyes as she looked up to her only son.

"Listen to me. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be selfish sometimes, okay?" Josuke scoffed as he turned his gaze away from her, but found his mother's grip on his face insistent as she kept him faced towards her. He grimaced slightly as he sought to pull away. "Sixteen years ago, I had my own decision to make."

That stopped Josuke dead in his tracks.

Tomoko smiled slightly as she lightly pat her son on the cheek. "I could've acted like I was supposed to, been a good young woman and model huntress. Probably find some man I didn't love or didn't really want to be with, and just let the opportunity I was presented with slide from my grasp. I would've been respected and I would've never had to deal with the looks and the words from some rotten old crones...

"Then there was the alternative, you know." Tomoko chuckled slightly as she shook her head. "A lot of people would think it was an easy choice… and for me, it was." Tomoko stuck her tongue out slightly as she laughed a bit. "I decided I was going to be selfish. I was going to be with the man I loved, even if it was only for a little bit, and I didn't give a rat's ass what anyone was going to think of it if they ever found out. So long as I kept doing my job, so long as I ensured that my selfish little desires didn't get in the way of doing my part for Morioh... then I was fine with being selfish, for once.

"And you know what Josuke? I wouldn't change that decision for anything. Not even if it took away all the lonely nights and not even if it gave me all the respect of all the dusty old crones in all of Remnant. Because thanks to that decision, I got to spend some of the best time of my life with the only man I've ever loved besides your grandfather… and I had you." Josuke stared at his mother with wide eyes as she pat his cheeks slightly.

"You, my son, who I could never be prouder of. There are so many mothers who have to worry about what their sons are up to whenever they get back from their assignments and laze about town. The only time I ever have to worry about you is when you're out there in the wilds… and even then, I know you can take care of yourself. You're so caring too, so much like your father and grandfather: you do everything you can to help the people around you, and you're so wonderful to your friends and, well, pretty much anyone you've ever met who didn't insult your hair." Tomoko laughed slightly as a few tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.

"Josuke, your grandfather would be so proud of you." Josuke's breath hitched at this, while Tomoko barreled on through. "He'd be so happy to know you took his example to heart, and that you became such an amazing huntsman, that you've led your team so well and that you're so highly regarded that they'd want to send you to Vale to participate in the Vytal Festival. Hell, he'd probably be shouting about it to anyone who'd' stand to hear him ramble for weeks on end. He'd be so happy with the man you've become, so proud of the huntsman that you are. Everything good and decent and noble that he loved about Morioh, he'd see in you.

"He'd also want you to be happy, Josuke." She gave a firm nod of her head as she stared him right in the eyes. "If you told him that you only wanted to go to Vale because it was something you wanted for yourself, he'd say you'd damn well earned it and send you off with a pat on your back. He'd want you to be able to do something and be something you wanted, and if that happened to also help Morioh, that'd just be icing on the cake. Because as much as Morioh was a part of his dream, you being happy was an even bigger part of it. Because he loved you almost as I much as I love you." Tomoko chuckled slightly as she winked at her son. "Almost."

Josuke simply stood there as he took that all in, his pompadour hung over his eyes in such a way that shadows obscured sight of them. Tomoko just smiled and walked forward and wrapped her son up in a hug. She turned her head away as she did so while her only child hugged her back, his frame shook a couple times as they stood there. The single mother just smiled to herself; her son was too old and too cool to do something like cry in front of his mother.

After a moment, the Higashikatas pulled back from their hug while Josuke wiped his sleeve across his eyes. "I-I'm…" Josuke blushed slightly as his voice cracked, as the teen quickly regained his composure. "I'm going to take over the bathroom real quick, okay?" Without having missed a beat, Josuke ran for the bathroom and quickly closed the door behind him, which had left Tomoko in the living room as she shook her head at her son's antics.

Tomoko didn't have to wait long for Josuke to come back out, and she hadn't been surprised to see that his face had been wet, as if dabbed by a wet cloth, and that he'd tidied up his hair from when she'd practically throttled him. What she was surprised by was when her son had walked right past her, towards the threshold of their house.

"So… I was thinking. I need to tell Jotaro my decision as soon as possible. It isn't right that I hold up all this by making them wait any longer." Josuke seemed nervous as he fiddled with the strings to his boots, even as he tossed a small grin over his shoulder to his mother. "After all, there's probably still a lot of preparations we need to make if we're going to head to Vale, right?"

Tomoko just beamed at him as she vigorously nodded her head. "Absolutely Josuke. It'd be irresponsible for you to leave Jotaro and your team hanging on this when you've finally made up your mind."

"I know, I know." Josuke said with a slight laugh as he pulled at the laces of his boots. He seemed to hesitate when he had secured them, his head turned away from Tomoko as he looked out towards the door. "Mom… you sure this is going to be alright?"

Tomoko just rolled her eyes and walked up to her son. She took a hold of his collar and lifted him up to his feet while she fiddled with his uniform to make sure he'd be presentable.

"Josuke… it's going to be just great." A wide grin broke out on both of their faces as Tomoko slapped her son on his shoulder and pushed him towards the door. "Now get going. Tell Jotaro and Jolyne I said hello."

"Right, right." Josuke called out over his shoulder as he left the building. Tomoko stood there in the threshold of the house for a moment, before she took a shuddering breath and sighed.

It was going to be hard. She'd long since come to terms with the fact that her son was, by all means, a man and that her time with him was bound to get shorter and shorter. The fact that the moment had come now, and in the form of such a long journey, was still a shock. She chuckled hoarsely, a few tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked out the door.

It was going to be hard to accept that her only child, her precious son, the only part of Joseph Joestar she had and the one thing she couldn't stand to lose, was ready to move on with his life.

However, as she stood there, Tomoko couldn't help but smile too. She'd done her job, and she raised that boy well. Not one word she'd just spoken to him had been a lie or a half-truth: she couldn't have been prouder of her son if she tried

When she was ready, when she was finished crying over her how her baby boy had grown up, over how he was a man now, she'd be ready to brag. Tomoko hadn't been able to help but laugh at the thought; oh yes, when the time came to rub her son's success into some people's faces, Tomoko knew of some choice old hags who'd top her list..

"For now, I think I'll have some of that brat's juice. Teach him a lesson before he goes off to Vale." Tomoko smiled as she wiped away her tears and made for the ice box.

After all, there had been two snack cakes in there when she had left.

 **\- To Be Continued - Welcome to Vale (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Did you know? The phrase 'Mantle's science is the greatest in the world' appears no less than 57 times in Rudol von Stroheim's** _ **The Post War World**_ **. Many contribute this as one reason among many that the biography didn't see much spread outside of Mantle and Atlas.**


	3. Welcome to Vale (Act 2)

The Outskirts, The Frontier, Three Days Later

"Well Koichi… those're… those're airships. Are they everything you ever thought they'd be?"

"Josuke… I can barely even believe what I'm looking at."

"Those things are huge!"

The three teens stared dumbly as a trio of airships approached the ground, the wind from their engines billowed against those gathered around the landing zone. Josuke held a hand protectively against his pompadour as he and his team stared on. For them, this had been their first taste of the outside world and, somehow, the stories of what these airships were like, how utterly huge they were, hadn't matched the reality.

It had drastically undersold it.

As the ships slowly but surely set down on their landing gear, a gangplank to the largest of the three dropped down onto the surface, grass and soil kicked up by the force of it, as a man in a well-dressed white suit, the collar buttoned, a red tie, white pants and snazzy looking white shoes stepped off from the ship.

"If Polnareff's messages are any indication, that's our contact and pick up, General James Ironwood of Atlas." Jotaro said as the engines finally died down, his hand raised to keep his hat on his head despite the best efforts of the engines. "He's the head of their military and their Hunter Academy. Treat him like you'd treat the old man." Josuke flinched slightly, but the three team members nodded as they picked up their bags and marched forward to meet with the esteemed general.

"Well now, you must be Kujo Jotaro." James Ironwood gave a good-natured grin as he approached, his gaze trailed up and down Jotaro's form, only a few inches shy of Ironwood's own height, as he nodded approvingly. "I see some of Mantle's military traditions worked their way into your uniform. White's a good color for an officer." Jotaro just nodded, before the two men stumbled slightly in their introductions: Ironwood had made to give a short bow, while Jotaro had made to shake the general's hand.

The general laughed and gave Jotaro's hand a firm shake. "Sorry about that. Polnareff talked a lot about The Frontier and what we should expect, but he didn't cover proper introductions. With all the bows and flourishes he threw around, I figured that was proper." Jotaro couldn't help but grin slightly.

"No, Polnareff just has a flare for the dramatic when introducing himself." The tone was somewhat fond, before Jotaro's expression hardened again. "Welcome to The Frontier, General Ironwood. I hereby present our team for the Vytal Festival. The tall one is Higashikata Josuke, the next tallest is Nijimura Okuyasu and the last is Hirose Koichi." The three young men snapped to attention as they each formed up into a very well practiced salute.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." The three spoke near simultaneously, which caused Ironwood to laugh slightly.

"Well now, you all are just doing your best to butter me up, aren't you?" Ironwood asked somewhat casually, as Jotaro just nodded.

"We wanted to put our best foot forward, considering how important this is for all parties involved." Ironwood smiled slightly, as he looked the small group over.

"Consider your efforts successful then, Mr. Kujo. I like what I'm seeing here." The three teens smiled as they put themselves at ease, while Ironwood just arched an eyebrow. "So, three man team? It'll stand out like a sore thumb down in the rest of the Kingdoms. We've generally done what we could to standardize it to groups of four huntsmen or huntresses." Jotaro shrugged his shoulders as he turned to look at the three young men.

"In the early days, The Frontier had to work with what it had, and that meant building teams around being well-rounded and efficient rather than meeting some number. The philosophy was; why overload an already balanced team when Stand users could be put to better use on teams who actually needed them. Between Crazy Diamond, The Hand, and Echoes, Josuke's team has proven itself; their records speak a great deal about their efficiency and skill as a team, even when compared to teams of four or more. No point disrupting their teamwork by forcing another member on them for the sake of fitting in." Jotaro offered succinctly, as Ironwood just took this information in with a nod.

"If it's worked for you all this time, I suppose I don't have much room to argue." He said with a small shrug as he waved towards the ship he departed from. "Now then, when you're all ready, my flagship will get us all to Vale in relatively short order. I hope none of you boys end up motion sick, otherwise you'll be in for a long ride." Ironwood blinked slightly as he looked over their shoulders. "Ah, that crowd over there for you all?"

The four turned their heads and smiled; Tomoko, the Hiroses and Jotaro's wife and child were gathered some odd paces back, as they waited for the impromptu meeting to finish.

"Yes. They wanted a chance to wish these men luck and send them off. Although I suspect some of them just wanted a chance to see a bit of the Four Kingdoms themselves" Jotaro intoned with slight amusement as he looked back at his own family, as his daughter waved excitedly when she caught her father's eye.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you then." Ironwood gave the four a salute, one which was quickly returned by all four Frontiersmen. "I'll see you all aboard when you're ready." With that, Ironwood turned on his heels and departed. As he left, the four men turned their attention back to the crowd. Josuke patted Okuyasu on the shoulder as he looked to him. Before he could speak, Okuyasu shook his head.

"This is between you two and your folks. I'll be fine waiting over here." Okuyasu offered a small smile to his two friends, who just nodded understandingly as they walked back towards the crowd of people.

"Okuyasu! Good luck in the Vytal Festival, we'll all be rooting for you." Okuyasu flinched slightly as the crowd called out to him, a wide grin broke out across his face as his friends smiled back to him, before rushing over to their families. Jotaro just nodded slightly as he slowly walked on over to his own wife and daughter.

For all of the families it had been a simple affair. Josuke and Tomoko had said all they needed to three days earlier, so mother and son just hugged each other for a good, long minute before they separated. "You'd better behave in Vale, Josuke. I don't want to hear that the moment I let you out of my sight you started acting like a delinquent."

"I know, I know." Josuke rolled his eyes slightly, which earned him a playful slap across his shoulder from Tomoko as the two just smiled. "I'll be sure to write to keep you up to date."

"I'll be waiting." The two Higashikatas shared in one last hug before Josuke turned to rejoin Okuyasu.

Koichi's goodbye was a series of flinches and smiles as his mother and sister doted on the small boy, asking if he had packed everything he needed or if he had forgotten anything at all. Having had been late to unlock his Stand and with Echoes being, compared to the likes of Okuyasu's and Josuke's, a weaker one, the two hadn't been able to help being worried for the little man.

"I told you guys I'll be fine. Josuke and Okuyasu will be around, so it's not like if any trouble pops up that I'll be in too much danger." Koichi said with a small smile. This had done nothing to stop the avalanche of questions that his mother and sister foisted upon him.

"So… this isn't going to be one of those missions you come back from in a couple days, is it dad?" Meanwhile, Jotaro knelt down to meet his ten year old daughter's eyes, the girl with blond bangs and black hair, done up into buns on each side of her head, frowned as her father shook his head.

"Not this time, JoJo. I'll probably be gone for several months, perhaps even half a year, for this Festival and Beacon's second and third semester." His daughter seemed gravely disappointed, her eyes drooped to the ground, a frown etched onto her face as she nodded in understanding. The young girl had hardly known a time when Jotaro had been away from their home for more than a few days at any point in time, and hadn't looked forward to the prospect of suddenly being robbed of her father for months upon months.

"I see…" She said with a small hiccup as tears threatened the corner of her eyes, as Jotaro just shook his head.

"Now now, don't cry. I'm afraid that no amount of tears, genuine or otherwise, are going to change the fact that I have to go and you have to stay here." His daughter turned her eyes up to him, a frustrated frown tugged at the corner of her lips as she tried to keep up the kicked puppy routine. Jotaro just chuckled as he reached a hand forward to rub his daughter's head. "If you behave, I promise I'll send you back a souvenir from Vale."

"... Can you send back a dolphin?" Jotaro couldn't help the grin that broke out on his face as he saw his daughter peek a curious eye from around his hand.

"I can't send you back a dolphin. I can try to find a doll of one." He stared flatly, as Jolyne seemed to take this bribe into consideration.

"... Okay." Jolyne surprised both Jotaro and her mother as she quickly ducked around her father's hand and threw her arms around his shoulders. Jotaro went stock stiff, not much of a touchy man to begin with, before his daughter spoke. "I'm going to miss you dad…" After a moment, Jotaro stiffly wrapped his arms around his daughter.

"I'm going to miss you too JoJo... I love you." The last part was whispered, but Jolyne smiled nonetheless as she nodded against her father's chest, After a few moments she backed off to leave him and her mother alone. As she ran off, she turned her head to look over her shoulder as she started to wave at the other three boys.

"Bye Grunkle Josuke, bye Okuyasu, bye Koichi!" Josuke stumbled slightly at the old nickname, but he waved goodbye to Jolyne along with his team, even as Koichi was hounded by his own family.

"They expect that she'll tap into her Stand soon. Not that it's much a surprise to anyone: you Joestars are born with that proclivity." Mrs. Kujo said with a slight smile as she and Jotaro watched Jolyne run off, Jotaro absentmindedly reached a hand for his left shoulder as they spoke. "Then in four years she'll be able to run off to be a hunter like her father. I swear, it feels like I turned around for one minute and now our daughter's almost all grown up." She laughed slightly as she shook her head and turned back to her husband. The two stood in front of each other, a somewhat awkward air between them. Jotaro wasn't a touchy-feely man, had never been, which was something that Mrs. Kujo had long since gotten used to and accepted. It made the marriage strange at times, compared to those of her peers, but she wouldn't have traded it in for anything.

Despite this, she surprised herself and Jotaro in one gesture; she reached forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "You stay safe now, okay? JoJo would tear the house down if anything happened to you." Though the tone had a small amount of humor laced in it, Jotaro could hear the genuine worry, the fear, that sat underneath it as his wife tightened her hold around his shoulders.

"Tch… **yare yare** , I'll be fine woman." With a slight tint of red on his cheeks, Jotaro returned the gesture and, around the time Koichi finally worked his way out of his mother and sister's doting hands, separated. "I'll be sure to write." His wife just smiled and nodded, her red hair shaking about.

"We'll look forward to it, Jotaro." She quickly turned around and ran off to collect Jolyne before she got into any trouble. Jotaro just stared off at his family and sighed slightly, as he turned to the three teens under his watch. "Oh, and Jotaro… I love you." Jotaro very nearly tripped over his own feet before he turned to face his wife, the woman smiled back at him over her shoulder.

"... I know." Jotaro tipped his hat to obscure his face, his wife just laughed slightly before she walked away. With a slight sigh, Kujo Jotaro turned back to face the three teens, who'd all looked on at the scene with amused grins. "Alright you three, grab your bags and get ready. Next stop, the City of Vale."

* * *

Ironwood watched the security camera feeds in his cabin as the Frontier team boarded the airship. With a slight nod, the general and Headmaster of Atlas walked over to a nearby bookshelf and plucked off an old, dusty book from the selection. He took a long, steadying breath as he walked over to his chair and cracked the book open. He could get to know his guests better later when everyone would get together for dinner. Right now had seemed like a good time to catch up on his reading.

" _I watched as this young man, who in the span of a couple of months had proven to be the greatest thorn in my side and a man I would consider my greatest ally, activated his Stand. He slammed his fist into the ground, the thorns of Hermit Purple exploded forth from his arm and into the earth itself, as Kars stood over him ready to deliver the final blow. The shock of orange lightning I had come to associate with the Lisa Lisa's Stand pulsed forth through the purple vines, and I felt the ground shake beneath me._

" _Joseph Joestar had gotten through on his wit, his Stand and his allies so many times, even in just the short time I had known him. However, it was at this moment, I felt as if I was witnessing something altogether more impactful than just a stroke of luck or a quick witted plan. As I watched the volcano erupt, launching Kars and Joseph into the sky on a chunk of volcanic rock, and knew that Joseph had accomplished something that even Mantle's Science, the greatest in the world, couldn't... I felt something grow in my heart._

" _In the Kingdoms, we have accepted that humanity has begun its decline after the 'Fall of The Frontier'. That we are at the mercy of the Grimm, divided against each other and at best can only slow our demise. After all, we had been decimated by The Great War, and as relationships between humans and faunus seem bitterly determined to get worse and worse every single day, what reason did we have to believe, what reasons do we have now to hope, that our future was bright? More war, more conflict, more death and more misery seemed to be our only future._

" _Yet, seeing these men and women, these hunters of the Frontier, I felt hope. Because what these Frontiersmen and women can offer, with their wills forged into powerful visions, with all the luck and skill in the world, is the power to work miracles._

" _How else can one explain the fact that even after being launched into the sky, that two weeks later I met Joseph Joestar, for the last time, to personally deliver a robotic limb."_

Ironwood snorted somewhat derisively, as his hand gently ran along the spine of Rudol von Stroheim's _The Post War World_. 'A childish sentiment, to be sure. Absolute nonsense from a doddering old man.' While Ironwood had now accepted the book as a recollection of fact, in no small part due to Polnareff's appearance at Beacon and the huntsmen who now occupied his airship and due to a rather… heated argument with Atlas' governing council over what exactly their predecessors had been thinking with the "Pillar Men" project , the Atlesian general still couldn't help but think little of Stroheim's message.

Still, even after those thoughts ran through his head Ironwood didn't cast the book to the side. Furthermore, it had taken considerable effort to tear his attention away from it when dinnertime had finally rolled around.

* * *

Beacon Academy, The City of Vale, Two Days Later

"Alright, everyone get with your partner if you got one and get ready. Next stop, the City of Vale!"

Ruby Rose pumped her fist as she looked at the small crowd gathered in front of her; her team, Sun Wukong and his teammate, Neptune Vasilias. Before the arrival of the two men, Team RWBY had caught Blake getting ready to sneak off to look for more leads on The White Fang and Roman Torchwick. With a little convincing, or what Yang called guilt-tripping someone until they had given into your demands, Blake agreed to join with the rest of her team in the effort.

This was followed up by Sun Wukong, who offered to join in on the effort as well as a follow up to the aid he offered at the docks. Neptune, it seemed to Ruby, had been more or less dragged along by Sun into offering his services to the team

After some deliberations, the teams had been set; Ruby would head out on her own, Blake and Sun would head for a White Fang recruitment drive that Blake had heard about, Neptune would follow Yang as she checked on her sources and Weiss would contact her family to get some information on the major Dust robberies in Vale. The group had dressed up a bit for the trip, save for Sun and Neptune who had kept to their usual outfits, and they were ready to go.

"We'd probably better hurry up. After our little stint at the docks, I can only imagine that the staff has an eye on us. If we want to make a clean get away, probably best to do it now while class is still in session." Everyone nodded along with Blake's logic, everyone more than happy to take the advice of the local would-be ninja. As the group of teens tried to inconspicuously sneak around the dorms, with mixed results, they were quickly startled into a slight panic when a bell echoed throughout the school.

"Oh Dust, have we been caught already!?" Ruby panicked slightly as she cast her eyes all around. The bell rang a few more times in quick succession, before the click of the intercom caught their attention.

"Attention students of Beacon Academy and transfer students. Starting tomorrow, the period labeled on your schedules as Special Topics is no longer to be treated as a free period. In addition, after a quick stop in the City of Vale, General James Ironwood will be arriving on campus with the Atlesian participants of the Vytal Festival. Please be sure to be as welcoming as possible for our guests. Thank you, and pardon the interruption."

Ozpin's voice echoed down the halls as the announcement was made, Team RWBY plus Neptune and Sun sighed in slight relief from the fact they hadn't been caught, before Yang huffed in disappointment.

"Ah man, there goes our free period. It was nice while it lasted, I guess."

"It wasn't even that much of a free period really; it was in the middle of the day so we couldn't even go anywhere without being late for the next class and it barely scratched an hour. I don't see why you're disappointed." Weiss had said with a slight roll of her eyes, as Yang just snapped her head towards her.

"Are you kidding? A free period's, like, school-sanctioned hooky. I got to nap without having to worry about any of the professors catching on. It was great." The blond bombshell couldn't even believe she needed to explain all this to Weiss, who just shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Well, at least now we'll figure out what exactly it is this class is supposed to be." Ruby offered with a small smile, as the rest of the group nodded.

"We'll have to move quickly though: it won't take long for Ironwood to get to Beacon after he stops off in Vale. If he's bringing half of what he's said he will, it'll make slipping into Vale unnoticed even harder." Blake returned their focus to the mission, as the group of teens nodded and made their way forward.

"It's strange though, wonder what the guy's doing making a stop in Vale?" Sun Wukong asked as he scratched his chin, which earned little more than a shrug from the rest of the group as they continued on.

* * *

"K-K-Koichi?"

"Y-Yeah Okuyasu?"

"How many of those buildings are ten stories tall?"

"Ummm… almost all of them? Most of them are even taller than that."

"Holy…. Josuke, are you seeing this?" Okuyasu and Koichi removed their faces from the glass window of the airship as they turned to face their leader, the pompadoured teen's eyes wide as he stared out the window.

"Oh. My. God…" Josuke muttered as his eyes darted all around in a vain attempt to take in the City of Vale all at once.

Morioh was the last Frontier City. With a population of 10,053 people, it was larger than most towns across Remnant. Despite this, Morioh was hardly an architecturally grand city, nor a fabulously wealthy one. Only one building in all of Morioh had stood taller than three stories, and that building was the main hospital, built so large in an attempt to take care of the city as it fought its endless war against the Grimm. The walls of the city were the only constructs in the entire region that had stood taller than that. In addition, most luxury goods were only ever imported into the city, with the Frontier having made due on payments in the form of old artifacts and items they managed to scavenge through scouting missions into the remains of various other Frontier cities. A practice started by Jonathan Joestar who, during his short tenure as the 1st Head of The Frontier, had ordered the remains of his own family home, the Joestar Mansion, to be scavenged and its wealth sold to ensure Morioh would be fed during those trying early days.

So for this team of Frontier Huntsmen the sight of the City of Vale, with its skyscrapers, bill boards, bustling traffic that, from this height, looked like the shuffling of so many ants, the flight of airships and the freighters breaking waves as they approached the docks was beyond their scope of reference by an unbelievably large margin. A city of hundreds of thousands of people, all of whom lived together in a peace that Morioh could only ever dream of, with a wealth that Morioh had only ever read about. The City of Vale was everything they had dreamed about these past several days and so, so, so much more.

"This is crazy."

Even if the trio had been inclined to to reel in their grins, the three doubted that they'd be able to. The excitement that thrummed through their bodies was nearly palpable. Off to the side, Ironwood and Jotaro looked on at the scene, the Atlesian General chuckled slightly as he shook his head.

"You know, I grew up in Atlas, so I guess I never realized how one of the capital cities would look to a bunch of outsiders. Kind of amusing to watch, really." Ironwood slowly turned his gaze towards Jotaro, a small grin on his face. "How about you; this about how you reacted to seeing a capital city when you traveled through Remnant?"

Jotaro shook his head slightly. "No. I wasn't so excited I was shaking in my boots." Jotaro remarked as he watched the three young men, before a grin managed to crack his grim facade. "Though, it was quite the sight. The cities in Vale and Vacuo were nothing like Morioh."

"I can imagine." Ironwood just shrugged his shoulders as he stalked towards the team of Frontier Huntsmen. "Alright boys, we'll be making our stop shortly. As per Joseph and Jotaro's request, we'll be dropping you three off in Vale itself to play tourist while the rest of us make our way to Beacon. Got a bit of official business to tie up, I'm afraid." Ironwood waved one of his soldiers over, who held in their grip a few maps and a few Lien cards.

"This here's a map of Vale, with some schedules for the transports that'll be available to take you up to Beacon during the day. Not for nothing, but I'd suggest you all hitch a ride to Beacon before the transports stop for the night." The three teens nodded in understanding as they each took a map. "This here's Lien, the common currency of Remnant. As you're all guests of Beacon Academy, you'll be given a small stipend to live on, on top of your food and board you'll be getting at the Academy itself. You'll want to swipe this little black bar here whenever you're purchasing something, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it" The three teens grins widened as they took the money, which caused Ironwood to chuckle.

"Any questions?" The general crossed his arms as he looked at the three expectantly.

"Do you know any good tourist sites, General Ironwood?"

"How about the best place to grab a bite to eat?"

"Anything interesting to see in general?"

The three teens each bombarded Ironwood with a question, the general actually barked out a laugh at the excited expressions on their faces as he shrugged. "Can't say that I do; I mostly just go to and come from Beacon whenever I visit Vale. I imagine you can ask around for that kind of information." As Ironwood spoke, Jotaro came up from beside him, a serious expression on his face that caused the trio to sober up real quick.

"While the old man and I do want you to be able to enjoy your time in Vale, do remember that you three are guests not just of another Academy, but of another city and nation. You three are representatives of Morioh, and your actions will reflect on The Frontier as a whole. While I'm attending to business at Beacon with Ironwood, Ozpin and Polnareff, I don't want to hear that you three stirred up trouble, or picked unnecessary fights… for any reasons, Josuke." Jotaro, Okuyasu and Koichi turned their gazes to Josuke, which surprised Ironwood, as the pompadoured teen just laughed nervously while he scratched the back of his head.

"R-Right Jotaro. I mean, you know I won't be able to help it if-" A stern, hard look from Jotaro cut Josuke off, the teen bit his bottom lip as he nodded his head dumbly. "I'll do my best, Jotaro."

"Same here." Koichi and Josuke nodded soon after, the three giving a small bow as Jotaro looked on.

The airship shook slightly as it landed and, nearby, the gangplank dropped. Jotaro and Ironwood were treated to the sight of the three teens as they practically vibrated in place while they waited for the go ahead. After a moment, Jotaro just sighed.

" **Yare yare daze** , you three are dismissed."

The second Jotaro dismissed them, the three sped off like a rocket. Jotaro adjusted his hat slightly to conceal his face, though Ironwood caught the small grin that crept up onto the young man's face, one to match his own.

"From serious subordinates to a trio of excited teens in a matter of seconds. Interesting set of kids you all sent along." Ironwood said as Jotaro just nodded in agreement. As the airship prepared to take off again, Ironwood spoke up. "Though, I am a bit confused: I would've figured Okuyasu to be the one to stir up trouble. Why specifically address Josuke?"

Jotaro stopped in place, before he turned his head to look James dead in the eyes. "Trust me General Ironwood, it was needed… not that it'd do much good.

"Word of friendly advice: never insult Josuke's haircut."

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be leaving today, Polnareff? We have more than enough room for you here at Beacon, and we could certainly use your help in the coming days if what you've said holds true." Ozpin looked over the rim of his glasses at Polnareff, as the flamboyant huntsmen just shrugged his shoulders lightly as he leaned back in his own seat.

"Ah, I'm afraid I've probably spent too much time around Beacon as is, Ozpin. I needed to hang around to give you all the details about The Frontier and to ensure that Jotaro and the others arrived. Now that Jotaro is practically here, I should be heading back to Mistral. There is… other business that needs to be conducted there." Polnareff said with a slight frown, one which Ozpin returned. Still, the Beacon Headmaster nodded in understanding.

"Very well. It was a pleasure to meet you Polnareff. Hopefully, we'll be seeing you again in the near future." Ozpin offered with a small grin, his coffee mug raised to toast the huntsmen, a gesture Polnareff readily returned.

"Same to you, **mon ami**." The two clinked their mugs and took a drink, Polnareff shook his head as jitters ran up and down his spine. "You folks here at Beacon sure do have one Hell of a brew. No offense to you or your school Ozpin, but I think the thing I'll miss most when I leave will be this coffee."

"Honestly, it's probably what I'd miss the most too." The two men laughed amiably as they drank their coffee. Before long, the doors to the office slowly cracked open and the two turned their gazes to meet their new guests. Polnareff's eyes seemed to shine as a wide smile broke out across his face, the silver-haired man stood up from his seat to quickly walk over to the door.

Jotaro, whom had just entered the office with Ironwood, sighed in faux-annoyance as he watched Polnareff approach him. In short order, the flamboyant huntsmen had thrown his arms around Jotaro's form, which illicited a slight grunt of annoyance from Jotaro. For as long as Jotaro had known Polnareff, the man was very much a feely sort of person, despite Jotaro's protests.

Still, for having been so many years since he'd seen his friend in person, Jotaro returned the gesture stiffly, before the two separated. "Jotaro… it's been too long, my friend." No jokes, no put upon dramatics, no use of his native tongue for flair. Just an earnest greeting as the wielder of Silver Chariot greeted his old friend.

Jotaro cracked a smile, as he extended his hand out to grip Polnareff's arm in a firm shake. "It has been a long time, Polnareff. The old man's missed having you around to kick about The Frontier." Polnareff barked out a laugh as he rolled his eyes.

"I'm out and about in the Kingdoms on that old codger's orders anyway. If he wanted me back in The Frontier, all he'd have to do is say the word." The two laughed amicably as they spoke, though Ironwood and Ozpin couldn't help but notice something. Despite the levity the two presented, there had been an undercurrent of discomfort. In addition, something about Polnareff's words seemed to ring hollow to Ozpin's ears. Ozpin decided to ignore this for now and, before Jotaro and Polnareff could continue, he and Ironwood coughed into their fists.

"While I hate to interrupt this stirring reunion, we do have… important business to settle before we can move along. Perhaps after our meeting is over, you two could go and catch up." Ironwood spoke, his expression grim, as Jotaro and Polnareff just nodded. A serious air fell across the room as the four men gathered around Ozpin's desk.

"We've shared some of our information with Polnareff and vice versa. However, we've been waiting for your arrival, Mr. Kujo, before we settled firmly on the details, seeing as how you'll be our more long-standing contact here at Beacon." Ozpin stated in a matter of fact tone, one which earned a nod from both Jotaro and Polnareff. "I'll start us off, seeing as how our information will be slightly more… brief compared to what Polnareff has hinted at.

"The Vytal Festival is an important part of why we're here together, Mr. Kujo, but it's the actions that are taking place in the shadows of the Festival that have myself, James and our respective governing councils the most concerned. For many years now, stretching across decades, a sinister force has lurked at the corners of Remnant. We don't know the name of its leader, we don't know the faces of its members and we don't know their goal. What we do know is this: their movements have been made in constant opposition to the Four Kingdoms of Remnant and have been aimed at debilitating and rolling back humanity and faunus-kind in whatever capacity they could. Often, seemingly, in conjunction with Grimm attacks."

Jotaro seemed to stiffen, as he leaned forward. "Would you say the Grimm are being lead around and organized in these joint actions?" The stone cold serious tone of Jotaro's voice momentarily caught Ozpin and Ironwood off guard, before Ironwood seemed to understand what he had been hinting at.

"No, the Grimm are acting in accordance to what we consider their normal nature. We have no evidence that there are beings similar to the Pillar Men behind the scenes… at least, we haven't been looking for that sort of evidence before two months ago." Ironwood admitted this last point somewhat sheepishly, a frustrated and embarrassed expression etched onto his features, as Polnareff offered a sympathetic hand on the man's shoulder.

"Do not blame yourself, James. Before we met, you did not even think the Pillar Men were even real, and no one could blame you for thinking such. It's water under the bridge now, and the only thing for it is to keep our eyes open from now on." Ozpin nodded with a small smile on his face.

"Indeed. We'll try to see if we can pick up on any, and I do mean any, unusual patterns in the behavior of the Grimm. While we considered their actions odd at times, with how well our enemies moved in tandem with them, we hadn't considered this possibility until you all showed up."

" **Yare yare** ," Jotaro sighed as he reached into his jacket, the itch to smoke having had crept up on him as he pulled out the pack of coffee flavored gum, "-so, you don't know who your enemies are, what their goals are or even what their full capabilities are. That about sum it up?" Ozpin blanched at Jotaro's blunt assessment of their progress, which earned a chuckle from Ironwood.

"Well Polnareff, you were right; your friend doesn't sugar coat anything."

"Sadly, Mr. Kujo's assessment isn't wrong." Ozpin offered with a sigh of disappointment. "We're truly in the dark here, and we've been able to do little but play on the defensive and a losing one at that. Without knowing what pieces our enemies have on the board in the first place, it has proven difficult to plan around them. We may have a possible lead into some dust robberies occurring in Vale recently as a possible connection, but evidence is scant so far." Ozpin leaned back in his seat as he drank from his mug of coffee. "I'm afraid that's it on our end."

"Not much, but it gives us an idea of what we may be in for." Jotaro said in a calm tone as he popped a stick of gum into his mouth. "We'll return the favor. Polnareff." The silver-haired huntsmen nodded as he reached into one of his pockets, and produced several photos.

"As we hinted in the letter and in our conversations, this hasn't been the first time in the last two decades we Frontier huntsmen have come to the Four Kingdoms in force. A group consisting of myself, Jotaro, Joseph and a few other friends you'll… never meet, ended up traversing the Four Kingdoms twelve years ago. This was because of one of those friends of ours: Muhammad Avdol.

"You see, before Avdol, The Frontier mainly got its information about the rest of the Four Kingdoms through rumors and news passing through the outskirt villages we'd trade with from time to time. No one believed we were from The Frontier, even if we said we were, and most just assumed Morioh was another outskirt city. We used to have close contact with a group of traveling monks that had known one of our founders, William Zeppeli, and they were a great fountain of information for Morioh. They'd travel all around Remnant and usually bring back all sorts of news and rumors that we wouldn't hear about from the boonies. But…"

"Straizo." Ironwood and Ozpin said simultaneously, which earned a nod from Polnareff.

"Straizo. Anyway, after that we didn't have much information to go on. Then, eighteen years ago, Avdol arrived in The Frontier. This was quite the shock to us: Muhammad had never known a single person from The Frontier, we hadn't seen him in any outskirt villages until he arrived and, despite him having a Stand, no one we'd known had trained him: he'd just unlocked it on his own."

"How did he know where to find you all then?" The Beacon Headmaster asked, curious, as Polnareff just gave a wistful smile.

"Would you believe me if I said he saw the future through fortune telling and found us that way?" Ozpin and Ironwood's faces deadpanned as they took this in, their mouths opened and closed several times as they tried to respond to this information.

"... Every fiber of my being is telling me to call you out on your bullshit… but then I remember I'm in the presence of men who I thought didn't even exist a few months ago, with powers I thought were hogwash." Ironwood had cupped his face in his hands as he slowly shook his head, while Ozpin had been content to just rub the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

"Well, it's the truth according to Avdol, at any rate. He said that his fortunes had foretold of a terrible threat that would rise against The Frontier from Remnant and that, should we fail to stand against it, it would roll across the Four Kingdoms and swallow up humanity. He offered to keep us informed on the goings on of the Four Kingdoms and to scout out for this threat, an offer that we readily accepted." Polnareff gave a sad sigh as he shook his head. "After his death, I took up those responsibilities."

"Why? I assume that because we're all standing here and currently aren't dead, that whatever it was that you all clashed against twelve years ago was soundly defeated." Polnareff nodded at Ozpin, as he placed the first of his photos down onto the table. The photograph was of a shriveled up old woman, an open-mouthed smile on her face as she gripped in her hands what appeared to be a golden arrow. "... What are we looking at here, Polnareff?"

"The reason why The Frontier still felt it necessary to keep Avdol's role going even after we dealt with the threat to Remnant." Polnareff tapped the golden arrow in the old woman's hands. "The threat in question possessed one of these; a very old, very powerful tool that The Frontier was quite familiar with.

"One hundred years ago when The Frontier was on the edge of destruction thanks to The Reckoning, one of our founders William Zeppeli arrived, seemingly from nowhere. He brought with him knowledge of an alternative way of using our souls to fight the Grimm, a way that had fallen out of use in much of the rest of Remnant. In time, we referred to this knowledge as Stand Power."

"That's something I have a hard time wrapping my mind around." Ironwood said with a frown, as he pointed to the two Stand Users. "Why would Stand Power fall out of common use if it produced men like you two, with such considerable abilities?"

"While we can't say for certain, we have our guesses." Jotaro spoke up, which drew the attention of the headmasters to him. "While Stand Power can indeed produce men like myself and Polnareff and our Stands, it can also produce men on the complete opposite end of that spectrum: people with Stands and abilities that are, in generous terms, utterly unremarkable."

"In some cases, it produced Stands that, for the purposes for fighting Grimm, are completely and utterly useless even if their powers are remarkable." Polnareff added, to which Jotaro nodded.

"Indeed. Using Aura to augment one's physical strength brings with it the benefit of a certain level of guaranteed power. No matter how worthless your eventual semblance might be, you're always guaranteed a soldier with the physical strength and aptitude to be able to go toe-to-toe with the Grimm. Because we harness our Aura into transforming our souls into powerful visions, Stand Users don't have this fallback. We're at the mercy of our Stands and whatever strengths, weaknesses and abilities they may have."

"If that's the case, then why did you all switch over to using Stands in the first place?" Ozpin asked, curious, as Polnareff picked up from there.

"Because punching Grimm to death with your bare fists is a pretty counterproductive strategy." Polnareff said with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "You have to understand how absolutely desperate The Frontier's situation has been for these past one hundred years. Even after The Reckoning itself passed, it still left hundreds of thousands of Grimm hanging around the city of Morioh in the surrounding wilderness. We were more concerned with trading for food, supplies and basic necessities of life for most of these past one hundred years than we were with acquiring more Dust and ammunition for weapons or Hell new weapons entirely. All of which during The Reckoning itself were absolutely impossible to get.

"When you've got no weapon because it shattered on the skull of the hundredth Grimm you fought that day and the possible thousandth that week, no Dust because it's all gone save for hidden packages of it in some former cities and only your bare fists, suddenly you find that Aura isn't the end-all, be-all key to destroying Grimm that you thought it was. Huntsmen and Huntresses were exhausted by the sheer number of Grimm, their bodies, even empowered by Aura, could only fight for so long before they would be exhausted and overwhelmed.

"That's what made William Zeppeli and Stands such a Godsend. Stands don't get exhausted, they're capable of fighting so long as you have the willpower to stay standing beside them and to fight for your survival. Being pure Aura concentrated around your soul, the right Stands can be extremely powerful, powerful enough that yes, they can punch a Grimm barehanded and that Grimm will die. Even seemingly useless Stand abilities can be used creatively and to great effect, so long as you're clever enough to see those uses yourself.

"In short, Stand Power may have fallen out in the rest of Remnant because it's unreliable compared to Auras backed up by Dust and weaponry, but in The Frontier's darkest hours and continuing up to today, these powerful visions have stood by our sides so long as we ourselves have had the will to fight."

"And that's why you call them Stands." Ozpin nodded in understanding, a small smile on his face, before he turned back to the photo. "So tell me, what exactly does this arrow have to do with all that?"

"Ordinarily, unlocking one's Stand potential takes many years of meditation, exercise of the mind and body and considerable time spent channeling your Aura inward towards your true soul. This is easier for children, as their souls are malleable and able to be molded towards unlocking their stand so long as you guide their efforts carefully. It's why hunter training in the Frontier starts so early and most huntsmen and huntresses start their careers as early as fourteen; once you unlock your stand and are able to fight for the Frontier, you're an adult in the eyes of Morioh." Jotaro sighed as he spat out the flavorless lump of gum, before he quickly replaced it.

"Of course, during the Reckoning, the Frontier didn't have time to be able to unlock stands so slowly. They were on the verge of being wiped out then and there, and a quicker option was needed. In exchange for agreeing to ally with him and help one of his own causes, William Zeppeli offered this option: the Test of The Arrow.

"Upon being struck by the arrow, your body's Aura will be forcibly reshaped in such a way that it'll unlock your Stand as well as a great deal of your Stand's potential. However, the Test of The Arrow is a perilous one; seven in ten people who take it will die by it, their Stands never unlocked and their lives lost." Ozpin and Ironwood grimaced at this.

"So… how many people in The Frontier actually died to The Grimm?" Ironwood asked cautiously, as even Ozpin leaned forward with a frown firmly on his features. Polnareff sighed as he shook his head.

"Rest assured, most did… although, that in and of itself is a rather sad thing. The number of towns the Grimm were able to wipe out before William Zeppeli, Jonathan Joestar and Robert Speedwagon were able to set up an effective resistance in Morioh was pretty much total. There weren't a lot of towns left to evacuate when it was all said and done. It's fair to say an unfortunate number of deaths were due to the arrow and it's test. However, by that point people were desperate: fathers and mothers were willing to sacrifice everything, including their own lives, if it meant there was a chance their children could live, and people of all stripes took the test if it meant they could have at least a chance at surviving."

"After The Reckoning passed, the arrow was retired and never brought back out again. The slow, steady method of unlocking a Stand and molding its power became the norm." Jotaro said firmly, as Ironwood and Ozpin just sighed in relief.

"So, this threat Avdol foretold had one of these arrows?"

"Likely more than just the one." Polnareff answered Ozpin's question swiftly, as he pulled out a second photo. This was of a group of people at what appeared to be a Mistrali cafe, a familiar looking arrow being passed between two groups. "Several years after we dealt with the threat, rumors of strange occurrences on the streets of Mistral began to reach my ears. I had been on the lookout for anything that looked like Stand activity that might hint at where the arrow had been taken, so I was quick to act on this information..

"What I found was an organization in Mistral, that had slowly but surely taken over the criminal underworld. A group that calls itself Passione." Polnareff sighed as he tapped the photo. "From what I've been able to gather, they've been amassing strength and influence by having members take the Test of The Arrow, adding Stand Users to their ranks. For a while, my plan and Joseph's plan was that we'd wait until the Vytal Festival would come to Mistral for The Frontier's introduction and, while eyes were on our young huntsmen participating in the Tournament, Jotaro and I could deal a blow to Passione behind the scenes and hopefully destroy these arrows."

"What changed?" Ironwood interjected, as Polnareff just looked up to him.

"Three months ago I hit a small group of Passione thugs looking for information on their boss and the possible hiding places for these arrows. I didn't get much out of them, but what I did get was concerning; Passione had been contacted by the criminal element in Vale, and it seemed like there was some coordination getting ready to go ahead in the coming months. All started by what had been passed around as a 'friend of the Boss'.

"Mistral's already had its criminal element deeply rooted into the city: the mafia are more involved with running that city than the governing council in most cases. So, when Joseph, myself and Jotaro discussed plans going forward, it was decided that our efforts would be best put towards cutting off the spread of this to another city, where we might actually have a chance of making an immediate impact, rather than trying to tango with an extremely powerful crime syndicate before the deal could go through. After all, it wasn't hard to figure out what exactly might get exchanged in this little affair. "

"Sensible enough; hope that you can keep the infection from spreading before cutting into the source." Ozpin said with a nod, as he took a drink of coffee. "We can discuss our plan going forward tomorrow, once Ironwood has settled his forces in and around Vale and Beacon and after Mr. Kujo here has had time to settle in. If you're still around tomorrow, Polnareff, you'd of course be welcome to join us to give your own perspective."

"Thank you Ozpin, but no thank you. I'll be gone by the time the rooster crows tomorrow. With Jotaro here, I'd be rather superfluous. I'm better off back in Mistral, keeping an ear to the ground and keeping an eye out for an opportunity to strike a decisive blow against Passione." Polnareff gave a slight bow as he said this, to which Ozpin and Ironwood nodded.

"Well then gentlemen, I'd say our meeting has concluded. James and I will be sticking around to discuss a few minor issues relating to the Vytal Festival, so please, you two go ahead and catch up." Ozpin's tone had been congenial, to which the two Frontier huntsmen just nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you, Headmaster. It was a pleasure meeting the both of you." Polnareff gave a deep bow as he stood up from his seat, Jotaro just stiffly nodded his head at the two.

"It'll be interesting to work with you two in the days ahead. Until tomorrow, then." The two left Ozpin and Ironwood in peace as they departed from the office, Polnareff immediately loosened up as the serious atmosphere died away. Jotaro, however, remained conspicuously stiff.

"Ah, this is fantastic Jotaro. You and I will have to make a day of this before I leave tomorrow. You have to tell me how little JoJo's been doing all this time. She's, what, nine, ten years old now?" Polnareff rambled off as he walked ahead of Jotaro, before he noticed his friend's silence. The silver-haired huntsmen turned to face his old friend, and was met with a serious gaze.

"Polnareff, you know I'd welcome your help in dealing with things here in Vale. The old man would be fine with you staying here too. You don't have to run back off to Mistral so soon." Jotaro spoke in a flat tone, away from the ears of Ironwood and Ozpin, as he looked one of the few remaining Stardust Crusaders in the eye. Polnareff stared back, long and hard, before the normally jubilant man seemed to deflate before Jotaro's very eyes. The happy expression and boisterous attitude of the huntsmen faded away, and the man himself seemed to wilt under the pressure of some hidden weight.

"Jotaro… you know how much I love seeing you and Joseph. You're basically the brother I never had, and Hell, Mr. Joestar might as well be my own grandfather for how close we all got after Vacuo. Being around you all, catching up and talking about old times… it brings back good memories. Of Vale and Vacuo, of Avdol, Kakyoin and Iggy. I get so happy when I see either of you again, I'm practically delirious." Polnareff laughed slightly, a crack in his voice, as he ran a hand through his hair.

"But… the longer it goes on, the more my mind goes back to what happened in that mansion. The more I remember how much of a screw up I was, how damned pig-headed and arrogant I was. How Avdol and Iggy…" Polnareff shuddered, his breath hitched, as Jotaro saw that tears threatened the corners of his eyes. "I'm still so pathetic. I can't handle it like you and Joseph can. Because… it was my fault, Jotaro. They died to save my ass. In the end, I barely even managed to help you deal the finishing blow… you saved us all. I was just the idiot rushing in without a plan except to stab something with Silver Chariot's rapier, same as always."

Jotaro's eyes were concealed by the rim of his hat as he placed a hand on Polnareff's shoulders, this gesture seemed to snap the man from his melancholy as he took a deep breath.

"Maybe I'm being selfish, wanting to run back off to Mistral when there's work to do here in Vale. But… it'll catch up to me eventually, Jotaro. I don't want you all to be around, to have to carry my weight, when it does." Polnareff watched as Jotaro removed his hand from his shoulder before he quickly reached into his jacket pockets. To Polnareff's surprise, Kujo Jotaro, married man and father, pulled out a pack of cigarettes. With the skill of an old hand, Jotaro easily flicked two cigarettes out of the pack and offered one to Polnareff.

"Heh, wouldn't have figured your little lady would've let you carry these around after Jolyne was born." Polnareff spoke with a soft smile as he took one of the proffered cigarettes, the amiable atmosphere from earlier slowly returned as Jotaro just shrugged.

"She doesn't, but… well, we all deal with the past in our own ways, Polnareff. What she doesn't know won't hurt her or Jolyne." A blur of motion flickered between the two men in rapid succession. The ends of their cigarettes lit, the two sat there in the hall, letting the silence fall over them as they just stood still for a moment and enjoyed the company of the other and the cigarettes between their lips.

"Aaaaah." Polnareff gave a slight sigh of relief as he exhaled, before he put the remains of the cigarette into a nearby trash can, followed by Jotaro. "I have to say, nothing gives me that odd sensation of feeling like absolute shit and absolutely relieved like getting that off my chest. Much like how I feel after a cigarette." A laugh tore through Polnareff's body at his own joke, though a cough followed soon after, Polnareff not having had the lungs of a seasoned smoker, as Jotaro just shook his head at his old friend and a slight expression of disappointment crossed his face.

"Don't give me that look. Not all of had great-grandmothers who could teach us to smoke." Polnareff jabbed Jotaro in the ribs, the younger of the two huntsmen just sighed as they resumed their walk. "Now, seriously, before we get all melancholy again, let's have some fun and catch up today. Tomorrow, you get to start trying to unravel the mystery behind a shadowy organization with two accomplished, seasoned huntsmen. Both of whom just so happened to have been given the runabout by this cabal for several years now." Polnareff laughed slightly as Jotaro just shook his head and tipped his hat over his eyes.

" **Yare yare** , don't remind me. I just hope nothing too annoying happens."

* * *

Warehouse District, City of Vale, Several Hours before Sunset

Roman Torchwick was not a happy man. As the crime boss chewed heavily on the end of his cigar, to the point where the thing threatened to snap off and fall onto the stained floor of the warehouse, he ruminated on his current situation. Six hours. That's all he had before the White Fang recruitment drive had been set to begin. Six hours before this part of Cinder's plan was meant to start, and what would you know?

Roman Torchwick wasn't ready. Why was that?

Because some lay about Mistrali hadn't bothered to show up yet. This had been in the motions for months, Cinder, the Boss of Passione and this mysterious 'friend' of theirs had been setting the pieces up for this exchange. Now, on the eve of when he and some random from Mistral were meant to really sell all this to a bunch of gullible, impressionable faunus, they weren't here with the goods or with his 'partner' for the night.

"Cinder is going to have my ass if this ends up falling through… then I'm not going to be able to beat these lazy bastards senseless." Roman Torchwick shook his head as he imagined what was keeping these mafia types. Perhaps they had decided to lay down for a bit of a nap, got a little too drunk on some wine or they just flat out forgot because they got distracted by a plate of pasta.

Torchwick bit through his cigar, the lit end dropping into a puddle of water as the man growled. If he had to wait one more hour, he swore he was going to take his cane and shove it up-

"Mr. Torchwick, a car is pulling up to the warehouse, sir!" Torchwick snapped his head towards one of the White Fang operatives he'd been 'lent' for the evening, the man flinched slightly under the orange-haired criminal's gaze as he let out a frustrated grunt.

"Finally." Torchwick pulled out another cigar as he strode angrily towards the front of the warehouse. As the front doors were opened to him, he was treated to the sight of five individuals as they exited the rather pricey looking vehicle. If Roman wasn't quite so furious with these men, he'd probably appreciate their style of clothing… or, most of their clothing. There were two too many exposed midriffs for his liking among these, er, five men?

Roman Torchwick had to take a quick double-take at the shortest of these five, his head slightly tilted to the side as he quickly tried to ascertain this person's gender. After a moment, Roman just shook his head.

'Wow, dude looks like a lady.' The crime boss of Vale thought to himself as he lit his cigar.

"Well, well, well gentlemen. Glad you all could make it with just…" Roman dramatically reached for his watch and checked the time, "-six hours to spare! Really now, when people say that the Mistrali are a bunch of lazy cretins with no sense for punctuality, here you five walk up and go on to prove that they are actually exactly right, what in Dust's name kept you imbeciles?!" Roman's calm demeanor broke down towards the end, as he glared at the collection of five men.

"Hey, be glad we made it here at all with how much racket you've been making in this town, you prick-"

The smallest of the men was slapped about the back of the head several times by one of the two men who exposed their midriffs, his outfit consisting of a dark pink with several holes scattered throughout it.

"That's enough! Don't be so damned rude to one of our business partners, and watch your Goddamned mouth!" Roman blinked slightly at the exchange and found himself even more confused when this man turned to him with an expression of absolute calm. "Apologies for newest recruit, Mr. Torchwick."

"Indeed, and for our tardiness." Torchwick turned his gaze towards the seeming leader of this group, a man in a white suit and pants combo, with gold trimmings and black patterns across it. Roman actually narrowed his gaze as he focused on the trimmings as he could've swore they were… zippers?

"Yes, well, that's mainly what I've been concerned with. It was supposed to be an easy job; slip into Vale, perform for an audience of animals, really sell them on this mumbo jumbo, and then slip out. I find it hard to believe that anyone could mess up something like that." The man in white frowned at Torchwick's tone, but tried his best to conceal it.

"It was more difficult than we first thought to slip into Vale undetected. Your recent spree of dust robberies have put the police on edge, and the rather high profile scuffle with the first year huntresses at the dockyard seems to have caught the military's eye. Getting our cargo through without drawing the notice of either of these forces took a considerable amount of time, effort and bribes. I hope you understand and that we can just move on from this mess and get our payment, my compatriot." The man stared Roman directly in the eye as he spoke, and Roman couldn't help himself as he ground his teeth together.

Oh, outwardly, the man had been perfectly polite and deferential. He gussied up his words by having made it sound like he had spared Roman anymore trouble. However, Torchwick didn't become the kind of criminal who'd catch Cinder Fall's eye by having been a gullible idiot. He felt the subtext of this man's words as they slithered just beneath the surface.

'We're sorry we were held off, but your several dozen, unnecessarily high-profile robberies and repeated screw ups in the face of a few inexperienced huntresses made it difficult for us to get our own job done. We've spent a lot of time, money and effort in doing what should've been simple work if you weren't such a rank embarrassment as a criminal. How about you kindly shove your complaints up your ass and let us earn our money, you damn amateur.'

Sad thing was that if Cinder was here, he was sure she'd be on his side of the affair. The woman had been rather… unhappy with his performance at the docks.

"Right, right. I'm sorry, everyone here is a bit on edge. Our friends are expecting a bang up performance tonight that'll net them a lot of recruits, and I don't know about you all, but I like having my boys between my legs and not hung up on someone's mantle." Roman spoke with a slight sigh of irritation, as the five men merely nodded.

"Of course, perfectly understandable. Give me an opportunity to show these disadvantaged faunus what sort of power you're promising them, and I can guarantee you, you'll have plenty of willing volunteers lined up for yourself and for Miss Fall." The leader spoke with a certain unflappable confidence, as he moved to walk past Torchwick and into the warehouse. Torchwick, for his part, stuck his cane out to keep him from going in, which drew an annoyed glance from the Mistrali criminal.

"First, I'd like to verify the goods. Make sure you actually brought the merchandise we're paying for." The man in white seemed slightly offended as he drew back from Torchwick.

"You think we'd honestly come all this way without them?" He said, his teeth ground together, as Torchwick just shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey, I'm not saying anything. Making sure that the product comes in is just good business sense, zippers."

"Show me the Boss' money then. If it's good business sense to distrust your partners in Vale, then I should return the favor." The two men glared at each other, their eyes locked in a silent contest as they stared each other down. Before long, Torchwick sighed and snapped his fingers.

"Get these men their payment." A White Fang soldier nodded his head as he ran off, before the man in white turned to the feminine young man.

"Fetch the case." Without even a moment's hesitation, the boy nodded and ran to the trunk of the car. It took a couple minutes but soon, two cases were held between the two criminals. The lids popped, and they finally tore their gazes away from each other to look at the contents.

The man in white reached forward and, grabbing a stack of Lien. He checked the front and back side and underneath the various stacks as he made sure card strips weren't broken and the cards themselves were in the right denominations. He pulled out his scroll and scanned a few random samples, before he nodded in satisfaction.

"It seems you have sense enough to conduct business on the up and up. That speaks at least somewhat well of you." With a weary sigh he placed his Scroll back in his pocket as he watched Roman Torchwick stare at the contents of the other case.

"So, these are them then. This will give Cinder her little army of freaks and weirdos?" The man in white chuckled, as he combed a hand through his black hair.

"Trust me, **mio amico** ," The man seemed to practically choke on the term, "-when I'm done showing this pack of would be faunus extremists what exactly it is these are capable of, you'll have more volunteers than you'll know what to do with." Torchwick just nodded, a satisfied expression on his face as he took in the contents of the case.

A pair of arrows, cast in a material that shimmered like gold and each with their own unique, ornate design.

 **-To Be Continued- Welcome to Vale (Act 3)**


	4. Welcome to Vale (Act 3)

The City of Vale, Two Hours After Departure

"HOLY DUST, LOOK AT THAT THING OVER THERE!"

"THEY JUST SELL THIS STUFF ON THE STREETS?!"

"THIS IS GREAT, I CAN JUST BUY A TON OF THESE AND MAIL THEM BACK TO MOM, SHE'LL LOVE IT!"

The people of Vale were treated to quite the sight. Though they were used to tourists who silently gawked at their buildings, they expected a certain level of restraint. After all, even people from Vacuo had known what to expect of cities from the other Kingdoms, and Mistrali or Atlesian tourists were either downright unimpressed or ambivalent about the City of Vale in comparison to Atlas or Mistral.

So as they watched three teenagers, dressed up in matching uniforms, as they ran down the various streets and alleyways of Vale, their eyes wide, their jaws unhinged or running their mouths at a million miles per hour, the people of Vale were a little bit unnerved.

At that particular moment, Okuyasu just looked on in pure awe as a series of freight trucks, easily three times as long as a horse and wagon from Morioh, barreled down the street. Koichi exchanged some Lien in exchange for a street vendor's wares which included a watch, and one that actually worked to boot! Josuke stepped out from a corner store, a bag full of some small treats and drinks for himself and his friends and several of the snack cakes that his mother loved. One or two would be for him, the rest he'd send back to Morioh.

The three teens grouped back together, excited grins plastered on their faces as they all laughed.

"You guys have got to see this!"

Josuke turned his head to look at the freighter trucks, Okuyasu carefully took Koichi's new watch in hand and nodded in appreciation, while Koichi dug through the bag of snacks and drinks.

"Very nice!"

The boys laughed in tandem as the crowd of natives around them just blinked and slowly but surely walked away.

"Oh, is this that drink that Mr. Joestar talks about in his stories?" Koichi blinked as he pulled out a few glass bottles of Pumpkin Pete Cola.

"Yeah, yeah. I've only ever heard hearsay myself, but it sounds like it's pretty good. Figured we could sit down and try some before we move onto the next attraction." The pompadoured teen shrugged as Okuyasu and Koichi nodded in excited agreement. The shortest of the three young men passed around a few sandwiches and the cola in question as they found a nearby bench to sit around. Koichi took a seat, while Okuyasu and Josuke just stood nearby as they all took to their make-shift meal.

"Hey, this stuff's pretty good!" Okuyasu said with a bit of a laugh as he took another drink from the bottle.

"Yeah, I can see why they bother mentioning it at all in the stories." Koichi said with a bit of a smile as he took another drink. "Josuke, what do you think?" Off to the side, Josuke stared at the bottle of cola in his hands, a conflicted expression on his face as he warily shifted his gaze towards his friends.

"... It's okay…" Josuke muttered as he took another drink. "... Nothing special…" Another drink. "Don't see why Mr. Joestar would be crazy about the stuff…" Okuyasu grinned as he watched Josuke's hand as it reflexively lifted the bottle to his lips again.

"Oh, is that so? Well if that's the case then why don't you hand it over here then Josuke? I could go for another bottle." The pompadoured teen flinched slightly as he shook his head.

"N-No Okuyasu, it's fine. Besides, I've already drank out of it."

"Oh I don't care Josuke, just hand it over if you don't like it that much." Okuyasu's smile threatened to split his face, as even Koichi couldn't help the small curl that came to his lips as he watched the exchange.

"No, really, I think I might be coming down with something Okuyasu, I don't want to make you sick." Josuke seemed even more hurried as he took another drink.

"You can fix me with Crazy Diamond if I do get sick. Now hand it over, or I'll have The Hand do it for you!" Okuyasu's smile had become downright manic as he stalked towards Josuke. The leader of the small team just quickly swung his head back and downed the rest of the cola in one swig, which caused Okuyasu to bark out a long, raspy laugh as he slapped his knee. "Hah, I knew it, you love it too!" Josuke grumbled slightly as he lightly tossed the empty bottle towards Okuyasu's head. The crowds, having long since dispersed to get away from the rather loud tourists, weren't around to notice the ghostly hand that suddenly appeared from Okuyasu's right shoulder as it swiped at the bottle.

 **THUUUUUUUM!**

Which caused it to disappear entirely. Okuyasu just stood there and grinned at his team leader, who just rolled his eyes as he took a bite from his sandwich.

"So, what next them? It took us a couple hours to get to the…" Josuke pulled out the map from his uniform's side pocket, "... commercial district from the docks." Josuke stuffed the map back into his pocket. "Anything specific you guys want to try?" Okuyasu and Koichi seemed to think for a moment as they all tried to decide. After some time, Okuyasu slammed a fist into his hand.

"You know what I want to do? I want to find a tall-ass building, go to the very top of it, and look over the entire city!" The scarred teen grinned as he looked towards his two teammates, both of whom scratched their chins as they thought about this.

"... You know what, sure, why not? I'd be interested in seeing that." Josuke said with a smile as he crushed the paper his sandwich had been wrapped in and tossed it into a nearby trash can. "How about you, Koichi?"

"That sounds good to me too. Who knows, maybe we'll see some other stuff to go see while we're up there." Koichi said with a small smile as he hopped off the bench, the three teens just grinned as Josuke pulled the map back out again.

"Alright, let's find Okuyasu's 'tall-ass building' shall we?"

* * *

The group had little trouble finding the building that would suit their purposes: the Hunter's Spire, advertised on the map they were given and by a helpful sign or two around the city as "the tallest building in Remnant", a title that was competed over by other skyscrapers in Atlas and Mistral, was perfect for what Frontiersmen were looking for. Getting to the top of the building, at first, seemed like it'd be a chore. While nowhere near as physically strong as Four Kingdom hunters with their physically focused Auras, the Frontier hunters were expected to be fit enough to survive and travel through the wilderness surrounding Morioh for several days. Still, the prospective climb up the several dozens floors of the skyscraper hadn't been an exciting prospect, even for these three, physically fit huntsmen.

Thankfully, they were introduced to another fancy contraption of the Four Kingdoms by some fellow tourists; the elevator.

As the elevator doors pinged open and allowed the three to step out onto the observation deck of the building, they couldn't help but grin.

"Jeez, we're so high up so quick! These Four Kingdom folk thought of everything!" Okuyasu said with a laugh as the three walked around. The observation deck had a chain link fence surrounding the platform, rising up from a stone, waist-height wall. However, despite this, the view was quite clear. While the view from the airship had given them quite the view of the City of Vale, the Hunter's Spire had allowed the three teens time and various vantage points as they looked down upon the city.

"To think, these people get to see stuff like this whenever they want." Koichi said, awestruck, as the three walked a lap around the observation deck. As they arrived at the back end of the deck, they came across a small device, binoculars set into a metal stand with a lien-reader on its side, with a sign next to it. '10 lien for a view of Beacon Academy' was the offer advertised.

"Oh hey, this'll give us a view of the place we'll be staying at." Josuke noted, as Okuyasu and Koichi grinned excitedly.

"Man, I wonder what it'll be like. I hope it's a castle!" Okuyasu barked out a raspy laugh as he took out his lien and walked up to the stand. Koichi just rolled his eyes as he and Josuke walked up behind the scarred teen and awaited their turn.

"Come on Okuyasu. It's a school, right? I mean, even with how fancy and amazing everything in this city's been so far compared to Morioh, that's going a little far, don'tcha think?" Koichi asked with a bit of a laugh as Josuke just nodded.

"Yeah, seriously. It's just a Hunter's' school, so that wouldn't require it to be anything too big or too ornate. I mean, it'd be nice, but…" Josuke and Koichi stopped talking as they noticed Okuyasu as he shook in place, the scarred teen mumbled out incoherent words as he stumbled away from the binoculars.

"What is it Okuyasu?" Koichi ran up to the binoculars as Josuke checked on Okuyasu, who just had this awestruck and amazed expression on his face. Soon enough, Josuke felt his sleeve being tugged on, the pompadoured teen turned to look at Koichi who now shared Okuyasu's expression. He pointed towards the binoculars and Josuke, now curious, decided to take a peek for himself.

"... Oh my God, it's a castle."

Far off in the distance, brought so close to his eyes by the tower viewer, was Beacon Academy. Sat on the edge of a cliff with a series of small waterfalls fed by a river that ran right by the Academy, settled next to lush, green forests and cradled by a series of tall mountains was, for all intents and purposes to a Morioh-born huntsman, a castle. Tall towers and grand arches, it looked like something straight from a storybook that his mother would read him from the old days.

Slowly but surely, Josuke tore his gaze away, and turned back to his two teammates; the three of them all looked dumbstruck.

"... So, out of every team in Morioh, we did good enough that we got picked to go live in a castle for half a year." Okuyasu muttered quietly, as Josuke and Koichi just slowly nodded their heads. Tourists gave the three a slightly wide berth, concerned by the boy's seemingly deadpan expressions but, nonetheless, they hadn't wanted to be bothered themselves. All at once, the silence was broken by all three boys.

"YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The three young men cheered as they grabbed each other by the shoulders, while they excitedly shook each other as tourists immediately jumped away in surprise. In near unison, they each started beating on each other's chests, tears streamed down their faces as they continued to laugh and smile.

"GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB!"

A little boy pointed out the strange group of teens to his mother, who quickly ushered him away from the strange foreigners. The other tourists followed her example, as the team of Frontiersmen kept this up for a solid minute.

* * *

As the three of them left the Hunter's Spire, a wide grin still perched on each of their faces, the three Frontiersmen couldn't be in better spirits. They took in the sights of the city immediately around them, and soon enough laughter ripped through their group again.

"This is so amazing!" Koichi finally exclaimed, as he wrapped an arm around the waists of his considerably taller teammates. "You keep seeing old pictures or being told old stories about the Four Kingdoms, but it's just… it's just so overwhelming! Everything here is so amazing! It's like a dream!" The phrase seemed to tick something off in the three of their minds, as their wide grins soon become very happy, very earnest smiles.

"Yeah, a dream." Josuke put his hands in his pockets as he looked around the city. "I guess I really get why we've been fighting so hard all this time. If what Joestar, Zeppeli and Speedwagon left behind was half as amazing as this, I'd want to be able to reconnect with this too." Josuke turned to his teammates, his eyes shimmered as he watched them. "To think… this could be Morioh one day."

That sentence, that one sentence, seemed to trigger something in all three boys. Their eyes seemed to stare beyond Vale, as they looked on at the city.

"That there." Koichi pointed out some elaborate monument to some historic figure the three didn't know or care about at the moment. "Imagine it; one day, we have enough stone and metal to spare to have a big old statue to the founders. Joestar, Zeppeli and Speedwagon, right in front of the main headquarters."

"A dockyard right at the mouth of the river, where hundreds, no, thousands of ships will come in every single day. Buildings as tall as the friggin' mountains standing out against the Frontier." Okuyasu placed a hand over his eyes as he just imagined the sight of it.

"People don't have to work as huntsmen anymore. They can choose to be something else if they want to." Josuke rubbed his chin as he looked at all the people passing by, on their way to or from work. The three young men sighed wistfully as their imaginations ran wild, as they imagined a Morioh that very well could be.

"And all we have to do is kick some ass at this tournament. If we do that, we'll drag all the hard work that everyone's done for the past one hundred years over the finish line." Okuyasu said with a wild grin, as Koichi and Josuke just smiled. It was overly-simplified, the two more intelligent members of the team knew, but it wasn't too far off from the truth. It was nice to just sit around and imagine it.

"It'll be great."

With that, the trio of huntsmen were quick to move on. After another half hour of walking and just taking in the sights of the big city, Josuke noticed something out of the corner of his eye; trees. The pompadoured teen had to blink for a moment to make sure he wasn't just seeing things but, indeed, Josuke had spotted an entire square in the middle of the city with trees and what sounded like running water.

"Oh hey, a park." Josuke finally recognized what it was exactly he was supposed to be seeing. In Morioh, the town was packed in tight to make the most out of the available space. Aside from the huntsmen, the walls of Morioh were often the only thing that protected the city from a Grimm incursion. Considering how strong the Grimm presence in The Frontier was, it was a rare occurrence when the top brass decided that an expansion of Morioh was needed and, therefore, an expansion of the walls were needed. For in these cases, sections of the walls would have been brought down and rebuilt in order to make more room.

In this time, if Grimm slipped through they'd be right in the heart of Morioh, a dangerous prospect even with constant watch from the huntsmen of Morioh. For this reason, as they attempted to postpone this happenstance for as long as possible, superfluous additions like parks weren't a part of Morioh. After all, if you wanted a wilderness experience, just wait till you got assigned a scouting mission. Then you'd have all the nature, and Grimm, you could handle.

"Yeah. I guess with how big the city is, most people really can't see the forests around Vale too often. Must be nice to have a place like this in the safety of your own home town." Koichi said with some interest as he looked on at the park, while Okuyasu just yawned a bit.

"We got plenty of trees and nature crap back at The Frontier. Let's go look at some more cool city stuff." Okuyasu said as he placed his hands behind his head. Josuke just stared at the park, before he shrugged.

"You know, after that trip on the airship and all this walking around, I could use a small touch of something familiar." He smiled at his two friends, as they just looked at each other. It was the truth, after all; leaving home had been hard, despite how much he wanted to come to Vale. After having spent several days cooped up in a flying, metal cage and now surrounded by all these unfamiliar sights… well, it was exciting, but it also made Josuke feel a little wistful for home. A small stop here would hopefully provide just the right kick in the pants for him to shake off this homesickness.

"Well, if you really want to Josuke…" The pompadoured teen couldn't help but smile at his team. It was clear enough that they weren't thrilled with the idea themselves, but were willing to set aside some of their own time.

"If you guys don't want to come, that's fine. Look, here-" Josuke pulled the map out of his pocket and waved his teammates over, "-this is where we're supposed to go to get to Beacon Academy, right? Well, last stop is at around 9:00 in the evening. I'll go and buy another map with some of my lien if I need to, but I'm pretty sure I can meet you guys here just off memory alone." Josuke folded up the map and handed it to Koichi, a serious expression on his face.

"Now Koichi, you keep this map on you. Don't give it to Okuyasu; he'll probably lose it."

"No probably about it, I'd definitely lose it." Okuyasu admitted with a casual shrug, as Koichi just nervously nodded.

"A-Alright, Josuke. You sure about this though? I mean, will you be alright without us around?" A slight wind blew through the three teens as they all absorbed that question in silence. Before long all three burst into a fit of laughter as they wiped the tears from their eyes. "Okay, stupid question. If we run into each other before then, maybe we could join back up though?" Koichi asked, a hopeful expression on his face. As much as the young teen just wanted to see more of the city rather than sit around, Josuke was still his friend.

The pompadoured teen just grinned as he rubbed the shortest of the team's hair. "Of course Koichi. Now, you two run off so I can enjoy some peace and quiet for a bit." The two nodded and, with a wave, ran off to explore more of the city's various sights. Josuke, for is part, just took a deep breath as he wandered into the park.

It was an interesting sensation, to be sure. While the telltale sounds of birds and small animals scattered around him and the smells of flowers, grass and trees sat heavily in the air, Josuke could also still make out the ambient sounds of the city and some of the city air made it's way through the park. As Josuke wandered through, he failed to notice some of the park's other guests as they made themselves scarce, a worried expression on some of their faces as they looked down the road.

For Josuke, it just meant that the park was even quieter and the ambient noises all the more dominant to him.

"Man. I could get used to this." Josuke said with a smile. The familiar sounds and scents washed away the pit in his stomach that yearned for home, while the new lit a fire that burned for the future. His discussion with Koichi and Okuyasu hadn't left the young leader's mind; this was what Morioh could be. The thought made him shiver in excitement, as he decided to stop and sat down by a nearby man-made lake with a fountain at its center.

"The City of Vale huh? Pretty great." Josuke stretched out his back and raised his hands over his head, as he took a squat by the lake. While Josuke sat there and allowed the ambiance of the park to lull him into a sense of serene calm, a slight noise to his right caught his attention. Josuke lazily cracked open an eye to take a look, before his eyes went wide and his skin went slightly pale. The teen bit his bottom lip as he frightfully stared at the… the thing that had emerged from the lake.

All the while, Josuke failed to notice the four goons that the rest of the park's visitors had decided to avoid as they walked up toward him, or the girl in red that glumly strode down the street.

* * *

Ruby Rose felt like garbage.

More specifically, Ruby Rose smelled like garbage and had garbage in places she would absolutely NOT ever talk about with anyone about ever, and so she felt like garbage.

The young huntress groaned in embarrassment as she discreetly picked out another piece of trash and threw it into a nearby garbage can. While she had appreciated that Penny's quick thinking had kept Ruby from being caught by those Atlesian soldiers, Ruby sorely wished that Penny had picked somewhere else, anywhere else, but a dumpster to hide her in.

Still, Ruby hadn't been able to summon the energy get mad at her robot friend when she had just tried to help. After all, she was her robot friend! How absolutely cool was that?!

As Ruby thought about the drawbacks and benefits of a stealth mission back to Beacon Academy to try and get a shower before any of her friends needed her help, she heard something.

"Hey, human, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Yeah, who do you think you are, you bastard?"

Silver eyes quickly shot over to the center of the park as Ruby ducked behind a nearby tree. As the huntress in training peered around the trunk of the tree, she saw four faunus gathered around some guy she couldn't quite make out between their forms at the edge of the man-made pond.

"What am I doing?" Well, you see…" Ruby frowned as she still couldn't make out what was happening in between the faunus, so she crept between the trees to get a closer look. After she found a good vantage point, she saw a young man in a strange uniform; gold, or gold colored, buttons run up the length of the jacket of it all the way to a closed collar that wrapped around his neck. Dark purple in color, the jacket extended down mid-thigh and covered most of a matching pair of slacks which were stuffed into a pair of black boots at the end.

What drew Ruby's attention most was the thing on his head which, after she took it in for a moment, she realized was his hair.

'What a weird hairstyle.' The young huntress thought to herself, as the young man's blue eyes turned to the side, where a turtle sat on the edge of the pond.

"You see, I've been touring around this city for a few hours already, so I thought stop by here and relax while the rest of my friends went off to enjoy themselves. That's when this little guy here decided to pop out of the water and join me." The young man swallowed nervously as he gave a shaky smile. "Now, I don't handle turtles too well… I'm actually kinda scared of them and I can't really stand to touch them. It's actually pretty embarrassing. So, you know, I figured that while I'm trying new things here in the city, that I'd might as well try to get over my fear too."

"That's not what I asked you, human." The seeming leader of this group of faunus said with a sneer as he inclined his head back to look down at the young man. "Stand your stupid ass up." With a frown, the young man complied, as he unbent his legs and stood up to his full height…

'Okay yeah, this guy's tall.' Ruby blinked slightly as she saw this guy stand up to his full height, easily dwarfing the faunus gathered around him, minus some of their ears. While he wasn't the tallest guy she'd ever seen, in fact she was fairly certain Jaune was just as tall as him, he stood straighter, with a sort of easy confidence in his body language that made him look taller.

"O-Okay, so you're pretty tall human." The faunus seemed momentarily shaken from their bravado, before they shook their heads and glared at him. "Still, that doesn't mean you can just hang around our turf without our permission. This is White Fang territory, and humans like you need to learn to respect that!" The gang of faunus just nodded and shouted in agreement as Ruby's eyes went wide, her hand reflexively reached for Crescent Rose.

"White Fang?" The guy with the weird hair blinked a couple times as he tilted his head to the side, a gesture that seemed to infuriate the faunus. The leader of the small group snatched the turtle from the ground and shove it into the guy's face which, much to Ruby's minor amusement, caused him to freak out a bit.

"Yeah, White Fang, you best be learning to respect your betters, human!"

"W-wait! I was being serious about being afraid of reptiles! I'll do whatever you want, just put the turtle away…" A weird half-smile was on the young man's face as he backed away slightly from the reptile, a moment that would've made Ruby smile at the ridiculousness of a 6'1" giant, to her, being afraid of such a little turtle.

Were it not for the punch the White Fang member threw into his face. Ruby gasped slightly as she saw blood fly from Josuke's mouth and a dark bruise already slowly begin to form on his cheek as he stumbled a bit. Ruby took a step away from the tree, a look of grim determination on her face as she got ready to put an end to this, before the stranger surprised her again.

He bowed. He took a deep, respectful bow as he lowered his head. "I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't aware that there was some kind of authority that I was flaunting by being here. Forgive me." Ruby blinked as she ducked back behind the tree again. Despite the gesture, Ruby didn't feel submission coming off this guy's body language. He had been tense, ready to react, but he showed deference to the Fang. It had probably been an attempt to placate them Considering that she had just seen him bleed, it was clear he didn't have Aura to defend himself. Yet… it hadn't appeared as though he was afraid either.

The White Fang sneered at him as their leader looked down at him. "You know, the last human who said that they were 'sorry' and that they didn't know any better is still in the hospital. You want to end up like him and this turtle, human!?"

The sound of the turtle's shell as it shattered reached all ears as the head of this group of White Fang tossed the turtle aside and onto the ground. All the while, the guy kept his gaze lowered to the ground. For Ruby, that was it, that was the last straw. She couldn't just watch this go on anymore. She triggered Crescent Rose and prepared to jump in for the incoming beatdown that these jerks had coming-

"So, human, who are you and what hole did you crawl out of?"

"Right, sir. My name is Higashikata Josuke, and I'm a huntsmen from the Frontier City of Morioh."

'… What?'

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks as those words reached her. She folded Crescent Rose back up as she stepped back behind the tree.

'Did I hear that right? He's from the Frontier? He's one of those guys that Oobleck told us about?' Ruby's silver eyes bore into the teen as he stood back up from his bow, a deep frown on his face as he looked back at the White Fang members. It made a certain amount of sense; that name was way out there, and Ruby didn't recognize that uniform out of any of the others she'd seen among the transfer students who had come to Vale.

Still, if this guy was a huntsman, where was his Aura? Did he just suppress it when he took that punch, or did Frontier huntsmen just not unlock it?

"Okay, what? That all sounds like some made up bullshit to me, human. That your porn name or something there, 'Higashikata'?" The head White Fang membered sneered at Josuke's name. Ruby understood why of course; the name in no way followed the Color Tradition, so it might as well have been a fake name.

"Uh, actually, my name is Josuke. You see, Higashikata-"

"Do we look like we care, human?!" One of the grunts shouted at Josuke, the young man tensed up as he looked at the group.

"Besides, 'Josuke' sounds like too much of a big boy's name for a wimp like you." One of the grunts said with a laugh as he scratched his chin. "How about we call you… JoJo instead? You like that, JoJo?"

The flash of annoyance that crossed Josuke's face was hard for anyone to miss, but still, the young man seemed to hold himself back and just laughed slightly.

"Yeah, sure, very funny sir." The group of White Fang narrowed their eyes at him, before the leader finally just shrugged.

"Whatever. Just take off that uniform of yours and hand over all your shit, and we'll forgive you for trespassing around here, human." Ruby bit her lip as she watched this. She felt conflicted; on the one hand, this was something she should step in to stop. Even if this guy didn't seem like he felt threatened, she couldn't just stand there and let this happen. On the other hand… she was probably the first person among all of Beacon who got to see one of these Frontier huntsmen up close. By the way he looked at the White Fang, and the looks they had given him, a fight was probably going to break out. It wouldn't be so bad if she waited and saw what kind of super cool Frontier stuff this guy could do, right?

'Oh wow. Now I feel like garbage because that was completely horrible to think.'

"Hey, you jerks, get away from him!"

The White Fang and Josuke turned their heads to the sound of the voice, and were presented with Ruby Rose, as she brought out Crescent Rose. While Josuke had, at first, not looked terribly impressed with the 5'2" huntress, his eyes widened at the sight of her weapon as it unfolded. The four White Fang members seemed to realize just what they were dealing with at that moment and, not having wanted to fight a huntress, scattered.

'They probably figure I can't round them all up at the same time if they all scatter like this.' Ruby grinned a bit to herself as, in a flash of rose petals, she was gone.

* * *

It was pretty much over the moment this black-haired huntress had disappeared from his sight. In a matter of seconds, each of the four… White Fang goons who'd been haranguing him were taken out by this pint-sized young woman. Now, Josuke hadn't wanted to break Jotaro's orders the second he was separated from his friends and had been doing everything in his power to keep a fight from breaking out.

Turns out he shouldn't have worried about that at all: by the time the girl in the red cloak was in his vision again, the four goons were on the ground, each groaned in pain as the young huntress oversaw her handiwork, with literally no sign of a fight having broken out aside from the injuries on the goons.

"Wow." The girl seemed to jolt from her revelry as her attention was brought back to him. "Gotta admit, I heard that Four Kingdom hunters were fast and strong, but I think I got undersold on that. That was great." The girl, dressed in an outfit whose color scheme stuck between black and red with a grey, long-sleeved shirt underneath, smiled slightly as he folded up that crazy weapon of hers.

"Uh, thanks, but it was nothing really. Just my semblance." The girl's confidence he'd seen when she'd first appeared and immediately after she kicked the White Fang around seemed to erode slowly, as the girl shuffled in place as Josuke approached. "So, uh, my name's Ruby Rose. Huntress. From Beacon. Nice to meet you, uh, Higashikata Josuke? Did I say that right or?" Ruby began to babble as her natural social tendencies began to creep up on her, but stopped when Josuke let out a good-natured chuckle.

"Yeah, you got it right. Pleased to meet you; I think you pretty much count as the first Four Kingdoms hunter I've ever met." Josuke grinned slightly as he said this, as he realized that he'd just made another major milestone in coming to Vale, as he reached out a hand to shake hers. Ruby seemed uncertain at first but, seeing how easygoing Josuke was, decided to follow his lead.

"Thank you. Hope I made a good impression for the… Four Kingdoms?" Ruby smiled somewhat quizzically at the name. It made sense on a certain level, of course a group of people who lived outside Vale, Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo would lump them all together, but this was a new experience for her. "You're the first Frontier hunter I or, man, anyone at Beacon's ever met, so hey, nice to meet you."

Josuke laughed a bit as he nodded. "Are you kidding? That was great. I couldn't even follow you around while you were taking these guys out. You said that was your… semblance?" Josuke seemed to trip up on the word, but Ruby shrugged it off.

"Yep, Speed, that's my semblance. Three guesses as to what it does and the first two don't count."

"Hah. Pretty simple but obviously effective." Josuke said with a nod. Indeed, compared to a lot of Stand abilities he'd learned about, it was pretty simple. However, the pompadoured teen couldn't argue with the results. Ruby had moved so fast that Josuke was fairly certain that she could out speed even Crazy Diamond, which anyone in Morioh would tell you was no mean feat.

Ruby couldn't help herself as she swelled with pride. "Hehehehe, thanks, I've been working with it for a while. But, you know, that's just the benefit of having Aura!" Ruby's eyes went a bit wide as she recalled the events prior to when she had stepped in. "Oh! Jeez, are you okay?! You've got a nasty bruise there and are you still bleeding?! Why didn't you use your Aura to block the blow, why aren't you using it to heal up, where's your weapon!? OH DUST! What are we gonna do about the turtle?!"

Josuke backpedaled a bit as, once again, the girl's words turned into a rush of garbled, rambling mush. It reminded him a bit of Koichi, back when he had first been assigned to team up with himself and Okuyasu. Josuke raised in hands in a placating gesture as he tried to calm her down.

"Woah, woah, woah, easy there." Josuke's expression slowly turned to a very nervous grin as he walked over to the turtle, "Uh, yeah, I'm okay. I've taken worse hits before. I don't really use Aura like that and Frontier hunters don't really have weapons. As for the turtle…" Ruby watched as Josuke braced himself, his hands shaking as he quickly knelt down and, after a moment's hesitation, snatched up the turtle. "He'llbeperfectlyfineseeI'mjustgoingtoputhimbacknow!" Josuke practically sprinted between where the turtle had landed and the pond, as he quickly placed it back into the water. He shook his hands as he shuddered in a fearful disgust.

"What are you doing, that turtle was seriously hurt! You can't just put it back in the water when it's… it's…" Ruby had dashed to the edge of the pond to retrieve the turtle, thinking in a half-mad manner that she'd find a vet somewhere in the city that would have taken care of it. She stopped, eyes wide, as she saw the little reptile just chilling in the water, as it looked for all the world like it hadn't been bodily tossed against the ground and had its shell shattered on impact.

"Perfectly fine." Silver eyes blinked several times as she turned to look back at Josuke, the young man still looked like he'd stared death in the face as he jittered about. "How did you do that? Was that your semblance?"

"Huh?" Josuke seemed confused for a second. "Oh! Right. Well, not really? I mean, sort of, but…" Josuke seemed to scratch his head a bit as he slowly calmed down. "Well, it comes from a similar place, but it's different than what you all would call a semblance." The pompadoured teen thought for a moment as he considered whether or not to continue. The tournament coming up meant that it was possible that he'd be competing against members of Ruby's school, and other schools, so letting word about Stands get out so early wouldn't exactly have been to his or his team's benefit.

'Then again, we're also supposed to be making good with these people. We want to be with them and to rejoin their community. Keeping secrets like this isn't exactly going to help with that and besides, there's no point in keeping secrets from allies.' Josuke smiled as he thought this, a firm nod of his head as he looked at her.

"It's my Stand's ability. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Stands but…"

"Oh!" Ruby's eyes went wide as she ran up to Josuke and looked around him. "I read about those in that book Weiss hates! Yang and I stayed up all night reading it a couple nights ago! They were so cool, especially that Caesar guy's Stand, Soft & Wet!" The silver eyed girl's eyes narrowed a bit, even as an excited grin stuck to her face. "Can you prove you have a Stand though? Weiss says they're nothing but crazy nonsense that the author cooked up." The girl seemed to vibrate in place from her excitement despite her attempt to put up a skeptical front, which amused Josuke to no end. As excited as he was to see the city, it was nice to see someone so excited to see something from the Frontier.

"Well, let's see here." Josuke smiled as he pulled up the sleeves of his uniform. "Nothing up my sleeves, aaaaand…" Ruby nearly squealed in excitement as, out of nowhere, a nearly see-through limb appeared out from Josuke's shoulder. The flesh of the limb was a hot pink color, with silver, or maybe even platinum, colored armor plated across it. Black spikes jutted out from the shoulder where it connected with Josuke's. "Ruby Rose? Meet Crazy Diamond."

Ruby's grin practically split her face as the black and red-haired girl reached her hand out slowly. When the phantom limb reached out and grabbed her hand to give it a friendly shake, she couldn't contain herself.

"OH DUST, THIS IS AMAZING! I can't believe it! That story was true! Action, adventure, missing moms, crazy ghost powers, super hot evil guys who can make and control Grimm bent on destroying humanity! Oh my God, Weiss is going to flip, she and Blake are never going to believe this! They're just going to be all like 'WHAAAAAAT?!'" Ruby hopped up and down in place as she rambled on, Josuke just laughed and laughed as she took in this girl's reaction. "So Joseph Joestar is he a real guy too?"

Josuke's mirth seemed to dim slightly at the mention of the name, though Ruby failed to notice it in her own excitement. Nonetheless, the pompadoured teen just grinned and nodded, buoyed by the girl's excitement.

"Yeah, he's actually the leader of our community in the Frontier right now."

"Oh that's so cool!" The sincerity with which she said this made Josuke smile a bit as she had finally let go of Crazy Diamond's hand, the Stand disappeared as Josuke unrolled his sleeves. "So, we were told the Frontier was sending a team to participate in the tournament. Where are the rest of your friends?" Ruby Rose excitedly peered around him, as Josuke just shrugged.

"Eh, I needed a bit of break from our tour. Don't get me wrong, Vale's an amazing city and I've been loving every second I've been here so far, but it's a bit overwhelming. I mean, Vale is so far beyond anything I could've imagined growing up in the Frontier that I'm kind of at a loss." Josuke admitted with a sheepish grin, as Ruby nodded in understanding. "So I let my friends go off and keep up their own pace while I stuck around here to just take a breather and catch my bearings."

"I feel ya." Ruby smiled as she pulled out her scroll to check it. So far, she hadn't gotten a message from anyone; not Yang and Neptune, not Blake and Sun and not Weiss. She probably should've looked to regroup with one of them right now, or tried to think of something else productive to do now that she had lost the Atlesian soldiers…

"Hey, Josuke." Ruby placed her scroll back into her pocket. "Since you're new, how about I give you a tour of Vale myself, straight from someone who's lived it." Ruby left out that she'd only lived in Vale, or more specifically, Beacon for one semester.

"Hmmm, you know what, sure, why not?" Josuke grinned as he scratched the back of his head. "I was probably just going to stumble around while I waited to meet up with my team at the airship platform later. Might as well get a tour from my new… friend?" Josuke seemed to test the waters, as he had been unsure of setting the bar so familiar. The smile that beamed from Ruby's face told him he'd made the right call.

"Yeah, friend!" Ruby was ecstatic. When she'd first arrived at Beacon, she had thought it was going to be so hard to make new friends or meet new people. Now though, now she had seven new amazing friends with Blake and Weiss, JNPR and Penny and she'd just made friends with some super cool punch ghost guy from the Frontier. Not bad for the socially awkward weapon nerd, if she did say so herself. "Let's go! I'll show you… huh, you might not actually care that much about Dust or weapons since you don't really use them, huh?" Ruby scratched her chin as a smile crept up on her face.

"I'll show you a great sweet's shop I know then! After that, I'll show you some other neat stuff!" Her team would call her when they were ready to group back up and present what they found. Really, how much trouble could everyone else get in while she showed the exchange student around Vale? "Just give me a moment to call the police to pick these guys up, and then we'll get going!"

"Hey… do you smell something? It smells kinda terrible."

"Uhhh… must be that city air! Trust me, give it like, a day and a night and you'll stop noticing it! Yeah…"

When they all got back to Beacon, Ruby was taking the first, second, third and last shower of the night, and there was nothing anyone else could do that would have stopped her.

* * *

Warehouse District, The City of Vale, Nightfall

The recruitment drive had started off about how Blake had expected it too. White Fang enforcers lined the walls of the warehouse as they kept an eye out for any trouble and slowly funneled the potential new recruits into the building proper. A stage had been set up, the Fang's symbol emblazoned on a black cloth stretched across the back of, which the new recruits were meant to stand in front of. Blake and Sun had, so far, successfully infiltrated the recruitment drive without being noticed, thanks to the masks she had procured.

All was going well until the White Fang member speaking to all of them had announced the special guest of the recruitment drive.

Roman Torchwick.

The very sight of him ensured that a chill ran up Blake's spine as she recalled the battle at the docks. She was astounded to see him again with the White Fang, though no longer surprised. As the orange-haired criminal sauntered onto the stage and a small young woman stepped off to the side of him a question was screamed from the crowd, no doubt the very one on everyone's mind.

"What's a human doing here?!" Roman turned his attention to one deer faunus in particular as she screamed at him.

"I'm glad you asked, deery." Blake couldn't help but sneer at how satisfied Roman had seemed with that little jab. "Now, I'll be the first one to admit: humans are the worst… case in point. So I understand why you all would want to see us locked away or, better yet, killed."

"So… is he going someplace with this, or is he just gonna goad the crowd into rushing the stage?" Sun whispered over to Blake, who just shrugged her shoulders as she stared hard at Torchwick.

"But, before the claws come out I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy; the ones in control. The people pulling the strings. The dirty, rotten humans who control our kingdoms. Government, military, even the schools; they're all to blame for your lot in life!" Roman Torchwick's movements and motions across the stage had built up a sort of momentum and energy, seemingly in sync with the crowd's own fervor as his words had begun to rile them up.

"Sadly, because these rotten pests are in charge, that means they control the means of maintaining that control: Aura, semblances, weapons, Dust. So long as the soldiers, the councilmen, the businessmen and the hunters all control these without any check, our battle against them is always played on their turf. For the past several months, I've been doing my part to level the playing field as it concerns good old Dust. Now, it's time for you all to level it in terms of those pesky hunters and soldiers and their Aura.

"I have a… friend here with me this evening, who looks to help you all do just that. Please, give a warm round of applause for one of Mistral's very own mafioso, a man of influence and power within that growing organization known as Passione; Bruno Bucciarati."

Blake's ears stuck up on end as she blinked, her amber eyes keeping close track of yet another human as he walked casually onto the stage. Dressed in white with gold and black trimmings along his outfit and black hair, the man certainly looked the part of a Mistrali mafioso. Though, what one was doing here in Vale, Blake didn't have the foggiest idea.

"P-Passione?!" Sun whispered in a shocked tone as he looked down to Blake. "What the heck is a Passione enforcer doing here?! What's their interest in all this?!" Blake looked over to Sun, her eyes wide in shock as the normally confident monkey faunus seemed to be sweating bullets.

"You know this guy?"

"This guy in particular? Not really, you don't really get a lot of specific names for members of Passione if you're at the Academy or otherwise involved with the Mistrali government. However, I've heard of Passione; those guys basically run the city now a days. They're the only game in town as it concerns the mafioso anymore. The governing council is so deep in their pocket that they're digging out lint." The blond young man grimaced as he watched Bruno step to Roman's side, his gaze focused as he scrutinized the crowd.

"Now, Bruno, my friend, my partner in crime." Bruno seemed to sneer slightly as Roman spoke, but otherwise kept his expression schooled as he turned to look at the cane-wielding criminal. "Tell the crowd; have you trained a single day in your life in Aura, or been trained by any military or hunter's academies?"

"No, I haven't." Bruno answered in a short, curt tone. Roman frowned as he stared the Mistrali down, before he continued.

"Yet, would you feel confident in saying that you could easily take on anyone in this room who possessed years, even decades, of training in Aura?" Roman pointed his cane in an arc across the room, as Bruno just nodded. "My my, quite the claim. What is it that gives you such confidence in your abilities, my friend?"

"... Stand Power."

A whisper broke across the crowd, as Blake's expression immediately hardened into a frown.

"Stand Power huh? Sounds like some made up junk if you ask me. Let's test it out, shall we? Can we have a volunteer from the audience? A good old, home-grown faunus who's had some training in Aura? Come on, don't be shy!" Roman goaded the crowd, as the various gathered faunus all looked at each other.

"So that's their game? Get a bunch of desperate faunus to sign up with them by waving that fantasy in their faces?" Blake was disgusted as she stared hard at the two men on stage through her mask.

"I'll take him on. He doesn't seem so tough to me! Nothing a little Aura can't beat down to size!" A burly, brawny faunus with the horns of a stag slowly clambered up on stage, a grin spread out across his face as he squared off against Bruno. The crowd applauded one of their own as they eagerly awaited the beat down of a human. The mafioso gave one last look to Roman before he sighed, took a few steps away from the Valean criminal, and squared off against the volunteer.

"Now Bucciarati, don't go massacring this guy. We want him to still be in a shape to join up with the White Fang after this." Roman said aloud, much to the jeering of the crowd, as Bruno just rolled his eyes. The jeering and laughing at the mafioso ceased and even the goliath of a faunus on stage seemed to pause when Bruno Bucciarati began to glow lightly.

"Hey, what gives, thought you said you didn't have Aura training, human!" The burly faunus pointed an accusatory finger at the mafioso, who just scoffed slightly.

"I don't." He said simply as the glow began to leave his body. "This…" In a mere moment, the entire room went silent. The glow off Bruno Bucciarati collapsed into itself into a humanoid shape as the light blue and white of the glow had settled into distinct features. A combination of blue and white generalized stylized the being's color scheme, the being's face, gauntlet's on its hands, the boots on its feet, its waist and chest were a silver-white, whereas the helmet that obscured the upper half of its face and the rest of its body was colored a navy blue. Golden, zipper-like touches ran down the front of the being chest, hung slightly off the back of its gauntlets and hung from its waist.

"-is my Stand, Sticky Fingers."

Sticky Fingers assumed a fighting stance as it was summoned, its hands help out open palmed in front of it and off to the sides as it, presumably, looked at the large faunus dead on. Blake's amber eyes were wide behind her mask, and she could feel Sun shiver beside her. The entire room had their gazes locked on the stage as some humanoid… thing had just appeared out of nowhere.

'There's absolutely no way.' Blake thought to herself, as she bit one of her knuckles to calm herself. 'It's some kind of trick, a Semblance that he's using to look like a… a…' Blake couldn't fathom it. Couldn't fathom that Stands were real, that the book that she had long since written off as fantasy, if well-written fantasy, was a reality.

"Well… whatever, I'm still going to tear your little 'Stand' to shreds!" The burly faunus gave a loud battle cry as it charged forward towards Bruno. "I ain't scared of you, ya freaky human!" He reared a fist back as he declared this, all the while the mafioso just stared him down with a perfectly calm visage. Bruno sighed as the brute approached and, as he raised his hands and snapped his fingers, he said two simple words.

"... You're lying."

" **ARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARI**!"

The entire crowd cried in shock as, all at once, Sticky Fingers sprung into action. The Stand quickly launched out a violent barrage of punches, beating the faunus senseless as a rain of blows came down all across his body. Blake was shaking in her boots as she watched the the beat down; while the show of force wasn't as fast as Ruby's semblance, it was easily faster than she'd seen either herself or Weiss move… faster than she'd even seen Yang move.

" **ARRIVEDERCI!** "

Sticky Fingers struck one last blow against the faunus' chest, before it dissipated back into Bruno. A moment later, the entire warehouse was treated to the sight of the faunus as he fell to pieces.

Literally.

A scream tore through the crowd as they all watched this faunus fall into multiple chunks, his entire body separated into bits of varying sizes Even as this sight terrified her, she was further shocked into disbelief by what ran along the edges of those pieces; not gore or viscera, but zippers. Zipper edges and flies ran all along the faunus' chunks, as they collapsed onto the floor. Even Roman Torchwick seemed stunned into silence as Bruno just overlooked his handiwork.

"What…" The crowd went silent, their eyes wide as a voice was heard even over their panicked murmurs. "What… did you do to me…" Wide, disbelieving gazes immediately snapped to the form of the chunked faunus and, to everyone's immediate and unending shock, he was the one who spoke. He stared up at Bruno, while he tried to gasp for air, one of his hands reached out desperately for him.

"Sticky Fingers has separated your heart from the rest of your body. Right now, your brain is slowly suffocating to death, even as you breath in to try to relieve it." The faunus eyes were wide as the mafioso so casually described his plight. Bruno sighed as he walked over to him and, despite his best efforts to get away, the faunus and his chunks could only flop in place.

"Stop panicking. It'll be easier to put you back together if you cooperate." The crowd was again stunned as they watched as, bit by bit, piece by piece, Bruno Bucciarati zipped the faunus back together. The giant of a man stumbled away from Bruno as he regained full use of all his faculties, taking deep, life saving breaths of air as he looked on in fear of the mafioso, who stood up and faced the crowd.

"You have seen with your own eyes what Roman Torchwick is capable of offering you. What I just did to that man I could easily to do several men of his strength and ability, all without moving from my Stand's side. The power that is being offered to you is rare and ancient, and with it, you would truly stand a chance of breaking your chains of oppression and taking your freedom." The crowd went silent as Bruno spoke to them. Unlike Roman, who seemed to demean and belittle them every chance he had in spite of his rabble-rousing, Bruno spoke directly to them, without insulting them.

"There is, of course, a price to this, a test you must pass before these Stand powers are bestowed upon you. Should you fail it, you will die." The crowd went dead silent as Bruno said this, Roman's gaze hardened as he shuffled up behind him.

"What are you doing you idiot? You'll scare them off…" Bruno ignored Roman as he stepped forward.

"However, I want you to look around and consider your community. Think of your family and the sacrifices they've made, on your behalf, to try to save you from the injustices you all have suffered. Think of your neighbors and friends who've been torn away from their own communities to suit the needs of a government that cares not for them or their plight, but for their own wealth and power. Think of yourself, and the litany of embarrassments you've been forced to suffer through, just to have what could barely pass for a normal life." Bruno's gaze was hard, his voice stern, as the crowd seemed to eat up every last word of his.

"If you think you can continue to live with all this and to live with yourselves, then please, get out. This movement needs nothing from the likes of you. If, however, you're willing to do something about this, willing to sacrifice for your community the same way others have sacrificed for you, then step forward. If your actions can make a difference, if you can be the stone that breaks your bonds… then isn't the risk to your life worth it?"

The crowd was dead silent as Bruno's words echoed across them. Blake's voice was caught in her throat as she desperately hoped her people wouldn't go forward with this.

"I'll do it!"

Blake's hopes were crushed as a young man stepped forward. Fear clouded his eyes, but he did his level best to keep up a determined facade. Soon enough, the rest of the room followed in his footsteps and, before long, every faunus besides herself and Sun were cheering. She looked to the monkey faunus beside her and, through their masks, shared deeply terrified expressions.

"Wow, gotta say, I didn't think you had that sort of pep talk in you there, Bucciarati. Gotta admit, all that crap about community was a pretty nice touch." Roman patted the mafioso on the shoulder as he popped another cigar in his mouth. Bucciarati, for his part, frowned at the Vale criminal and shrugged his hand off.

"Would all Aura-trained recruits please move to your left to be given new orders and your equipment? All the rest of you, follow the soldiers there. They'll take you to be tested." A voice from one of the soldiers called out over the crowd which, slowly, began to disperse.

"Okay, so, I think we've got everything we could've asked for, we'd probably better get out of here and tell the rest of your team about all this." Sun sounded absolutely panicked as the crowd began to disperse. Blake nodded and prepared to leave when she noticed something… Roman had looked in their direction and he didn't look happy. "He sees us…" Blake's eyes snapped around the room for some kind of distraction, as Roman slowly approached them.

The moment she saw a fuse box, Blake's mind snapped into action. "He can't see in the dark." With a quick flourish, Blake unholstered Gambol Shroud and placed a shot directly into the fuse box. The entire warehouse went dark, and the two huntsmen made their escape.

* * *

"Damn, those brats again! The rest of you, get the recruits out of the area and to their places!" Roman Torchwick produced a flame with his lighter as he tore down the White Fang banner, revealing an Atlesian Paladin behind it. Just as he was about to suit up, he heard a small hum behind him.

"So, were those two of the huntresses giving you trouble. I'll admit, the blond one was a little more… masculine than how you described her." Roman Torchwick frowned as he turned to face Bruno and was surprised to find the mafioso backed up by the rest of his little gang.

"The blond one is just some random that showed up with the black-haired one at the docks. He's not one of the huntresses." Roman pressed a few buttons on the Paladin's exterior which popped open the cockpit. Torchwick stared inside it for a moment, as if considering something, before he turned to the Mistrali criminals behind him. "Alright, listen, I know this isn't what we paid you all to do, but how about this; I'll pay you all half again what I did earlier if you help me take care of these little nuisances. How does that sound?"

"Give us the whole payment."

"Excuse me!?" Roman practically spat as Bruno stared him down.

"You heard me. We want what you paid us again. We didn't come here to clean up your messes, Torchwick, and if you're too incompetent to have guards who can scout out your enemies, then it tells me that my gang and I will be doing the heavy lifting here. If you want us to step in and do your job for you, we'll want the whole payment again." Bucciarati had said this with a calm, even tone, as Torchwick just bit off the end of his cigar as he ground his teeth together.

"Forget it! I don't need any of you to do this! I just need this Paladin! I'll take care of them myself!" Roman quickly hopped into the cockpit and, after it closed, the mech immediately burst through a nearby wall to chase after Blake and Sun.

"Wow, you really got under his skin Bucciarati." A young man who wore a skullcap said with a blink as moonlight shined in through the hole in the wall, as Bruno just shrugged.

"There's a reason why it's been so easy for huntresses in training to get under his skin and thwart him multiple times. The man barely stands over Leaky-eye Luca as a criminal." Bruno spoke in a disparaging tone as he shook his head, as one of the taller, white-haired men turned to him.

"So what now, Bucciarati? He turned down your offer, and the original deal was that we'd depart as soon as the recruitment drive was over. Polpo and the Boss might not be happy with us making side deals like that." Bruno nodded at the advice.

"True, if it cost us any significant time or effort, we would be in some trouble. However, I imagine that if we earned double what Passione was originally earmarked to make in just an hour of effort, that they wouldn't be too sour about us bending our orders a little bit. Especially as far as Polpo would be concerned" The gathered Mistrali criminals took this into consideration.

"I dunno Bruno. Four huntresses in this group apparently. That's some bad juju." The man in the skullcap said again, as Bucciarati just smiled.

"True, Mista, but do recall that they've apparently dragged along a fifth hunter into this scuffle. That should negate our bad luck, wouldn't you say?" Mista seemed to take his boss' words into consideration, before he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that should work."

"Good. Now, here's what I want you four to do: between myself and Torchwick, we should be able to handle four in-training huntresses, even if the man is a screw up. What I'm going to need you four to do is keep the police, the Atlesians and any other hunters off of us. Mista, Narancia, you two are going to be playing the most direct roles in this." The short, lady-looking boy and Mista nodded in understanding, as Bucciarati turned to the man in dark pink.

"Fugo… cause a panic." The man, Fugo, nodded, as Bruno turned to the last of his men. "Abbacchio, you aren't in a position to help us with your Stand this time. I want you to stay live over our scrolls and keep an ear out on the enemy movements. Arrange for a pickup for us before heavy reinforcements arrive and warn us ahead of time. Understood?"

"Understood, Bucciarati." Abbacchio bowed slightly, as the gang of criminals all looked out to the city.

"Hey, Bucciarati, how can we be sure that Torchwick will want to take your offer? I mean, he could deal this on his own, right? Be kind of a waste of time if we went after them and it turned out we weren't needed." Narancia said off-handedly, as Bucciarati just smiled at his newest member.

"Call it an educated guess Narancia. According to what Cinder's told us, this man has failed in every encounter with these huntresses thus far and his successes came in large part in opposition to helpless shopkeepers, lazy police and an unwitting governing council. He'll need us. Now, any other questions?" Bucciarati paused as he looked at his fellow criminals, who all just shook their heads. "Good, then we'd better hurry; that Paladin is surprisingly quick on its feet."

* * *

"Wow, you've already gone on that many mission as a huntsman? That's super nuts! We haven't even gotten to go on our first one yet!" Ruby and Josuke walked along the streets of Vale as the sun set, the two teens just amiably chatted away as the former waited for word from her team and the latter ran out the clock till it was time to meet with his team. Not that the tour Ruby had given had been unpleasant, quite the opposite, but it was getting late.

"Well, being a Frontier huntsmen is pretty much a full-time job. They want you to start early and then that's basically your job for the rest of your life. You just kinda get used to the idea, growing up in Morioh." Josuke shrugged as he and Ruby drank some Pumpkin Pete Cola they'd picked up.

"I guess. It sounds pretty rough out there… but it just makes it better that you all have survived so long." Ruby smiled widely as she tossed the empty bottle into a nearby trash can. "You know, my friends and teachers were worried about you guys when we first heard you were coming."

"Oh?" Josuke's brow quirked upward as he looked at her curiously.

"Yeah. My partner, Weiss, thought you guys were some kind of scam, and some of the others thought you all wouldn't be like us because you didn't go through some junk history." Ruby blew a slight raspberry at those concerns as she grinned at Josuke. "But you all went through some crazy stuff! It's so cool that people like you with stories like that are real." Josuke smiled slightly as he nodded and tossed his own glass bottle over his shoulder into a trash can.

"Glad I didn't disappoint." Ruby laughed as she nodded vigorously.

"Man, I can't wait to meet the rest of your team. I can't wait for you to meet the rest of my team and Team JNPR! It'll be great!" Ruby cheered slightly as she threw her hands up in the air, much to the pompadoured teen's amusement. Just then, a ringing sound was heard from one of Ruby's pockets, which drew the two teen's gazes to it, Ruby's somewhat more urgent than Josuke. "Oh, that must be my team." Ruby reached into her pocket and plucked out her scroll as Josuke nodded in understanding.

"You have to get together with them I guess? I suppose I should be going off to meet up with my team too. Maybe we'll all get a chance to meet up to-"

"GUYS, WE NEED HELP!"

Ruby and Josuke both recoiled as a male voice screamed out from over the scroll, silver and blue eyes widened as crashing sounds could be heard in the background.

"Guys, this is Blake and Sun, and we found Torchwick and the White Fang. They were holding a recruitment drive and, and this guy came out on stage and-"

"We're being chased by a giant robot!"

Two voices, a young man and a young woman's, spoke into the scroll, as Ruby gasped slightly.

"Oh man, I can't miss this!" An excited grin broke out on her face as she looked at the scroll.

"A giant robot?" Ruby's eyes went wide as she realized she still had company, her gaze immediately turned to Josuke's.

"Oh, uh, nothing for you to worry about Josuke. Just a little something for my team and I to deal with while we're in Vale. You just go meet up with your team and-"

"The guy on the stage, I think we saw him get into a car to follow us. Weiss, I know you're not going to believe me and Yang, Ruby, I don't want to hear word one from you two about this. But this guy, he, he had-"

"HE HAD A STAND!"

"What?! A Stand?!" Josuke yelled as he immediately jumped up to Ruby, the silver-eyed girl jumping in surprise as he did so. "What was that? About a Stand? What did this guy look like?"

"Josuke, they can't hear you, she's sending out a message to our scrolls. I gotta go help my team, you just go to Beacon, okay?" Ruby stuffed her scroll back into pocket as she turned away from Josuke,while the pompadoured teen reached out a hand in an attempt to stop her.

When Ruby seemingly blinked out of existence again, a strong gust of wind and a flurry of rose petals left in her wake, Josuke could only gape in surprise.

"They mentioned something about a Stand… if it's Okuyasu or Koichi… no, I know those two, they wouldn't end up in trouble like this." Josuke frowned as he stood up straight. "Then there's some other Stand user running around town." Josuke bit his bottom lip as he considered his options. "This is business their team got into, and it looks like Riby wanted them to handle it themselves." Josuke looked down to the side, as Crazy Diamond's hand floated just beside his, a scrap of red cloth clutched in its fist. Josuke had been right to guess that Ruby was faster than his Stand, but still, Crazy Diamond had been quick enough to tear off a portion of her cloak.

"On the other hand, if it's business involving Stands, then that's the Frontier's business." Josuke sighed slightly as he pointed off in the direction Ruby had run. "Fix it."

Without even a second's hesitation, Crazy Diamond released the scrap of cloth from its grasp. A golden aura surrounded the scrap of cloth as it began to fly in the direction Ruby had run off in. Soon enough, Josuke had broken into a sprint himself, following the piece of the cloak to it's owner.

* * *

Under the Highway System, The City of Vale, One Robot Fight Later

Roman Torchwick was not having a good day.

First, that Mistrali bastard showed up and started stepping in on his own turf like he owned the joint. Then, this recruitment drive he'd planned for Cinder had just so happened to be infiltrated by some of the very huntsmen and huntresses that had been hounding his this entire time. Then that very same rat that acted like he owned the joint decided to throw that ridiculous offer in his face…

And now, his brand new Atlesian Paladin had been destroyed. By four newbie huntresses.

"I just got this cleaned." Roman growled under his breath as he stood up. He dusted himself off as he watched the blond throw a punch at him which caused those shotgun gauntlets of hers to firea fireball of Dust right at him. Just on time, as always, Neo showed up and blocked the blow for him with her umbrella, a smug look on her face as she bowed before the four huntresses.

Well, at least he could depend on something going right today.

"Ladies… and Ice Queen." Roman couldn't help but grin at the small 'Hey!' that he had goaded out of the Schnee heiress. "Always a pleasure… Neo, if you would." Roman was just ready to pick up and leave. He was done, absolutely done, dealing with these huntresses. As Neo bowed and Roman felt familiar tug of her semblance, he thought it was finally time to relax.

"Hmmm, sent running again, Torchwick? I suppose my estimation of your abilities was exactly right." Roman, Neo and Blake flinched as the voice echoed around them. Roman and Neo turned to face the voice, annoyed expressions on each of their faces, while Team RWBY, minus Blake, looked on with curious looks as Bruno Bucciarati strode in between the various pillars that supported the highway above them.

"Bucciarati…" Roman sneered slightly as he pointed his cane towards the mafioso. "What exactly are you doing here? Pretty sure your gang's contract expired once the recruitment drive was over."

"I'm hurt Roman. Here I come, offering to forgive you for so callously shooting down my offer beforehand, and you come at me with such aggression. It doesn't suit you Roman… if the pallor of your skin is any indication, this front you're putting up only disguises how afraid you are at the moment." Bruno casually walked right on up to Roman and Neo as he said this.

"Wh-what? What are you talking about? I'm not afraid. Before you interrupted, I was about to get away, scot-free, with none of these little huntresses the wiser." Bucciarati cocked a brow at Roman's assertion.

"Scot-free, you say? Funny. I see the piles of a former Atlesian Paladin and a recruitment drive that was infiltrated by known enemies of yours that say different." Roman flinched, a sweat built up on his skin, as he clenched his hands into fists.

"S-So what? The recruitment drive went fantastic. Our employer will look at my work and-"

Roman was cut off as as Bucciarati, out of nowhere, reached out and slid a finger down Roman's cheek. Stunned by surprise, no one reacted as Bruno brought his finger to his mouth and licked the sweat off of it.

"This, Roman, is the taste of a liar. 'Your work' you say? My dear Roman, all the work that went over well at the recruitment drive was 'my work'. My Stand, my show, my words got those faunus to buy into your cause. Our employer will look at 'my work' and be satisfied. Do you wish to know what your work was supposed to be, **mio amico**? Security. You were supposed to make sure no one snuck in, no one disrupted the recruitment drive and, probably most importantly, that you didn't waste any more resources than you already have.

"What do you think will happen when your employer comes forward and looks at your work tonight, Roman? Knowing that you've failed in every single way imaginable. Do you think they'll be happy, Roman?" Torchwick swallowed nervously, as even Neo didn't seem ready to silently back him up on this, while the Mistrali criminal just nodded. "Exactly. You're deep in the shit now Roman Torchwick… luckily for you, I am still in a gracious mood. I'm willing to ignore how rude you were before and make my offer again: double what you initially paid us, and I'll clean up your mess."

"D-D-D-Double?!" Roman spat out as his eyes went wide. "Now hold on, that's not-"

"The economics of our deal have changed Roman. The initial offer was before you wasted an entire Atlesian Paladin fighting a group of fresh huntresses who haven't even completed a year of training at Beacon Academy. That raised the price quite a bit." Bucciarati crossed his arms over his chest, as Roman Torchwick just shivered a bit in place as the reality of the situation slowly crushed him.

"R-Reinforcements are bound to show up soon, how can you-"

"My gang has that under control, Roman." Bruno said casually as he inspected his fingernails.

"But how-"

Before Torchwick could finish his question, a loud explosion went off on the highway above them, drawing everyone's attention to it. The sound of an airplane engine as it roared in the skies above them, machine gun fire and bombs going off echoed throughout the area. Gunshots and the sound of bullets flying wizzed softly underneath the louder noises. All the while, panicked screams and the sounds of crowds stampeding away could be heard from another section of the highway.

"Under, control, Roman." Bucciarati cocked an eyebrow at Roman. "Do we have a deal?"

The silence between the two criminals was almost deafening. However, after a moment's thought, Roman frowned as he stuck a hand forward.

"You only get paid if you actually help Neo and I take care of them."

"Of course, Roman. I'm a professional, after all." The two criminals shook hands as they turned their attention on Team RWBY who, amidst all that, were deep in their own hushed discussion.

"So, Blake, that the guy you and Sun were talking about?" Yang asked cautiously, her hair still aglow and eyes burning red as she stared ahead at Bucciarati. Blake nodded cautiously, as Ruby bit her lip slightly.

"The one with… a Stand?"

"Y-Yeah Ruby, he had… he has a Stand." Blake couldn't even believe the words coming out of her mouth. If this were any other moment she was sure her leader and partner would have started laughing about how Stands were real, but the atmosphere of this fight snuffed out such considerations. The fight with Torchwick had been somewhat rough and now, with Blake as freaked out as she was, the other three members of Team RWBY couldn't help but feel for her.

"Still… a Stand? Are you sure it wasn't just some trick? Come on Blake, you and I-"

"I know what I saw, Weiss. I watched that guy body a faunus two feet taller than him with… with another person that came out of his body. It was a Stand, just like that book described it." Weiss bit her lip at this, the white-haired Heiress still resting believing such nonsense. Even if Blake was so certain of what she saw, she couldn't believe it. Years of growing up in Atlas, with the constant cultural reminder of what a quack Rudol von Stroheim was… it couldn't be true, it couldn't be.

When Bruno, Torchwick and the latter's new lackey turned their attention to them, with the mafioso taking point in the approach, Yang just scoffed.

"Stand or no Stand, those hits from Torchwick's little toy got my semblance going. I just gotta punch the crap out of him and he'll go down right?" The blond bombshell cocked Ember Celica before she dashed forward. Weiss and Ruby didn't have much an immediate reaction, however…

"Yang, no! Don't rush him! He'll tear you apart with his Stand!" Blake's utter panic drew Weiss and Ruby's gazes to her, even as Yang barreled forth. Neo and Torchwick paused, the former ready to intercept Yang, before Bucciarati raised a hand for them to stop.

"If the other three try to jump in, just stall for time." The Mistrali mafioso said in a calm tone as he walked forward to meet Yang's charge. Bucciarati took a deep, steadying breath as he focused down on the approaching huntress. If he made even the slightest misstep, he'd find himself splattered on the pavement beneath his feet. As much as he mocked Torchwick for having been repeatedly thwarted by first year hunters, all this told Bucciarati was not to underestimate his opponents.

She'd be treated as if she was the gravest threat to his life.

Fighting an Aura user with a semblance was functionally no different from fighting a Stand user. First off, you respected their basic abilities; whether that be the combat prowess of those huntsmen who specialized in physical Aura or the skills of Stand users like Mista with his gun, even exempting his Stand. You respected what they were individually capable of because, more than likely, even with a Stand or semblance, they would have still brought those skills to a fight.

Then you took into account their semblance or their Stand abilities. You kept your own secret, you learned theirs and you picked them apart using their own weaknesses. The fight with Torchwick had been greatly enlightening for Bucciarati on multiple levels, but as it concerned his current opponent, he learned three key things. She was a melee fighter, her weapons were the gauntlets on her wrists that doubled as shotguns. They seemed to have some kind of range to them, but overall, it seemed that she fancied getting into close range before engaging her opponents.

Her semblance was the ability to take hits and then deal the damage back out as additional power and speed. A solid semblance, simple yet effective, like most physical Aura semblances were. In extended fights, she'd be a terror. Finally, her semblance made her cocky; her preferred style of fighting was to run headlong at Torchwick and the Atlasian Paladin, take their punishment and then dish it back out. Given her semblance, it was the smartest play she could make; so long as her opponent didn't realize what they were getting into, they'd only seal their own fate by trading blows with her rather than going for an immediate coup de grâce

Bucciarati couldn't afford long-term trades with this huntress. If he tried to beat her down with Sticky Fingers, chances were good that she might be able to build up enough of her semblance to be much stronger and much faster than his Stand. He had to go for immediate, disabling blows using Sticky Fingers abilities to effectively remove her from the fight. Not kill her, as his temporary associates may wish to pump information from her and the these huntresses later.

The latter would be simple enough to achieve: all he'd have to do would be to keep Sticky Fingers' ability active throughout the fight and after it was over. To get her into position in the first place would require him to allow her to overextend, to put herself into a position where she'd be vulnerable to one of his immediate counter-attacks. Luckily for him, it seemed that the young huntress was all too willing to oblige, With this in mind, Bucciarati patiently stood his ground as Yang reared back a fist to throw into his face. With a quick movement of his left hand, Bucciarati reached for the back of his head.

One second later, Yang's fist had went straight through his head.

Everyone's eyes went wide as Bucciarati's head split right down the middle, unfolding like two pieces of cloth as his left hand held a zipper fly at the front of the base of his neck. His eyes individually looked up into hers as her fist passed through empty space. Sticky Fingers' right hand formed out of Bucciarati's shoulder and with a speed that took Yang by surprise grabbed a firm hold of her shoulder.

"I'm afraid you've overextended, my dear."

" **ARI!** "

With one solid motion, Sticky Fingers pulled.

Ruby, Weiss and Blake cried out in shock.

Yang's eyes went wide with horror.

Roman Torchwick and Neo looked on, the latter pleased as punch while the former was infinitely annoyed with the fact that he'd been immediately shown up.

Bucciarati stared impassively.

All as Yang's left arm fell away to the ground, half of a zipper rung around its edge.

Without missing a beat, Sticky Fingers fully formed out of Bucciarati's right side. The left hand of the stand reached over and zipped the mafioso's head back together, while it's right immediately reached forward for Yang's neck, where the fly of a zipper quickly formed.

"Between your shock and the loss of your arm, your guard's been left wide open. Arrivederci."

" **DORA!** "

It sped by in the blink of an eye. Weaved in between Weiss and Blake's heads, soaring past the open ground, barely nicking Yang's hair and right into Sticky Fingers' face. A stone, roughly the size of Yang's own head, pounded into the exposed mouth and nose of Bucciarati's Stand, an action which simultaneously caused a deep pit of force to form around the mafioso's nose and mouth as blood immediately spewed forth from them.

Sticky Fingers let go of Yang's neck on reflex as it went into a defensive crouch to protect itself and its master, which allowed Yang, after a moment of shock, to jump back and away from the Stand User, her right hand uselessly clenched around her left shoulder. Yang's red eyes glared at the stump, too angry and too pumped on adrenaline to fully comprehend the situation. She couldn't feel pain and no blood dripped from the wound. What was this?

Better yet…

"Which one of you threw the rock?" Yang turned her gaze back to her team, who all looked just as stunned and surprised as Yang had. "Come on, who… who… who?" Yang's eyes turned from their dark red to lilac, as her expression went from angry to confused. Her team blinked and turned their gazes to where Yang was looking. At the same time, Bucciarati, Torchwick and Neo all caught sight of who had thrown the rock, their gazes wide with surprise.

Only one person could think to speak out of all of them.

"J-Josuke?"

Indeed, standing some odd distance from Team RWBY was the young man Ruby Rose immediately recognized by the outline of his hair if nothing else. The pink, ghostly appendage that belonged to his Stand hung off his side, another stone tight in its grip as he looked on at the scene. While Ruby had witnessed him stand his ground against the White Fang with some confidence, the look in his eyes here spoke of something altogether different. Narrowed into a determined glare, Josuke looked on at Bucciarati and his Stand.

"W-What? Is he…" Torchwick ground his teeth together as his mind processed what he was seeing, as Bucciarati just nodded dumbly.

"A Stand User… probably from the Frontier." Bucciarati wiped the blood away from his mouth and nose, while the other three members of Team RWBY just blinked in surprise. "Thankfully, it doesn't look like he's Kujo Jotaro."

'Frontier?'

"Josuke?! How'd you even find us?"

Josuke turned his gaze away from Bucciarati as he gave a small grin. From behind him, a torn off chunk of red cloth fluttered quickly towards Ruby. The young girl felt a tug on her cloak and looked down to see that the floating cloth perfectly matched a missing chunk of her mother's cloak she hadn't noticed.

All four members of Team RWBY gawked when the chunk of her cloak floated right up into place and, without any sign that it had been torn off in the first place, fixed itself.

As if to answer Ruby's question, Josuke spoke two simple words.

" **[Crazy Diamond]**."

As if prompted by its name, a shine of sparks and dust flew off from the ghostly limb. The limb dropped the stone and, with a flourish, twisted forth into the air, the rest of a humanoid form following it forward. There, standing out in the open, was a human figure, a Stand, roughly the size of Josuke. With a strong build of hot pink flesh, protected by silver armor that plated various spots on its body, the Stand looked formidable, even with the heart-shaped design choices on its knees, belt, stomach, chin and helmet. Black spikes and black pipes that formed out of its shoulders and went from the back of its neck to its upper back respectively stood out against the Stand's overall color, alongside the pits of black that surrounded its blue eyes.

Josuke sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a steel comb.

"It's a shame. Looks like I'm going to be disappointing Jotaro after all. First day in Vale and I'm going to get into a fight."

As he spoke, Josuke fixed up his hair; the long run he had taken to catch up with Ruby had messed up his pompadour a bit. As he put the comb away, a confident grin appeared on his features.

"This is going to be just great."

 **-To Be Continued- Crazy Diamond (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hunter: Ruby Rose**

 **Semblance: Speed**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: A**

 **Range: E**

 **Lasting Power: D**

 **Precision: B**

 **Developmental Potential: B**

 **Speed - Ruby Rose's semblance grants her an immediate boost of speed, as the name suggests. During this time, Ruby Rose is capable of moving so quickly that it appears, to the naked eye, that she has blinked from one location to another. While what the human eye is capable of seeing differs based on the size of the object and how fast it's moving (i.e., despite moving at 54,000 MPH, Mars is visible to the human eye), it tells us that Ruby Rose is moving at very, very high velocities. As an example; a bullet travels, generally, at 1,700 MPH.**

 **This ability, while focused solely on Ruby Rose herself and with no inherent destructive potential, is capable of greatly enhancing her combat ability for a few seconds at a time. Repeated or extended use of the Semblance can exhaust or otherwise disorient Ruby Rose, even with her Aura empowering her body. These abuses of the semblance can lead to Ruby using more and more Aura for each instance.**

 **In addition, when Ruby Rose pops her ability, rose petals appear where she started and follow her trail**

 **Also Known As: Powerful semblances are just as utterly broken as powerful Stands**

 **Also Known As: MY NAME IS BARRY ALLEN AND I'M THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE!**

* * *

 **Stand Master: Bruno Bucciarati**

 **Stand Name: [Sticky Fingers]**

 **Destructive Power: A**

 **Speed: A**

 **Range: D (2m)**

 **Lasting Power: D**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: D**

 **Zipping In and Out - Sticky Fingers' primary ability is to make anything it touches able to be opened or closed with a zipper.**

 **For example, Sticky Fingers can hit a wall and open it up and walk through it then zip it up again. This also allows it to separate enemies into multiple pieces and even perform a cutting attack by detaching something and then canceling the zipper.**

 **The space inside the zipper of walls and people is extremely large, allowing it to create special hiding spots that only it can access.**

 **Also Known As: He's got a pretty fly, for a white guy**

 **Also Known As: Bruno Buccellati, because JoJo scans have always been terrible and that's why no one reads the Goddamn manga**

* * *

 **When writing a crossover, you come to accept that elements of the crossover will end up out and out nullifying certain things about one or both of the series. As a minor example; raising the dramatic stakes through extreme bodily harm becomes a lot more difficult when one of the cast members has a special ability that can instantly heal any and all damage, up to and including healing you completely the moment you're blown up at a molecular level. Thanks for helping us find that out, Hayato.**

 **With that said, let's talk about Stands versus semblances and how the medium that most fanfiction is conveyed through ends up favoring Stands. Let's be frank; semblances are kinda boring. Now, they aren't boring to look at, God no, the semblances of a lot of characters in RWBY make the action very exciting to watch and are extremely powerful. However, when you get down to the brass tax of what a semblance does and, this is key, when you're forced to describe it through a written medium, these abilities can seem like standard fare.**

 **Ruby's makes her GOTTA GO FAST!**

 **Glynda's is telekinesis.**

 **Yang's makes her The Incredible She-Hulk.**

 **Meanwhile, the very first Stand proper we're seeing in this fanfic has a very unique power, the ability to make a zipper anywhere, that can be used and described in numerous ways. Losing out on the visual element of a JoJo story is devastating to the concept, don't get me wrong, because a lot of the cool factor in JoJo's is often tied into the aesthetic. However, because of how unique a lot of characters are described as or how unique the powers are they can seem a lot more effective and a lot more interesting than the established powers of other series mostly because while losing the visual element is devastating for JoJo, it is absolutely apocalyptic for other series.**

 **You've seen it and I've seen it: in a lot of JoJo's crossovers, the more unique, interesting concepts of Stands and Stand Power overshadows the other half of the crossover. As an example; how many Puella Magica/JoJo fanfics have you read that actually keep the Magical Girl powers relevant in the face of Stand Power? If you're like me, not many. Same thing happens with semblances, where semblances are either written off as just half-baked Stands or they're pretty much written off entirely in the face of Stand Power.**

 **Writers are able to circumvent this by keeping focus and reminding themselves that, as established in a series, a lot of abilities meet or exceed Stand Power by a considerable margin. Speed is a semblance that, conceptually, is easily as busted as most Stand abilities. You're moving so fast that the human eye can no longer keep track of you and it appears that you're teleporting. Even pulling that off as an optical illusion is no small feat: bullets travel at 1,700 MPH and still, from certain degrees and angles, you may be able to spot them at a shooting range while they're in mid-flight. There aren't exactly a lot of Stands that have speed to match that or abilities that can counter that sort of boost in speed.**

 **The canon establishment of it being a drain on her Aura gives it a nice limitation were duration is the main concern, but that itself can be mitigated over time through natural growth. So, if that's the case where semblances can meet or exceed Stands which is a repeatable phenomena, and the same can be done for other series, why is it that we see so many authors just write off other abilities in the face of Stands?**

 **Because, as stated earlier, Stands can survive the shift into the written medium without losing a lot of their cool factor. Semblances like Speed are powerful in concept but, without the visual element to enforce in the audience or to a writer just how powerful these things are, they become kind of bog standard. This is really important because as much as we focus on writing as being a matter of how the audience reacts to a concept, a writer's reaction to a concept is arguably more important, as that ends up affecting the final product. If a writer finds describing something boring or not-exciting, it can be easy for that notion to slip into his or her own writing and effect how he's telling the story.**

 **For the written medium, Speed goes from being a rather Godly ability to MY NAME IS RUBY ROSE AND I'M THE FASTEST HUNTRESS ALIVE, WHEN I WAS 4 YEARS OLD MY MOM WAS KILLED BY A YELLOW GUY, NOT AN ASIAN BUT A GUY DRESSED IN YELLOW CLOTHES!**

 **Glad you guys have been enjoying the story and I hope that this little insight was informative or, at the very least, interesting to read.**


	5. Crazy Diamond (Act 1)

As the sounds of intermittent gunfire, explosions and the panicked rush of civilians raged on the highway and echoed down to the system of columns and empty space beneath it, many of the combatants gathered found that the noises passed over them, their focus decidedly elsewhere. Team RWBY, minus Ruby Rose herself, were shocked by the arrival of this complete and total stranger who Ruby seemed to know. That he was one of the Frontiersman that they'd been told about only days ago and had a Stand to boot only added to their shock.

Ruby just looked on in some surprise; she didn't want to drag someone who hadn't even been in Vale for a single day into her Team's business, especially when it was so dangerous. However, here her new friend was, his Stand appearing strong and proud at his side, as he looked on at the scene before him.

Josuke stared ahead past Team RWBY and towards the three people he gathered were their opponents. His gaze narrowed as it became immediately obvious who one Stand User was among them. He hadn't known what his abilities were precisely, although having had seen what happened to the blonde on Ruby's team allowed him an educated guess. He also couldn't be sure if the other two were Stand Users or not, a thought that worried him as, already, Higashikata Josuke's mind whirred to life with ideas and strategies.

Meanwhile, on the other side of things, Torchwick, Neo and Bruno watched the arrival of the new combatant with a mix of trepidation and frustration.

"I suppose it was inevitable that when my gang arrived in Vale that we'd encounter the Frontier Stand Users. Guess I was just fooling myself by hoping we'd get in and out without any sort of trouble." Bucciarati spat out the last little bit of blood in his mouth as his Stand relaxed.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Torchwick glared at the back of the mafioso's head, as Bruno just shrugged.

"Nothing that you need to be concerned about right now. Our job just got a little bit more complicated. Thankfully, this isn't Kujo Jotaro, by the looks of this boy." The mafioso produced a handkerchief from one of his pockets and wiped the blood from around his mouth and nose, as Torchwick just flinched.

"The one we all got warned about?"

"The very same. This appears to just be one of the apprentices that was dragged along for the Tournament. If we play our cards right, we can kill two birds with one stone: eliminate this team of Huntresses and handicap the Frontier presence in Vale all in one go. It'll be a good night for our employers."

"You make it sound easy." Torchwick grumbled in annoyance, especially because Neo appeared quite pleased with Bruno's assessment.

"Whatever he might be in the Frontier, he's young. No reason to take him lightly, of course, but a factor working in our favor. If we keep our calm and manage this fight well, we'll come out on top. Between myself, your friend here and even you, we hold the advantage in experience and skill."

While this conversation went on among the criminals, Josuke immediately moved up to Team RWBY. While Ruby wasn't worried, the rest of her teammates flinched as Josuke and his Stand approached. Yang in specific seemed the most vulnerable as she grasped at her left shoulder while she watched the strange being, whose counterpart had just ripped off her arm, as it approached her.

Josuke looked between Yang, her arm and the enemy Stand User. His mind began to consider the strategic considerations and possibilities. Though most Frontier hunters hoped that they'd never have to turn their Stands on another human being the history of the Frontier showed, time and time again, that fights with the very people they were, in theory, sworn to protect were ones they could be dragged into. As much as they considered the Grimm to be the foremost threat to all humankind, they still had recognized that enemies could have come from anywhere.

Thus, Frontier huntsman were also trained to be ready to fight anyone and everyone in defense of Morioh and its people or, in this case, humankind in general.

'This girl is on Ruby's team, and it looks like she got hit by whatever his Stand ability is pretty badly. This probably means that they've seen it and they know, to some degree, what his Stand is capable of. At least, a better one than I do just looking at the aftermath. If they tell me and I keep Crazy Diamond's ability under wraps, I'd have the advantage of knowing what his Stand is capable of from the get-go… now.' Josuke stopped a few inches from Yang, as the lilac eyes girl reared back in a defensive crouch.

"Yang, it's okay, he's my friend! He's not going to hurt anyone…" Ruby implored her sister and, by extension, the rest of her team. Logically, the WBY of team RWBY knew this. If not for this guy's quick throw, Yang would probably just be a head rolling on the ground right now. Still, for them, this had been terrifying. For Blake and Weiss it immediately challenged so many things they believed to be true about the world and, by extension, made so many terrifying things, things they'd just now seen with their own eyes, real.

For Yang, for the first time in over a decade, she felt vulnerable. Even if her anger, her burning fury, had kept the emotion mostly at bay, it stuck around just underneath the surface. A Stand, something she'd not even thought was real up until a second ago, had just casually ruined her and nearly killed her. Even if she just barely avoided dying, now here she was, literally disarmed. The possible joke had been ignored as her mind focused on one thing and one thing only; what this would have meant for her career as a huntress. All thanks to one Stand.

Now, here was another one, one she hadn't known and who just appeared out of nowhere. She wanted to trust the guy who'd just saved her life and she wanted to trust her sister's judgement, but this was a bit too much all at once for the blonde brawler.

'I could fix her, and it'd help even up the odds in the overall fight. I don't know what abilities the other two might have, or if they're Stand Users at all, so having Ruby and her team able to fight at their best would help even those odds up. Plus, I'd feel like a jerk if I just left her hanging like this.

'On the other hand I could leave her alone and maintain my advantage; they wouldn't know what Crazy Diamond can do or how it works, which would leave me in a solid spot.' Josuke turned his gaze to Bruno. 'I can know what his Stand does and deny him the same. He might be able to guess based upon what I did with Ruby's cloak, but he can't know for certain. If I fix her arm though, that blows that secrecy out of the water. It'll be very obvious what Crazy Diamond is capable of.

'So, I guess that's what it comes down to. I can fix Ruby's teammate's arm and blow my advantage in a fight against an enemy Stand User and hope that it evens out the fight elsewhere, or go with the typical strategy; maintain my advantage by keeping my Stand's power secret and just fix this girl up after the fact…'

It had probably been one of the easier decisions Josuke's ever made in his life.

"Hold still, you're going to be alright." Josuke said as he reached out a hand and placed it on Yang's left shoulder while his body glowed slightly. The gesture had come at such a surprise that Team RWBY hadn't reacted to it at first, but after a moment Yang jerked back and away from the pompadoured teen, her remaining fist reared back for a punch.

"Hey, what's the big idea, you come out of nowhere and you suddenly sta-aaaaagh!" Yang was interrupted when her left shoulder jerked in the direction of Torchwick, Neo and Bruno. Yang dug her feet into the ground as she resisted the pull and looked up to see why she suddenly felt this tug. Her eyes widened in surprise, a gesture matched soon after by everyone else gathered under the highway system.

After Yang ceased being dragged along, her arm floated up into the air and started to race towards her, shoulder first. With a click and a clank Yang felt and saw the zippers fall away from both halves of her limb, the metal disappeared before it even hit the ground. With a small 'thud' her arm impacted her shoulder, the force of which had sent Yang back a few steps. She swung both of her arms around to keep herself steady on her feet, the unexpected force having surprised her.

Shock etched itself onto her features as Yang's head quickly snapped over to her left arm, her teammates having had long since joined her in staring at the limb. As Yang steadied herself on her feet, she experimentally jostled and rolled her arm at the shoulder, flexed her fingers and waved the limb around.

She could feel everything again. It had felt… fine, perfectly fine. Heck, more than all of that her arm felt like it was better than new.

"Crazy Diamond's Stand ability in action: my Stand has the power to fix _anything_." Josuke's eyes glanced over to Bruno's as he emphasized the last word, the mafioso flinched in response as Josuke turned his gaze back to Yang, a friendly grin on his face. "How's it feeling?"

"It… it feels great. Feels amazing actually." As Yang rolled out her wrist experimentally, she and her team turned back to Josuke, who nodded in approval.

"Great." Josuke said simply as he turned to look at Ruby, a slightly apologetic look on his face. "Hope you don't mind the intrusion Ruby, but Stand business is the Frontier's business." The young huntress in training just rapidly shook her head.

"N-No worries Josuke!" The silver-eyed girl smiled gratefully at the pompadoured teen. "You came at the best possible time, actually. Thank you so much. We appreciate it, right guys?" The other members of Team RWBY nodded their heads a bit dumbly, still in shock over the display. "Oh jeez, you all don't know each other yet! Uh, guys this is-"

"Probably not the best time for introductions, Ruby." Despite his words, Josuke said this with a laugh and a wide smile, while the other team leader just went a bit red.

"Oh, right, of course. Silly me." Ruby scratched the back of her head slightly, as they all turned their attention back to Torchwick, Neo and Bruno.

"Can you guys tell me what his Stand ability is?" Josuke said in a serious tone as he looked over his shoulder at the entire team. "He's seen my Stand ability, so unless I know his I won't be able to fight him nearly as well. I know this is probably a lot to ask for a stranger, but I really need you all to-"

"Zippers." Blake shocked her team and Josuke as she spoke up, the still stunned looking black-haired faunus shook her head slightly as she sought to get back to the reality of the situation. "His Stand, he calls it Sticky Fingers, and it's ability is to produce zippers at wherever it touches with his hands. You saw what it did to Yang's arm, but he can do that to an entire person multiple times and to himself." Blake carefully thought through everything she'd seen this guy do, as Josuke nodded at her explanation.

"Any idea if he can only use it on people?"

"It seems to also separate clothes, but they stay on the limb as if they were never separated, so I have no idea. Other than that, I've only see him do it on people so far." Blake frowned slightly apologetically. "Sorry, that really isn't a lot, but-"

"It's enough, don't worry. Thanks for telling me" Josuke nodded his head in appreciation, to which Blake just seemed surprised.

"No problem."

"Are the other two Stand users?" This time, Weiss stepped forward to speak.

"No, but the girl is pretty weird. She appeared out of nowhere and…"

As Team RWBY and Josuke shared their information and set up their own plans, on the other side, Torchwick had gotten progressively more annoyed with the situation.

"So, we just gonna let them sit over there, have their little pow-wow and come up with a plan?" Roman said in an aggravated tone, as Bruno just nodded.

"Yes we are Roman, because it'll give us some time to come up with a plan of our own." Bruno said with a sigh as he dusted off his suit. "The name of the game has changed. We don't have the element of surprise on our side anymore and, with the boy and his Stand, we don't have an out-and-out advantage in terms of Stand Power. By the looks of things, his Stand is a close-range, power-type Stand, meaning that like Sticky Fingers it's capable of acting somewhere around supersonic speeds. While my Stand was the only one on the field with this advantage, it gave us some significant space, even with the semblance the young one, Miss Rose, apparently possessed.

"Now though, we have a Stand capable of reacting to your bullets and able to outspeed either of you, even with your physical Aura. Furthermore, it's a Stand capable of fixing anything, which means that even if you two got lucky shots off on this Stand User, he'd fix himself back up." Bruno turned his gaze to Neo, who seemed to pout at this estimation. "Even with your semblance giving you the element of surprise, unless you can move faster than a bullet, for now, his Stand is a bit beyond you." A frustrated click of her teeth followed that statement, but Neo otherwise just nodded.

"We've lost one advantage and the field's been reset… thankfully, we still have options." Bruno gestures to Neo. "Based on what I've been told, this young lady should be more than capable of tying down a good number of these huntresses in a fight, Ranged, melee, whatever it may be she has the advantage." Neo perked up immediately, a smug grin on her face as she nodded with certainty. "You, Roman, do have some abilities, even if they're grossly limited. At the very least, you'll draw some of their attention away from the rest of us."

"Oh, and just what will you be doing, Bruno?" Roman ground his teeth together, the criminal grew increasingly angry with Bruno's disparaging view of him, as Bucciarati just nodded towards Josuke.

"Long-term trades are useless against the boy, so we need to immediately disable him, just like I almost did with Miss Xiao Long. If his Stand is like my own, then the removal of his arms will also remove his Stand's ability… even if it doesn't, I can simply carve him up into so many pieces that he won't have time to put himself back together before we move in for a finishing blow. So I, Roman, will be dealing with the Stand user who can ultimately undo any of our damage to them… or is that not good enough for you?" Bruno had cast a sarcastic gaze towards Roman Torchwick, who just growled under his breath.

"Just actually do it this time, you Mistrali…" The rest of the sentence was lost amidst Torchwick's grumbles, which Bucciarati just ignored as he turned his attention back forward towards Josuke and Team RWBY.

"So, your Stands are able to react at supersonic speeds…" As Blake and Josuke went back and forth on the enemy Stand's capabilities as well as Torchwick and the new girl's, they were coming up with a picture of their own strategy. Weiss frowned as she turned to her team leader. "Ruby, do you think you'd be able to use your semblance to help Josuke take care of Sticky Fingers?" Weiss asked curiously, as the team leader just frowned.

"I actually used my semblance quite a few times to get over here as fast as I could… if I used it again, I think that'd be about it for my Aura." Ruby shook her head as she looked around. "Sorry."

"Hey, no worries." Ruby turned her head to Josuke, an easy-going smile on his face as he shrugged. "You used it to come help your team as quickly as possible. Good a use of it as any. Besides, that hardly leaves us out of options." Josuke turned his gaze back forward as he sized up the enemies.

"So, Yang and Blake?" Josuke asked to confirm the two girls names, who just nodded. "Right, since that girl can block Dust bullets pretty easily with her parasol, you two need to get up in her face to keep her off of the rest of us. Ruby and… Weiss?" Another nod. "Can support us all at range and keep this guy, Torchwood?"

"Torchwick."

"Torchwick! Busy. Since Ruby can't use her semblance right now, that'll leave me to take on the enemy Stand User. I'll need to keep focused on him to ensure he doesn't use his ability to just put me out of the fight immediately, so I'll be depending on you all to keep your opponents in check. My life is in your all's hands, alright?"

The absolute sincerity and seriousness with which Josuke said this caused the four huntresses to blanch for a moment, before they all nodded in firm understanding.

"We're depending on you too Josuke, kick his butt!" While Weiss, Blake and Yang weren't anywhere near as excited as Ruby, they all nodded with smiles of their own, ones met by Josuke's own.

"Great. Sounds like we've got a plan." Josuke cracked his knuckles slightly, a gesture copied by Crazy Diamond. The group of five quickly split up into three; Ruby and Weiss broke off to approach from Torchwick's side, Blake and Yang approached from Neo's while Josuke walked straight forward, towards Bruno.

"Seems like they're ready as well. If either of you can break off from your opponents to hamstring him, do so. The sooner we get him out of our hair, the sooner we can clean up." Bruno said forcefully, which had earned a quick nod from Neo and a more ambivalent nod from Torchwick.

The two sides squared off, for only a moment. Before long, Torchwick, Neo and Team RWBY sprung into action, all the while Josuke and Bruno stood off against each other.

* * *

For Team RWBY, Torchwick and Neo, the fight started almost as soon as the groups had broken up. Ruby and Weiss had broken off to deal with Torchwick, as Neo's umbrella and its strange properties would have given Weiss and Ruby's own range trouble. With Gambol Shroud and Ember Celica, Yang and Blake stood a better chance of getting through the small criminal's defenses and breaking her down, while Ruby and Weiss could exchange trades against Torchwick while, in time, they would have also poked out the other combatants at range.

Or at least, that had been the idea. As was often the cast with the plans of mice, men and huntresses, however, it had gone awry.

While Ruby and Weiss knew not to underestimate Torchwick's fighting capabilities, both from personal experience and from what they'd gathered at the dock, the two huntresses were still surprised to find that Roman was able to keep pace with the both of them. Perhaps not dominate the fight between himself and the two inexperienced huntresses, but Roman wasn't being overwhelmed. Whenever Weiss or Ruby tried to set up from range to deal Torchwick a blow or otherwise send some help to the other half of Team RWBY, they'd soon find themselves under the heavy barrage of the Melodic Cudgel's rapid-fire explosive ammunition. Without her own semblance, Ruby was forced to focus heavily on Torchwick or get a face full of his flares. Weiss, while having been to quickly defend herself at range with her own Glyphs, would find herself forced onto a defensive position at range.

Even when the two could get shots off on Roman, the criminal had been able to dodge or intercept the incoming Dust charges with his own ammunition. Any attempted move into close range was often just as much of a slog for both sides; while Roman Torchwick may have been thwarted again and again by Ruby and his team, he was able to show exactly why he, a criminal in the shadow of one of the most elite Hunter Academies in all of Remnant, had been able to stay free. His movements were fluid and precise, not a single twitch of his finger or a swing of his arm was wasted as Roman Torchwick ably dueled both Ruby and Weiss to a standstill.

Using the hook of his cane, he'd trip one of the two up over the other if they got too heavy on him, if Weiss attempted to use her Glyphs to empower her movements or otherwise draw his attention, Roman would be quick to fire off several rounds of his flares to disrupt the process, which forced Weiss to back off several times to avoid her own Glyphs from blowing up in her face. Still, while Roman wasn't losing his fight, he wasn't winning either: Weiss and Ruby were able to aptly cover for the other: Weiss using quick Glyphs to push or pull Ruby out of tight spots, Ruby using Crescent Rose and it's superior range to harass Roman Torchwick whenever the Vale criminal tried to focus down Weiss in their duel.

This half of Team RWBY's fight could best be described as a draw; for Blake and Yang, they couldn't even pretend that their fight was going so well.

This small woman, Neo, whom had appeared out of nowhere as far as Team RWBY was concerned, was an absolute monster. No matter what Blake or Yang had thrown at her, Neo was able to not only quickly turn it away, she was then able to counterattack for devastating effect. Gambol Shroud and Ember Celica's ammunition might as well have been dead weight weighing the two huntresses down as any attempted use of their range to try and disrupt Neo's movements or attacks were swatted away like mayflies as Neo just popped open her umbrella and let it tank the hits from the two hunter weapons. Even when they attempted to use her defensive stance to their advantage as Yang poured on shot after shot, explosive round after round into Neo's umbrella to hold her down while Blake had quicky ducked behind the minuscule criminal, having gone so far as to use Shadow to get the drop on Neo, Blake had soon found whatever there was of Neo shattered into glass as the pint-sized criminal disappeared and then reappeared behind either Yang or Blake, where she had taken advantage of their separation to deal some brutal blows to either of them.

It had soon become apparent that splitting the two of them up had only left them at Neo's mercy, thus Yang and Blake's strategy shifted towards fighting shoulder to shoulder against the ice cream themed brawler. While this produced better results, Neo was still heads and shoulders above both Yang or Blake in terms of fighting skills. The worst part of it, the absolute worst part of it was how much she reveled in it. Every time she redirected one of their blows, she'd just shrug her shoulders as if it was nothing, every attempt at flanking her met with her twisting around them, where she would have then smashed one of them into the other, before she silently laughed at the two. While it was a given that this mockery, on top of how badly this fight had gone, would have driven Yang up a wall, it had even begun to get to Blake. For the black-haired faunus, the night had been one extreme after another, one impossible peril rolled into the next. She was mentally exhausted and soon found that her patience had begun to run thin as her own expression of anger soon mirrored that of her blonde bombshell of a partner.

The worst part was that, even with Blake's anger, she had seen what Neo was doing: she hadn't dealt any direct, hard damage to Yang, instead having focused that on Blake whenever the three would scuffle. For Yang, she had just drawn her deeper and deeper into the fight and tried to tire her out as she drained her Aura while not having given her the ammunition she'd need to power up her semblance. She intended to just beat Blake into submission and then wait out Yang, until the moment would come where she could have moved in for the kill.

All the while, it became increasingly clear to RWBY that, despite the optimistic tone of their plan as it concerned breaking off to support the others, that each half of Team RWBY was tied down, hard, with their own fights. Neo had absolutely outclassed Yang and Blake while Roman had more than kept up with Weiss and Ruby.

Thankfully, the other half of the coin appeared true; Torchwick couldn't' afford to take his attention off of Ruby and Weiss lest he surrender his advantage in the fight to them. Neo, while perfectly capable of dumping Blake and Yang in favor of the other battles, seemed all too keen on just beating the two girls down before doing so, a smug, self-assured grin plastered on her face all the while.

As the black and yellow duo broke off against Neo, Blake's gaze swung towards the other fight. She soon found herself overcome by confusion when she saw that neither Josuke nor Bruno had made any significant moves towards the other. Their positions and stances had shifted, but it seemed the two Stand Users had yet to come to blows.

"Yang… she's trying to bait us out. We need to calm down and think of…" Amber eyes narrowed in slight confusion when Blake turned to look at her partner. Rather than the blind frustration and anger she expected to find, though she had seen plenty of that in Yang's lilac eyes, she saw Yang's eyes darting around the entire field. She rolled her left shoulder whenever her gaze passed by Bruno and Josuke, and, though Blake could've sworn she was mistaken, she wandered if Yang was thinking.

"Blake, we're going to charge her again… when we get close, I'm going to toss you straight up and over and you're going to pull out Gambol Shroud." Yang whispered as she cocked Ember Celica.

"Why? You've seen how fast she can take us out when we're separated. Even if I tried to rain down some bullets on her head, she'd just pop open that umbrella of hers while she kicked you around." Blake whispered back which earned her a slightly annoyed look from Yang though, tellingly, not a denial of her assessment.

"I know… that's why you're not going to bother with shooting her." Yang nodded over towards Torchwick, whose attention had long since been absorbed by Ruby and Weiss. "Josuke and Bruno have their eyes on all of us, so even if us or ice cream hair over there tried to move in, it wouldn't' be a surprise. Torchwick, however…" A sly grin formed on Yang's features, one that Blake soon matched.

"A good plan." Yang nodded and the two partners glared hard at Neo, who just yawned and beckoned them forward. With a battle cry from both, Yang and Blake charged forward towards Neo, who simply positioned her umbrella level with the ground as she got ready to smack these two around again.

Surprise momentarily surfaced on her pale features as Yang stopped to pivot towards Blake and grab her arm. Blake, for her part, jumped off the ground as Yang carried her momentum through the pivot. She swung Blake around several times before tossing her straight up into the air, Blake immediately breaking out Gambol Shroud's gun form to point down at Neo while Yang continued her bull rush.

Surprise turned into a roll of the eyes as Neo's smug expression returned, the tiny criminal popped open her umbrella and held it over her head as Neo looked ready to return Yang's attack.

She heard the sound of gunfire from above her and had been ready to hear the oh-so-satisfying ring of bullets bouncing uselessly off of her umbrella.

"Dammit!"

Pink and brown eyes went wide with surprise as Neo pulled her umbrella away and looked to see what had happened. The pint-sized criminal was dismayed to see that Torchwick had been shot, a small nicks had made it through his Aura on his arms and legs as he tried to move away from the hail of bullets being fired at him by Blake, who had begun to descend from the height of the throw.

This distraction had costed Neo quite dearly as a solid and, if Yang were in the mood for puns, quite _Yangry_ punch clocked Neo across the side of the head. The blow, backed up by a cock of Ember Celica's shotgun, sent Neo flying some odd distance and had put a small, but not insignificant, dent in her Aura.

Torchwick, meanwhile, was apoplectic. This night had been Hell, he was sick and tired of dealing with these kids and Mistrali and Stands and now, he had been shot by someone Neo should've been right on top of. With a frustrated growl, Torchwick turned the muzzle of the Melodic Cudgel towards Blake and aimed carefully.

"Ruby, now!" Was all the warning Torchwick got as he suddenly found his footing absolutely gone, the criminal mastermind of Vale forced off his feet by a layer of sheet ice that the Schnee Heiress has produced., While Torchwick was now off his feet and, effectively, at the mercy of Ruby and Weiss, his gaze focused on Ruby Rose loading up Flame Dust into her scythe as she folded it into its rifle form and took careful aim.

"Oh no, not today Red!" As Ruby prepared to squeeze the trigger Torchwick pointed the hook of his cane towards Ruby and, in a move that surprised all parties besides Neo, the hook fired out at the young huntress in training. The force of the grappling hook had been just enough to tilt Ruby's aim upward, as reflexive squeeze of Crescent Rose's trigger sent a round of Flame Dust flying up into the air.

For a moment, all eyes watched as the Flame Dust charge hit the peak of its arc and then descended, its direction putting it on a collision course with the two Stand Users.

And no one could tell exactly where the charge would land.

* * *

As the huntresses and Vale criminals fought around the two of them, the Stand Users kept their focus split; one eye on each other and one eye on the fights that had went on around them. For the both of them, the stakes of the fight had been clear; the first Stand User to slip up was the one who'd go down. It was easy to tell for Bruno that Josuke's Stand was a power-type stand, much like his own. Getting caught by it could very well mean that he and Sticky Fingers would be broken down in a matter of moments and beaten senseless. The fact that Josuke had the ability to fix anything had an added layer of concern as, for Bruno, this meant that the pompadoured teen in front of him would be able to win their struggles in any scenario where he landed a hit on Bruno, but Bucciarati couldn't finish the Frontier huntsman off. If he was going to move in, he had to do so with the absolute certainty that he'd finish this boy off in one fell swoop. Anything less and he'd lose the fight.

Similar considerations ran through Josuke's mind; Sticky Fingers was a very dangerous Stand for Josuke. While he bluffed his way into declaring Crazy Diamond could fix anything, that'd only buy him space against this mafioso for so long. The second he was injured and didn't patch himself up, the enemy Stand User would catch onto his own Stand's weakness. Fact was that even getting into melee range against this guy could spell doom for Josuke, especially if he didn't respect his Stand or his ability. One false move, one opening and Josuke would probably be reduced to a pile of bits and zippers. Josuke had to play safe, he had to play cautious because one hit from this guy that cost him a limb would have been final.

For the Stand Users, there was to be no trading, no punch rushes, no flourishes like the battle raging around them. Every movement needed to count, every punch had to be significant.

As it concerned the battles that raged around them, if Josuke or Bruno were to be caught by one side or the other in the middle of a struggle between their Stands, it could very well end the fight then and there. If Neo or Torchwick caught Josuke off guard, he'd be wide open for Bucciarati. If Team RWBY nailed Bucciarati while he wasn't paying attention, then Josuke could come in to finish.

All of this tension, all this weight was very much conveyed in the stances and movements of the two Stand Users. Careful movements, slight adjustments in their stances and slow steps taken as they closedthe distance between the two of them. All the while their Stands stayed by their side, tense and forward facing.

"Tell me, I'm curious." Bucciarati opened calmly as he took another step forward, the movement mirrored by Josuke. "Why get involved with this? This can only be your first day, no, perhaps your first hours in Vale. You don't even have any idea as to who these people are or why they're fighting. Yet here you are, risking your life in a Stand battle in which you have no stake. Why is that?"

Josuke scoffed as he shook his head slightly, as he still had never allowed Bruno or one of the other fights out of his sight for long. "What does that have to do with anything? I'm a huntsman, and a Frontier huntsman at that; the day I could fight, I swore I'd protect the Frontier and everything it cherished from anything that could threaten it."

"You see, I can understand that. I can even applaud it." Bruno admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. "They are your community, your family, and you have a duty to serve them if you can. Why here, though? Why for people you've never even met?"

"Because it's our dream. The Frontier wants our community to be more than itself. It wants to be a part of all of Remnant again." Josuke just grinned. "That means these people, even if I've never met them before, are my comrades now. They're a part of my duty to protect people as a huntsman. So, I won't back down." Josuke said with an absolute certainty, one that caused Bucciarati to raise an eyebrow. A moment later, it was Josuke's turn to be surprised as Bruno just laughed slightly. It wasn't a condescending laugh, not one laden with derision and disbelief, but one that seemed… approving?

"I have to admit, it's a sad thing you weren't born in Mistral. You would've made for a good mafioso, I think." Josuke just frowned a bit as he tilted his head to the side slightly.

"What? I'm… how would that make me a good criminal?" Bruno just chuckled slightly as he narrowed his gaze.

"If you ever spent time in Mistral, perhaps you'd see… not that you'll ever get the chance now, mind." Bruno's serious expression returned and soon Josuke sobered up as well.

Then, it happened.

"Dammit!" Roman Torchwick was heard to scream from off to the side. Josuke and Bruno watched as the fight carried on, Roman shot, Roman knocked off his feet, the criminal just barely avoiding taking a shot of Fire Dust to his aura by launching a hidden grappling hook at Crescent Rose, which sent its shot off course and right towards the two Stand Users.

Bruno and Josuke tensed, their gazes snapped towards each other. Neither so much as moved as the bullet approached, its trajectory unclear. The first to move would have surrendered the initiative and left themselves open for the other to make their move. Any action on either of their part would mean that they'd give up any and all chance of an early advantage.

So, silently, the two came to the same decision; that gravity would decide the first turn of this battle.

The Fire Dust bullet impacted the ground just a foot or so from Josuke's position and lit up like a firecracker, a burst of fire rising up from the bullet. The heat and the light hit Josuke all at once and, unwillingly, the Frontier huntsman winced as the red hot glow of the burning Dust nearly blinded him.

A silent signal went off in both the Stand Users minds.

" **[STICKY FINGERS]**!"

" **[CRAZY DIAMOND]**!"

Immediately Bruno and Sticky Fingers burst forward. The mafioso looked to take advantage of Josuke's temporary lack of sight, and thus that of his Stand's, while he could. Aiming to finish the fight right then and right there, a glow surrounded both of Sticky Fingers' hands as they made their approach.

Crazy Diamond breached the short distance in between itself and the Dust bullet rapidly and, guiding its dazed gaze using the glow of the charge and its Dust, sent a solid punch down into the middle of the inferno. The Stand's endurance and Aura had beaten back the pain and damage as its fist made contact with the remaining, crystalline elements of the Dust.

"Fix it!" Josuke's command was followed instantly by a yellow aura surrounding Crazy Diamond, one that flowed down into the Dust that surrounded Crazy Diamond's fist. Bruno flinched as he watched all the fire and Dust condense itself underneath Crazy Diamond's fist, Ruby heard shouting in surprise as an empty cartridge flew out of Crescent Rose and flew over rapidly and fitted back into place with the fixed Dust ammo.

With the red hot glow of the Fire Dust withdrawn back into the cartridge, and Josuke's vision restored, Crazy Diamond immediately reared up and placed its thumb against the primer of the cartridge, the Fire Dust charge aimed squarely at Bucciarati and his Stand.

" **DORA**!" With an audible snap, Crazy Diamond struck the primer of the cartridge, which launched the Dust right at Bucciarati.

'Hunter weapons may have gotten even crazier than the stories Jotaro told us, but it looks like their bullets work just the same.' For Josuke, Crazy Diamond had been more than just a run of the mill power-type Stand. With its ability, Josuke could manipulate and fix just about anything in the world around him in a way that suited his needs. Unlike Okuyasu, the Higashikata hadn't wasted a moment in learning the full potential of his Stand. He studied, learned whatever he could about the world around him so that, in any given situation, in any given scenario, he could use Crazy Diamond to pull an ace out of seemingly nowhere.

Heck, Josuke knew that one of the ingredients that made up asphalt was coal tar, a black, sticky substance that wasn't conductive to electricity. Would this knowledge ever come in handy? Probably not, but if there was one thing Josuke learned from his grandfather, it was better to be over prepared than caught with his pants down.

'Still, jeez, these Dust bullets pack a punch.' Crazy Diamond tossed the casing to Josuke, the pompadoured teen snapped it out of the air as the two of them charged forward towards Bucciarati. The mafioso's eyes went wide as he skid to a halt, Sticky Fingers immediately followed his actions as Bucciarati brought his Stand in between himself and the Fire Dust charge that headed right for them.

" **ARI!** " Sticky Fingers cried out as the blue and white Stand backhanded the Fire Dust charge, the Aura infused into the spirit's hand protected it from harm as it swung the Fire Dust charge over its shoulder and away from Bucciarati. The gesture, however, overcompensated and Josuke and Crazy Diamond were immediately in Sticky Fingers' face, much to Bucciarati's surprise and frustration.

" **Dora!** " A quick, solid punch to Sticky Fingers' gut caused Bucciarati to double over in some pain, as the ghost of the punch, however protected his Stand may have been, was felt by the mafioso.

'This Stand is strong indeed. I felt that punch even through Sticky Fingers' Aura. Thankfully, it appears my estimation was right; we're roughly as powerful as the other.' Bucciarati's gaze narrowed harshly as he saw Josuke and his Stand attempt to double back after the blow. However, the sheer force of the hit had tilted both Stand and Stand User forward, forcing them to fight against their momentum as they made to get away.

'They've overextended.' Bucciarati and Sticky Fingers rushed forward, intent on forcing a blow onto Josuke while he was vulnerable.

Then the Frontier huntsman, once again, surprised the mafioso.

"Fix it!" Josuke yelled, a yellow glow enveloping his hand and the cartridge within it as he threw it on the ground, to the left and front side of Bucciarati. It was only when Bucciarati saw his shadow loom larger in his vision, a red-orange glow surrounding it, that Bucciarati realized what the pompadoured teen had done.

" **[Sticky Fingers]**!" Bucciarati's Stand immediately whirled back and around, unable to react fast enough to deflect the Fire Dust charge that had hurtled back towards its cartridge with Bucciarati in the way. His Stand crossed its arms and, in a flash of flame and Dust, Sticky Fingers took the impact of the charge head on, as an explosion of heat and fire caused burns to appear across Bucciarati's skin.

Bucciarati had felt the sensation of the Dust charge as it tried to dig its way through Sticky Fingers, whatever Stand ability this boy possessed apparently made the Fire Dust charge dead set and determined to get back to its cartridge, even if it meant going straight through Bucciarati and his Stand. He ground his teeth as he could feel the flames through his Stand, while Bucciarati ducked forward and dismissed Sticky Fingers. The Dust charge immediately passed through the empty air back into its cartridge.

" **Dora!** " Immediately Crazy Diamond pressed the advantage, sending an uppercut into Brucciarati's face, which popped the Mafioso back slightly. The pink Stand grabbed Bucciarati by the hair and Josuke could feel a grin creep up onto his features. He'd played the battle as best he could and now he had the enemy Stand User right where he wanted him.

Or at least, that's how it seemed before Sticky Fingers materialized itself in between Josuke and Crazy Diamond, it's hand stretched out for Josuke's torso. The Frontier huntsman cried out in surprise as he felt the weight of something metal form on his torso. Josuke cursed under his breath: he'd overstayed while Bruno had his Stand withdrawn, he'd allowed him to be able to re-engage his Stand at the position and moment of his choosing. That Josuke had to stay so close to Crazy Diamond ensured that he'd be within Sticky Fingers' range as well.

With a growl, Crazy Diamond bodily tossed Bruno away, Sticky Fingers making a swiping motion with its arm before it disappeared once Bruno was out of range.

The sound of two objects hitting the ground echoed as Bruno Bucciarati had hit the ground several feet away.

Josuke sighed in some relief as he knelt down and picked up two halves of one of his jacket's buttons.

"Great… that was really, really close. A moment later and I'd be split right down the middle." The pompadoured teen muttered, a great deal of relief in his voice, as he quickly fixed the button and returned it to his uniform. While the Frontier huntsman would've greatly preferred to have ended the fight then and there, and thus deny the mafioso any more opportunities to do him in, Josuke would take that exchange. He'd made a few solid moves, he hadn't been seriously injured and, above all else, he'd landed several good hits on the enemy Stand User, all the while he narrowly avoided being finished off. He still wanted a quick, clean win however if he could repeat that exchange a few more times he might be able to pull this out slow and steady after all.

Josuke looked around for the Dust cartridge, having already plotted a few more uses for it to use for the next round between himself and Bruno. However, to his surprise, he saw it in Bruno's hand, his fist tightly clenched around it, as Bucciarati looked down at the cartridge.

'I knew his ability would be trouble; the power to fix anything is tremendous just on its face value.' Bruno frowned as Sticky Fingers materialized again. 'However, I severely underestimated this huntsman's ingenuity or the variety of ways he could use that ability. One bullet; one bullet that was supposed to be my advantage in the opening round, that should've put him on the back foot and he turned it right around on me.' Bruno tossed the cartridge over his shoulder to Sticky Fingers who, promptly, tossed the Fire Dust bullet far into the distance.

"Tell me huntsman, what is your name?" Bruno checked over his wounds to take account of the damage done to him. Burns, mostly on his arms but some on his torso, his stomach was sore from the blow Sticky Fingers took and he knew, for a fact, that he already had a deep bruise forming just underneath his chin. Bruno carefully cradled his jaw as he rocked it around a bit, a wince of pain accompanied the gesture.

"Higashikata Josuke." The answer was short and simple as the boy fixed his uniform, his Stand already braced again for the next round.

"Higashikata Josuke… I'll remember that." Bruno said in a grim tone as he stared Josuke down. "My name is Bruno Bucciarati. Rest assured, I won't allow you to make a move like that again, huntsman."

"Doesn't really matter what you'll allow if I force you to take it, right?" Josuke said, a slight grin on his face, as Bruno smiled slightly himself.

"I suppose so."

The fight had been close to over a few times in that exchange, but both Stand Users had come out the other side ready to continue. Armed with more information on their opponents capabilities they circled each other all while they plotted their next move.

* * *

The fight between the Stand Users had been unusual for the other participants. Used to constant movement and action, the fact that even after two minutes had passed that neither Stand User had moved much at all had come off as strange to Team RWBY and the criminals.

Then came the actual exchange. As they wastched a burst of movement, swinging of fists and use of Stand abilities that took less than forty seconds to carry out. It had been easy to see that both men had considerations on their mind, plans that they'd readied, expectations of how the fight needed to go. Then, they stopped; when the initial exchange had ended, when their first row had gone, they'd gone back to their stances, their thoughts clearly whirred behind their eyes as they planned out the next exchange. While a fight for a huntress was never brainless, there was an expectation of constant movement once the battle started; to have stopped to think would give your opponent time to take action and, potentially, the initiative.

However, RWBY had already seen what that logic did when it had been applied to facing a Stand User; rushing in, taking action for the sake of it, could be costly, even deadly. What they had witnessed was a chess match, where the person with the sharper wit and better command of his and the opponent's abilities would come out on top.

All played out with punch ghosts.

'Oh man, I wish I was recording this.' Ruby thought absentmindedly to herself, before she turned her attention back to Torchwick. Roman had managed to get himself off of Weiss' ice slick, the burst of action from the two Stand users having provided him just enough of a distraction to get himself back on his feet, even as Weiss prepared a new cartridge of Dust.

Neo recovered from Yang having slugged her in the face while she had been concerned with Torchwick, the petite criminal snarled slightly as she rubbed the now slightly red patch on her face. The blonde bombshell subconsciously rolled her left shoulder as she took in the Stand Users, even as Blake joined her back on the ground and the two partners turned their attentions back to Neo. To their surprise, Neo hadn't even turned to face either of the two huntresses, instead the tiny criminal had her eyes firmly on the Stand Users currently sat in the middle of everything. A thoughtful look had come across her face as her gaze shifted momentarily to Blake and Yang. Before long, a smug grin formed on her face as she popped open her umbrella and, confidently, strode over towards Josuke and Bruno, which immediately drew the two Stand Users attention.

"Hey! Don't think you can just ignore us!" A half furious, half-panicked yell exploded out of Yang as she rushed forward. She may not have known Josuke, but she knew that he was helping them and that they were all depending on each other. If she had just allowed Neo to walk over and join that fight, he'd have been toast. Blake soon followed up behind Yang, the two partners dead set and determined on stopping Neo.

When they were right on top of her, fist and blade ready to strike her down, she shattered into a thousand glass-like pieces. Eyes went wide as Neo was nowhere in sight for a moment, which sparked a quick panic between all of Team RWBY and Josuke.

First, Josuke noticed that Bruno immediately charged him.

Then, through Crazy Diamond, Josuke spotted Neo to his back and right, her parasol pulled back a thrusting motion. A blade suddenly popped out from the tip of the umbrella and, with a quick flourish, Neo made to stab Josuke through the back.

Josuke had been pinned in between an exceedingly skillful fighter and the rapidly approaching Sticky Fingers.

"Josuke!" Josuke heard Ruby cry out, but didn't turn his attention to see what she was doing. He had to act and he had to act now.

" **[Crazy Diamond]**!" Immediately, the pink Stand moved as fast as it could in between Josuke and Neo. As the ice cream themed criminal thrust her parasol forward, Crazy Diamond caught the blade in one hand, the other hand reared back to try to punch Neo away from Josuke. The tiny criminal smirked and fell back, in a move that just barely ducked underneath Crazy Diamond's fist, where she suspended herself by her umbrella, now firmly in the powerful Stand's grasp. With a swift flourish, Neo struck her legs out at Josuke's, the Frontier huntsman cried out in pain as the power, Aura-filled kick caught him right in back of his ankles.

The kick had sent Josuke's legs flying, the pompadoured teen effectively forced into mid-air as Crazy Diamond followed his movement. Crazy Diamond growled and pulled on the umbrella which had brought Neo closer to it, a move which had made her pink and brown eyes go wide.

" **Dora**!" The Stand's fist flew right into Neo's mouth and, though her Aura absorbed most of the blow, her head snapped back with a vicious amount of force as Crazy Diamond let go of the parasol which allowed her to go flying. With Neo dazed for the moment, Josuke hit the ground with a thud as his attention turned back to Bruno and Sticky Fingers who by this point had been right on top of the young huntsman. With his Stand preoccupied, Bruno felt that he had the perfect opportunity to end the fight and finish Josuke off.

"GAAAAH!" A spray of blood flew from Bruno's back quite suddenly as the mafioso stumbled around, a storm of rose petals intermixed with the criminal's blood. Ruby Rose, red in the face and looking exhausted, smiled slightly at Josuke even as Bruno turned his gaze towards her.

"You little…" Bruno backed off the huntress-in-training as Sticky Fingers moved in on her. Though the young huntress made a valiant attempt to hold off the enemy Stand User, the last burst of her semblance had exhausted her body, already put to the test from having traversed all the way to the highway and having fought the Atlesian Paladin. A few strikes from the blue and white Stand had sent Ruby's hand flying off, put a large hole in her side and split Crescent Rose in half, the last of which seemed to cause Ruby the most grief, as the mafioso moved in for the finishing blow.

" **DORARARARARARARARAAA!** "

Once again, Sticky Fingers was forced to withdraw as a rain of blows from Crazy Diamond sent Bruno Bucciarati flying, the mafioso's attention turned away from Josuke just long enough for the pink Stand to land its hits on him. As Ruby's body twisted in on itself do to the zipper hole left in her side, Josuke was up on his feet to help catch her, the yellow glow of his Stand's ability having had already mostly put her and Crescent Rose back together.

"Thanks for the save." Ruby said with a grin as Josuke just shrugged.

"No problem. Thanks for the save."

"No problem." Ruby returned the shrug as soon both their attentions were drawn back to Neo. The pint-sized criminal seemed to frown slightly as she ran her tongue around her mouth, a look of surprise on her face as she spat, a glob of red flying out. Pink and brown eyes narrowed dangerously as she pulled a full blade out from her umbrella. "I think you made her mad."

"I think so too." Josuke muttered as Crazy Diamond moved in, both Stand and Stand Master ready to react if Neo pulled her disappearing act with her semblance again. Suddenly, the black ribbon of Gambol Shroud flew up and around Neo's neck, the tiny criminal just rolled her eyes in response as she grabbed onto the ribbon and got ready to pull the pesky black cat to her.

A strong tug had made her choke as her eyes darted back to see Yang, her hair aglow and her eyes a dangerous red, with a hold on Gambol Shroud's ribbon and a smirk on her face.

"Told you not to ignore us." One battle cry later, Yang gave a mighty tug on the ribbon. While Neo had left her semblance little to work with, it was just enough for Yang to have been able to bodily swing Neo up and over her with Gambol Shroud's ribbon and straight into the nearby pavement, far away from Ruby and Josuke. An appreciative nod from Yang to Josuke was all that was exchanged before Blake and Yang immediately jumped on their opportunity against Neo.

"Wow your sister's pretty strong." Josuke muttered as he blinked, Ruby nodded in agreement as she smiled at him.

"Stronger than your Stand?" Josuke, despite himself, laughed a little bit as she shook his head.

"No, at least, not right now she isn't." Josuke smiled as he took a step to try and face towards Bruno. The Frontier huntsman suddenly stumbled, a gasp of pain followed as Josuke bent down, his hands reflexively flying to the back of his legs. A light touch made Josuke wince and frown as he pulled up the backs of his pant legs to reveal dark red and, in the center, purple bruises where Neo had struck him.

"Oh jeez! You really don't have Aura! W-Well it's okay, I mean, you can just fix yourself, right?" Ruby tried to reassure both Josuke and, more importantly, herself as she looked at her new friend's injury. By now, Bruno was up on his feet again, bruises formed across his face and body from the blows he'd taken from Josuke's Stand, as he looked on as well.

"Yeaaaah… about that."

Immediately, a look of realization crossed Bruno's and Ruby's face. Now, Ruby Rose may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to a lot of things, especially social interaction. Sure, she may have slept or goofed off during Port's classes and sure she may have had a tough time keeping up with Oobleck's pace, but when it came to fighting especially, Ruby Rose had a sharp, natural intelligence for the craft.

Josuke's reaction, the fact that he hadn't healed himself and the fact that he'd played his fight so defensively all immediately rolled into the young huntress and the mafioso's mind as they simultaneously came to the same conclusion.

"You can't fix yourself, can you?"

"Not at all." Josuke said with a soft chuckle as he slowly forced himself back onto his feet. "That's why I've been playing this fight so slow and so safe: if he got me at any point, I'd pretty much be done… but it seemed like he was wary of my Stand ability, so I wanted to keep up the illusion that anything but everything he could throw at once would be pointless. Looks like the cat's out of the bag now, though." Josuke muttered as Bruno's gaze narrowed dangerously, the gangster's knuckles turning white as he balled up his hands into fists.

"Y-Yeah. Want me to stick around?" Josuke just shook his head, though he smiled appreciatively at Ruby.

"Not for nothing, but with how exhausted you are he'd be able to pick you off. I'd be turning a lot of my attention away to make sure you stayed healed." Josuke kept his tone light as he said this, as he did appreciate the girl's gesture, as Ruby just nodded in understanding. "Besides, your partner could probably use a hand." Josuke nodded over to Weiss who, while pressed, was definitely holding her ground against Torchwick.

"Maybe not, but we could knock him out here and come to help." Ruby said with a smile. She blinked in surprise as Crazy Diamond grabbed onto her arm, the pompadoured teen grinned at her as he nodded over to Torchwick.

"Let me give you a hand." Ruby gave Josuke a wide grin as she nodded, her body tense as she got ready. With a quick swing, Crazy Diamond threw Ruby over toward Torchwick, a satisfied grin on the Frontier huntsman's face as Torchwick cried out in surprise at Ruby's rapid return to the battle.

Satisfaction turned to slight worry as Josuke turned back to face Bruno, the mafioso stewing slightly.

'I can't believe it. This boy, this huntsman… he bluffed me. From the start he used that display of healing the girl to show off his power. To make me worried. In the end, he couldn't heal himself.' Bruno spat off to the side, a glob of blood flying into the ground as the mafioso simmered in his frustration. 'If I had pressed the fight the entire time, I could've whittled him down little by little until he couldn't fight back. Our Stands are roughly as powerful and as fast as each other, I could've managed it. Instead, I let him guide the pace of this battle from the very beginning; a slow, defensive pace where he could figure out how to take me apart bit and bit.

'Higashikata Josuke… you're a dangerous one.' Sticky Fingers materialized in front of Bruno once more as the mafioso charged head on towards Josuke. 'But I've finally seen through your bluff. I know you can't afford to trade against my Sticky Fingers in a straight fight. I will end this…''

Josuke flinched slightly as Bruno approached. Now that the jig was up, the young huntsman wouldn't be able to keep the slow pace he needed for this fight. Bruno would rush in and he'd force trades with his Stands. If Josuke had more time, he would've been able to think of a way to fight back, to maneuver around but, as it stood, he had no plan right now and nothing in the immediate vicinity he could have turned on Bruno as a weapon.

With his ankles the way they were, he wouldn't have been able to run away quickly; if he tried to just stumble away on his own, Bruno would be on him in just a handful of seconds.

So, Josuke would have to buy time another way.

" **Dorarararararaaa!** " Crazy Diamond sent its fists flying into the pavement in front of it, chunks of stone flying up into the air as Bruno's eyes went wide with surprise.

"Fix it!" A yellow glow surrounded the stones, Bruno forced to watch as the bits of pavement melded together into a wall that formed between himself and Josuke.

"A useless gesture, but I admire your spirit Higashikata Josuke!" Sticky Fingers reached its hand forward as a zipper formed along the makeshift wall. A hole opened in the wall on Bruno's command, which he and his Stand effortlessly jumped through. Bruno grinned as he looked at Josuke, who had made it a short distance away with Crazy Diamond's help. However, rather than the look of shock and fear he expected, Higashikata Josuke appeared… thoughtful?

'So, he can use his Stand's ability on inanimate objects. Probably should've picked that up when he split that button on my uniform, but more importantly… is that his go to reaction?' Josuke thought to himself as he set Crazy Diamond to forming another makeshift wall in between himself and Bruno, the Stand and Stand User quickly hobbled away as Bruno, once again, zipped open a hole in the wall to pass through. 'It is! Rather than going around or over it, his natural inclination is to just go through it! It makes sense, it's the fastest way given his Stand's ability…'

Josuke's gaze narrowed in determination.

'I can work with this.'

" **DORARARARARARARARARARARARARARAAAAA!** " Crazy Diamond's fists went flying as fast as they could, Stand and Stand User backing up as the pink Stand pounded the ground with its fists. Bruno watched as several walls formed in a row, the distance between each short, as the mafioso continued to run forward.

'What is this? Is he just stalling for time now? Waiting for others to show up?' The distant sound of sirens range in Bruno's ears, as he was reminded that they were all on a time limit as far as how long his gang could hold off Vale's reinforcements. 'He must be getting desperate. He can't run for long and Sticky Fingers' ability ensures that I'll win our direct fights. Stalling for time his his only option now.' Bruno nodded as he raced forward towards the walls. Sticky Fingers' hands went flying as zipper after zipper was formed, Bruno and his Stand practically flew through the walls at the pace they were going as Bucciarati sought to bring Josuke to an end.

As he opened the hole into the final wall, Bruno's gaze went wide in surprise; Crazy Diamond and Josuke had stood at the very end of the wall, rather than away from it, the Frontier huntsman tall and proud with a determined look in his eyes as his Stand reared back its fists. Sticky Fingers, despite the surprise, would be able to catch the rain of blows before it could hit Bucciarati, of this Bruno had been sure.

Which had been why it was such a surprise when, rather than punch forward towards Bruno and his Stand, that Crazy Diamond instead struck the wall surrounding the zipper.

"Fix them." Josuke said impassively as a yellow glow enveloped both the wall around Bruno and the walls he was still in the process of passing through. Bruno's eyes went wide; it was an impossible feat, Josuke had only been able to fix things either he or his Stand had touched with their hands. How was he able to pull something like this off? A glance up and to his right soon gave Bruno this answer, as a chill went down his spine. All along the top-right corner of the stone walls, a brick of stone connected all of them together. Josuke had fixed the walls in such a way that he'd be able to fix them all, even after Bruno had zipped his way through them.

The zippers fell away from the walls and, at all at once, they collapsed in on him. Most simply closed up, Bruno having passed through the first few in the set, but for the walls that Bruno still found himself between-

"GAAAAGH!"

-it was another story.

Immediately they all clamped down on him like a vice, his legs and arms, and those of his Stand, caught at unusual or unnatural angles as the walls reformed around them. His cry of pain alerted the other parties to the fight, six pairs of eyes immediately fell upon the mafioso as he found himself trapped. Were it not for the immense pain he felt, having been partially crushed by these walls along with his Stand, Bruno would swear that he felt like the walls had, in part, fused with his skin which had trapped him even further. His eyes shifted to Josuke and his Stand in a panic as that thought brought the full weight of the situation fell upon him.

He was trapped.

And Crazy Diamond had been all too ready to exploit that, as it reared its fists back, its arms tightening and coiling like two springs..

" **DORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA - DORAAAAA!** "

Six pairs of eyes watched as a flurry of blows, unlike anything Crazy Diamond had yet unleashed, fell upon Bruno and Sticky Fingers. Moving just short of supersonic speeds, the rain of punches beat the mafioso and his Stand about the face and chest several dozen, if not hundreds, of times in the span of ten seconds. Josuke and his Stand's feet were locked in place unable, or perhaps better put unwilling, to move as they placed all their focus and energy into this rush of attacks as both had been dead set on finishing the fight then and there. Craters of force formed across Bruno's exposed body as bruises immediately took shape under Josuke's continued assault. Sticky Fingers did what it could to take most of the hits for its master, but little could be done in the position Stand and Stand Master had found themselves in.

Soon enough, the walls gave away under the force of Josuke's onslaught and, with the last triumphant yell of his rush, Crazy Diamond sent a powerful uppercut into Bruno's jaw, which destroyed the wall that Bucciarati had been trapped in and sent the mafioso flying through the walls behind him. Sticky Fingers placed itself behind its Stand master upon being freed to take as much of the damage through its Aura as possible, however even that left the already beaten Bucciarati with even more damage done to him.

As Stand and Stand User skid across the ground, leaving a trench in their wake, Bruno tilted his head up to look at Josuke with one eye, his other swollen shut and bruised as he watched the Frontier huntsman stand before the piles of rubble left by Bruno's flight. There was no victorious smirk, no aggrandizing and no disgust to the young man's gaze.

All that was there was the determined expression that had carried him through this last portion of the fight.

'So this… this is a Frontier huntsman.' Bruno thought to himself as he shakily forced himself into a sitting position, his body screaming in pain as he did so. 'If… if one of them we weren't warned about is this strong… how monstrously powerful is Kujo Jotaro?'

Almost immediately, Roman and Neo backed off their fights, disgruntled expressions on their faces as while Neo didn't look like she'd suffered much more than a slight scuff up thanks to her Aura, Roman had taken a few clean hits himself.

"So, there goes your plan and your bonus there 'my friend'. Got any bright ideas for getting us out of here?" Roman asked dismissively as Bruno just stared at the gathered huntresses and huntsman, Team RWBY gathering around Josuke as the two sides stared each other done. Bruno sighed as he reached down into his pocket and pulled out his scroll.

"Get us up to the highway, our ride should be able to arrive shortly." Roman and Neo nodded as the two looked over at the gathered group of teens.

"Well… I can't say it was a pleasure extending our little stay. Red, WBY… you…" Roman seemed to stumble as he pointed towards Josuke, the pompadoured teen just growled slightly as he tried to take a step forward, only for his ankles to finally give out underneath him, though he was caught by Ruby before he could hit the ground.

"I think we'll call this round a draw. Hopefully she won't chew me out this time…" Roman muttered the last part underneath his breath. Yang held herself back from charging forward like last time, the blonde huntress having known better after having gone toe-to-toe with Neo and Bruno. Before long, the three shattered into a shower of broken glass and disappeared before the gathered huntresses and huntsman's eyes.

The five teens looked up and saw Bruno, Neo and Roman standing on the side of the highway, joined by four other figures. The sound of sirens became clearer and clearer but, before more police could show up, an airship pulled around and dropped ropes for the various criminals to climb up and, finally, make their getaway.

"Well… that could've gone worse." Blake muttered slightly as she ran a hand through her hair. Despite her choice of words, it was clear that the black haired faunus hadn't been sarcastic, for once.

"Yeah, no kidding. Between pipsqueak and zippers that fight could've been a nightmare." Yang unconsciously reached for her left shoulder, as the blonde bombshell smiled slightly and turned to face Ruby and Josuke. "Guess we got Ruby's new friend to thank for that." As the tension had begun to dissipate, Josuke smiled as he thanked Ruby and turned to be able to face her and her entire team.

"It isn't a problem. Helping people is a huntsman's job, right?" The pompadoured teen said as he bowed slightly, a gesture which surprised the four teen aged girls. Before long, Josuke stood back up, as straight as he could given his rough footing, as he smiled at Ruby. "Hey, Ruby, shouldn't you actually introduce us now that the fighting's over?" Ruby went red in the face as Josuke said this, the teenage leader flustered as she rapidly nodded her head.

"Oh! Right! Of course, sorry! Guys, this is Higashikata Josuke, first name Josuke, weird right, and he's from Morioh in the Frontier!" Josuke laughed a bit at Ruby's babbled introduction, her team smiling at the socially awkward girl's antics as Josuke just waved.

"It's great meeting you all. Wish it could be under better circumstances." Josuke chuckled as the rest of Team RWBY nodded in full agreement.

"This is my sister Yang, her partner Blake and my partner Weiss." Ruby quickly went through the ranks of Team RWBY, pointing out each member as she said their name.

"Yo."

"Hello there."

"It's… a pleasure to meet you."

The three huntresses spoke, practically in order of how Ruby had introduced them, as a mix of expressions we worn on each of their faces; a friendly grin from Yang, a neutral smile and nod from Blake and a cautious, but not hostile, look from Weiss, as if something in the back of her mind had been bothering her.

"And we're-" As Ruby prepared to triumphantly call out her Team's name in the face of the victory, she was interrupted.

"In a bit of trouble, I think." All five teens were caught off guard as they turned their heads up towards the highway system and saw, of all people, Ozpin standing there, Miss Goodwitch just off to his side. In Ozpin's hands was a megaphone, which helpfully hid whatever expression was on his face while, even from the distance she stood away from them, Team RWBY had _felt_ Glynda's disapproving look. Hanging in the air just above the two teachers were a handful of small airships, sirens going as they landed on the highway system to take in the damage.

Josuke blinked at the surprise arrival of these strangers as he turned to look at his fellow huntresses, only to find nervous expressions on all of their faces as they laughed weakly. Suddenly, the remains of the Atlesian Paladin behind them burst into flames, the sight already adding to the apparent carnage of the battle that had raged mere moments ago.

"Wow… that thing sure took a while to explode." Blake said softly as she, distantly, saw Glynda's gaze harden even more, causing the amber eyed Faunus to sigh slightly.

"At least it can't get any worse, right?" Weiss asked with a slight chuckle, as all five teens nodded in agreement. That was, until Yang sniffed the air a couple times.

"Hey, Ruby, why do you smell like a dumpster?"

"Wait, that was you the entire time, Ruby?"

"Hahahaha… Funny thing about that Josuke… uhhh... Darn it Yang…"

 **-To be Continued- Crazy Diamond (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Higashikata Josuke**

 **Stand Name: [Crazy Diamond]**

 **Destructive Power: A**

 **Speed: A**

 **Range: D (2 meters)**

 **Lasting Power: B**

 **Precision: B**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Restoration: [Crazy Diamond's] unique ability is to restore or revert objects or organisms to any previous state in their history. It can repair damage, heal injury, revert chemical changes and complex structures to their raw components (e.g. a table into its constituent timber). It may also fuse objects, such a person with a rock. If this ability is used while Josuke is in a foul mood, its target may be warped, improperly restored. [Crazy Diamond] cannot heal its master, retrieve things destroyed under certain means or restore life to an organism.**

 **Often times, the limit of Josuke's ability with [Crazy Diamond] is only in so far as the limit of Josuke's knowledge or imagination. By knowing the makeup of things around him, Josuke can guide the restorative powers of his Stand to create that substance, fix and fuse things together into new shapes and otherwise change objects to suit his needs.**

 **Also Known As: Really could've used you in Part Six, Josuke**

 **Also Known As: HEROES NEVER DIE!**

* * *

 **Stand battles are fun. A review of the last chapter really described them best when it described them as chess matches. Unlike a lot of other Shonen (or would be Shonen) series where often times the name of the game is 'my bullshit is stronger than your bullshit' after Part 3, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure heavily skewed away from levels of power determining the course of a fight and focused far more instead on the increasingly unique and memorable abilities of various Stands. Even incredibly powerful Stands could be brought low by Stands that are seemingly innocuous or useless if their abilities are used well; Harvest and Super Fly come immediately to mind. Araki is really skilled at writing these sorts of fights and the thoughtful and clever nature of JoJo's battles are part of what makes the story so gosh-darn memorable and great.**

 **Which is why I don't particularly like the canonicity of FTL Stands.**

 **Yes, last chapter there was a bit of a buzz of worry in the reviews about my having written that Ruby Rose's semblance would make her faster than Crazy Diamond. I figure this is bound to come up more often in the future as I have planned around this, so I might as well get right to the root of it. I don't like the FTL nature of some Stands. For me, some of the most boring fights in Part 3 were ones where, more or less, 'punch harder and faster' was the solution. The idea that a Stand can move faster than light just because it's part of a category of Stands just messes with those fights in my mind because, in a lot of cases, Araki has to write around those capabilities by outright ignoring them (recall the not particularly FTL knives that Jotaro got hit with courtesy of Dio Brando, or the not particularly FTL High Priestess which was able to dodge and avoid Star Platinum's blows even while outside of metal. Or, how about this one: remember when Jotaro and Star Platinum got punked by a rat? That was everyone's favorite moment to laugh at because of how ridiculous it was). That inconsistency takes me a bit out of the fights because** _ **they are literally faster than light**_ **. No fight should be a problem under those circumstances unless it's with similarly fast Stands.**

 **You know who seems to agree with me on this score? Araki himself. Even aside from the number of times where Star Platinum or Silver Chariot's apparent FTL capabilities gets ignored in Parts 3 or Part 4, the entire series really seems to do its best to walk away from Stands having a base ability to go FTL after Part 3. We can only infer that Crazy Diamond is FTL because of its first fight with Star Platinum, which could be interpreted as Jotaro just being caught off guard and out of shape after years of not actually fighting, in all of Part 4 only Red Hot Chili Pepper is specifically outed as a Stand capable of moving faster than light and only while it's moving as electricity as part of its Stand Ability (otherwise, it's vulnerable to even The Hand) and the fastest Stand in Part 4 aside from those two is Echoes Act 3, whose big act of speed isn't light speed, but rather, supersonic speeds. Star Platinum is written out of Part 5 entirely and the only other FTL Stand established beforehand in the series has its Stand User** _ **literally crippled and then turned into a turtle**_ **while none of the Gang or even King Crimson seem to move at or beyond light speeds. Part 6 does have Made in Heaven, but it's specific to its ability which is moving infinitely fast. Star Platinum?**

 **Jotaro's put into a fucking coma.**

 **You know, that thing you do to characters when you want them out of the story for a while so that other characters can have the spotlight. Or when their actors are getting a little too pissy about pay in the case of Soap Operas.**

 **Part 7 onward none of the Stands really have FTL capabilities. You can argue with Tusk Act 4 that its Infinite Spin is effectively this, but even then, the speed of the Infinite Spin is hardly the focus. In fact, the base stats of Stands in Part 7 and 8 is far from the focus in pretty much all of these cases. The focus is their increasingly weird abilities and how creatively they get used.**

 **And I love it.**

 **Don't get me wrong, some of Star Platinum's fights will always hold a special place in my heart for one reason or another: some of them are the most fun in the series. But none of them are really my favorite or what I would consider the most well done. As of right now, my favorite that's been animated is, unsurprisingly, Josuke vs Kira. That's a great fight that plays to the strengths of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It also features another instance of Araki specifically doing what he can to keep Jotaro and Star Platinum out of a fight:**

" **Hmm, this rain sounds like Josuke screaming."**

 **So, when I was outlining and designing the background and crossover universe for this story, I ended up coming to the FTL problem pretty early. My options were varied: I could not do anything about it and play the FTL thing like Araki did: straight when the plot calls for it but ignoring it when I need to for the sake of the plot. I'd find this boring and tedious and I imagine you all would with time too. I could just ignore it entirely and just not address it one way or the other which would be unsatisfying to me. The last option was just to fix this and reel everything back in: certain Stands can move at Light Speed or FTL speeds because that's a part of their ability (Red Hot Chili Pepper as an example, Made In Heaven as another) but otherwise, A-Rank Speed stands very from the under supersonic threshold (Crazy Diamond) to beyond the supersonic threshold (Star Platinum, Echoes Act 3) but nowhere near Light Speed. In this instance, because Ruby's semblance lets her pull off a feat similar to Echoes Act 3 (moving so fast that it changed the air pressure around them and let them throw around objects like it was nothing) then I put Ruby's semblance up there in terms of speed.**

 **Stands will make an impact on this story: their powers are too diverse, too unpredictable and too, well, Bizarre not to. Their abilities and their basic stats should be what make them powerful. I wouldn't make this crossover if I didn't intend for Stands to have a big role or if I intended them to be overshadowed. However, I also didn't want semblances to be overshadowed by something that, even if canon, I find kinda boring and tedious. Taking out some the inconsistencies in Araki's writings while also injecting a little JoJo logic into semblances sounded fun to me.**

 **Honestly, you'd think that having an antagonist Stand User rip Yang's arm off and nearly finish her off would keep these concerns from showing up. But hey, it's understandable: messing with canon concepts is a risky gamble sometimes. I think this'll pay off and it's enough of an issue for me that I want to get elbow deep in it and mess around with it. \**

 **Anyway, I'm glad you all have been enjoying the story and have an excellent weekend.**


	6. Crazy Diamond (Act 2)

Interrogation Room, City of Vale, Some Odd Hours Later

Each member of Team RWBY, save Weiss, had found themselves in this room before. In a building towards the east end of Vale, in the portion of the city nearest Beacon Academy, with no windows and only a single hanging lamp as a light source, the room had housed three of the four members of the team at varying points before the first semester, during it and, well, now. Yang had been the first to come after her first show of force at Junior's club, The Club, Ruby had been invited both after her first interaction with Torchwick at the Dust store robbery and after she had gone to the docks to help Blake and Blake, well, she'd been invited after the dockyard incident.

Though perhaps 'invited' was a bit too light of a term.

"So this is your third time here Ruby?" Weiss asked concerned as she looked around what she had surmised to be an interrogation room, the leader of the team nodded as she scratched the back of her head.

"Heh, yeah… you think after the fourth visit they'll give me more free cookies?" The leader tried to lighten the mood of the room, but the unimpressed looks from the rest of her team, even her sister, sobered the girl up a bit.

For once, they weren't immediately joined by anyone; neither Ozpin or Glynda had stuck around after they delivered the four huntresses to the room. The reason why was also the reason why none of the four girls found themselves in a particularly good mood.

Higashikata Josuke, the Frontier huntsmen who'd helped them in their fight against Torchwick, Neo and Bruno Bucciarati, as the girls had learned was his name, had been taken for a 'short trip' to the hospital to check out the bruising on the backs of his legs. Having no Aura to protect himself with, the simple kick had the potential to do quite the number on Josuke, which meant he needed to be checked out immediately. A sense of guilt and dread built up in the four huntresses while they were stuck in this room. Although it was clear by now that Stand power gave Josuke and his kind considerable room to maneuver when it came to being physically fit, as a hunter such an injury did have the potential to put him out of commission for a while if serious enough. After all, even if he could depend on Crazy Diamond, if the hit to the back of his legs were serious enough they could impede his ability to move around for a while. Josuke had a hard time running away from Bucciarati during their fight and simple act of walking had been a chore for the young man.

Add to all that the fact that he had been hurt because he decided to step in and help them out, without knowing them or without being forced, it had made the four girls, good people all told, feel slightly terrible. If he ended up out of commission because he decided to jump in they couldn't help but shoulder some of that guilt.

They were all alerted to some footsteps outside their room and all snapped their heads to the side when the door cracked open.

"Wow, you Four Kingdom folk have some pretty great hospitals. Certainly makes the one in Morioh look backwards by comparison."

Almost immediately, the friendly, reassuring grin of Higashikata Josuke set the girls consciences at ease, as the young man, with only the slightest wavering, walked himself into the room and towards an empty chair.

"Josuke! You alright?" Ruby practically jumped when her friend entered the room, Ozpin soon followed him in as he walked towards the other side of the table. The Headmaster was mostly ignored in favor of their fellow huntsman, which was fine by Ozpin's reckoning. Having seen these two divergent groups as they already acted in such a friendly manner had put the Headmaster at some ease, worried about how the Frontiersmen would assimilate into the broader Beacon community. If Josuke had already made friends with some of his more… interesting first years, it boded well.

"Yeah, great actually. The doctors worked me over pretty good; they said I don't have anything fractured down there and that the bruising should go down real quickly if I apply this stuff to it. Even gave me some pills for the pain." Josuke pat down one of his uniform pockets as he sat down, a slight sigh of relief escaped his lips as he did so. He may have felt better than during the trip over to the hospital, but he was still sore and the weight off his feet felt really, really good.

"Glad to hear it, would've sucked if you were put up for a while on your first day here, Josuke." Yang said with an easygoing grin as she leaned back in her chair. After everything that had been said and done that night between him fighting with them, her sister apparently having already made fast friends with him because, oh yeah, having ensured she wouldn't have had to walk around with a stump Yang had warmed considerably to the pompadoured teen. Blake just nodded in slight agreement, along with Weiss, as the two were still cautious, though optimistically so, about the new transfer student. They both still held reservations about this Frontier they'd heard about, both from inherent cultural assumptions they held, one faunus and one Atlesian.

Still, after everything, they had been more than willing to roll the dice and give Josuke a chance.

"I'm kinda surprised though; I figured you Four Kingdoms folk and your Auras would take care of stuff like this. Didn't think you all would have such a great hospital if you wouldn't really need it."

"Not everyone in the Four Kingdoms has their Aura unlocked, Mr. Higashikata. A lot of people have to get by on the medicine that can be provided thanks to Dust and advancing technology coming in from Atlas. Besides, even those of us with our Auras unlocked can find ourselves in deep trouble if we're injured severely enough while our Auras are exhausted or if we fall ill." Ozpin stepped in to answer for the four huntresses, which drew attention to him.

"I see, that makes a lot of sense. I'm still learning about a lot of stuff around here, so sorry if explaining all this has been annoying, Headmaster Ozpin." The two having been introduced while Ozpin escorted Josuke to the hospital, the pompadoured teen was immediately aware of the importance of the man before him. An appreciative bow from his waist was met with a slight chuckle from Ozpin, who waved the young man off.

"Mr. Higashikata, please, you don't have to be quite so formal. While I am your host, I don't expect you to humble yourself so thoroughly every time you open your mouth to speak to me. Besides, I'm a teacher by trade, Mr. Higashikata. Teaching the young, especially those who've never had the opportunity to learn about my home, is something I take great joy in." Team RWBY smiled at the interaction, less from the spiel that they'd all heard Ozpin say at one point or another in the previous semester or beyond, than for Josuke's at first surprised and then quite pleased expression.

"That's really quite nice of you Headmaster, I appreciate it." The pompadoured teen sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he spoke, a small smile on Ozpin's face as he took a sip from his cup of coffee.

"Hardly an issue at all, Mr. Higashikata. Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, I think we should get right down to business so that you all can get back to Beacon as soon as possible." When Ozpin lowered the cup of coffee, the good natured smile had departed and the more serious, stone-faced Ozpin had made his return. Immediately the five teens straightened up, as if feeling the atmosphere shift in the room around them, as Ozpin weaved his fingers together and leaned forward.

"I have to admit, after last semester I had hoped that you four would have waited a little while before becoming the source of another major news story in Beacon. The fight at the dockyard, while played into our favor thanks to some of you helping to stop Roman's efforts that night, was a rather… big scene, considering the damage done.

"I appreciate that you all took the fight off of the highway and down beneath it… eventually." Ozpin rubbed the bridge of his nose as the four members of team RWBY just chuckled nervously. "An Atlesian Paladin stomping down the highway, knocking cars out of its way and causing huge amounts of damage in property and inflicting quite a few injuries to innocent civilians is one story in and of itself; the fact that we can add six hunters, two of which are transfer students, as having been spied accepting that fight on the highway is a bit more troublesome.

"I understand the fact that you four didn't have control over where Torchwick took the fight at first and that you did what you could to move it somewhere safer. However, the fact remains that four huntresses from Beacon Academy once again, without the knowledge of the staff, the Headmaster or the visiting General Ironwood, caused quite the scene. That's not even getting into the three strangers who later occupied the highway after you all took your fight underneath it. Reports are pouring in about a very strange set of sights on the highway: a purple man who viciously destroyed vehicles, where the poor policemen or soldiers who'd approach would immediately begin to melt into nothing, a Great War Era aeroplane that managed to out fly and outgun several Atlesian and Vale airships and one lone man with a revolver that was capable of out shooting groups of officers and soldiers many times his own number with just six bullets at a time."

"You can't really blame us for those three though can you? We never even met those guys face to face." Weiss offered with some worry, as the rest of Team RWBY and Josuke nodded.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming you all for any of this. Regardless of whether you four were on the scene, Roman Torchwick was up to something and something big. In my opinion and, even if James would be reluctant to admit it, Ironwood's opinion is that it worked out for the better that you four, or some combination of you four, were on the scene to not only gather information on what he was up to but to also disrupt him. The loss of an Atlesian Paladin will not be easy for a criminal like Torchwick to absorb.

"However, the governing council wants to know that we at Beacon have things under control and that our students aren't going off to participate in dangerous activities without our knowledge. It keeps us too... unaccountable, I believe was the way they phrased it, if you all just keep running off without our foreknowledge." There was a slight undercurrent to Ozpin's voice that might've been mistaken for amusement had Team RWBY or Josuke thought to recognize it as such. Instead, Josuke just cautiously raised his hand, which Ozpin couldn't help but laugh at. "Mr. Higashikata, you don't have to ask my permission to ask a question."

"Ah, right…" Josuke said as he scratched the back of his head. "I just don't understand why you're going through hoops like this, Headmaster." Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the way Josuke phrased that, which also drew RWBY's attention. "I mean, Ruby is the leader of a Team of hunters. Sure the situation turned out more dangerous than they might've bargained for and informing their superiors would've helped to ensure they weren't out on a limb on their own, but they were only responding to a threat they saw as immediate." Ozpin nodded in understanding after Josuke explained what he meant.

"You have to understand Josuke, just because these girls are, for the most part, your seniors doesn't mean that they have the same responsibilities or freedoms you would in the Frontier."

"What?!" All four members of Team RWBY snapped their heads towards Josuke, who just blinked in surprise along with Ozpin.

"What?" Josuke asked curiously, as the four girls pointed at him.

"You're younger than us?"

"You're younger than them?"

"Oh! Yeah, I'm sixteen. You're all seventeen, except for Ruby, right? That's when you all get accepted to these fancy academies." Josuke scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I guess I really don't look it, do I?"

The four girls blinked in surprise as they took this information in. Josuke may have only been as tall as Jaune, but the pompadoured teen carried himself with an assuredness and easy confidence that made him seem more mature than he was, an impression that was only further solidified with his command of himself and the situation around him during their fight with Torchwick, Neo and Bucciarati. Combined with how tall and broad he was, he cut the figure of a young man rather than a teen still in the middle of his teenaged years.

For Ruby, it was even more of a surprise. She figured Josuke was a few years older than her, maybe around Team CFVY's age or older. Not just because of his physical traits but also because of what he told her about his responsibilities in the Frontier. So many missions, so much work he was expected to do; she could more easily understand it if he was good few years older than her. In a place like the Frontier that Oobleck and Josuke described, it seemed natural for hunters to be trained a little younger than in Vale.

But he wasn't that much older than her at all! Far from it, he was a only year older than her! How early did they start!?

Before they could roll into their next set of questions, Ozpin intervened on Josuke's behalf.

"You all can bombard our exchange student with questions later. For now, I do believe I was answering his own, more pertinent question." The Headmaster's calm, even tone brought the conversation back to its previous focus. "So, yes, they may be your seniors but the training they go through isn't as early as it is in the Frontier. They aren't considered adults yet and they certainly aren't considered full-fledged huntresses. I'm sure students are expected to stick very close to the orders and presence of their mentors in Morioh, correct?"

Josuke nodded slowly as he bit his bottom lip, thoughts clearly whirred around in his head before he spoke. "If that's the case and they've already done stuff like this before Headmaster Ozpin… why was it so easy for them to do it again today?"

That question caused an air of silence to hang in the room, as even Team RWBY looked at Ozpin expectantly for an answer. For Ozpin himself, it was quite the surprise to see Josuke pierce right to the heart of the matter so easily.

"Well, you must understand Josuke that, except for these incidents, these four girls are upstanding students. Miss Schnee here is at the top of her class in academics along with Miss Belladonna. Miss Xiao Long is at the top of her class in fighting and Miss Rose scores high in many regards and has proven to be a most apt and responsible team leader. They all have, mostly, clear behavioral records. So the school would prefer it if such model students could be trusted on their word rather than having to extensively watch over them. Does that make sense?"

Underlying Ozpin's words he'd left a subtle notion; 'I don't want to have to restrict them, but if people push like this I might have to'. He didn't expect the young man to pick up on it, rather he expected him to follow in Team RWBY's steps; nod along in understanding and accept the answer at its face value.

Which was why when Josuke gave him that look, Ozpin was quite surprised.

Brow furrowed down that caused a slight crease to appear above his brow, eyes narrowed in focus, a frown that tugged at the corners of his lips. Josuke whirled the answer around in his head and, judging by the expression on his face, he wasn't entirely satisfied with it, in one way or another. Ozpin almost chuckled at the sight; Kujo Jotaro had given him a not too dissimilar look when he'd explained the situation before running off to gather his students. Although, Jotaro's frown had a bit more of an annoyed scowl to it than Josuke, who merely seemed confused.

In fact, upon closer inspection, Ozpin picked up on more than a few features Josuke and Jotaro seemed to share.

'Interesting… Mr. Kujo didn't mention anything about himself and Josuke being related.' Ozpin let the thought go as, after a brief moment of hesitation, Josuke's expression relaxed back into his usual, genial demeanor.

"Yeah, I guess I get it." He didn't, that much was clear to the bespectacled Headmaster immediately, but he dropped it out of courtesy to his host. The Headmaster of Beacon nodded in satisfaction either way, as he took another sip of his coffee.

"At any rate, for the reasons I explained to Mr. Higashikata and for the fact that you all did indeed successfully disrupt Torchwick's operations again, you won't face any serious repercussions… despite what Miss Goodwitch might feel is necessary." A slight grin formed at the corners of Ozpin's mouth as he watched Team RWBY collectively shudder. Josuke didn't seem to quite understand, which was understandable; Ozpin had seen to it that Glynda would escort the team to these chambers before going off to join James in clearing these matters up while Ozpin had taken the issue of getting Josuke hospitalized into his own hands, as a chance to familiarize himself with the foreign team leader. Josuke hadn't yet had the… pleasure of making Glynda's acquaintance.

Not that first impressions would be good, given that Josuke had very much risked himself in the same manner as Team RWBY, but what could you do.

"Speaking of, Headmaster." Blake spoke up suddenly as she leaned forward, a worried expression on her face. "I don't know about the others, but I have some information to share about Torchwick and his operation concerning these… Stands." This seemed to perk up the other teens' attention as they turned focus to Blake.

"While I'll certainly want to hear what you have to report Miss Belladonna, I'd like to wait until we're all here before you begin. That way, we won't have to waste your time by forcing you to repeat what you have to say over and over again." Eyebrows raised in curiosity as Ozpin looked over to Josuke. "James and Glynda are busy putting out some fires for myself and the governing council of Vale as it concerns the events of tonight, but Mr. Kujo will be joining us."

"Oh, Jotaro's coming?" Josuke asked curiously as, suddenly, the door to the room cracked up.

"Indeed." A stern, deep voice spoke out, which drew all eyes to the door. Team RWBY immediately gawked as one Kujo Jotaro walked into the room. Once again, while they'd seen men just as tall or even taller than Jotaro, the way the man carried himself made him seem just that much larger than life as he strode into the room and, after he offered a nod to Josuke, took a seat nearby.

"Josuke. I see you didn't listen to me when I asked you not to get into any sort of trouble your first day here." Jotaro tone didn't betray any sort of levity or sarcasm that Team RWBY could tell, the experienced Frontier huntsman seemed quite serious to the four huntresses. Which was why it came as a small bit of surprise to them when Josuke just smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

"Well you can't exactly blame me, can you Jotaro? Unknown Stand users are a big concern for the Frontier and it isn't something I could exactly leave alone." The pompadoured teen had said in a tone that came off as placating, which seemed to do little to visibly affect Jotaro's mood. The larger man looked at Josuke for a few moments before, eventually, the stern facade shifted somewhat into a slightly annoyed one.

" **Yare yare** , I knew you wouldn't…" Jotaro muttered the sentence under his breath, but in this confined room, it was still loud enough for most people to hear it. Whether Jotaro paid that fact any mind at all was unknown.

"Huh? What exactly do you mean by that, Jotaro?" Josuke asked, a confused expression clear on his face, as Ozpin coughed into his fist slightly.

"Mr. Higashikata, this meeting will be covering some pretty sensitive topics, perhaps-"

"It's fine, Ozpin." Jotaro interrupted the Beacon Headmaster, the huntsman tipped the rim of his hat lower as he turned to look to Josuke. "Josuke, the Frontier has been aware of the possibility of Stand activity in Vale for a month or so now. In fact, we have every reason to believe that a couple of arrows have been brought into the city."

"What?" Josuke seemed more stunned than anything else, his jaw unhinged and his eyes wide as he took in this information. "Wait, we've known about this before coming here to Vale? You knew about this, Jotaro?" The pompadoured teen sought clarification, as if hoping there was some misunderstanding, as Jotaro just nodded.

"Polnareff has been keeping an eye on a group of Stand users in Mistral that we're certain have a series of arrows in their possession. Their numbers have been too great and too concentrated for the Frontier to do anything about it in the time that we've known about them. However, recently this group has been in contact with the criminal element in Vale. While we haven't been able to directly confirm a trade, it seemed natural that one of the items that'd get exchanged in this contact would be one of or more of the arrows." Jotaro said simply, as Josuke's face slowly shifted into a slightly peeved one.

"I see. Jotaro, if you all knew about this, why wasn't I informed? Heck, why weren't Okuyasu or Koichi informed before coming here? This was something we could've known about before making our decision." Jotaro arched an eyebrow as he looked at Josuke, an almost curious expression on his face.

"Would the knowledge have kept you from coming here to participate in the Vytal Festival, Josuke?"

"Of course not!" Team RWBY seemed surprised by the agitated tone in Josuke's voice; it was clear that Jotaro was some kind of direct superior to Josuke in their society, if his manner of dress, the respectful way the conversation started and the apparent age gap between the two was concerned. The four huntresses couldn't imagine any of them taking a tone like that with Ozpin. Yet, Josuke seemed to just roll with it. "If we'd known something like this was up, there wouldn't have been any question in my mind or there's about coming… or, even less of a question, in their cases." Josuke said with a bit of a stumble, as Jotaro just nodded slightly.

"That's why we didn't say anything, Josuke." Josuke seemed legitimately stunned by Jotaro's words and tone as he spoke, the pompadoured teen leaned back in his chair as he watched the man who mentored him in how to use his own Stand sigh in annoyance. "The Frontier didn't want you three to get involved with this business in Vale, so we kept you in the dark as best we could. You all are hunters, adults by right and most of all you're a team leader Josuke. You all have every prerogative in deciding whether or not to involve yourselves in matters that threaten the Frontier or our charges. We knew that you'd jump on board with with matter the moment you knew because, hell, that's the kind of man you are Josuke."

"... Jotaro. Do you all not trust us to be able to handle this? What, is it too important for a team of rookie huntsmen to be involved with? Is that it?" The entire gathered was surprised by Josuke's tone which, rather than angry, frustrated or bitter, seemed legitimately dismayed. Jotaro gave Josuke a long, hard look before he just shook his head.

"Josuke, you and your team have proven yourselves to be able huntsmen. We wouldn't have let you all come to Vale to represent the Frontier in the Vytal Festival if we had any less than the utmost faith in your all's abilities as hunters." Jotaro said firmly, as if he sought to immediately dash any doubt that was in Josuke's mind before he continued. "However, as important as this Stand business is for the Frontier, it doesn't undermine how vital the Vytal Festival is for the Frontier too.

"The Vytal Festival is the chance the Frontier has been waiting for Josuke. Our time to come back out to the rest of Remnant, our chance to show that we're ready to rejoin the rest of humanity in living and working together to fight the Grimm. A chance that Morioh can finally be more than a fortress under siege by the Grimm. It's the dream Josuke, and when we were considering whether or not to tell you and your team about this other business, we decided it was better to hope you wouldn't learn about it before Vytal."

"Kind of optimistic there Jotaro, all things considered. If other Stand Users are here, you know we'd end up running into them sooner rather than later." The absolute certainty of that statement from Josuke caught Team RWBY off guard, yet before they could seek clarification, Josuke barreled through. His doubt was removed, but now he seemed annoyed again. "Did you all think we'd just ignore everything about the Vytal Festival in favor of this? Jotaro, my team understands how important it is that we integrate ourselves here, that we take these classes, get to know these other students from all these Academies and, yeah, fight in the tournament. I don't see why you think we'd just-"

"If something happened to you…" Jotaro cut off Josuke, a surprised expression on the pompadoured teen's face as the sharply dressed huntsmen just sighed and tipped his hat lower. "If anything happened to you three because of this investigation, if it kept you all from participating or, Brothers forbid, got any of you killed, then that'd be it. The Frontier's hopes and dreams would be pushed back for another couple years or longer. We didn't want to risk some of our best huntsmen, especially while they're under such an important assignment… and we certainly didn't want to risk the despair that might hang over Morioh if something were to happen.

"You know what kind of risk we'd be at if something so negative were to impact the Frontier all at once, Josuke."

'The Grimm.' The thought immediately rang out through Ozpin and the huntresses as they took Jotaro's words to considerations. Even the more skeptical of Team RWBY were able to immediately envision the consequences; the Grimm were attracted to human misery and negativity like moths to the flame. If something so horrible were to happen and get back to Morioh it could spell disaster for the community.

Josuke's head was dipped down, his pompadour obscuring his features slightly. Before long, the young man sighed and looked up, a small grin on his face.

"Jotaro… I get it. I'm sorry if I got a little upset there, but I was really worried there. You've been there for my team for a long time, hell you're my mentor and my superior, so the thought that you couldn't depend on us just… well, it sucked." Jotaro nodded in understanding before Josuke continued. "I get how important this all is, I understand what's at stake. Trust me, I wouldn't do anything that would endanger the Frontier's big chance. However, Jotaro, you have to know that I wouldn't… that I can't just sit by while something like this threatens the Frontier and our host Kingdom like this. It's not the kind of huntsman I was trained or raised to be." Josuke gave a cheeky grin as he laughed slightly. "Face it Jotaro; you all trained me too well and I was raised too well." The other occupants of the room couldn't help but smile at the levity that was brought back into the room, a sense of relief swept over them after the previous swings in emotion. Jotaro, for his part, appeared unmoved and still as stoic as he'd ever been.

" **Yare yare** , I know." Even that was broken as Jotaro shook his head, a slight grin on his face. Josuke looked expectantly at Jotaro, an expectant grin still on the team leader's face as Jotaro just nodded. "Alright Josuke. If you swear to me, here and now, that whatever you and your team finds out you'll report to me, I'll make sure your team is up to date on anything we know. However, your original assignment takes precedent: you all help with the investigation when you actually have a lead… don't ignore the opportunity you were brought here to nurture in the first place"

Josuke grinned from ear to ear as he nodded, this little bit of validation perked the young man up in a way that even got Ozpin a little uplifted. For Team RWBY, it was a sight of what it was like between true hunters, even if one of them was their own age; a sense of comradery and respect that they, as students, had yet to get a full taste of. Whereas they struggled within the system to get what information they could and to get out and investigate tonight, here was Josuke who'd just gotten the go ahead to be informed, to be apart of this and to be able to give his all in this affair.

"Of course, Jotaro!"

"Well, I suppose that's settled then and, in that case, everyone who needs to be here, is." Ozpin said with a nod as he turned his head to Blake. "Miss Belladonna, what exactly was it that you found out while at this White Fang recruitment drive?"

"Well…" For the next several minutes, Blake filled everyone in on what she found out. Weiss, Yang and Ruby, not having found out anything quite so substantial or immediate, kept silent on their own ventures for tonight as Blake went into detail about Torchwick, Bucciarati and the events of the rally. As she finished up, Josuke and Jotaro each had grim expression on their face, as Jotaro just shook his head.

"By the sounds of it, this Bucciarati fellow was speaking about the Test of The Arrow. On the one hand, this is better news than we hoped; it seems like the arrows haven't been here in Vale long, so there shouldn't be many Stand Users yet… on the other hand, who knows how many have already been put through the test this evening alone."

"Uhh… yeah." Ruby spoke up, which drew attention to the young team leader. The silver-eyed girl squeaked slightly, before she powered through. "You've been mentioning these arrows a few times now, Josuke, Jotaro. What exactly are they and what exactly is this test?"

"Ah, sorry, this is just such common knowledge in the Frontier I guess I forgot to say anything for your all's benefit." Josuke said apologetically, before he continued. "Well, to keep it brief, these arrows are effectively Stand arrows: if you get pierced by one, your Aura will be immediately shaped or reshaped to unlock your Stand and a great deal of its potential immediately. As you probably gathered from what Blake heard from Bucciarati, the Test of The Arrow is… very dangerous. Seven in ten people who take it will die without unlocking their Stands. Even those that do unlock their Stands might die if they don't have the willpower to control them."

Blake immediately choked. "Seven in ten!? You mean seventy percent of the people in that room are going to be dead by tomorrow… maybe more if they can't control their Stands?!" The black-haired faunus was practically apoplectic, the rest of her team and Ozpin immediately able to key in as to why; it had been bad enough that her own people had their desperation used to get them to work for the White Fang under Torchwick, for who knows what purpose. Now with the knowledge that so many of them were going to be put up for the slaughter in the vague hopes of unlocking a Stand? It had been made all the worse

"Why would Torchwick even do something like that? I mean, it's horrible on its face but, from the standpoint of a criminal who doesn't care at all about the people around him, wouldn't it be better to just unlock their Aura and keep them all in his ranks?" Weiss asked with a great deal of concern.

"Unlocking Aura isn't an immediate guarantee that they'd be able to fight." Yang, surprisingly, was the one to step in as she looked at the others. "Just think about Jaune." She kept it vague in front of Ozpin so as to not rat out their friend, but immediately the rest of Team RWBY keyed into what the blonde bombshell meant.

"In addition to that, physical Aura usually requires a weapon of some kind and Dust to make full use out of it, plus the training needed to be proficient with those and to use your physical Aura properly. That takes time and resources, which a criminal like Torchwick might not have." Jotaro said plainly as he sighed. "However, those who pass the Test of the Arrow not only have their Stands but, as Josuke said, a great deal of their Stand's potential ability is also unlocked. Those that survive the test will immediately be dangerous opponents… especially if their latent Stands are incredibly powerful."

"Crazy Diamond took years of intense meditation and physical exercise to unlock in the first place and then, from there, years of study and practice to make it the Stand you saw fight tonight. Imagine if you could unlock a Stand that powerful immediately. That's likely what Torchwick is looking for with these arrows." Josuke said with a slight growl of aggravation, as Team RWBY just shuddered.

The huntresses didn't even need to imagine what it would be like to be up against a foe like that on their own; they had been given a glimpse of that nightmare via Sticky Fingers. The four of them by themselves, with Ruby fully rested, would've been able to handle Bucciarati with some difficulty. However as they imagined fighting a small army of men like him, well, it left the girls feeling chilled. Vale had just gotten a whole lot more dangerous.

"Thankfully, not all Stands are created equal." Josuke said in a slightly lighter tone, as he looked over at the girls with a smile, as if he sensed the spiral their thoughts were falling into. "A lot can be pretty useless in a straight up fight and pretty much every Stand requires a lot of creative thinking to make the most out of them. Really, Crazy Diamond isn't much more than an unbelievably powerful Four Kingdoms hunter without its special ability. Even then, if I didn't work and experiment with its ability to figure out what it could do, it wouldn't be as powerful as it would seem to be. These people will get their Stands, but they won't be as dangerous as Stand Users with actual experience in handling their Stands."

In other words, Stand Users like Josuke, his team and Jotaro. Team RWBY, already having seen what Josuke was capable of, actually had felt collectively more at ease, though more so for Ruby and Yang than Blake and Weiss.

"We appreciate your confidence and assistance Mr. Kujo, Mr. Higashikata. Rest assured that Beacon and its staff will be willing to offer whatever assistance it can." A sideways glance sent from Ozpin to Team RWBY kept the group from speaking up immediately, something which caused Josuke and Jotaro to frown a bit. "Now that we have all of our official business out of the way, I think it's time we all got ourselves back to Beacon. Mr. Kujo and I have a few things to clear up so, Team RWBY, perhaps you could escort Mr. Higashikata to Beacon and show him where he and his team will be staying." Josuke snapped to attention at the mention of his team.

"Oh, shoot! Okuyasu and Koichi, they're probably-"

"Waiting outside for you, Josuke." Jotaro spoke up suddenly, which surprised Josuke. "They were waiting for you at location you assigned and were actually the ones to get in touch with me when you showed up late. When we all figured out what sort of grief you'd gotten up to, we rushed over here." The older frontiersman nodded to the door. "They'll be waiting towards the entrance."

"Yes, in addition we've reserved an airship to take both your teams back to Beacon. It won't leave until you're all onboard, but I think it would be in your best interests if you all were to go there straight away. Understood?"

The five teens each immediately responded in the affirmative, quick to agree to whatever Ozpin asked of them if it got them out of this interrogation room. With a nod of approval, the five teens quickly got out of their chairs and made for the exits, which left Ozpin and Jotaro alone in the interrogation room. The two older hunters waited for the sounds of their charges' footsteps to be far away from the room, at which time Ozpin sighed slightly.

"Are you sure it's wise to allow Josuke and his team to participate in such a way, Jotaro? You said it yourself, it is a risk to their participation in the Vytal Festival and, huntsmen or not, they are children." The Beacon Headmaster spoke plainly, as Jotaro just scoffed slightly.

"When those boys became old enough to fight for the Frontier, they became men Ozpin. As men, they have every right to decide as to how they'll serve the Frontier to the fullest of their ability. Keeping them in the dark failed, so in the end it was left up to them." Jotaro readjusted his hat slightly. "To be frank, while I am concerned for their safety, I have faith that Josuke will make sure his team follows through on his promise. He was picked to lead for a reason.

"And besides-" The white-clad huntsmen said as he stood up slowly, hands in the pockets of his jacket as he looked down at Ozpin. "-soldiers deserve the dignity of being treated as adults."

"As I said to Mr. Higashikata, the hunters here at Beacon aren't soldiers or fully-fledged huntresses and huntsmen, Mr. Kujo. They're just my students." Ozpin said in a relaxed tone. The bespectacled Headmaster was then treated to Jotaro taking a long, hard look at him. The stoic man's expression made him decidedly hard to read, even for a seasoned pro like Ozpin.

"You aren't protecting them from anything by treating them like children and then letting them go out into the wilds with that mindset. The Frontier learned that lesson the hard way."

"With all do respect Mr. Kujo, this isn't Morioh." Ozpin replied calmly, as Jotaro just sighed.

" **Yare yare daze**. You're right. It's even more dangerous." Jotaro exited the room and left Ozpin alone with his thoughts and his cold cup of coffee.

* * *

"Well that got pretty intense there." Yang commented offhandedly as the five hunters roved down the halls towards the entrance, the pompadoured teen followed the four girls to the entrance as he was less familiar with the building than most of them were.

"Yeah, no kidding. Got pretty heated there a couple times too, especially with Josuke and Mr. Kujo." Josuke blushed slightly at Blake's words, the young man sheepish as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I-"

"There's no need to apologize, your actions and reactions were perfectly understandable." Disappointing or being looked down upon by someone you held in esteem was something Weiss had felt numerous times in her life, even if she no longer held that figure in such high esteem now as Josuke apparently did Jotaro. Having been around Ruby, Yang and, to a lesser extent, Blake now for several months, the young Heiress had gotten used to these sorts of emotional outbursts in a way she didn't think she would when she first moved here to Beacon.

"Besides, it all worked out for the best, right Josuke? Jotaro seemed understanding and he even let you on board. That's a pretty great if you ask me." Ruby said with a cheerful smile in an attempt to lift her new friend out of that funk. Judging by the grin that tugged at Josuke's lips, she succeeded.

"Yeah, it is pretty great. Thanks." Josuke gave an appreciative nod to the girls, who all gave one back as they continued down the hall. The girls were quiet for a while before they all huddled together while they walked. Josuke blinked as he watched the display and caught the odd whispered word here and there as the group moved along. As they turned a corner, Josuke suddenly stopped as to keep from running into the wall of huntresses in front of him, all of whom suddenly had an odd combination of expressions, ranging from coy to slightly embarrassed.

"Speaking of… Josuke, you'll probably be hearing some interesting things from Jotaro from time to time, right?" Blake started off, trying to sound as innocuous as possible as Josuke just nodded.

"Weeeell… we were wondering if you'd, I dunno, maybe, kinda, sorta share some of that from time to time? I mean, just if you feel like it. It'd really help with our own efforts." Ruby acted far less graceful than Blake had in spinning her words. Josuke grinned slightly as he scratched his chin.

"Oh? Sounds to me like, no matter what I say, you all intend to keep looking into this despite Headmaster Ozpin's faith in your good behavior."

"Hey, your words not ours Josuke" A coy grin played at Yang's lips as she shrugged casually. Josuke nodded as he looked up to the ceiling in thought. In truth, he figured that the more people who were around who actually knew the area, the better. Plus, Ruby and her team had shown themselves quite able during their skirmish, his friend having saved his skin during that fight already.

"Alright, if Jotaro tells me anything or if my team finds out anything, we'll be sure to give you guys a heads up. We'd like the same thing in return though… and it'd probably be for the best if it was my team that brought whatever you guys find out to Jotaro. Just to be on the safe side." The four girls honestly seemed a little surprised that it was so easy, Josuke just grinned as he shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not like my team knows much about Vale in the first place, only been here a day after all. We could really use your help too when it comes to finding stuff and navigating the city. Plus we've already fought together so far as I'm concerned, that makes you guys comrades." Josuke gave a genuine smile as he looked at them all. "I'd be a pretty crappy hunter if I left you all in the dark while we're all pursuing the same thing."

"... Wow, that was easier than I thought it'd be." Weiss admitted with a slight tilt of her head, sounding almost as if she were slightly disappointed, even as Yang and Ruby were exuberant.

"Haha, man. I should've known you'd be this cool right from the moment I saw you! Anyone who takes such good care of their hair has to be." Josuke's mouth stretched into a wide grin as he heard this; the easiest way into Josuke's good books was my giving props to his hair. Before he could respond Ruby tackled him, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Thank you Josuke! Thank you, thank you! Oh this is going to make this so much easier now that we'll actually be in on stuff!"

"Ruby! What's the point of asking for this away from Ozpin and Jotaro if you're just going to shout loud enough for them to hear us?" Blake shushed her team leader as she whispered into her ear, Ruby's silver eyes going wide for a moment as she nodded to Blake. The black-haired faunus sighed slightly as she let go of her leader and turned an appreciative look to Josuke. "Seriously though, thank you. We've been at this on our own for a while now and we barely just got what we had tonight. This… this means a lot, to my team and to me." Blake offered a slight bow, which Josuke just waved off.

"Jeez, like I said, it really isn't a big deal. You guys are my seniors and, besides cooperation is a pretty key thing when it comes to surviving in Morioh… it's why I raised such a stink over Jotaro trying to keep my team in the dark." Ruby gasped slightly as smile formed on her face.

"Oh, we should probably hurry and meet your teammates out front! Oh man, I'm excited! We actually get to meet team to team already! This is so great, we'll have another entire team to be friends with!" Ruby forged on ahead through the halls, the rest of her team and Josuke just smiled at her antics as they continued on.

It wasn't long before the group of huntresses and huntsman found their way to the front of the building. Josuke's teammates were easy enough to spot out almost immediately; there weren't a lot of people left in the room to begin with and just by taking a glance over them, the Beacon huntresses could tell that their uniforms were quite similar to Josuke's.

What did surprise them was the appearances of Josuke's teammates, which none of the girls had expected from meeting Josuke and Jotaro.

The first young man and second tallest compared to Josuke was a rather… scary looking fellow. Most of the people left in the room had given him and Josuke's other teammate a wide berth and it was clear, seeing where their eyes were aimed, that they had given them this space because of the scary looking one. A pair of symmetrical scars ran down the sides of his face, from his temples, around his eyes and down to his jawline. His face was hard and angular, a slight scowl pulled at his lips and his dark brown eyes narrowed in slight focus as he looked around. His two-toned hair, black and done in a very small pompadour on top and grey and slicked back on the sides on top of his hunched over stance made him appear like some kind of delinquent who was had tried to draw as little attention to himself as possible and failing. Broad and pretty muscular for his apparent age, if Josuke's was any sign, he had cut an intimidating figure.

Which made the young… boy standing next to him stand out all the more, despite his own efforts to generally just blend into the background. He was short. So, so short. Like, it was a complete surprise to all of Team RWBY. While they weren't clear on when hunters graduated in the Frontier precisely, Josuke's age made it seem pretty young but still believable, especially since he was a year older than Ruby. This silver haired, fair featured boy however took that assumption and drove it even deeper into 'what' territory for the four girls, especially as his nervous blue eyes darted around the room.

Finally, the two caught sight of Team RWBY and Josuke, the four huntresses flinched slightly under the taller boy's gaze.

Their slightly rattled nerves were immediately replaced by dumbfounded awe as said tall young man's expression turned from intimidating to outright jovial, his eyes widening in excitement as he gave a wide grin, one matched by the younger boy.

"Josuke!"

The two young men ran up to the group as Josuke worked his way around Team RWBY to greet his team. "Hey there Koichi, Okuyasu, glad to see you guys."

"Hah, gets into some big brawl in town and all he's got to say to us is that he's 'glad to see us'." Okuyasu snorted slightly as he reached down and punched Koichi in the shoulder, the young boy stumbling slightly. "Can you believe this guy Koichi? Makes you worried sick about him and the first words out of his mouth ain't some kind of apology."

"I-It's fine Okuyasu! I'm just glad Josuke's alright!" Koichi said with a sigh of relief at the sight of his team leader, an appreciative smile on the team leader's lips as he turned to the scarred teen.

"I suppose you weren't worried about me at all then, Okuyasu." Okuyasu snorted in derision as he shook his head.

"Nah, of course not. I knew you could handle yourself Josuke." Okuyasu scratched his cheek slightly as Koichi just gave Okuyasu a weird look.

"Huh, but Okuyasu, you got really agitated when you heard that Josuke had gotten sent to the hospital after the fight, are you sure-"

"I was just pissed off that he ended up getting into a fight without us. Besides, doesn't look to me like he needed a hospital to begin with, he looks pretty okay." Okuyasu said with a bit of a grunt, all of which drew a slight chuckle from behind Josuke. Koichi and Okuyasu leaned over a bit to look around their team leader and were greeted with the sight of Team RWBY. "Oi, Josuke, who're these chicks?" Okuyasu asked offhandedly, even as Koichi's nervousness seemed to renew itself in the presence of strangers. For their part, Team RWBY were a mixture of amused, confused or insulted by Okuyasu's rather simple description.

"Oh, these are the huntresses who helped me during the fight." Josuke turned away from his friends and to the side to allow the two teams to be able to meet face to face. "Guys, this is my new friend Ruby Rose, her sister Yang Xiao Long and their partners Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. Team RWBY, these are my friends and teammates Hirose Koichi and… Nijimura Okuyasu, what's with that look?" The pompadoured teen blinked in confusion as Okuyasu gave him a wide, shit-eating grin before he walked over and elbowed Josuke in the side.

"Oh I see how it is now, Josuke. You go on and on about your dignity and pride back in Morioh but as soon as we hit the city, you dump your friends to go off and chase some skirts!" Loud, brazen laughter erupted from Okuyasu's chest as Josuke's face immediately went red from a mix of embarrassment and frustration. He plowed an elbow into Okuyasu's side, the slightly shorter Frontiersman only gave a small 'oof' as he kept laughing. Yang snorted slightly as she held back her own fit of laughter at Josuke's expense, Blake rolled her eyes slightly, Weiss looked positively scandalized and Ruby's face went just as red as her namesake.

"Ah, but seriously, thanks for looking out for baby-face over here while we weren't around." Okuyasu strode over towards the four girls and extended a hand out to them, his other hand wiped away tears from the corner of his eyes as he gave a wide grin. Impressions of Okuyasu were a bit mixed among Ruby and her team; far more boisterous and loud than Josuke, Okuyasu came off as slightly overbearing to Ruby and her more shy tendencies, while Weiss had taken a look at his appearance and demeanor and promptly labeled him a boor. Blake considered him harmless, his behavior and demeanor nothing she hadn't seen in the White Fang, while Yang thought the guy was hysterical.

"Sure, no problem. Josuke helped us out a lot too, so we're glad to return the favor." Yang reached out a hand and shook Okuyasu's and, before long, the rest of her teammates followed suit, even if they were slightly more hesitant. "After all, gotta keep an eye on our… juniors, I guess?" Even being shorter than Josuke, Okuyasu still stood a bit taller than even Yang which, if not for the fact that Koichi was off to the side, would've made her suspect that the Frontiersmen must've just naturally been giants from a young age.

"Oh-ho, so you guys are our seniors huh? Pretty cool, I guess." If Josuke appeared somewhat respectful when it came to the topics of seniority among hunters, Okuyasu seemed to care a lot less about the formality of it, a shrug of his shoulders being all that he gave the four of them.

"Well, Ruby here isn't, she's just fifteen." Blake said casually as she shook Okuyasu's hand, the scarred teen grinning as he looked at the young team leader, who flinched slightly.

"That so? I got the impression that you Four Kingdoms hunters started later than us, but you're actually the same age as Koichi."

"... Pardon?"

All four members of Team RWBY spoke at once as they all swapped their gazes from Okuyasu to Koichi, who stood off to the side nervously as the attention was suddenly focused on him.

"Y-Yeah, nice to meet you all."

"... You're fifteen?" All four girls asked in time with each other, Okuyasu and Josuke already grinning as they could see the gears turning behind their heads, both young men already knew, for a fact, what the four huntresses were thinking. After all, it'd had been their same line of thought when Koichi had been added to their team a little over a year ago.

'But… but you're SO TINY!' None of the girls spoke this thought aloud of course, for fear of insulting the skittish looking young man, who just nodded at their question. Still, they were all so surprised. Ruby was a very noticeably short girl, being younger than the other residents of Beacon, and yet even she stood taller than Koichi here did. To the four gathered huntresses, it seemed insane; to go from people the height of Josuke and Okuyasu right on down to Koichi with only a year's difference between them.

Koichi nervously scratched at the back of his well-combed hair as his eyes darted off to the side, the boy uncomfortable under such concentrated looks, as Josuke just clapped to get everyone's attention off the poor boy.

"Alright, that's introductions out of the way. How about we all get heading to Beacon; we can tell Okuyasu and Koichi what's up on the way there." As Josuke turned to lead his team out of the building, Team RWBY tilted their heads to the side in confusion.

"Where's your fourth member?" The three boys stopped as they turned to look at Team RWBY with equally confused expressions.

"We… don't have one?" Okuyasu said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and was surprised to find Team RWBY looking shocked.

"W-What? Really? That's a bit weird; it's pretty much standard for teams of hunters to be put into four person cells down here in the rest of Remnant." Yang crossed her arms as she looked at the three young men, who gave a small 'oh' as Ruby spoke up.

"It's where we get our team names too R-W-B-Y, Team Ruby; Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long." Ruby explained for her new friend and his team. While Koichi and Josuke seemed to grasp it almost immediately, it took Okuyasu a few moments to wrap his mind around the wordplay involved, before he too eventually nodded in understanding.

"Well, we mostly assign teams up in Morioh based on the needs of groups rather than based on hard numbers. For a while it was just myself and Okuyasu, before Koichi got added on to give us a bit more scouting range with his Stand." The short boy nodded at Josuke assessment, one that was matched by the various Beacon huntresses, as the pompadoured teen just scratched his cheek. "We really don't do team names like that either… I mean, how would we even make that work? J-O-K? Team Joke?" Yang snorted slightly at the name, which caused Josuke to point to her. "See, exactly what I mean, sounds ridiculous." A small grin was on his face regardless.

"No, it's not even just that!" Yang chuckled as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "I mean, yeah, Team Joke might not be a good team name, but that's a good team name for a team joke! Eh, eh?" Josuke and Koichi groaned slightly, though there were slight smiles on their faces from the brazenly bad humor. The rest of Team RWBY, on the other hand, seemed far more off-put by the joke, their groans of pain far louder than the frontiersmen. Before the conversation could be steered back on track Okuyasu suddenly slammed his fist into his hand, a look of bright realization on his face.

"OH! I GET IT! Team Joke, team joke!" Okuyasu laughed loudly, which quickly reset the expressions on Team RWBY's face into stunned, expressionless masks. "That was a really good joke Yang."

Silence hung heavy in the room after Okuyasu said this. Soon, Ruby, Weiss and Blake's face shifted into abject horror, while a wide grin slowly crept across Yang's face.

"Oh, you thought that was a good joke Okuyasu?"

"Noooooooo!" The other members of Team RWBY wailed horrifically as Yang walked up and put a hand on Okuyasu's shoulder, the scarred teen just nodded enthusiastically as Yang's grin grew ever more.

"Well I got hundreds more just like 'em if you'd be interested in hearing them."

"NOOOOO! Don't encourage her!" Team RWBY practically begged Okuyasu, who merely gave their behavior an odd look before he turned back to Yang and shrugged his shoulders with a grin.

"Sure, I could use a good laugh every now and then."

"HAH! That's great! Okuyasu, you're my new favorite person." Blake and Weiss cried out in anguish as they realized that Yang had just been given license to make as many crappy jokes and puns as she wanted thanks to Okuyasu, all the while Josuke and Koichi just watched the utterly bizarre scene with slightly slack jaws. Ruby, on the other hand, appeared utterly devastated.

"F-Favorite person? B-But Yang, what about me, your darling baby sister?" The silver-eyed girl gave her best puppy dog eyes to the blond bombshell that she could, lilac eyes screwing closed in thought as she bit her lip slightly.

"You're right Rubes… I really should give you a chance to win me back. Get a better sense of humor and we'll talk." Ruby's expression immediately fell apart, her puppy dog eyes welling up with tears as she collapsed onto her knees.

"Noooooo! My only sister, stolen away by puns! I should've known this would happen sooner or later!" By this point, Josuke himself had bust a gut laughing as he took in Team RWBY's collective responses, a good-natured smile on Koichi's face as he tried to hold back his own laughter. Seeing another team as good-natured as his own had been pretty uplifting for the young huntsman's spirits.

"Anyway." Koichi said just loud enough to draw everyone's attention back to him, as he scratched the back of his head. "Since Team Joke isn't good enough, I was thinking… it is JOK, so we could say it's Team Josuke… you know, if we wanted." Koichi said offhandedly, as Okuyasu suddenly took on a very thoughtful expression. Josuke ignored this for the moment as he turned to look at Koichi.

"Eh, I don't know about that. Ruby's team got that name just by coincidence, I think. I'd feel pretty self-absorbed if our entire team got named after me. What do you think Oku… Okuyasu why do you have that look on your face?" The scarred teens thoughtful expression had melted away into a wide, wily grin, as the teen looked between Josuke and Koichi.

"So… Team "Josuke" is something we could name ourselves, eh?" As Okuyasu said Josuke's name, he raised his finger to the air and, much to Koichi and Josuke's surprise, started to write out the kanji for Josuke's name in the air. Team RWBY just blinked in confusion at the motions, not able to bridge the cultural gap presented at the moment, while Josuke just tilted his head to the side.

"Why would you write it out like that…" Suddenly, the pompadoured teen's eyes widened in horror as he immediately shook his head. "No! Okuyasu, I know what you're thinking and we're not doing that! We are not calling our team that! Right Koichi!?" Josuke turned his gaze in desperation to his shorter, more dependable teammate. To his horror, he saw the corners of Koichi's lips turning up into a small grin, the grey haired boy just barely holding back laughter as he and Okuyasu just looked at each other and, after a moment, nodded.

"I swear, if you two don't listen to me and knock this off, I'll never forgive either of you two!" It was far too late for Josuke's threats, however, as Okuyasu and Koichi just turned towards Team RWBY with wide smiles, Okuyasu's being of a particularly shit-eating variety.

"Just call us Team JOJO!" Koichi and Okuyasu declared the team's new name loudly and proudly, all the while Josuke's face went absolutely beet red. The pompadoured teen started to sputter and curse under his breath, his expression a mix of total embarrassment and abject anger as he glared at the back of his teammates' heads.

For Yang, this was too much. Higashikata Josuke, the young man who'd shown up out of nowhere sporting a pretty cool hairstyle and a stoic control of the battlefield, with a bad ass punch ghost that beat the ever-living crap out of a guy who'd torn off her arm, who had fixed said arm and ensured the safety of her huntress career… was reduced to an embarrassed teenager, frustrated and utterly flustered as his friends made fun of him. Yang wrapped her arms around her gut as she laughed her ass off, practically falling back onto the floor as she watched the scene. Ruby couldn't help but laugh at her new friend's expense as well, already on the floor in the first place. Weiss and Blake, while amused, had looked confused at the three huntsmen.

"JOJO? How exactly does that name work?" Okuyasu and Koichi laughed slightly as they each wrapped an arm around Josuke, pulling the team together even as the pompadoured teen struggled against them.

"Trust us. It just works." Okuyasu said offhandedly, even as Koichi promised to explain it in more detail later.

"I hate you both so, so much…" Josuke muttered under his breath as he glared at his two friends, all the while they just smiled at him.

"We're glad you like the name, JoJo."

"... This isn't going to catch on... It better not catch on…"

* * *

Somewhere in the City of Vale, Around the Same Time

Tonight had been a really shitty night, as far as Roman Torchwick was concerned.

Even if the recruitment drive had done what it was supposed to, literally everything else that could've blown up in his face or that could have driven him to the brink of a fit had happened. The Atlesian Paladin? Literally blown to pieces. The fight with those huntresses? Had their chance to do them in blown by some random Frontiersman showing up. Dealing with Bruno Bucciarati, the most stuck up Mistrali he'd ever met?

'Well, that isn't so bad now.' Roman thought with a slight grin, even as he winced when Neo applied some medicine to one of the cuts that Red had manage to get on him during his fight with her and Ice Queen. Yes, while Roman Torchwick had suffered some damage during the battle, it was nothing compared to Bruno Bucciarati. The man would live, apparently, and according to his gang he didn't have any seriously broken bones or life-threatening injuries.

Still, as he watched that arrogant mafioso get covered in bandages while he winced and heaved in pain, it was all enough to have made Roman Torchwick smile.

Even if said smile immediately disappeared when he thought to the rest of the night and its events.

"How the Hell did this even happen?" Roman spoke aloud, which drew the other gangsters attention to him as they hid out in one of his numerous safe houses across the city. He'd sent a message for Cinder to come meet them for an evaluation at this location; if he didn't, she'd surely make sure he paid dearly for it the next time they met. While Torchwick wasn't looking forward to getting chewed out by Cinder for tonight, it was best to not make it worse by prolonging it.

"It depends. If you mean the recruitment drive being infiltrated, I'd chalk that up to you not properly scouting out the incoming participants for known enemies. If it was the fight starting, I'd say that it was because you let the recruitment drive be infiltrated in the first place; if we had captured Miss Belladonna and her guest, it would've made dealing with her team much easier." Roman snarled slightly at Bruno, as the mafioso leaned forward so that medicine and bandages could be applied to the scratches, abrasions and cuts he'd gained from being punched through so many walls.

"If you mean the Stand User, then that was a mistake on my part. My judgement lapsed and I allowed him to not only trick me into thinking his powers were more than they were, but then I allowed him to exploit my own tactics to his own gain. A foolish mistake on my part." Bruno winced slightly as the medicine was applied to his back, while Roman just frowned at the mafioso.

"So what, that's all the blame you're going to be taking for tonight? If you had helped me out sooner rather than trying to extort money out of me, we could've had those brats dealt with before that Frontier nobody even showed up." Roman said with a glare, one that was returned by Bucciarati.

"Oh? Are you saying you wouldn't have done the same thing in my position, Roman?" Torchwick flinched slightly at the accusatory tone, but nonetheless kept his cool as his eyes darted off to the side.

"Of course I wouldn't have. We're business partners, right? I wouldn't exploit a partner like that…"

"My, but you are a terrible liar, Torchwick." Both men turned their heads in surprise when a new, feminine but powerful voice entered the conversation. Seemingly out of nowhere, Cinder and her two pawns Mercury and Emerald appeared, the three infiltrators each with a different, but calm, smile on their face as they entered the room. After their surprise passed, Roman appeared nervous and agitated by Cinder's appearance, while Bruno had been able to keep a completely calm expression on his face.

"Ah, well if it isn't dear old boss. Good to see you Cinder." Roman did his best to keep up his shtick, to appear confident and secure in the face of Cinder's presence and, for the most part, he had succeeded. However, as he judged the expression on Cinder's face, he had been able to tell that she wasn't in the mood for Roman's quirks this evening. "Well, I hope you've been enjoying the new recruits you've gotten for your little sideshow. It took a bit of finagling to get them on board, but overall I'd say that Bruno and I-"

"The faunus, Torchwick, would say it was just Mr. Bucciarati who won them over." Emerald cut Roman off, the orange-haired criminal glared at Cinder's cohort, before he chuckled and shook his head.

"Now dear, you really shouldn't interrupt the grownups while we're talking business." Emerald glared back at Torchwick, but a raised hand from Cinder quickly silenced both of them before their argument could continue.

"Although Emerald spoke out of turn, she isn't wrong Roman." Cinder Fall strode across the room to where Bucciarati and his gang had situated themselves, the four gang members tensed as the golden eyed woman approached. All the while, Bucciarati kept appraising her with that even expression, Bucciarati gave the impression that he was nothing short of in complete control despite his wounds.

"I must say, Polpo wasn't lying when he said he'd send some of his best for this little assignment. Despite the casualties, your words are ringing in the faunus ears as they take the test. Yhe arrows have already shown signs of producing a fair number of Stand Users and you even tried to take a step beyond your contract to offer your assistance… for a price." A coy smile was sent Bucciarati's way as Cinder nodded her head in greeting. "I'm surprised I'm saying this, but it's an honest pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bruno Bucciarati."

"The pleasure is mine, Ms. Fall. Polpo informed me that the Boss' new business partners were polite and courteous guests when they came to Mistral. It is good to finally see what he was talking about, after having spent the worst part of this evening with Mr. Torchwick." Despite his wounds, Bucciarati offered Cinder Fall a deep bow from his waist, the gesture clearly pleased Cinder as she chuckled slightly.

"My, polite as well as effective. If only we could have begun our operations in Mistral, this business would have been far more pleasurable." Roman growled off to the side as he watched the two of them go on, but didn't speak up. Despite all appearances, things between the two weren't as completely friendly as things had appeared. Much like with his first meeting with Bruno, when they were still officially 'on business', Cinder and Bucciarati were clearly keeping things official, polite and as calm as possible.

While the out and out aggression and enmity that he and Bruno had built up wasn't under the surface of this show, however, something else was. A push and pull of tension that lay just underneath the surface. They were both exceedingly cautious of each other, making sure no sign of whatever emotion lay beneath the surface came to the foreground for even a moment. The only time Roman had seen this nearly slip in this short exchange thus far was when Cinder had mentioned Mistral, which had caused Bruno's eyes to narrow. A momentary slip, one that Cinder had almost certainly noticed herself, but nothing that would be brought up.

"I thank you for your kind words, Ms. Fall, though I must also apologize. Though our agreement has been fulfilled to the letter, I was unable to be of further assistance when the Frontier huntsman arrived."

'Okay, now he is just kissing her ass.' Roman wasn't the sort to roll over, not even for Cinder, when it had come to admitting mistakes. As far as he saw it, so long as the work had gotten done, that was that. The fact that Bruno had offered contrition for a mistake that he wasn't even responsible for just aggravated Roman to no end. No surprise though, Cinder's eyes shined as she chuckled.

"Now now Mr. Bucciarati. We can hardly blame you for that. It was… unforeseen that the Frontiersmen would arrive today of all days." Cinder said, though the woman shook her head with another laugh. "Though I suppose that was naive of us. Fate wouldn't have had it any other way."

A loud scoff kept Bruno from answering back as the two turned their attention to Torchwick, who just shook his head as he stood up, his wounds finished with their treatment.

"Please. Fate? Honestly Cinder, I didn't take you for the kind of woman who'd put stock into that kind of nonsense." Torchwick walked over with his cane, Bucciarati's expression remained impassive as Cinder just looked towards Torchwick, a bemused tint to her eyes.

"We all have a destiny Roman, something that pushes and pulls us no matter where we might go in life. It's something that's in our hands to grasp should we so choose, but ignoring it won't save you from your fate." Cinder spoke in a calm, even tone as she turned slightly to face the orange-haired criminal. "For these Stand Users, it's an even more apparent force."

"If the concept of fate isn't to your taste, Roman," Bucciarati suddenly cut in as he stood up, which surprised both Cinder and Torchwick, "-let me phrase is another way."

"Do you believe in **[Gravity]**?"

 **-To Be Continued- Crazy Diamond (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: For those interested, a very, very simple map of the general geography of the Frontier has been added to the Inkaster's Deviantart Page. It'll hopefully clear up any confusion anyone might have from the otherwise threadbare descriptions of The Frontier and its geography though those that spend any amount of time watching the World of Remnant stuff has probably already gathered the continent at least. It'll give a bit more explanation there, so if you all are in anyway interested just search up The Inkasters Deviantart and it should be the first result on Google.**

 **Also, this story hit 100 followers and 5,000 views last chapter, so I'd like to thank everyone for their excitement and enthusiasm. Seriously, as much as I am writing this for myself and because I find it fun, I'm also really glad that people are enjoying this silly little story I spent so much time detailing out the backstory for. Seriously, your kind words, genuine interest and constructive criticism make this even more of a joy to write and I appreciate all of ya.**

 **Have an excellent Hump Day.**


	7. Crazy Diamond (Act 3)

"Do you believe in **[Gravity]**?"

The words echoed slightly in the warehouse as the three groups all locked eyes with each other. Bruno Bucciarati looked on with the utmost seriousness as Roman Torchwick arched an eyebrow at him, all the while an amused sigh escaped his lips.

"I don't suppose you're talking about literal gravity, are you big guy?" Roman's sarcasm brought a frown to Bruno's face as he just pointed at the orange-haired criminal.

"Don't get me wrong Torchwick, I have my own suspicions of these words, but I've seen them ring true more often than not now, especially as a Stand User. Can you truly say that you believe that nothing in your life, meeting Cinder, myself or acquiring these arrows, has happened without a reason?" Bruno's tone was almost accusatory as Torchwick just frowned, a far more serious expression came across his face as he scoffed slightly.

"... Only to the extent that I have to." The answer seemed to confuse both Bucciarati and Cinder as well as their followers, which made Torchwick shake his head. "Look, I'm not some idiot stuck in denial about the way the universe works." Roman raised his hand and extended to fingers, which he carefully counted off as he made his point. "Humans and all other living things have souls, the Grimm don't. On top of that, souls aren't something we can exactly measure up until we unlock them as Aura.

"I'm not going to sit here and pretend that this all doesn't mean something. Whether it be that boring as hell tale about the Brothers, or something involving the Maidens or, who knows, maybe just something magical involving Dust, it means 'something'. I don't know what that something is, but I have to acknowledge that it's out there." Roman swung his cane around lackadaisically as he said this, before he snapped it up in his grip and pointed it to both the mafioso and the fiery woman.

"But, and I'm going to make this clear: just because I accept that, doesn't mean I have to buy into any bullcrap about fate or destiny or, whatever, Gravity. I don't have to accept that my life or the things that happen in it are fixed already and there's nothing I can do to change it. After all-" Roman pulled out a cigar as he spoke and lit it just as quickly, "-if I did, then I'd just sit on my hands listening to our delightful superiors in the governing councils until someone told me to pull my thumbs out of my ass.

"Roman Torchwick makes his own destiny. I decide the things I'm going to do and when I'm going to do them, not fate. Most of all, I'm the only person in my life who, one hundred percent of the time, decides what's going to happen to me. Not Gravity." Torchwick took a long, hard drag on his cigar as he finished, smoke poured out from his mouth and nostrils as he looked at both Cinder and Bucciarati. "Think you two can wrap your minds around that?"

The room was eerily silent as Cinder's eyes narrowed somewhat dangerously. Though he may have realized he had overstepped his bounds, the orange-haired criminal stood his ground.

"I have to admit, Roman, I didn't expect such an answer from you." Attention turned Bruno, as the mafioso nodded somewhat approvingly at Torchwick. "It's probably one of the few sensible things to have come out of your mouth this entire evening." Torchwick growled slightly as Bucciarati got his dig in, before the mafioso continued. "I won't try to argue your worldview Torchwick, for it is not too dissimilar from my own.

"However, in regards to Stand Users, it is best that you be ready for what will inevitably come." The Vale criminal arched a brow as Bruno said this, the mafioso leaned back in his seat as he gestured between himself and his gang members. "You see Roman, while you might not believe in fate or destiny that does not keep a force, a Gravity, from acting upon people like myself and my subordinates as Stand Users. There is something you must recognize now and be prepared for; there is a pull between those whose Stand Powers have been unlocked. A force that inevitably drags them closer and closer together until they are brought into contact. It is as inevitable as the sunrise and no force on Remnant can keep it from happening.

"Stand Users attract other Stand Users Roman. In good time, you will probably find that the Stand Users you are currently creating will run into the Frontiersmen, including Higashikata Josuke and, worst of all, Kujo Jotaro."

"... Excuse me?" Roman's eyes were as wide as dish plates as he took that information in, his jaw slack as he pointed his cane at Bucciarati. "You want to run that by me one more time zippers? 'Stand Users attract other Stand Users'... that's what you said, right?" Bucciarati merely nodded as, soon, Torchwick's expression turned from fearful surprise to frustrated anger. "Oh, that's just perfect, that's just Dust damned perfect. So I'm going to have those brats on my doorstep at any moment, at any time, and it's all because I've created some Stand Users? Why, oh why, didn't you bother to share this information you Mistrali bastard?!"

"He didn't need to." Cinder had cut in then, which caused Roman's head to snap over towards her as she shrugged. "Over the course of several negotiations that took place while arranging for these arrows Bruno's superior, Polpo, informed me of this particular danger. I decided, much like Passione, that we could work around this potential danger and that the potential use of these Stands outweighed any possibility of the dangers of the Frontiersmen finding us."

Roman gawked at Cinder as he took this all in, the criminal shook his head in disbelief as he grabbed at some of his hair.

"Why? Why even bother with Stands in the first place if we're bound to get caught up with the Frontier. Hell, you've been down my throat with warnings about avoiding Kujo Jotaro ever since we knew that he was coming here! Now you're telling me you knew this would probably bring him to us? Why not have those furballs, scales and feather brains wanting to join the White Fang just unlock their Auras instead?! Seems like it'd be a lot less dangerous!" Roman had held back from shouting in anger at Cinder, a move that would have probably resulted in the loss of his boys, as the golden-eyed woman just smiled.

"Training in Aura, weapons and Dust takes time, dear Roman. Even with Aura freshly unlocked, these new recruits would be worthless compared to the established forces here in Vale. They'd be good as meat shields and little else. However, as Stand Users with their abilities unlocked by the arrow, they have the potential to be so much more. When we finally got Passione to agree to the trade, we had some interesting insight into their operation: even with their recruitment process costing them so many potential members, Passione was able to surpass the other established crime syndicates of Mistral with Stand Power in a very short time. Even if it cost them seven recruits, the three Stand Users they'd get out of a group of ten would be more than equal, far more in fact, to any task than common men and women with their Auras unlocked. If it costs us a few faunus to get those Stand Users and if it makes us slightly more vulnerable to the Frontier, well, we won't be in Vale terribly long, Roman. It seems like a more than even trade."

Roman bit his lip slightly as he took this all in. Even here in Vale, the rise of Passione made waves among the criminal element. Mistral had long since been divided into two spheres; the rich, more interested in art and performances and the poor, who either aspired to be rich, stayed poor or took to a life of crime to advance their place in life. Before Passione, it was a tough competition between assassins, thieves, bandits and criminals of all types. Now, the mafioso of Passione were the dominant force in the streets of Mistral and their influence was stretching beyond that city.

Torchwick couldn't lie, having that sort of power at his fingertips, even if he used it for Cinder's benefit, was tantalizing.

"If Stands are that beneficial, why not hit people with physical Aura with the arrows too? Get the best of both worlds?" Roman asked, his arms crossed as he arched a brow. It seemed Bucciarati had been more than willing to field this question in particular.

"Imagine this, Roman; say you spent twenty years of your life dedicated to sculpting your body into that of a swimmer. Your entire body, right down to the last cell in your muscles, meant to live and breath swimming; lean, light and swift. Now say that you wanted to change it up and that you wanted to shape your body into that of a professional weightlifter's. Bulky, hard and heavy, something built to lift tremendous weights all at once. Under normal circumstances, this process would take months, if not years, of effort and hard work to make the transition.

"Imagine for a moment what kind of force would be required to reshape your body at all once, down to the last cell. Torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up to suit this new purpose. Do you think it would be painful, Roman?" A nod from Torchwick, who grimaced at the idea, was all Bucciarati needed before he continued. "Striking a person who has unlocked and trained their physical Aura works much the same way. Their soul, having been decidedly shaped for one purpose, would have to be torn apart and built back up by whatever empowers the arrow to allow them to unlock their Stand. A process that is already vicious and painful for those with souls that have not been shaped one way or the other becomes absolutely devastating. Seven in ten normal men and women will die to the Test of The Arrow. Ninety-nine out of one hundred of those persons who've unlocked their Aura would die to it, by comparison."

"Holy… ninety-nine percent? Are you serious?" Torchwick's jaw went slack as Bucciarati and Cinder nodded, the latter stepped in before Bucciarati could continue.

"It's waste of resources to have those potential recruits who've already been trained in Aura struck by the arrow. Even if that one survivor possessed a Stand on the magnitude of Kujo Jotaro's Star Platinum: The World, they wouldn't be worth the loss of so many of those trained in physical Aura."

Torchwick nodded, his question answered, if done so in a manner that left him slightly sick to his stomach. Still...

"Speaking of our big bad boogey man, if Kujo Jotaro finds us because of all these Stand Users we're making-"

"Kujo Jotaro will not find us, Roman. None of us are Stand Users and, furthermore, none of the new recruits will know about myself or any of our other major operatives. You, as ever, will be the face of our work in Vale. The Stand Users will be separated out into dozens or, if we're lucky, hundreds of one-man cells and assembled as larger groups when we need them to be. That'll buy us all the time we need for our plans to come to fruition, all the while the Frontier will pick at weeds who know nothing about us." Cinder laughed coyly as she put this all out there, the gathered mafioso cringed slightly at her very cold attitude to her own subordinates, while Roman, finally, smiled in relief.

"What can I say Cinder, I guess you really did plan around all of this. Don't know why I got so worked up in the first place." Torchwick took a long drag on his cigar as he said this, Cinder merely nodded as she turned to face Bruno and his gang.

"Now then, Mr. Bucciarati… you and your gang have performed spectacularly this evening. You brought the arrows, gave us our recruits and even managed to secure for us information on one of our opponent's Stands. Once Beacon gets to work training them and forcing the others to spar, we'll soon be familiar with the other two as well. You all have exceeded the expectations set for you and for this deal. So, I think it's time for you all to be paid for your work." Cinder's words caused waves of confusion to pass through Bucciarati and his gang, Bruno himself arched his eyebrow as he looked at the confident woman.

"No need, Ms. Fall. Roman Torchwick has already seen to it that we got paid our Lien for this job." A haughty laugh escaped Cinder's lips as she shook her head.

"My dear man, that was but the cherry on top of this deal as far as your Boss was concerned." At this, shock and surprise passed on the faces of all the gang members, as their gazes implored for Cinder Fall to explain herself. "I don't see why you're surprised: I have to imagine that your Boss has probably fielded requests for the tools he used to gain power daily by criminal syndicates all over Remnant. Isn't it strange that now he's agreed to reach other to others and share in some of Passione's arrows, for just a case full of lien?

"No. Your leader was actually quite… reluctant perhaps is the kindest word, to associate with myself, my boss or our mutual friend. In fact, he seemed downright hostile to the idea and no amount of lien seemed ready to convince him. Quite the strong convictions, your Boss… or perhaps, he is merely convicted to keeping his, and his organization's, key to powers secret and in their own possession. Something I can certainly appreciate if so." Cinder had said with a coy smile, before she continued. "The only way he agreed to the exchange was if we could manage to find some information for him… an interesting and difficult request in the end, but one we could fulfill. nonetheless.

"Now that you all have done your jobs, and done them so fabulously, I'm willing to give you the information he's waiting for. When you return to Mistral, give this message to your superior, Polpo. He shall see that it goes up your chain of command and reaches your boss in good time." The gathered mafioso nodded seriously as they heard this, Bruno in particular stone-faced and sweating as he awaited whatever this message was. If it was important enough for it to be the main source of payment the boss was concerned about, it could only be something significant.

"According to our spies in Mistral, the government has hidden it thirty miles off of the shore of a lake, in a bunker on a small island. The exact coordinates are never discussed so we can't say which shore around the lake or on what island, but we know which lake it is: the great lake to the west of Mistral. It was never in any of the major cities or villages in the first place."

Cinder backed off slightly as she imparted the message as Bruno closed his eyes in focus, a gesture followed by each and every single member of his gang. Soon enough, they had memorized, to the last word, the message and nodded in understanding.

"Understood. Passione of course appreciates your business and your propriety in making your payments. Perhaps we can arrange for similar in the future. For now, it seems our contract is up; if you don't mind, we'll be making our leave. The sooner we're out of the city, the less we have to worry about running into any of the Frontier Hunters again."

As Bucciarati stood up, Narancia and Mista moving to support their leader as the white-dressed mafioso stumbled slightly, Cinder bit her bottom lip in slight thought. Soon, a confident smile formed on her face as she moved forward.

"Before you leave, perhaps I could have a moment of your time, Mr. Bucciarati?" Bruno looked to Cinder with a curious expression as he waved her on. "I have to say, having you five on the payroll this evening has been quite the wonderful experience. While I wouldn't wish to say anything to the tone of being dissatisfied with my own underlings work thus far." Off to the side, Torchwick grouses as he glared at Cinder and Bruno, while Emerald and Mercury just grinned at the man's discomfort and frustration. "I would have to reiterate that you five performed spectacularly. I think it would be a terrible shame for us to end our partnership here.

"So, why do so?" Cinder asked with a smirk as Bucciarati and his gang looked at her in surprise. "Your boss may not have approved it, however, I would be more than willing to offer you and your gang regular payments if you stayed here in Vale to continue assisting us with our work. Five Stand Users of your caliber would certainly move things along for us and, I assure you, the five of you would become massively wealthy, beyond anything Passione could possibly provide you, if you worked with us.

"You've seen that we have the lien to back this up. You know that we have no small amount of friends and allies of our own and powerful ones at that. After all, from what I've heard, you five and Polpo met Whitesnake personally when the deal was finalized." Cinder didn't miss it when Bucciarati flinched as she brought up Whitesnake's name, a similar look of discomfort momentarily passed his gang members' faces before they caught themselves.

"So why worry about your boss and Polpo. Work with us… we can assure you, you'll be handsomely rewarded." Cinder watched as the members of Bucciarati's gang shifted around nervously, uncertain glances passed around each of the four lesser members of the gang as they looked between her and Bucciarati. Bruno, however, kept a calm, even expression as he stared Cinder right back in her eyes.

"Er… Miss Fall, we appreciate that you're making this offer, of course. We're quite honored that you have such value for our abilities that you'd extend such an offer." The tall, white-haired one that Cinder had come to know as Abbacchio spoke in a calm, even tone that was betrayed by his nervous expression. "However, I think that Bucciarati and the rest of us need some time to-"

"Abbacchio." Bruno spoke up, surprising his gang members with his sudden interruption. "I require no time to think of this. I know what decision is to be made here."

"B-But Bucciarati, are you sure? This could be-" Fugo stopped as Bruno turned his gaze to his fellow gang members, the mafioso calmly looked them each in the eye before he spoke.

"You all trust me, yes?" It was less a question than a statement of fact, as if Bucciarati already knew the answer ahead of time. Indeed, it hadn't taken long for each of the four members to calm down as they nodded in turn. Of course they all trusted Bucciarati; they trusted him with their very lives. "Then trust that I know what I'm doing." It took a moment but, again, Bucciarati's gang nodded at their leader, who turned to face Cinder with that calm, even expression of his. A wide, satisfied smirk made its way across Cinder's face as Bucciarati bowed, the eyes of his men nervously darted between him and Cinder as Bucciarati dipped at the waist.

"I'm sorry Miss Fall, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

"Excuse me?"

Cinder's face fell in shock, her eyes widened in surprise, though nowhere near to the degree that Roman's, Mercury's, Emerald's or Neo's had, as Bucciarati stood straight back up, his right hand carefully cradling his face in a thoughtful gesture as his left pointed back to Cinder.

"While I appreciate your offer, for your safety and ours, I'm afraid I cannot accept. Because you have been such a kind and upfront host, I will not inform our boss that our business partner made such an insulting offer behind his back. I do not wish to see this relationship of ours crumble as it has only just gotten off the ground." Unnoticed by all, even Cinder, Bucciarati swallowed nervously as he said this, the mafioso carefully crafted his words to ensure the safety of his gang both in front of these 'business partners' and to their own boss. "However, Passione is more than just an organization for us to get rich off of. It is a community for each of us and a pillar of stability and charity in Mistrali society. The mafioso is more than just a rich man: he is a man respected in his community for his loyalty and his willingness to reach out to those in need and those who pay their respects.

"I could not think myself a mafioso worthy of Passione if I sold it out for a handful of lien. In addition, the boss' reach extends quite far. If I were to agree to your terms, rest assured, we'd both be dead in a matter of months. Perhaps even less, considering you are in possession of the golden arrows." Bucciarati's fellow mafioso smiled as they watched their leader as he stood to his full height to look Cinder Fall in the eyes. "So it is with a heavy heart that I must decline, Ms. Fall. I do hope you understand."

The silence that fell upon the room was a heavy one. Roman, Neo, Mercury and Emerald and looked around nervously; at each other, at the Mistrali gathered before them and, most importantly in their eyes, at Cinder Fall. The raven-haired woman blinked a few times in surprise as she took this in, her mouth falling open slightly as she slowly comprehended what had just taken place. The gathered onlookers expected any number of things to happen in that moment, any number of possibilities, a few of them violent, to befall Bucciarati and his gang.

What they didn't expect was for Cinder to smile pleasantly as she shook her head.

"Of course, I understand completely. I appreciate your discretion, Mr. Bucciarati. I trust you understand; in this business we find ourselves in, I would've felt quite foolish if I didn't try to take the opportunity to bring you and your gang under my wing. Passione is quite fortunate to have you." Bucciarati nodded slightly as he inclined his head.

"Of course, Ms. Fall. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I am happy to hear you understand. Your own subordinates are… quite lucky to have you, as well." The pleasantries, while necessary, weren't fooling any onlookers, save perhaps for Narancia. A heavy tension sat just underneath the surface as the two bowed slightly to each other, their gazes never left the other's for even a moment. "With that said, we shall depart now, Ms. Fall. Good fortune to you and your endeavors."

"To you as well, Mr. Bucciarati." Cinder said evenly as, before long, the five Mistrali mafioso turned on their heels and departed from the safe house. As the doors shut and the footsteps of the five men could be heard growing ever more distant, Cinder finally allowed a scowl to grace her lips.

"So, what are we gonna do? Send out some men to intercept them, get them turned into the Vale City authorities, go out and crush them yourself?" Roman sounded almost hopeful as he listed off each of the options, the Vale criminal underlord ecstatic at the possibility of watching Cinder turn her wrath on someone else, and someone he hated for that matter, for once.

"Nothing, Roman." Cinder surprised all as she took a deep breath in through her nose, the golden-eyed woman shaking her head as she calmed herself. "We will be doing nothing. Bucciarati and his gang will be allowed to depart the city under their own power and return to Mistral. They lived up to their end of the bargain…" Still, Cinder seemed frustrated, which was a rare sight for Roman. As he wanted to see Bucciarati put into his place, the orange haired criminal pushed.

"What? You're just going to let those five get away with shooting your offer down without so much as a scratch? Why? Doesn't that just get your dress all up in a bunch, Cinder?" Before Torchwick could have continued to try to egg her on, Cinder glared over at Torchwick. The look quickly silenced Roman, as Cinder just huffed and turned her gaze away.

"I am frustrated, Roman. It isn't often that I'm met with such a setback. However, acting in the way you suggest would be a foolish gesture that'd only inspire a potential business partner to become our enemy. Furthermore, I know our friend wouldn't-" A ring went off somewhere in Cinder's dress as the raven haired woman scoffed slightly and reached into one of her pockets as she pulled out a scroll. "Every time, without fail." A click of the scroll and soon the sound of cups and dishes clattering around could be heard through the device's speakers.

"Hello Cinder. I trust the meeting with Bucciarati has been concluded?" Roman felt his blood chill at the voice on the other end of the line. On the surface, there wasn't anything necessarily off putting about it; it was a calm, even voice that spoke in a slightly lilting accent, befitting one of the more obscure regions of Vacuo. It was the kind of voice that should've inspired the feeling of a fatherly sort of love, as one would receive from a man wizened beyond his years.

Yet in this particular instance Roman's ear for voices, his talent for picking out even obscure things about marks and targets told him something altogether different.

This voice, despite its tone, was cold. Right to its very core, it was cold and empty.

"Whitesnake." Cinder said in a bored sounding tone as she walked over to the seat Bucciarati formerly occupied. "How is it that you always seem to manage to call at just the perfect time?"

"I've borrowed many things from many former friends and associates, Cinder. One happened to be a very helpful little book." There was a pause on the other end of the line as the sounds of dishes clanking around and a small sip was heard through the scroll, as a delighted 'mmmm' reverberated in the man's throat. "That, however, doesn't answer my question. Has the meeting with Bucciarati concluded?"

"Yes, though sadly it seems your estimation of them was correct. Bucciarati refused to betray his little organization or his boss in favor of joining under my wing." Cinder said with a slight frown as she sat down.

"I trust that they will be returning to Mistral unharmed?" Cinder rolled her eyes as she scoffed.

"Please, Whitesnake. I'm no novice when it comes to these things and I'm certainly no hot-headed fool." Torchwick flinched as Cinder's gaze met his, her eyes narrowed dangerously before she continued. "Bucciarati and his gang will make it back to Mistral, assuming they have the ability to. They've also passed along our message: soon, the boss of Passione will have… half of the information we acquired." A rueful grin formed on Cinder's lips as grunt of acknowledgement passed through the line.

"Good; it would be a shame if all that time I spent sifting through Passione defectors and Mistrali government officials went to waste." The man paused as he took a bite out of something, a sounding like a cake or a cracker, as Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"Enjoying your tea, Whitesnake?"

"As a matter of fact, I am Cinder. Sitting down for a nice lunch was one of the conditions the councilman here set as part of the negotiations to borrow one of his staff for the upcoming Breach." A slight, lilting chuckle could be heard somewhat distantly from the scroll before Whitesnake continued. "You'll have to pardon me if after avoiding the Passione assassins after their traitors and working around Mistral's government if I was taken in by the good councilman's hospitality."

"Sounds delightful…" In truth, Cinder was slightly envious of Whitesnake. While the danger he had been in while in Mistral couldn't be understated, if his findings on the boss of Passione and what he had been looking for were sound, it didn't leave the envy she felt at bay. While she was be stuck surrounded by preteens in a combat school that had nothing to teach her, Whitesnake was currently sat in attendance with one of the most influential men in Vacuo as he curried his favor.

Or, once again curried his favor, as it were.

"Jealousy doesn't befit you, Cinder." Cinder held herself back from snapping at her associate, before the man continued. "At any rate, you've made wise moves yourselves. Hopefully Passione will spend plenty of time trying to find the location of their mark. With such vague information, it should buy us enough time to conclude The Breach. By then, you'll have the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers and be ready to move on to Mistral…

"And I'll have Kujo Jotaro." A particularly hard clank and a crack signaled the breaking of some dishware, though if it surprised or spooked Whitesnake it didn't come through the other line. "2, 3, 5, 7, 11… I'm terribly sorry councilman, it seems I've broken some of your finery. I assure you, I'll clean it up and pay you back for its loss."

There was some conversation that Cinder couldn't make out as a surprised sound came from Whitesnake.

"My, that was a good trick." Whitesnake's voice was clear again as it became obvious he had picked the scroll back up. "At any rate, I didn't expect that you'd win Bucciarati and his gang over. From what little read I could get off of them as the final negotiations with Polpo were taking place, they're extremely loyal men… some of them, like Fugo, are loyal simply out of a fear for their boss. The rest are strictly loyal to Bucciarati and, so long as he's loyal to their boss, they'll be loyal to him.

"Bucciarati was the interesting one though." A slight 'hmmm' of concentration came through the other line as Whitesnake gathered his thoughts. "He seems to be a true believer in the role of the mafioso as a pillar of the community, and that faith, for now, lends his loyalty to the boss. It's no surprise then that men and women like yourself and Torchwick couldn't change Bucciarati's mind: it is in his nature to believe in these things that you two only seek to take advantage of and abuse."

"Considering some of the things you've done, Whitesnake, one might call that accusation hypocritical." An amused grin crossed Cinder's lips as a frustrated grunt was heard on Whitesnake's end of the line.

"13, 17, 19, 23, 29… The pleasure you two take in your manipulations of the innocent's better nature is what divides us, Cinder. The Plan calls for my actions, but I take no joy in committing them." A slight roll of her golden eyes was Cinder's only answer.

"Of course, Whitesnake. Is this all you wished to discuss, or is there any other business you desire to address?" Cinder asked with a casual tone. The silence on the other end of the line alerted her for a moment, before Whitesnake finally spoke.

"Do not underestimate the Joestar Bloodline, Cinder Fall." The raven-haired woman blinked in surprise as the dire seriousness of the man's tone of voice. "Better than you have been damned by their pride when dealing with Jonathan Joestar and his descendants. Allow your arrogance to cloud your actions for even a moment, and you will find that no force on Remnant will be able to save you from your demise."

"I will not allow myself to fall so easily, Whitesnake. The Joestar descendant and the other Frontier hunters will be treated with caution. Thanks to your information on Kujo Jotaro and a battle Bucciarati had with one of the Frontiersmen, we've already gathered a good deal of intelligence on them. Once The Breach occurs, we'll be ready." A confident smile graced Cinder's lips as she said all this, as Whitesnake merely sighed from the other end of the line.

"If that thought will ease your mind Cinder, I suppose it would be poor form for me to try and steal it away from you. When The Breach concludes and Vale stands shattered, I will arrive to claim Kujo Jotaro and begin moving our plans forward. After all these years, our visions of the future shall finally be set into motion. Good evening to you, Cinder." With that, the line went dead. Cinder Fall looked at her scroll for but the briefest of moments before she slipped it away.

"You know, I never really considered you the type to accept equals, Cinder." The raven-haired woman's gaze snapped up to Torchwick as the criminal spat away the spent end of his previous cigar. "I mean, I don't know who your boss is, but I have to imagine it's one scary person for someone like you to be following their orders. This guy, sure, he sounds spooky and that voice of sends shivers down my spine." An overly dramatic shiver accompanied Roman grabbing another cigar.

"But I didn't figure you, Miss Cinder Fall, master schemer and the woman intent on bringing down an entire Kingdom, would accept anyone as an equal." Torchwick shrugged as he lit his new cigar. Cinder stared at the orange-haired criminal for a hard moment, before she grinned slightly.

"Tell me Roman; do you agree with the notion that you can tell a lot about a person by the sorts of company they keep? The… relationships they make?" Cinder crossed her legs as she leaned back in her seat slightly as Torchwick just scoffed.

"Course I do. It's why I can tell that about you; just look at the two kids over here. They're practically your servants. I bet if you told them two they'd both bend down and get to immediately shining your shoes." The annoyed glares sent Roman's way by Mercury and Emerald only made the man chuckle as, despite their obvious annoyance, neither made a move to interrupt this conversation between himself and Cinder Fall.

"A fair observation. Yes, it's true Roman. I prefer to work with people under my control, that I can bend and guide along my plans as need be. That's why, for all your failings, I still keep you around as a pawn, dear Roman." Torchwick scowled slightly as he took a drag on his cigar, before Cinder continued. "Whitesnake, by himself, is a man that doesn't seem entirely remarkable at first blush. Even when you get to know him, his oddities, his… drive, while impressive, wouldn't lead you to fearing him as your enemy.

"However, I have seen the sorts of men and women Whitesnake has surrounded himself with… and the sort of people he surrounded." Cinder Fall frowned as the memories came crawling back to her. "For a man to survive these groups, and to earn the latter's respect or, at least, his admiration… no, Whitesnake is far more dangerous than he appears. Too powerful to be a subordinate but I would not bend to him before my own master. So I must treat him as an equal, for the sake of our mutual interests."

"Hah! So what, one of his friends spooked you or something?" Torchwick suddenly stopped in place as he felt Cinder's icy cold stare focus him down, the orange-haired criminal swallowed nervously as Cinder Fall kept an even expression on her face.

"Allow me to make something clear Roman: I am 'spooked' by nothing. My master stands as the only person alive this day that I am well and truly fearful of. A being that inspires in me an equal measure of terror and confidence. However, the day I met Whitesnake for the first time… it was also the day I looked the only man I'd ever fear in the eyes." Cinder stood up slowly as Mercury and Emerald fell in behind her. Before they too left the safe house, Cinder turned to look over her shoulder at Roman Torchwick.

"Be thankful, dear Roman. Because for you, the day shall never come where you stand face to face with DIO. Kujo Jotaro saw to that himself." Cinder turned her head back to the outside as Mercury and Emerald slid the door closed. "But once Kujo Jotaro is also dead, even that fear shall be a distant memory."

* * *

Beacon Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Some Odd Hours Later

"Go down the hall, take a right, go straight for a few wings, go down the master stairs, take a left and then just go straight and you'll hit the dining area. The food's usually set out by the time the bell rings so you won't actually have to go searching for any of your meals if you take them here in Beacon. It's good food, I suppose, so I'd recommend it for you all."

"What Weiss-cream means here is that even for her refined palate, the food here at Beacon is nothing to… Schneeze at!"

"Oh-ho! I get it! Her last name is Schnee and it sounds like sneeze! Another great joke Yang!"

"Dust, please, make it stop…"

For the past hour or two, Team RWBY had been playing the part of tour guide for Team JOJO which despite Josuke's protests, or perhaps even because of them, was quickly becoming the official team name of the group of Frontier huntsmen for the four huntresses. The duty of tour guide had been split up somewhat evenly among the four girls, or 'even' as far as what they'd speak up about goes.

Weiss had taken up the 'official' tour guide post, showing Team JOJO the important sights and places around Beacon they'd need to be familiar with as well as directions for how they'd get to these places from their dorm room. It was a task she'd taken to with considerable gusto, and it was greatly appreciated by each of the three Frontiersmen in kind. Blake took up the slack as it had concerned what Weiss hadn't though of us important as she dropped in from time to time to share less official details about each location: what sort of books they could find in the library, the best way to get around the school if you were short on time and so on.

Yang and Ruby kind of sat back and goofed off with their friends while their partners had been serious and informative. Yang had taken whatever opportunity she could to get a laugh out of Okuyasu with her library of jokes, to the rest of Team RWBY's continued despair and to Koichi and Josuke's growing understanding of why the other huntresses were so vehement about not encouraging the blonde bombshell. Ruby, still not entirely used to Okuyasu's brash behavior and finding that her social awkwardness and Koichi's ended up leaving the two of them at a stalemate, had stuck to telling Josuke about the various things she found interesting about the school: who certain statues of huntsmen and huntresses were, where the training halls were and what were the best settings were for getting a good round in with your weapon, or Stand, and finally just some need to know information about the staff, as far as she was concerned.

"Yeah… anyway, ignoring that." Ruby tried to play off Yang's bad joke as Okuyasu just continued to chuckle. "The kitchen staff are pretty nice. If you go back into the kitchen and ask them for some small stuff they're willing to either make it for you or have it prepared ahead of time. I've gotten SO many cookies from them, it's great!"

"Ah, I guess we'll have to remember that. Though, I don't think we really have a kind of favorite food to ask for yet… well, hmmm…" Josuke's face scrunched up into a thoughtful expression as he considered that point, as did Koichi and Okuyasu.

For Team JOJO, their budding friendships with the Four Kingdom huntresses were welcome, if rocky in parts. For Josuke, he was naturally able to slip himself between each member of the group simply because of the flexibility of his attitude. Thoughtful, soft-spoken and kind enough to have been able to make dents in Blake and Weiss' doubts on top of his actions of having been a strong leader and a loyal compatriot while being witty, banterous and having possessed a casual cool that Yang could attach to and a combination of all these traits that made it easy for Ruby to have considered him easy to talk to and a good friend. Josuke just seemed to be the sort of guy who could get along with just about anyone and, in the sphere of Team RWBY, he did.

For Okuyasu, his brash attitude made him a bit of a bull in the china shop, despite his better nature. While this and his appreciation for Yang's bad humor made it easy for the two to hit it off, it had made Weiss, Blake and Ruby uneasy about him in different ways. For Weiss, Okuyasu had been an absolute boor: loud, easily amused and with a casual, bordering on disrespectful, attitude to just about everything around him, up to and including his own leader. She understood that Josuke didn't seem to mind it and, in fact, took no small joy in his own banter with his friend, but for her it had been too much at once wrapped up in a package that might as well have screamed delinquent. Blake found herself slightly worried about Okuyasu as she had found that his attitude was off-putting, though to a far lesser degree than it had been for Weiss. She'd seen hundreds of Okuyasus while living among the White Fang so she was inoculated to their brash nature. Didn't mean she enjoyed being around it: her own partner's bold and brash nature could be exhausting enough on its own, even if she did greatly appreciate Yang's better angels. She didn't know Okuyasu in the same way Josuke did, so she couldn't say she knew his better angels, or if he even had any.

For Ruby, this was the difficult middle ground. Her new transfer friend obviously considered Okuyasu one of his best friends and treated him as such and, from a distance, the banter between the two was amusing and seemed like a lot of fun. Even Okuyasu himself, once you peeled back the surface, seemed like a nice guy. He was a really happy person and expressed that emotion to its fullest. That was just where Ruby had difficulty: Okuyasu was a loud, bold stranger who would get up in your space and address you directly. Even if he meant well, for Ruby, it would take time for her to get used to that. Of all her current friends, the best person she could think to compare him to was Nora, but usually Nora's energy was just focused on or limited by Ren. Okuyasu seemed like he could project Nora-like levels of enthusiasm on just about anyone he spoke to.

Then there was Koichi. Koichi was obviously a very kind, very-soft spoken young man, the sort of person Ruby might have an easy time speaking with and that Weiss and Blake would find easy company, though Yang might have found him a bit tame and boring. Being friends with Okuyasu and Josuke though, all of them would have had been glad to be friends with Koichi too.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the boy's skittishness made Ruby seem positively outgoing and bursting with social skill by comparison.

The young man was clearly nervous for various reasons around the four huntresses. While he could, and did, comfortably converse with Okuyasu and Josuke, even if he whined a bit when those conversations turned to the light teasing that the four huntresses had known the two were capable of, it was clear that he had been open to his two teammates. With RWBY, they were people he hadn't even known for the better part of two hours and he treated them as such. Ruby and Blake could sympathize, Weiss had the patience to wait it out for the boy to get comfortable and Yang, well, she could spend time getting to know his two friends better until Koichi was ready to open up. Having spent enough time with Ruby, Yang knew you had to give the shy and socially awkward their time to open up… or brute force them into making friends.

Given that Koichi wasn't her little sister, it probably wouldn't have been cool if she tried to pull something similar to what she had with Ruby on her first day.

"I suppose more of that Cola wouldn't hurt." Josuke said with an off-handed shrug as Okuyasu nodded in agreement. "Maybe some of those snack cakes too."

"Cola and snack cakes huh? Not exactly reaching that far for special treats to ask the cooking staff for if you can just buy it from a vending machine." Yang said with a slight chuckle as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Heh, well, we don't exactly get a lot of… variety in stuff up in Morioh. Most of it is just whatever we could manage to trade for from the Outskirts. It came as kind of a shock that all of this stuff was so cheap and readily available, to be honest." The pompadoured teen said with a sheepish scratch of the back of his head as Yang winced.

"Ah, right, the whole last outpost of civilization surrounded by Grimm thing. Sorry about that."The lilac eyed teen offered with a slight bow of her head, which Okuyasu just laughed off.

"Ah don't worry about it. You all didn't even know we existed until, like, I dunno, a month or something ago? Koichi?" Okuyasu turned his head to the shortest member of the two groups, who just shook his head no.

"Uh, actually Okuyasu, even longer than that. Polnareff arrived to deliver Mr. Joestar's message a couple months or so ago according to Jotaro and Mr. Ironwood." Okuyasu nodded as he just waved his hand dismissively.

"Well, whatever, it doesn't really matter when. Point is that you guys had no idea at some point, so don't worry about it." Josuke nodded in agreement with Okuyasu, to which Yang gave an appreciative grin to the two young men. Weiss rolled her eyes at Okuyasu's attitude, but nonetheless didn't speak up.

"I guess tomorrow's going to be a pretty big treat for you all then. The kitchen staff really goes out of their way to feed everyone here in Beacon." Blake smiled slightly as she saw the spark of excitement in each of the three young men's eyes, as Okuyasu just turned to grin at his friends.

"Oh ho! So not only are we living in a friggin' castle, we're going to be eating like kings! I'm so excited! Let's go to our dorm room and get some sleep so that we can stuff our faces tomorrow!" The scarred teen said with a loud laugh that was quickly joined in by, to varying degrees, the other members of the group. Before long, Josuke yawned and rubbed at his eyes while he stretched out his back.

"Jeez, that actually sounds pretty great right now. Between running around the city, fighting Bucciarati and this tour, it's been a pretty full day. A mattress and a good night's sleep sounds like what the doctor ordered for my legs too." Josuke shook out the slight sting in his ankles as they continued walking, the walk over to the transport to Beacon and now the tour left him sore.

"Well then, it's a good thing we're ready to conclude the tour then. Gentlemen, and Okuyasu-" Weiss gave a bit of a flourish as they approached one room out of many in one of the dorms on Beacon's campus, "-your quarters for the next several months." A series of wide grins stretched across the trio's faces as they each took a deep breath. Josuke ended up being the one to reach out and open the door, as he quickly swung it open as the three sought to take in their living quarters.

It was a rather sparse affair, all things told. Tasteful red curtains closed off direct sight of a window, bookshelves were empty and waited to be filled as were a few wooden chest of drawers. Four single beds carefully spaced out across the room and a single door to a bathroom for the four of them. Their things had been placed into a corner by Beacon staff earlier, a handful of bags to offset the general neatness of the room.

The three smiled slightly; though it might've been bigger than any of their own rooms, the simple nature of the dorm room had felt a little bit like home.

"It's great." Josuke said with a slight stretch of his back as he walked on into the room, where Okuyasu and Koichi soon followed. The pompadoured teen turned to face the four huntresses-in-training and flashed them all a smile while Okuyasu and Koichi got to settling in. "Guys… what can I say, this has been a pretty interesting first day here in Vale." Josuke scratched the side of his head as he chuckled, a gesture returned by the other four.

"Well you'll probably get used to it after a while." Yang offered with a slight shrug of her shoulders, as Weiss just groaned.

"That's a terrible sentiment Yang. Who'd want to get used to these sorts of… bizarre adventures?" When Josuke choked a bit, a big grin on his face, the four tilted their heads in confusion.

"Trust me, as far as stories I've heard, today doesn't even crack the top five in terms of weirdness. We Frontier folk have a bit of tolerance for the bizarre." At this, Blake couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly.

"Fantastic. So you're saying it could get weirder from here?" She said in a slightly sarcastic tone, as Josuke just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Probably will be, all things being equal. You all can always back out of our agreement if you don't think you're ready."

"Are you kidding? If this ends up being even half as crazy as that biography I wouldn't want to miss this for the world!" Ruby said excitedly as she bounced on her heels. Yang seemed to be all in on her sister's enthusiasm while Weiss and Blake had slightly more… restrained expressions on their faces at the mention of Rudol von Stroheim's biography.

"Sounds great. I guess we'll see you all at breakfast tomorrow, then." With a short series of goodbyes, Josuke lightly closed the door on Team RWBY, the four huntresses-in-training quickly moved on to get back to their own dorm.

"Wow, what a day. Even if I thought it'd get a little crazy when we went out to go find out stuff on Torchwick, wouldn't have guessed it'd shake out like it did." Despite her words, Ruby had a wide smile on her face as she yawned, her arms casually behind her head as Blake fell in behind Ruby and Yang, while Weiss was in front of them.

"You're telling me. I can still hardly believe it all happened, and I'm the one who definitely lost an arm to a Stand." A roll of her left shoulder accompanied her words as Yang grinned at her little sister. "Still, it all turned out really well. We got some new friends, kicked Torchwick, ice cream bitch and Bucciarati's butts and we found out Stands are real. I'd call that a 'Yangin' day if ever there was one." Ruby groaned at her sister's pun… alone. The two sisters blinked in surprise when they noticed that Weiss and Blake's usual reactions to Yang's bad jokes were missing, their respective partners stopped in place.

"Y-Yeah… Stands are real…" Blake spoke up, which drew Yang and Ruby's attention to the black-haired Faunus, who seemed to pale slightly as she reached over for a wall and slid down it. "Stands are real… and so is Joseph Joestar… and so are Pillar Men, and Kars, and the Perfect Being and… and… and… and humanity was literally this close to being wiped out." Blake raised her hand and created a teeny-tiny space in between two of her fingers for her amber eyes to stare at, Yang and Ruby nervously glanced at each other as Blake seemed to be having a minor breakdown.

"Yeah… but Blake, Joseph Joestar saved the day. With a little bit of luck and clever thinking, just like a real hero!" Ruby tried to jostle Blake out of her spiral with her chipper attitude, but it clearly had no effect.

"Yeah, like a storybook hero Ruby... but this isn't a storybook Ruby. This, this is real, this was real life. All of us almost never existed. We're only alive because of a fluke." Blake's head pounded slightly against the wall behind her as a nervous laugh escaped her throat. "A fluke. A dumb stroke of luck is the only reason anyone's alive right now. Hahahahahahaha…"

"Come on Blakey, it isn't that bad." The lilac-eyed huntress tried to reassure her partner. "Sure, almost every living human being and faunus died because Mantle was trying to use some ancient race of Grimm-controlling monsters in order to get an advantage over on the other kingdoms when it should've been a time of peace. Sure, Joseph Joestar only won because he got super lucky with that volcano. Sure, no one really knows for certain if that Kars guy is actually dead but… but… this isn't helping, is it?" A shake from Blake's head and a nervous series of twitches from her bow told Yang that she had failed miserably in her attempt to calm Blake down. "Okay then, Weiss, mind lending us a hand here?"

Weiss stood stock still and silent as her back was turned to the rest of the team, the only signs of movement from her being an occasional twitch of her head. The silver-eyed team leader swallowed nervously as she slowly stood up and approached her partner from behind.

"W-Weiss? Are you okay there? Can you hear us?" Ruby lightly grabbed the Schnee heiress by the shoulder, the touch caused Weiss to immediately stiffen before relaxing. Weiss turned her head dramatically, a stoic expression on her face as she looked back at her other three teammates.

"I refuse."

The overly dramatic way in which Weiss said this stunned the three other girls, as Weiss delicately crossed her arms over her chest as she shook her head.

"Look, Stands are real. I saw them, I'll accept that. I'll accept that Morioh and the Frontier is real; Josuke and Koichi seem like good, honorable people who wouldn't lie to our faces, so I'll believe them. I'll even go so far as to believe that a Joseph Joestar is a real person, because Josuke and Koichi say that a man with that name is the leader of their community.

"However, that's all I have to believe. I don't have to believe in Pillar Men, I don't have to believe in masks that turn people into Grimm-monsters, I don't have to believe in Kars and I CERTAINLY don't have to believe that the world almost ended, but was saved only because an idiot got lucky. I refuse."

"... Weiss? That's a little bit childish don't you think? Weiss flinched and flinched hard, her cool composure dropped in an instant. Because of all of her teammates to say this to her, of all of them who could possibly call her actions childish, it was Ruby Rose. Ruby 'I wonder how many cookies I can stuff in my cheeks at once' Rose.

"N-N-NO! It is NOT childish! I'm just refusing to believe something I haven't seen yet!" Weiss stamped her foot on the ground as she looked at her other three teammates, all of whom were doing their best to keep their composure as they watched Weiss slowly but surely had a meltdown right in front of them.

"Weiss, literally everything else in that book is true, and we know that now. What are the odds that only a few things in there are wrong while literally everything else is true?" Blake asked as she slowly came out of her own stupor.

"Good enough that I can just ignore everything else! You all can't make me believe any of the rest of it! You heard me, I refuse!" Weiss turned her back on her teammates and quickly made for their dorm room, a wide grin finally broke out on Yang's face as she cupped her hands to her mouth.

"Hey Weiss, you can't run from this! We know where you live!"

"Shut up I can't hear you!" Hands planted firmly over her ears, Weiss' semi-sprint of a walk turned into an outright jog as she turned a corner. Ruby, Blake and Yang all burst out into a fit of laughter as, slowly, Blake stood up off the floor. Soon enough, the other three members of Team RWBY followed Weiss back to the dorm room. A good night's sleep would straighten everyone out, surely.

* * *

Vale Dockyard, City of Vale, Minutes Later

It was an unfortunate fact of life for the criminally inclined: when you made enough noise for the authorities to get involved, more comfortable means of transportation were locked off from you.

Bucciarati's gang was more than familiar enough with this lesson and, when it came to Vale, they had already had to deal with it once. Torchwick's crime spree already had the city on high alert, which had made travel to and from Vale via airship nearly impossible. With this evening's battle, that became doubly so; the sky was locked off for anyone who wasn't Atlesian or Valean military or a member of the Vale City Police Department.

Fortunately, Bucciarati and Abbacchio had seen such a possibility coming from a mile away; the two had secured safe transit from Vale's ports via a few greased palms at the port authority. After all, the City of Vale was a massive city with a very long coastline. Between patrolling the skies, the streets and the coast, Vale was just terribly stretched thin when it came to official policing. Add to that the need for Vale's other cities to trade to and from Vale via their ports, and it left closing down the port authority a no go.

They'd go out the same way they came in: a ship to Patch and, from there, a long sea-trip to Atlas where, hopefully, the boss' contacts were still holding out. If not, they'd have to improvise. If they were, then it'd be smooth flying back to Mistral.

"Sure as Hell would be way more convenient if Vale had any cities on the eastern coast. Damn Kingdom claims so much and doesn't do jack squat with most of it. Would've been nice if we could've just taken a boat ride and then rode the rest of the way here instead of dealing with those fucking icicles up north." Narancia whined a bit as the five man gang waited for their ride, each of them sat out of sight around the dockyard as they patiently awaited their opportunity to make a clean getaway.

"There's no point in them having cities where they can't possibly protect them. As much as we might appreciate how far out Mistral is able to extend its control, we should know best of all the kingdoms what happens when you overreach. After all, Kuroyuri isn't exactly on the map anymore these days, is it?" Fugo spoke in a calm, even tone as he imparted this knowledge on Narancia. "Don't curse so much either, Narancia. It makes you sound like you don't have a proper upbringing." Narancia could only grin slightly as he looked over at Fugo.

"Eh? But Fugo, you of all people should no I really don't have any proper upbringing!" Narancia howled with laughter for a moment, before he suddenly found a fist driven into the side of his head.

"That's why we're going to work until we pound some damned sense into that thick head of yours. Don't laugh so loud either, you'll draw the police to us, you dumbass." Fugo ground his knuckles into the feminine young man's temple, which had caused Narancia to whine as the other members of the gang looked on. A smile graced Bucciarati's lips as he watched his subordinates, until he noticed a thoughtful expression on Mista's face.

"Is something troubling you, Mista?" The skullcap wearing young man blinked as he looked up to his boss.

"Oh? It's nothin' Bucciarati. Just… nah, it's nothin'." Mista crossed his arms as he looked off to the side, though as he felt Bucciarati's gaze burrowing into the side of his head, the gunslinger relented. "Alright, alright, alright. Listen, don't get me wrong here Bucciarati; I'm as glad to be leaving this shit hole as anyone. Too much bad juju flying around for my liking: a team of four huntresses we knew had been on Torchwick's case for a while, a group of four huntsmen from the Frontier with Stands that we knew were coming in sometime, one of them being this Kujo Jotaro guy, a city with four letters in the name… it all just screamed bad luck right from the start.

"So really, I'm glad that we're leaving. I'd honestly be happy if I never saw Vale for the rest of my natural life."

"But?" Bucciarati knew there was a but to all this, otherwise Mista wouldn't appear so apprehensive.

"... But, are we sure we're making the right decision here?" Bruno blinked in surprise as he heard those words escape Mista's mouth.

"Oh? Do you think we should've taken Ms. Fall's offer, Mista?" When Mista remained silent, his head tilted down towards the ground, it was clear that wasn't what he meant. "... I see." Bucciarati crossed his arms as he and the rest of the gang looked at Mista, who just sighed and scratched underneath his skullcap.

"Look… I'm for helping other criminal enterprises if they work like us and I'm definitely all for helping Passione make money. It's just… I dunno. If you're looking to build a stable criminal enterprise, you don't need that much Dust or Atlesian Paladins to do it… you certainly don't work with the White Fang either."

The four other members of the gang nodded in agreement. Though most of the activities the White Fang partook in could be classified as merely criminal, it didn't change the fact that the organization as a whole was far more than that; they were, simply put, terrorists. Judging by what they had seen in the warehouse, it seemed as though this Vale branch wasn't exactly looking for a transition into a peaceful, profitable criminal enterprise.

"What would you have wanted us to do then, Mista?" Abbacchio stepped into the conversation, a slight tilt to his head as he looked sympathetically towards the young man. "Stay and help the police force? I can tell you from experience that, unless the Vale police here are as corrupt as they are in Mistral, that they won't exactly be eager to see us… and judging by the reaction to Torchwick, they aren't."

"No, definitely not. We're from the biggest gang in Mistral and no saints ourselves. We wouldn't be able to work in a stuck up city like Vale; they'd throw us in jail as soon as we showed ourselves and would probably torture us for whatever information we could give them." Mista sighed as he just shook his head. "Look, this is why I didn't want to bring it up. It's stupid, there's nothing else we could've really done, but...shit just isn't sitting well with me, you know?"

"I can sympathize Mista." Fugo said calmly as he leaned up against a nearby crate, a slight nod to his head. "However, the fact also remains that this was a mission directly from the boss. It isn't our place to question his orders. Whatever it was that he did this for, we can only assume that it was for the best interests of Passione. The boss wouldn't betray the organization's interests, even for a little bit of information and a little bit of lien."

"And that's the bottom line, isn't it?" Bucciarati finally spoke up, drawing his men's attention to him. "The boss gave these orders to Polpo, who gave them to us. We did our work and, by those very same orders, the boss wanted us back in Mistral as soon as we could arrive after the mission… apparently, to deliver him Ms. Fall's message." Bucciarati shrugged his shoulders as he placed his hands in his pants pockets. "As members of Passione, that's our priority. Nothing else: not Vale, not these piss poor excuses for criminals and not some terrorists going around pretending to be civil rights activists."

As much as Bucciarati did sympathize with the plight of the faunus and believed every word he had said to the gathered crowd, that didn't mean his sympathies extended to the White Fang in particular. He had seen what their handiwork was capable of during the time Passione was only building up its influence in Mistral. The White Fang didn't protect their community, didn't protect those most vulnerable: they exploited the vulnerable and desperate members of their own race and used them as cannon fodder to smash against the governments of the Four Kingdoms and the Schnee Dust Company.

Those sorts of people, the truly desperate and helpless, were the people that Passione took in. They protected them, offered them a community they might not have had. All for a little bit of information, respect and silence. It was why he was so proud of his organization, so proud to be a mafioso. There were times, like now, where he questioned the boss' orders, where he wondered if what they were doing was truly right for Mistral, whether or not the drug trade…

Bucciarati shook off his doubts. Passione was the home for the helpless and the pillar of the community the likes of the Mistrali Governing Council, the other criminal syndicates and the White Fang could never be. Perhaps in another time, these doubts would find their voice and find a man to rally behind. Today, however, Bucciarati looked at his men, utterly exhausted and missing their home, and knew that he had to get them back to Mistral.

"So we'll return to Mistral, with a job well done and everything the boss could have ever wanted done done. We'll trust that he knows what he's doing, and we'll continue to do our work for Passione." Bucciarati couldn't help a slightly sly grin that came to his face as he leaned back in his own makeshift seat. " After a well-deserved **riposo** and some good food."

"I can get behind that." Narancia said with a cheeky grin as he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back against the crate that served as his own seat. The other members of the gang, with smiles on their own faces, relaxed as well; Bucciarati's words having put them all at ease.

Bucciarati, though affecting a calm demeanor, still had his own doubts. He shared Mista's misgivings and couldn't help but think of what sort of future awaited Vale. Stands, Dust, Paladins and the White Fang wouldn't make for a clean or peaceful future for the coastal city. Internally, he grimaced at the thought of the headlines that he suspected he'd see sometime in the future as it concerned Vale.

' _If… if one of them we weren't warned about is this strong… how monstrously powerful is Kujo Jotaro?_ '

His thoughts from earlier in the night rang out in his head as Bucciarati closed his eyes. In the darkness, he could make them out. Several pairs of eyes, strong-willed and determined, stood against him and his then associates. They were stronger, more experienced and had shown a terrifying capacity for violence… yet, none of these young ones cared in the slightest. They stood proud, ready to fight for their city or, he chuckled, their host's city.

Those blue eyes. He'd never forget the look in them and his Stand's for as long as he lived. Grim determination and self-confidence, concentrated and looking down upon him, his defeated foe. He wasn't worth a warning. Wasn't worth being told to avoid. Kujo Jotaro was, not this unknown brat.

Yet Higashikata Josuke had managed to do what few others had: he had defeated Bucciarati in a battle between Stands.

'Higashikata Josuke, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. If these are the caliber of the young from the Frontier and Beacon, I suppose Vale might stand a chance.' A chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head at the thought.

' _Don't tell me that you don't believe people meet for some reason, Mr. Bucciarati: that we mere mortals are guided along by a force beyond our own control. Do you not believe in_ _Gravity_ _?_ "

All mirth died in Bucciarati as he recalled that man, that singular man. A voice that sent chills up his spine and a demeanor that had his guard up constantly. A look, somewhere deep in his eyes, that spoke of nothing short of true evil.

'A chance… yes, but only a chance.' Bucciarati shook his head, his bowl haircut swinging about as he saw his gang's ride slowly approach the coastline.

Even if he had been inclined to do something about his and Mista's misgivings… Bucciarati, at that moment, couldn't say whether or not he would, knowing that Whitesnake stood somewhere behind the scenes.

'Good luck Vale… you'll need it.'

 **-To be Continued- Great School Days (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Let's talk about the needs versus wants of a plot, shall we?**

 **In my experience, I find that when outlining a story, it's best to organize the various plot points in this manner: what does the plot I have in mind 'need' to have happen in order to move the story, what would best be used to make certain that it happens as naturally as possible and what do I 'want' it to do on top of all of that?**

 **For this arc in particular, I had a couple hard needs in mind: Team RWBY needed to be exposed to enemy Stand Users, that enemy Stand User needed to be able to be a shock to their system but, and this is an important but, the Stand User had to be one that wouldn't be inclined to immediately outright kill them. Enough of a threat to kick them in the pants but not enough where we're suddenly down four cast members. So not Harvest but also not Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Team RWBY also needed to fight with Josuke at their side: from canon, we can gather that the transfer students and the Vale population, while they do mingle, don't necessarily become close friends. Sun and Neptune are pretty much exceptions to this, but by and large we don't really see any friendly interactions between RWBY, JNPR and other transfers outside of this.**

 **In addition to this, RWBY needed a reason to be able to grab onto the Frontier huntsmen as reliable sorts even if they all have their own doubts: Blake doubting the status of faunus in the Frontier, Weiss doubting everything because of cultural preconceptions that were ingrained quite hard by Atlesian society, etc., etc. Despite having a few hang ups, Team RWBY needed a reason to trust that Team JOJO were on the up and up. Having Josuke fight with them was a natural way to do this that would even help give more options for what powerful Stands I could bring in for this initial shock: with Josuke in the mix, I wouldn't have to worry about controlling for the fact that certain Stands, with the full element of surprise in terms of their own power and the nature of Stands, would be too much for RWBY to handle immediately on their own.**

 **Then there's what I wanted: I also wanted this Stand User brought in to help expand upon what you, the reader, know about what's been changed in this crossover. You've already got a fair share of nuggets tossed in, but one plot element that I couldn't previously naturally fit in was the existence of Passione or the fact that it was headquartered in Mistral. So it became a natural fit that the first hostile Stand would be a Part 5 Stand that was part of Passione. After all, being a part of a criminal organization and needing certain info that I have written here in the backstory, it was an natural way to structure all of this together.**

 **So that left me sifting through Passione's ranks of Stand Users for a good fit. Something not quite as powerful as something on the order of Metallica, but also not quite as situational, unhelpful or unimpressive (at first blush) as Talking Head or Rolling Stones.**

 **It took some time while I also outlined other parts of the plot and the series backstory some odd months ago, but in the end, it came down to Bucciarati's gang, which also gave me another great opportunity. In the original series we kinda just get introduced to Bucciarati as some crazy murderer on a train car who'll lick you without your consent and has crazy zipper powers. While we get the idea that he's a better guy than he seems soon enough, we're never quite given that much depth on him until later on in the series.**

 **Here, with Bucciarati introduced initially as an antagonist with complex morals, it gives me the opportunity to kind of give people who may not have read the mango or who don't know JoJo in general an idea of the sort of person Bucciarati is before he becomes vital to the plot. He also perfectly fills out the other needs of the plot: he's an enemy who's just dangerous enough to be a fully legitimate and terrifying first Stand User for Team RWBY to be faced with, while within the realm of possibility for RWBY and Josuke to be able to beat.**

 **Right now, Bucciarati's filled the needs of the surface plot, the stuff you guys will see going down, and he and his gang will be returning to Mistral for a while. They aren't the sort of characters who'd stick around and help folks like Cinder if they aren't ordered too, but they're also not the sort of people who'd stick their heads out and risk angering Diavolo for others (for now).**

 **Will they be back? Certainly. When? Not for a while.**

 **I imagine some people will feel dissatisfied, getting a sweet taste of Bucciarati and his gang and then being left dry, but between Passione's mob politics and the mentality of Bucciarati and his gang, I couldn't really see a reason why he'd need or realistically be kept in the plot at this time. It's a nice want, but remember, what you want from your plot comes after what it needs and what feels natural.**

 **When you put wants before the rest, well, that's when you start getting fanservice without substance which, while occasionally nice, isn't exactly going to keep a story consistent or driven by an understandable internal logic powered by characters with arcs and motivations of their own.**

 **Anyway, hope you guys are going to have a good day.**


	8. Great School Days (Act 1)

Team JOJO's Dorm Room, Beacon Academy, Forty Minutes before Breakfast

"Yo, Josuke, I'm done using the restroom. It's all yours boss!"

"Thanks Okuyasu, I'll be back out in a half hour."

Josuke, hair drooped in front of his face as he stifled a yawn, walked past Okuyasu as he carried his various hair supplies and other toiletries.

For some, the change from living on their own or living with their parents to living in a dorm, surrounded by members of their own peer group, would've been a hard shock to the system. For many in Beacon, there was a transitory period where students would slowly but surely get used to dorm life as they settled into their new, exciting and more independent lifestyles. For the three Frontier huntsmen, however, this was hardly a concern: close cohabitation while out scouting was something they all had gotten more than used to.

The three young men were used to waking up, or staying up, through the very early hours of the day through years of experience, or a year for Koichi, and were used to exchanging times to go out and freshen up in the middle of the wilderness. The fact that Beacon's dormitories were so nice, the mattresses so soft, had made the cohabitation much easier and much more pleasant. For Okuyasu, this arrangement was even better than what he'd gotten used to back in Morioh. As often as he could, Okuyasu sought out the company of his teammates and their families, as any other time Okuyasu would have spent alone in the home designated for him. Several years of that little slice of misery had made Okuyasu more than open to sharing a dorm room with his two closest friends.

"Agh! Holy crap, this water's cold!" Josuke's screamed out from the bathroom, as Okuyasu and Koichi just blinked.

"It was hot when I got in there!" Koichi shouted back, as Okuyasu just shrugged.

"Kinda warm, I guess." Okuyasu muttered under his breath as combed his small pompadour into place.

It would take awhile for them to get a hang of all the, what they saw as, luxuries of Four Kingdom society, though the three of them felt positively spoiled at this point. The mattresses were the softest the three of them had ever known and as soon as their heads hit the pillows the night before, they were out like a light. Alarm clocks ensured that, even with curtains drawn to keep the sun out of their eyes, they'd wake up at a good hour to get ready. Despite it having been summer outside, the building was as cool as a nice fall evening.

This might as well have been paradise for the Frontiersmen.

Finally, a half hour later on the dot, Josuke emerged from the dorm's restroom, his hair done up in its signature pompadour. As the leader of Team JOJO got out one of his clean uniforms, Okuyasu turned to face him, a curious expression on his face.

"Yo, Josuke, you come up with that plan of yours yet? I think we're all ready to hear whatever you got after getting some rest." Okuyasu said rather casually as he closed up his own uniform, a slight nod came from Koichi as he agreed with the scarred teenager.

Josuke nodded as he immediately understood what his friend was talking about; on the way to Beacon Academy, Josuke and Team RWBY had filled in Okuyasu and Koichi on what had happened last night. From the fight with Bucciarati to what information Jotaro had given Josuke as well as his instructions. On top of that, Team RWBY had filled Josuke and the others in on what had been going on in Vale as it concerned Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. When they had arrived at Beacon, however, Team JOJO had decided that it was an issue that could be left till morning; it had been a long day, especially for the pompadoured team leader, and they still had a tour of Beacon proper to get through with Team RWBY. So the three Frontier huntsmen had agreed to let Josuke sleep on it before he laid it all out for his friends.

"Right, I really owe you guys that right about now, don't I?" Josuke sighed as he buttoned his uniform up to the neck. "Alright, the plan's a simple, but deceptively so: I've put a lot of thought into it and I think this is the best way we're going to be able to accomplish both our given mission and help Jotaro with the investigation." Okuyasu and Koichi nodded sternly, serious expressions on their faces as they waited for the instructions from their trusted team leader.

Josuke saw this and smiled, as he pulled out his steel comb and went to double-checking his hair.

"The plan is we do nothing."

Josuke hummed a small tune as he set about combing his hair in a few spots he missed, the young man smirked slightly as he saw Okuyasu and Koichi's dubious expressions in the reflection of the mirror. He withheld a chuckle as Okuyasu shook his head a bit, an expression of disbelief etched onto his features as he warily looked at Josuke.

"Ummm… I hope there's more to it than that Josuke cause otherwise, I gotta say, this plan kind of sucks ass." Koichi seemed a bit flustered by Okuyasu's blunt way of describing Josuke's plan, but nodded in agreement nonetheless. Despite their disbelief, however, they had both been willing to hear their leader out. After all, Josuke had been made the leader of their team for a simple reason: out of all of them, he was the most capable on all fronts.

Okuyasu had grit and guts and had always been ready to throw everything he had into any assignment handed to him but, as the scarred teen would admit himself, he wasn't that smart. Plans and strategy weren't his forte and even complicated moves with his Stand were something that came with time and direction from Josuke. He had all the heart and guts, but none of the brains.

Koichi, on the other hand, was considered a very intelligent young man and strategic with even his limited resources and Stand Power. Creative thinking and strategizing were hardly problems for him… the problem came with guts. The boy was shy, somewhat delicate and easy to scare at times; not exactly the qualities of a good leader in the midst of the Grimmlands.

Josuke was the best of both worlds, an opinion widely shared among the people of Morioh. Bold and charismatic, with a sharp mind for both strategy and fighting, he was a natural pick when the team was just himself and Okuyasu and continued to be the golden pick when Koichi was added. He made up for what the two lacked and even helped accentuate their strengths as he directed their actions and encouraged them.

So the two knew from experience that they could trust Josuke… but they also knew that this plan didn't sound like a particularly good one on its face.

"I agree, it does sound like it sucks ass, but I've been looking at this entire situation from all the angles we've been given so far and, to be honest, it isn't a pretty picture." Josuke turned around as he finished with his hair, the steel comb slid back into one of his uniform pockets as he scratched his nose. "Right now, we've basically got three other groups besides us involved with this investigation. You've got Atlas which has all their soldiers scattered around the city and Beacon's campus, you've got Headmaster Ozpin and Jotaro working together and then you've got Team RWBY. Compared to us, these people have way more resources and knowledge about the City of Vale than we do.

"Think about it. Yesterday was our first time out in the City of Vale, ever. We've barely even seen much of Beacon despite the girls' best efforts to give us a full tour on short notice. On top of that, it's just the three of us, compared to literal armies of soldiers and robots and all the huntsmen that Beacon and Vale can spare to look in and around the city. Team RWBY had a lead and used it to get what information we all got last night, but right now they're just as spent as we are." Josuke scratched the back of his head as he put his thoughts together.

"So if we go out hunting, we'll be doing it in unfamiliar territory with no leads. Ordinarily I'd consider that to just be another scouting mission… but this time, the things we have to look out for aren't mindless Grimm whose behaviors and patterns we all know by heart by now. It's people. Very, very dangerous people at that." Josuke crossed his arms as he frowned at the ground. "People who've been giving the legitimate authorities the runaround for months now… if not years, if what Ruby and her team have told us about this Torchwick guy, and by what little news we could gather on Passione.

"If we go out without knowing where we're going or what could be waiting for us, we'd be asking for trouble… and it'd fall on Jotaro and the others to save our asses if we did find ourselves in that kind of situation." The pompadoured teen looked to both Okuyasu and Koichi as he nodded his head. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't think we'll be proving to Jotaro or anybody that we're worthy of being trusted to handle this if we end up getting caught out by our enemies."

Okuyasu and Koichi reluctantly nodded their heads at Josuke's logic, slowly but surely coming around to see his point.

"Right now, we're at an advantage: whatever information Atlas, Headmaster Ozpin or Jotaro come up with will get funneled to us by Jotaro, and we'll be able to get that to Team RWBY. Rather than blindly groping for straws and hoping we don't get snatched, we can help take advantage of the resources the others already have on the field and share those with our fellow hunters." Josuke tapped the side of his head. "Plus, the three of us and Jotaro have a built in advantage in the upcoming investigation, especially if this Torchwick guy keeps on making Stand Users."

Stand Users attracted other Stand Users. One of those fundamental truths that the Frontier had long since gotten acquainted with. Okuyasu and Koichi nodded immediately; even if official sources couldn't find anything, it'd only be a matter of time before the four of them attracted enemy Stand Users to them.

"Meanwhile, we do what we've actually been assigned to do: we make nice with the rest of Beacon and other transfer students, participate in the Vytal Festival, sight see and generally make a good impression for the Frontier. When we do get some leads, we'll share them with Team RWBY and they can help us move around the city without having to worry about getting caught up in some place we're completely unfamiliar with. Or, if we end up running into some Stand Users before then…" A slight grin formed on Josuke's face, one that was matched by his two teammates.

"We beat the ever-loving shit out of them and force them to give us some leads we can share with Jotaro and Team RWBY!" Okuyasu slammed his fist into his other hand as a toothy grin stretched across his lips, Koichi nodded slightly nervously as he got the gist of what Josuke's plan was.

"See, the plan's starting to sound pretty great, isn't it?" Josuke lightly scratched the end of his nose as, while Okuyasu nodded, he did have a slight frown on his face.

"It's gonna suck to have to wait for information though… but I guess that's not too different than how it is back in Morioh. Only instead of getting an idea of what kind of Grimm we're supposed to expect moving into an area, we're waiting for information on other people." Okuyasu nodded his head, as if imparting some sage realization, as the team leader just nodded.

"Indeed. Plus, even if I did think we might be able to scrape together some lead by spending all our free time searching, I think we'd pretty much exhaust ourselves trying to comb through the entire city." Josuke leaned up against a desk and crossed his arms. "Pushing you guys to the brink just because I might hope it'd give us some kind of clue wouldn't be terribly responsible of me either. As leader of Team… as leader of this team-"

"You mean Team JOJO!"

"I'm not calling us that, Okuyasu…" Josuke groused, before he shook his head and continued. "As leader, I'm not just responsible for our assignments, I'm responsible for you guys too. If I pushed you guys to the limits with nothing to guide us and ended up with nothing to show for it, then I'd might as well hand off responsibilities to someone else." Koichi and Okuyasu smiled appreciatively at Josuke, who just smiled back at his teammates and friends. "The higher ups in Morioh know better than to send us off too often or to send us with no idea of what we're going to be doing. Might as well learn from their example." Josuke kicked off the desk as he walked forward with a slight grin.

"Sounds to me like you already have, Josuke." Koichi said with a slight smile as Okuyasu just barked out a laugh.

"Guess there's a reason they let you lead my ass around after all, Josuke." Josuke just scoffed at Okuyasu as he gave him a cocky grin.

"What, you had any doubts before Okuyasu? Without me you'd be going around in circles and you know it." Okuyasu just shook his head as he looked over to Koichi.

"Some leader, eh Koichi? This baby faced new blood thinks he can insult the tenacity of a battle hardened and scarred Stand User like myself." Josuke just rolled his eyes as Okuyasu ran his hands down the symmetrical scars on either side of his face, all the while Koichi just blinked a couple times.

"D-Didn't you two become huntsmen at the same time though?"

"..."

Josuke and Okuyasu each burst into a fit of laughter at Koichi, the young man just blushed slightly as he tried to slink away from his two older teammates, but was stopped as Okuyasu and Josuke grabbed him by the shoulders and started to muss with his hair.

"Went right over your head there, didn't it Koichi?" Josuke said with a slight chuckle as Koichi did his best to work his way out of the two older and stronger boys' grips. Before long, the three of them separated, each in an altogether better mood than when the conversation had started.

"Alright, looks like it's time for breakfast." Josuke took notice of the clock as the other two Frontier huntsmen nodded. As the three made their way to the door, Josuke just casually looked over his shoulder. "Remember guys, aside from Ruby and her team, this is going to be our big introduction to huntsmen and huntresses from all around the Four Kingdoms. Be calm, be confident and be on your best behavior and we'll seal a good first impression for the rest of the school." As the pompadoured teen cracked open the door to lead, he noticed that the footsteps that had lined up just behind him had ceased. Josuke blinked in confusion as he turned his head back to his teammates, Koichi and Okuyasu both sweating bullets as they stared back at Josuke.

"... Oh dear Dust, Josuke, it's all on you."

"What?" Josuke slammed the door shut as he turned back to face his two teammates. "What are you two talking about? Come on, don't get cold feet on me now, we can do this."

"J-J-Josuke, there's going to be literally hundreds of people out there from all over the Four Kingdoms! Silently judging us and watching our every move!" Koichi seemed especially nervous as he said this, as Josuke just turned to look at his younger friend.

"Come on Koichi, I know it's a bit much all at once and sure, it's a lot of people who you've never even met… like a lot of…" Josuke sighed as he scratched his cheek. "Yeah, okay, this might be a little much for you to take in all at once. Just stay between me and Okuyasu, alright? We'll make sure you don't have to handle this all on your own, alright?" Koichi nodded, an appreciative, if still decidedly nervous, smile on his lips as Josuke turned to Okuyasu.

"Josuke, you know I can't make a good first impression! Being cool, being confident, sure, I'm absolutely great at that! Hell, I even hit if off with Yang because of her great sense of humor… but Josuke, you know I'm going to mess this up! Just think about when you introduced me to your mom when we first got on a team together!"

"Okuyasu, come on, my mom loves you… now." Josuke coughed into his fist as he admitted the last part, as Okuyasu just pointed accusingly.

"You see! Even you know I'm shit at making good first impressions!"

"C-Come on Okuyasu, it wasn't even that bad! You got off to a rocky start but…" Josuke was interrupted by Okuyasu who just grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Josuke, when I first met your mom, I said she was hot."

"Okay I mean it was a little awkward-"

"To her face, Josuke!" Okuyasu shook his friend slightly as Josuke just blushed at the memory.

"Okay, really awkward, but it's not like she-"

"She had her Stand punch me in the mouth and knock my teeth out, Josuke!"

"Okay, fair enough, she did that, but she still let you have dinner with us!"

"SHE DIDN'T LET YOU FIX MY TEETH UNTIL AFTER I ATE EVERYTHING JOSUKE!" Okuyasu shook his friend wildly as he said this. Before long, Josuke grabbed Okuyasu by the wrists to force him to stop.

"Okay! Okay. So you can be a bit rough on the first impressions. It takes people a little while to figure out what a great friend you can be." Josuke sighed as he straightened out his uniform while he thought things through. "Look, I shouldn't have even said anything to begin with; you guys are great. When people get to know you, they'll figure that out and they'll see in you what I do. It'll be fine." Josuke finally smiled in an attempt to reassure his friends. "Just be yourselves, okay guys? Just do that."

"B-But Josuke-"

"Look, it'll be fine! We're already friends with Ruby and her team, so we've already made a good start for one day. We're going to be sitting with them at our meals and we're going to have a good time. Don't worry about the rest of the school right now; just focus on being good friends with them and everything else will work itself out."

"... You sure, Josuke?" His two friends asked at once, uncertainty clear on their features as Josuke just smiled at them.

"I'm positive. We'll be able to handle this and you guys will do great. So let's just get out there and show the people of the Four Kingdoms what the Frontier has to offer, alright?" Josuke pat his friends on the shoulders and, slowly, confidence seemed to bubble up in his two teammates.

"Yeah! You're right Josuke! Come on Koichi, I'm starving! Let's go have us a king's breakfast!" The younger boy nodded in agreement with Okuyasu as the two ran around Josuke and out of the room. The pompadoured teen stood there for a moment, waiting for his friends to get some distance away, before he sighed dramatically and palmed his face into his hands.

"Great… this is going to be a bit rough." Josuke shook his head slightly as he whined. "I swear, when did chasing down rogue Stand Users and a criminal organization become the easy job…" A slightly disheartened laugh was muffled by Josuke's hands as he quickly shook off his funk and made to follow his two comrades.

* * *

Mess Hall, Beacon Academy

"Yo, RWBY! We heard about what happened last night. Glad to see you all are doing alright… for the most part."

Team JNPR had been surprised when they heard the news of their sister team being involved in yet another big tussle involving Vale's own Roman Torchwick and had rushed to breakfast to check on their friends. When they arrived, they were glad to see Team RWBY whole and healthy… physically if nothing else.

Though perhaps that was being a bit overly dramatic; Ruby and Yang seemed positively chipper and fine all things considered. Both sisters had a full plate of breakfast spread out in front of them as well as the usual snuck-in cookies for Ruby, and had been excitedly chatting with each other in somewhat hushed whispers by the time team JNPR showed up. Weiss and Blake, on the other hand, looked a little worse by comparison. Blake seemed to just be tired, the black-haired faunus rubbed her temples as she handled a cup of tea carefully, her bow twitched in time with the various chirps of Ruby and Yang's conversation. Weiss, on the other hand, appeared to be doing what she could to tune out the two's conversation and, for lack of a better term, seemed to be bracing herself.

"Hey Jaune!" Ruby chirped to her fellow team leader as JNPR sat down at the table with their breakfast in tow. A series of confused looks crossed their faces as they found some of their usual seats taken up by books Yang and Ruby had placed down. "We've got some guests who'll be joining us for breakfast, so we thought we'd save them a seat. Hope you guys don't mind." A somewhat apologetic expression crossed Ruby's face as Jaune and his team waved off the younger girl's concerns.

"Nah, it's cool Ruby." Jaune said casually as they all took their seats. "Do these guests have anything to do with what we heard happened last night… and why Weiss and Blake seem a little more freaked out than usual?"

"Yes and yes, Vomit Boy." Yang said with a slight grin as she jabbed her thumb towards her teammates. "Turns out our guests are some of those Frontier folks we got told about a while ago. One of them helped us out in that big old news story I'm sure you four have gawked at by now." A series of embarrassed looks crossed Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren's faces while Nora just nodded from her seat as she ate some pancakes. "These two are just having a little breakdown because it turns out that whole book Weiss talked about was true."

"You don't know if it's the whole thing…" Weiss muttered from her seat as she picked at her own breakfast, while her partner and the blonde bombshell just rolled their eyes.

"She's been keeping at that most of last night and this morning. Blake's been more accepting but it's still kinda… stressing her out, I think is the best way to put it?" Ruby asked as she looked over at Blake, who just nodded her head.

"Yeah, that's about the best way to put it." Amber eyes stared disinterestedly at the light breakfast in front of the young faunus, as JNPR just all shrugged.

"I guess I can see why it'd bug you guys so much, if what little Weiss said about that book is any sign." Ren said calmly as he took a slight sip of his tea. "I would've read it myself in preparation for these would be Frontiersmen, but I never quite found the time." Ren's eyes glanced over to Nora for a moment, the orange-haired huntress just chuckled slightly as she scratched her head.

"Oh come on Ren. We do enough reading for all our classes. There's better things we can do with our free time than spend them reading some dusty books." Nora said casually as Blake just lightly glared at her.

"So, what do your new friends look like, anyway?" Pyrrha asked casually as she picked at a healthy breakfast she had picked out, while the sound of some double doors opening at the end of the hall failed to grab their attention.

"Well, you'll probably be able to pick them out pretty easy because the tall one, Josuke, has this-"

"Holy crap, do you see that guy's hair?!" A hushed voice at a nearby table said just loud enough for the two team's to hear as their attention snapped to where that student had been looking. Indeed, the three students on Team RWBY's mind strode through the double doors just then. Okuyasu and Josuke flanked Koichi as he stood a few steps behind the two, as the three warily glanced about the room; it was clear just from having looked at them that all three were nervous, on some varying level.

With a trio of nearly matching uniforms the likes of which hadn't looked like any of the other major academies, it soon became clear to every young man and woman, huntsman and huntress, in that mess hall that these were the Frontier hunters that they'd heard all these rumors about. While Haven and Shade Academy hunters seemed to just be taken in by the prospect of something new and exciting, their curious gazes glued to the three huntsmen, Vale and Atlas had decidedly different reactions. Team RWBY and Team JNPR's fellow students were looking cautiously at the trio who had come to their school as guests, still uncertain as to what to think of these strangers. The students from Atlas, on the other hand, had seemingly made up their mind: no amount of reassurances from Ironwood were going to reset entire lifetimes of cultural expectations on mere words alone.

Josuke's strange hair might've been what caught most people's attention first, which sparked their own murmurs of discussion as people remarked on it's either 'cool' or 'stupid-looking' nature, thankfully out of earshot of Josuke himself, but soon all three huntsmen had become the target of the rumor mill. Okuyasu's demeanor, scars and posture had immediately started to scare some students, as he seemed to challenge anyone in the room with his attitude alone and the frown that tugged at the corners of his lips. Koichi, while mostly out of sight, was the target of many who wondered why anyone would send such a small child to participate in Vytal.

The reaction among JNPR was mixed and, for the most part, what Ruby and her team expected. Jaune and Pyrrha seemed quite curious about the trio, though Jaune's expression seemed to dip into concerned and worried whenever his gaze crossed over Okuyasu. Pyrrha herself, unintentionally though the habit may have been at this point, had sized the three up. Considering they were in uniform and probably had their equipment locked away somewhere in the school, it made sense they didn't have their weapons on hand. However, she like many others found Koichi to be a bit of an odd man out, compared to the relatively strong looking pompadoured and scarred teen.

It was Nora and Ren who drew curious looks from Team RWBY, however. The two's eyes narrowed slightly as Ren tilted his head slightly, while Nora just tapped her chin as if she were trying to recall something. The two glanced between each other and then back to Team JOJO several times, as if confirming some suspicion with each other through a silent conversation only the two of them were in on.

The crowd flinched as the trio's gaze swept by them until, finally, Okuyasu's gaze fell upon something in the room that urged a reaction from him, one that thoroughly shocked everyone in the room as he suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs.

"HOLY CRAP JOSUKE, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT SPREAD!"

Josuke flinched slightly as Okuyasu broke the atmosphere, however, before Josuke could try to reel Okuyasu back in to keep up the team's appearance, Josuke's eyes soon fell upon the mess hall's spread himself.

"OH! MY! GOD! I haven't seen such a great looking feast in my entire life! This is just breakfast here at Beacon?!" Josuke's jaw hung open as he stared at the spread of various foods set out for the students of Beacon and those who transferred there, as Koichi just settled for surprised and stuttering gasps in place of a shout. Soon enough, almost in the blink of an eye, the three Frontier huntsmen found that looking cool and being presentable was the furthest thing from their minds as they ran for the spread of breakfast, as the chipper and upbeat attitude that carried them through their tour of the city came back in full force.

Reactions across the mess hall were actually surprisingly uniform: dumb, stunned silence was the name of the game for almost every single student in the mess hall as the rumored Frontiersmen, who had supposedly survived against the harsh Grimmlands, were all excited and jumpy over a breakfast spread.

The reaction from Team RWBY and JNPR was the only place where this deviated; while Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune were equally stupefied, Nora had nodded approvingly at Team JOJO's reaction to the grand breakfast Beacon had often spread out before them all, especially as she spied more than a few pancakes being stacked onto their plates. Yang and Ruby had both started to laugh at their new friend's antics: Yang because this was her first taste of just how excited Team JOJO was about stuff in the Four Kingdoms and Ruby because, while she had seen Josuke act so energetically in the city the previous day when she had shown him around, it was still amusing to see someone she considered to be usually even-tempered act so excited.

Weiss slapped her palm against her forehead. "These are supposed to be the vaunted Frontiers people who stopped Kars… supposedly… if it happened." Meanwhile Blake just shook her head slightly, actually having felt better after having seen the three huntsmen act like this. The Stand battle and the descriptions in Stroheim's book had made Josuke and his people seem to utterly impossible and bizarre. As she watched the three act like people her age, well most people her age not including herself, it comforted her to some degree, a bit of normalcy to balance out all the bizarre she'd been inundated with. After a few moments of laughing, Ruby stood up from her seat and waved over to Team JOJO.

"Heeeey, guys! We're over here!" The three Frontier huntsmen turned and grinned as they noticed Team RWBY and waved back as they finished getting breakfast together. As they approached the table, a grin broke out onto Yang's face as she gave a mock salute to the trio.

"Yo yo, JOJO!" Immediately, Josuke's good mood soured while Okuyasu let out a hoarse laugh, Koichi just looked nervously between the new people sat with RWBY, even as he did his best to return the more familiar team's smiles.

"Please don't call us that out in the middle of the Mess Hall, you might accidentally get it to spread…" Josuke rubbed his forehead to try and cut off a growing headache as his team sat down in the three empty seats.

"Right, 'accidentally'." Yang snickered as she raised her hands up for some air quotes, which earned her no small amount of Josuke's ire as the team settled in. The three Frontier huntsmen had a veritable cornucopia on their plates, at least one of the various dishes served up for breakfast present on each of their plates. "Woah, holy cow, you guys sure grabbed a little bit of everything. You guys are staying here for months you know, you don't have to rush trying to eat everything at once." Even as she said this, a wide grin was plastered on Yang's face as Okuyasu immediately dug in.

"Hey, you live in the Frontier your entire life and get by on cereal and fruit for most of your breakfasts and you see if you don't try to eat everything new all at once!" Okuyasu said through a partially full mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, please…" Weiss rubbed her forehead as she said this, realizing it was for not: after all, her partner was sat right next to her, a cookie stuffed in her mouth and ready to talk and, despite having lived with each other for an entire semester, she'd had no more luck getting her to respect table manners.

"Mmm… Yeah, I bet… sounds like…" Ruby swallowed her cookie as she took a deep breath, before continuing. "Sounds like you guys are enjoying yourselves."

"Yeah, the dorms have been great so far… but the water was a little bit cold. Which is weird, because Okuyasu and Koichi said that their showers were hot." Josuke scratched his cheek as he ate, all the while Team JNPR watched the exchange with morbid curiosity at the newcomers.

"Well, I mean, yeah. Hot water runs out if you shower for too long… you guys do know that, right?" Yang tilted her head to the side as she asked, while her partner just rolled her eyes.

"Yang, you heard these guys talk about Morioh: they don't have Dust, at all. Which means they don't have anyway of powering any generators or heaters. They don't have electricity, so I'm guessing they don't have hot running water. Am I right?" As the three huntsmen nodded their heads to confirm Blake's 'suspicion, Yang and Ruby's faces went blank.

"What?" The two sisters asked simultaneously, as Koichi smiled slightly.

"It was also really cool in our room, so that was pretty nice. However you guys built this place, it sure is something."

"... Oh Dust, Yang, they don't know what air conditioning is either." Tears welled up in the corners of Ruby's eyes as she shook her head comically, Yang holding a hand over her mouth as she just looked at these poor souls.

"You guys… you told us so much about the Frontier and Morioh, but you never really got right down to the kind of Hell you all have had to live through." Team JOJO just blinked in confusion at the two sisters, while Blake just sighed.

"It really isn't that bad. It's not that much different than where I grew up in Menagerie." Immediately, Yang and Ruby's eyes were locked on Blake, who just flinched at the sudden attention.

"That explains why you're so grim Blakey! All of you have gone through so much!" Slight chuckles broke out from around the table which, finally, brought Team JOJO's attention to the other people sitting around them.

"Ah, sorry about that, kinda got caught up there for a moment." Josuke said as he set his fork aside, each of Team JNPR's members shaking their head.

"No problem, we get it. Ruby and her team can grab your attention pretty hard a lot of the time." Jaune said with a slight nod and a smile, one easily returned by Josuke and his team.

"You all must be Team JNPR, the sister team right? Ruby told us some stuff about you but didn't go into too much detail." Jaune and the rest of his team turned faux hurt gazes on Team RWBY, who all just nervously chuckled.

"What? You guys didn't tell your new foreign friends about us? WE'RE HURT! To think, you just tossed us into the gutter as soon as new people came into your lives!" Nora declared melodramatically as she turned her gaze away from Team RWBY, as Ruby herself shook her head vehemently.

"Wait, it's not like that, it's just, you know, last night was super crazy, and we were all so caught up in everything and we had to give them a tour of the school, and you guys just didn't come up, but we really should've brought you up and OH DUST WE'RE TERRIBLE FRIENDS!"

"Ruby, Ruby, Ruby! It's okay, Nora's just joking, we all are!" Pyrrha immediately jumped in to try to calm the situation down, even as Josuke and the others laughed at the poor silver-eyed girl's expense.

"Indeed, we understand. It sounds like you all had a rough night." Ren turned his attention to the Frontier huntsmen, a friendly grin on his face. "However, now would be a good time to fix that."

"Indeed." Josuke grinned as patted Koichi and Okuyasu on the back so they would lean forward to look the various members of Team JNPR in the face. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Higashikata Josuke, this is Nijimura Okuyasu and this is Hirose Koichi-"

"And we're Team JOJO!"

"KNOCK IT OFF OKUYASU!" Josuke grabbed Okuyasu by the collar and shook him violently for a second or two, all the while the scarred teen laughed and laughed, which earned some chuckles from the gathered table.

"Well, nice to meet you Higashikata, Nijimura, Hirose!" Nora said with an overly friendly wave, as Koichi just frowned slightly.

"U-Uh, actually, those are our family names. Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi are our given names…" Pyrrha, having grown up in Mistral, already had assumed this had been the case, while Team RWBY had gone through this song and dance the night before. Jaune seemed legitimately surprised, while…

"Wow, backwards names. You Frontier guys are pretty weird, right Ren?" Nora giggled slightly, though it was clear she meant no insult. Ren on the other hand seemed to have a far off look in his eye, a nostalgic smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he shook his head.

"Right, Nora."

"Well hello, I'm Jaune Arc, this is my partner Pyrrha Nikos and that's Ren and Nora." Each member of Team JNPR gave a small wave in turn, though Pyrrha seemed a bit off-put by Okuyasu as the scarred teen narrowed his gaze and leaned in to get a better look at her.

"Hey… I feel like I know you from somewhere…" Okuyasu muttered under his breath, while Pyrrha suddenly went white as a sheet.

'No… no that's impossible. These guys are supposed to be from the middle of nowhere, how could they-' Her thoughts were cut off as Okuyasu slammed his fist into his open palm, a bright grin on his face.

"I GOT IT! You're the chick from the Pumpkin Pete Cola bottles!" Okuyasu said with a laugh as Weiss just palmed her face again. Josuke just blinked as he took a closer look at Pyrrha, before he reared back in surprise.

"Well holy crap, you're right Okuyasu." Josuke smiled a bit as he offered a hand to Pyrrha. "Well, Pyrrha, I didn't know we were in the midst of someone famous." Pyrrha laughed nervously as she shook the pompadoured teen's hand, inwardly dreading this already. "Didn't know they put huntsmen and huntresses on drinks and stuff here in the Four Kingdoms… much less students."

"... Come again?" A series of chuckles broke out across the table at the misunderstanding, as Josuke tilted his head to the side slightly.

"Yeah, I mean, it seems a bit weird but I guess you must be some kind of up and comer? We don't really do that kind of stuff in Morioh because, well, we don't make much, but it's nice to see the Four Kingdoms appreciates hunter talent that much." Koichi and Okuyasu nodded in agreement as, finally, a wide, slightly embarrassed, smile came to Pyrrha's face.

"Oh! No, you see, you three are mistaken. My being a huntress-in-training doesn't have anything to do with why I'm on any of Pumpkin Pete's products." Pyrrha said with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, you see, P-money here's was a celebrity back in Mistral: won a whole bunch of tournaments before becoming a huntress." The three members of Team JOJO blinked at Yang's explanation.

"Oh? Is that all?" The non-Frontier members of the table just blinked in surprise as Okuyasu waved that off, the scarred teen scratching the side of his head slightly. "I mean, good for you, I guess?" While most of Team RWBY and JNPR took a moment to come to grips with the fact that Pyrrha, the Invincible Girl's, accomplishments were being just waved off, Jaune just shrugged his shoulders in some agreement with Okuyasu, while Pyrrha just nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, it really isn't that big of a deal. I was just good at tournament fighting, is all." The redheaded young woman waved it off with a hand, as Jaune suddenly stepped in.

"Yeah, but don't let that fool you; Pyrrha's an amazingly strong huntress. During our initiation Pyrrha and the rest of us took down this giant Deathstalker and a Nevermore. She's the best in our class right now." An appreciative whistle came from Okuyasu as his previously neutral expression suddenly brightened into a grin.

"How big we talkin' about here?" The scarred teen leaned forward as Nora suddenly jumped in.

"Like, ten, no, twenty, no, thirty times taller than a person!" Nora waved her arms excitedly as she said this, while Ren just shook his head.

"That's if you count the tail." Despite the clarification, the three Frontier huntsmen still seemed very impressed.

"Dang, and you eight handled that and a Nevermore during your initiation. You guys must be the best in your year." While seven of eight of the team members seemed a bit proud of the compliment from Josuke, Jaune just chuckled nervously as he looked off to the side.

"Yeah, but don't go thinking you'll run a mill on us just because you all are the best in your rinky-dink Four Kingdom school." Okuyasu said with a hoarse chuckle as he wrapped an arm around Josuke's shoulder. "Team JOJO here is the best in our generation, bar none, and Josuke here is the best damn up and coming hunter in Morioh." Josuke blushed slightly at the praise coming from his best friend, momentarily distracted from the fact that Okuyasu had once again used that terrible team name. His face went further red as, after Koichi nodded in agreement with Okuyasu, so did much of Team RWBY.

"After what we saw last night, I'd believe it." Yang said with a shrug as she dug back into her food, as Team JNPR just seemed to be impressed. Josuke worked Okuyasu off his shoulder as he coughed into his fist.

"Right, well, back to the previous topic, I think that's actually rather admirable of you, Pyrrha." Josuke quickly took a big old bite of some fruit he'd gotten from the breakfast spread, as the rest of the table turned their attention to him. "You were some kind of famous person from what I gather, famous enough that they'd put your face on stuff, but you gave up that lifestyle in order to become a huntress. That speaks pretty well of you, in my book." Josuke said with an off-handed shrug. Pyrrha seemed a bit stunned by the praise, while Jaune just smiled as he pat Pyrrha on the shoulder.

"Well that's just Pyrrha for you. She's a good person who's willing to do whatever to help people; went out of her way to help me more times than I can count now." If Josuke's praise had stunned Pyrrha, then Jaune's caused Pyrrha's face to glow red hot as she chuckled nervously. No one was quite able to catch the slight glint in her eyes as she cast them about; a show of embarrassment and guilt.

"Thank you Jaune… Josuke." She turned her attention back to the young man who started this thread in the conversation. "I appreciate it, but you shouldn't be too impressed. I'm still making quite a bit of money off of my fame, so it's hardly like I've given up much. It's really not as impressive as you make it sound."

"Ah, you're sellin' yourself short." Okuyasu bit off a chunk of sausage from his fork as he leaned over. "You could've just sat on your ass back wherever it is you came from and made a shitzillion dollars… wait, lien…" Okuyasu scratched his head as he mixed up the old currencies with the new, before he continued, "-just by being famous and you'd have lived the rest of your life in comfort and safety. Instead you're training to become a hunter. That kind of attitude is something Morioh thrives on." Despite Okuyasu's more than colorful language, the gathered table smiled as they watched Pyrrha smile gratefully, if with some reservation.

"Oh? Morioh thrive on a lot of self-sacrifice?" Blake asked casually, a small grin perched on her lips. All the things about Morioh, now that she knew it was real, really did remind her a lot of of her own home, Menagerie. She could easily imagine that Morioh, an outpost on the edge of the world separated from so many others, would thrive on the community working and sacrificing together to ensure their shared survival. That the Frontier's situation was so much worse in terms of Grimm only heightened that suspicion.

"Oh yeah, definitely; since the Frontier gathered in Morioh, there's been a saying about the place." As Okuyasu spoke, Josuke suddenly groaned as he placed his face in his hands, thought the more perceptive could still see slight smile that tugged at the corners of his lips. "From Jonathan Joestar on down to today, the people of Morioh call our little chunk of the Frontier the Town Protected by Love."

"... Oh my God, that's so cheesy. I love it." Yang had the biggest, shit-eating grin on her face as she leaned forward on the table, as the rest of the Four Kingdom hunters gathered had some form of their various smiles or grins plastered on their faces at hearing the name.

"It is, it really is." Josuke said with a slight laugh as he leaned back in his seat, a slight blush of red on his cheeks as he cast his gaze about in embarrassment. "But… it isn't entirely wrong either. The three founders of the Frontier in Morioh each risked their lives time and time again during The Reckoning one hundred years ago… and most of them ended up dying specifically to see to it that Morioh would be safe. No matter where you came from in Remnant before or what culture you were, Joestar, Zeppeli and Speedwagon wanted Morioh to be a home and family for everyone in the former Frontier colonies who had been displaced or suffered at the hands of the Grimm. To this day, the hunters of Morioh are expected to be willing to lay down their lives for anyone who fights with us or in defense of Morioh because, well, we're all a part of the same community."

"Wow." Ruby Rose had a dreamy gaze in her eyes as she sighed. This sounded exactly like the stories her mom or Yang would tell her about, the kind that inspired her to become a huntress. It was a living dream come true for her to hear about this place and, while the rest of the table might not have shared the same level of enthusiasm, they all appreciated this spirit being shown to them.

"No wonder you guys would've thought that hunters could end up becoming famous like Pyrrha. It sounds like they're an important part of your town's identity" Ren said casually as he went back to his food, as Nora nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, a crazy amount of you guys must be hunters if that's the kind of place you all've been living in!" The orange-haired bomber said with a slight hop in her seat, as the three Frontiersmen just nodded.

"Y-Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise for us to see so many people who weren't hunters moving around Vale. I mean, we suspected you guys would have a lot of people freed up because you all are so safe and secure, but the three of us never imagined it would be so many." Koichi said with a small smile, as Weiss just nodded her head.

"Indeed, I imagine that would come as some surprise. I'm curious; how many people in Morioh are huntsmen and huntresses?" The Schnee heiress asked as she casually took a small drink of water. It didn't take any of the three Frontiersmen even a second to respond.

"Pretty much everyone."

Immediately any food or drink that Team RBWY or JNPR had been drinking or eating found its way onto the table as they all spat out their various breakfasts in surprise.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" The simultaneous shout from the eight of them momentarily drew the rest of the mess hall's attention back to the table, before the rest of the students got to ignoring the strange foreigners again.

"Y-Yeah, I guess that would be a little weird for you all, wouldn't it." Josuke said with a slight chuckle as he arranged his thoughts. "But… yeah, pretty much everyone is a huntsman or huntress in Morioh. The only ones who technically aren't are the folks who go off sailing to the Outskirts looking to trade whatever old stuff we can scavenge for goods. Even then they're technically trained like hunters, so they aren't even all that different." The pompadoured leader shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the gathered Four Kingdom teams. "It isn't all that surprising, is it? We're the last human city on the continent and, for the longest time, we've been at risk of being wiped out by the Grimm at any moment. We never exactly had a lot of room for people to be much else other than hunters."

Somewhere in the back of their minds, Team RWBY and those in the know among Team JNPR had pretty much expected as much. Yeah, if you were the last city of human civilization on a continent surrounding by hundreds of thousands of Grimm, then obviously you'd have everyone on hand doing what they could to keep the city safe. Maybe it was just their own situation that made it hard for them to begin to imagine that sort of response as an appropriate one. After all, when you spent so much of your life safe behind walls and buildings, it made such dire circumstances and choices seem so bizarre, even more so than the Stands. The only two who seemed to immediately understand what Josuke was on about were Ren and Nora, who both immediately had a look of sympathy for the Frontiersmen.

Still, even for those two, it was so strange to see how casually Team JOJO were treating that circumstance.

"I guess you're right, I guess most of us were just kinda surprised is all." Ren offered calmly as he took another bite out of his breakfast, to which Nora, usually the fountain of spontaneous energy, could only nod dumbly in silence for once.

"It's fine. Things are pretty crazy here for us so we can understand how you all feel." Josuke grinned as he dug back into his breakfast, a contented 'mmm' escaping his lips as he ate. "Heck, it's not like we're exactly proud of the situation the Frontier's in. It's why we're here in the first place: we all want for Morioh what you guys in the Four Kingdoms have here. It's why we're so excited every time we see any of the amazing things that you guys have."

Amazing things. That's what they'd called these utterly mundane or trivial parts of everyday life for them. A good breakfast spread, a potential celebrity on a cola bottle, hot running water and air conditioning. To the eight of them, these things were commonplace. They didn't think much of them except for when they broke down or otherwise caught their attention. To the three Frontier huntsmen sat beside them, however, they might as well have been the coolest and most unbelievable things they'd ever seen in their lives.

And their big dream was to bring all that stuff back home.

"Well-" Ruby snapped her team and her sister team out of their surprise by speaking, a soft smile on her face, "-it sounds to me like Morioh deserves it. A city of heroes should get to have nice things." The silver-eyed teen smiled even more as a series of blushes came across Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi's faces, the high praise for their town and, by extension, them had pleased the three young men. Yang smiled next as she nodded her head, glad to see both her new friends and her own sister so pleased. Internally, she was actually quite thankful that they had met these three.

She always wondered what would happen when Ruby left Patch, what she'd see when she got beyond the stories Summer Rose, their dad and herself had raised Ruby on. With Roman Torchwick and the White Fang, it seemed like she wouldn't see much an opportunity to see the stories she grew up on as part of reality.

Yet here came three perfect strangers, some very cool people in Yang's mind, to go ahead and show her sister that there was an entire town… protected by love.

'Still cheesy as anything I've ever heard, but I guess it fits.' Yang chuckled a bit as she dug back into her breakfast, the mood of the entire table lifted as Ruby's words sunk in for everyone. So the conversation went on as slowly RWBY caught JNPR up with Team JOJO, the group of teens excitedly asking each other about where they'd come from and what their various homes had been like. In the excitement and good feelings that the three teams had gotten themselves caught up in, not once had Team RWBY recalled to bring up Stands to Team JNPR.

* * *

Sparring Class, Some Odd Hours Later

Classes had been an interesting affair for Team JOJO. In Morioh, the training for new huntsmen was handled on the Mentor system, a way that hunters had passed down their skills and knowledge in the time before the advent of the great academies which followed the peace at Vytal. An elder huntsman or huntress would take a member of the new blood under their wings and slowly guide their growth until they were deemed fit to serve as hunters. For Josuke in particular, that mentor had been Jotaro who, after Okuyasu and Koichi joined his team, soon found a similar relation budding with the renowned huntsman, the keeper of Star Platinum: The World.

Even when the need for more huntsmen hit Morioh during times of crises, the mentor system wasn't abandoned and this was, in large part, thanks to the very nature of training one's Stand. Despite the academy system being different from their own, Josuke and the others, though perhaps not Okuyasu, understood the value of it in the Four Kingdoms; when your main weapons were Dust, weaponry and physical aura, you could take a broader view of training and apply a general curriculum to an entire group of would-be students.

Stands though? Stands were a reflection of one's true soul, their very essence given physical shape by their Aura. A Stand's development was impacted not just by the rigors of training and meditating, but also by the personal growth of a Stand User. A person who was spiritually or emotionally stunted would find their Stand to grow in power very slowly or, worst of all, would find their Stand too powerful for them to control and would, thus, die at its hands. Koichi had experienced the former first hand; the progress of Echoes ever since he unlocked it had been a slow, trudging affair for the young man.

Yet still, with the right mentor, progress could be made as an experienced hunter shared their lifetime's worth of experience with the new blood, to help guide them along and help them grow to be better people. Jotaro was a distant man at times, difficult to connect with and seemingly very emotionless, but in the end, as he did with most of his duties as the logical successor to Joseph Joestar, he performed his work as a mentor to the fullest of his abilities.

In time, Josuke and the others had learned how to act and react to Jotaro and his ways and Jotaro, usually so reserved, had even learned to open up to the three young men.

So it was that, so used to this mentor system they were, that the huntsmen found themselves initially floored by Beacon's way of teaching its future hunters. Not just due to the shift in teaching style, but also by the… personalities of the professors involved.

Port had practically exploded when the three Frontier huntsmen had entered the class with Teams RBWY and JNPR. So much of the time and energy of the classroom seemed to be spent Port asking about Frontier secrets and knowledge about how to combat Grimm to share with the rest of the class. While Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi had been happy to share whatever asked, when they almost got around to talking about Stands, Port had excitedly shushed them, asking them to 'not spoil the surprise'. This, naturally, confused everyone, even those used to Port's energetic and odd behavior as, after a while of Port talking excitedly about the sorts of stories he looked forward to hearing in Josuke's, Koichi's and Okuyasu's papers, he returned to actually teaching the class.

When the three Frontiersmen had been introduced to what exactly 'homework' was, none of the three could say they were particularly pleased with the revelation.

Professor Peach's class and others had passed more or less normally, though wary or otherwise interested glances were exchanged with the three Frontier huntsmen in each class they went to. Lunch eventually came and Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO passed it much like they had breakfast: Team JOJO gawked at the sheer amount of food on display which included swordfish, SWORDFISH, and then proceeded to chat and mix it up with their established friends in Team RWBY and their growing friends in Team JNPR.

Finally after lunch was Goodwitch's Sparring Class. As the students filed in and went to their seats, Goodwitch stood in the middle of her arena with clipboard in hand, breathing in through her nose to steady herself as she kept up the veneer of professionalism.

This was what she had been preparing for with her students when the initial news of the arrival of the Frontier, and what they were capable of, trickled down from Ozpin and to the rest of the staff. Those many, many sparring bouts those few days prior had been for the purpose of figuring out, precisely, where her own first year students ranked as they compared to each other. Polnareff and then Jotaro had been upfront about the trio of young huntsmen's capabilities, and she knew generally what to expect from each of them.

She had a few bouts in mind and was ready to put them to good use, and that was the introduction of Stands to the rest of Remnant's first year hunter population. Of the many unique and bizarre things that Morioh and the rest of Remnant would have to get acquainted with from each other, Stand Power as she came to understand it was probably the biggest hurdle. A power that had been all but lost in the main four kingdoms, taking root in this remote corner of the world. A bizarre power at that: Crazy Diamond, The Hand and Echoes were each unique, and bordered on utterly befuddling, in their own ways, and would be a surprise to the system of most of her students.

She had wanted them to come into this Sparring Class with, at best, rumors rather than first hand knowledge. She and the other staff had known from experience that merely having heard about Stand Power wasn't something most people could take seriously. After all, it had taken Silver Chariot to convince everyone in Beacon's staff of the very real nature of Stand Power. She wanted the same level of realization for her students, for them to take this matter seriously. Part of it was selfless; she wanted her students to be able to be comfortable with and used to working with Stands as soon as possible as Ozpin and Morioh obviously hoped that the Vytal Festival would merely be the first among many interactions between the Frontier and the rest of Remnant.

Part of it was selfish though; a lot of students, she'd noted during their skirmishes, had gotten awfully comfortable in their place here in Beacon. Though not all took this with a negative attitude like Cardin Winchester who had satisfied himself with being able to just repeatedly defeat Jaune Arc in their duels. Indeed, Pyrrha Nikos just found that there was no one in Beacon currently who could fully challenge her prowess, the girl worked as hard as she could given the circumstance. So Goodwitch wanted to use these Stand Users to help break her students out of their ruts, to challenge them to grow and become stronger as hunters. Ozpin may have wanted to allow them to be children for a while longer, a sentiment she knew and understood herself, but they were still going to be needed to save the world one day. A kick in the pants in the form of a few Stands might be able to provide the push they needed.

Which was why she was more than a little frustrated that Team RWBY had already been exposed so thoroughly the night before. She could hope that the encounter Ozpin had described to her this morning would do for them what she hoped these spars would do for the rest of Beacon's students, but she couldn't use the element of surprise and shock on them the same way she hoped to use it on others.

There was another holdover from last night that frustrated her slightly as, when everyone filed in, Goodwitch sighed and readjusted her glasses as her eyes immediately found the odd hairstyle of the leader of team of Frontier huntsmen.

"Mr. Higashikata. I assume that the hospital suggested that you not overly stress yourself during your recovery, am I correct?" Josuke blinked as Goodwitch so suddenly called on him, before a sheepish expression crossed his face.

"Er, yeah. Sorry about that!" Glynda sighed as she shook her head slightly. If she were being completely honest, she'd hoped to toss Higashikata Josuke and Pyrrha Nikos into a spar as soon as possible. According to everyone she spoke to from the Frontier, Josuke was the star of his year, in much the same way that Pyrrha Nikos was the star here in Beacon. Crazy Diamond's strength and the myriad of uses the boy had apparently found for its Stand Power lent it a powerful host of abilities with which to throw at Pyrrha Nikos. Though Glynda expected that in such a fight Pyrrha would still come out on top, she assumed that Ms. Nikos would find Josuke to be no walk in the park and perhaps a truer test of her abilities than most other students here at Beacon.

Yet here they were; Mr. Higashikata was injured having jumped in to help her students defend themselves against a hostile Stand User and Roman Torchwick. Despite herself, Glynda couldn't help but internally smile. She was a strict teacher, and had carefully built up that reputation among her students, but she did care for each and every single one of them. That a stranger not even in their city for a full day had jumped in to fight with some of her own? She'd be grateful for that and she would remember that good deed in the days and months to come.

She'd also be decidedly annoyed that he had risked himself like that and gotten injured, just as she was annoyed with Team RWBY for going out and doing something so pointlessly dangerous in the first place but, as Ozpin had told her, it wasn't her place to punish any of them for those actions. For now, it was her place to be annoyed that the first spar she had in mind would have to be pushed back, thankfully…

"I had intended for you to be the first to spar today, Mr. Higashikata. As you and your community are new here in the Four Kingdoms, it would've been a good opportunity for you to properly introduce your manner of… fighting, to the best of Remnant's first years hunters." She saw Josuke flinch as he frowned, Glynda easily imagined some curse uttered under his breath as he realized the wasted opportunity. Before his own team or RWBY could ease him down, Glynda continued. "Thankfully, you do have two teammates who are more than capable of taking your place for today."

Glynda, Polnareff and Jotaro had wanted this first spar to be a show, something that all parties could get something out of. The Frontier would gets its opportunity to show the other schools just how capable they were and how strong Morioh was and Beacon and the other schools' transfer students would get the opportunity to test their mettle against Stand Power and see, for the first time in many years, this long lost ability.

While she'd been assured that Koichi could hold his own if paired with an appropriately skilled opponent, such a fight would've given none of the parties involved what they were looking for. With Josuke out of the way, that still left them with one option that would still get everyone involved what they wanted.

"Nijimura Okuyasu and Nora Valkyrie, report to the arena immediately."

"Woohoo!" Okuyasu and Nora immediately jumped out of their seats with wide grins on their faces.

"Finally, I get a turn to fight something!"

"I get to fight the exchange students first!"

The two turned to each other, smiles on each of their faces as they pointed at each other.

"You're going down!"

With that, the two practically sprinted for the doors, the members of Teams JOJO, RWBY and JNPR leftover just chuckled slightly at the show as Josuke leaned back in his seat.

"Gotta say Josuke, you're pretty strong so I can only imagine that Okuyasu's pretty good too, but Nora here's one of the best fighters in our year. Not the fastest but most of the time, woof, that girl can pack a wallop." Yang said casually as she leaned back in her own seat. "Think Okuyasu can handle it?"

"Maybe. It really all depends on how long the fight goes on." While the two Beacon teams looked for clarification from Josuke, none seemed to be forthcoming. They decided to leave it alone for the moment and just eagerly awaited the beginning of the match.

Okuyasu was the first to arrive on the scene and, much to the confusion of Team JNPR and the rest of the student body aside from Teams RWBY and JOJO, showed up in his uniform and with no weapons; not even gloves or new boots that might signify some sort of skill with the martial arts. Okuyasu looked, for all intents and purposes, like he had ran from the bleachers all the way down to the ring.

Which, in all honesty, he had.

If Glynda seemed bothered by it, or felt anything about the sight at all, none of the other students could catch it. Goodwitch just nodded her head slightly at Okuyasu as they all waited for Nora. Soon, the orange bomber burst through the doors to the arena with Magnhild in tow and her usual clothes on. Though she was practically bursting with energy when she first came through the doors, she deflated slightly at the sight of Okuyasu, weaponless and still in his uniform. After a moment she shook it off.

'He's probably just trying to psych me out. Well Okuyasu, you'll find you'll have to try a lot harder to psych out Nora Valkyrie!' A grin returned to her face at the thought as she ran into the middle of the arena.

"Very good. Now, before we begin, a few rules and stipulations; Mr. Nijimura, under no circumstances is any permanent harm to befall Ms. Valkyrie. I'll step in if at any moment it appears you're about to do any serious harm to her… is this clear?" The tone of her voice was sharp and pointed but, if it affected Okuyasu in anyway, he didn't seem to show it. He nodded in understanding as he rolled out his shoulders and stretched a bit; he might not be doing the bulk of the fighting, but he'd need to be loose and quick on his feet regardless.

"I understand teach, I promise, I won't do nothin' to seriously hurt anyone here." Despite the disrespectful way Okuyasu had referred to her, it was clear that he meant what he said. He was probably used to these kinds of limitations by now. Nonetheless, Glynda reached over and quickly slapped him over the back of the head regardless, as Okuyasu just yelped a bit.

"That will be Ms. Goodwitch to you, Mr. Nijimura." Okuyasu just groused a bit as he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, okay teach." Another slap to the back of his head, harder this time. "OW! Okay, sorry Ms. Goodwitch!" The scarred teen winced as he rubbed the back of his head, a few chuckles echoed out from the stands as Josuke just shook his head slightly, along with the various other reactions from the three teams.

"He just can't help himself, can he?" Weiss asked Josuke as she shook her head, the pompadoured teen barked out a bit of a laugh.

"He really can't. He doesn't mean anything by it, it's just… Okuyasu." Josuke smiled as Glynda, seemingly satisfied with Okuyasu, turned to Nora.

"Ms. Valkyrie. Your opponent will be quite… unique. I'm going to have to ask that you avoid doing any... serious damage to Mr. Nijimura's person. Be careful with your grenades." Nora blinked slightly at the instruction, as she tilted her head to the side.

"How am I supposed to get him down, then?" Glynda just looked at the young huntress-in-training, before she glanced over to Okuyasu.

"It'll be clear soon. You'll have a target that you'll be able to fight like any other student, Ms. Valkyrie. Just take care with Mr. Nijimura himself." Nora still seemed confused but nodded in agreement, even as mocking laughter came from the seats overseeing the arena.

"Oh what, is the precious little Frontier huntsman too much of a dandy to be in a serious fight with an actual hunter?" Cardin Winchester called out from the stands as other students joined in, which drew in everyone's attention towards team CRDL, including Ms. Goodwitch and Nora's; Glynda had appeared slightly irritated with Cardin's usual schtick, while Nora was silently still wishing someone would just break his legs already. Okuyasu growled slightly to himself as he raised his right arm and, outside of the notice of everyone but his own teammates, a second arm phased in just behind his.

 **THUUUUUUUUM!**

The entire room went silent as, suddenly, Cardin flew forward past several rows of seats and landed face first into one of the empty seats down in front. Josuke snickered slightly and Koichi just appeared absolutely scandalized by Okuyasu's behavior. Before anyone could think to ask anything, Goodwitch snapped her head towards Okuyasu, who just stood in his spot and casually whistled.

"What? I didn't do nothin'." Okuyasu said as he looked off to the side, all the while Glynda continued to drill a hole in the side of his head.

"Allow me to add that should anything like that ever happen again, you'll serve time in a two-week detention, Mr. Nijimura. This will be your first and last warning." Okuyasu blanched slightly at the chill in Glynda's tone, a slow nod of his head being the combat instructor's only answer as she rubbed at her temples and sighed. "Take this, Mr. Nijimura. Place it in one of your pockets; though you might not be exactly like other hunters and huntresses in Remnant, it should still tell us when I'll need to step in to end the fight." Ms. Goodwitch handed the scarred teen a scroll, Okuyasu blinked a few times as he shrugged his shoulders and stuffed both of his hands and the scroll into his pants pockets.

A few taps on her pad later and the screen above the arena lit up, Okuyasu and Nora's portraits above the two bars representing their Auras or, in Okuyasu's case, 'Aura'.

"Ooooh, fancy." Okuyasu said with a slight scratch of his chin as Glynda jumped away from the two students.

"You two may begin at any time." Okuyasu and Nora nodded as they turned to face each other. Nora was excited, she had Magnhild at the ready and Okuyasu…

Just put his hands right back into his pockets, his stance tense and ready to move at any time, but not in any sort of combat stance she'd ever seen. Nor had he actually pulled out a weapon or any kind of Dust.

Finally, Nora was, in her own words, psyched out.

"Wait, Ms. Goodwitch, how is Okuyasu supposed to fight me without any weapons or something? I can't really keep from hurting him like you said if he doesn't…" Nora's eyes widened slowly, along with much of the rest of the room, as a blue glow began to engulf Okuyasu, pouring off of him in waves. A grin, far smaller than most they'd seen that day but nonetheless brimming with an excited energy, stretched across Okuyasu's face as he chuckled.

"Trust me, I don't need a weapon to win this fight." From the blue glow began to condense behind Okuyasu, a vaguely humanoid shape could be made out in it, much to the surprise of everyone but Glynda, Team JOJO and Team RWBY.

"Not when I have **[The Hand]**!"

 **-To Be Continued- Great School Days (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: It's kinda funny actually: you guys showed the love these past five days. This fanfiction not only hit its first month published on , but it also hit 10,000 views and 100 favorites. I once again want to state my appreciation for all of your excitement, your reviews and your kind words and the fact that so many of you seem to hold both my update schedule, my little thoughts on writing and, most of all, this fic in such a nice regard. It's nice when something you're doing for the fun of it is enjoyed by the people you share it with, and I certainly appreciate the kind sentiments you all have sent along.**

 **With the 14th past, this also means I've been consistently updating this story every five days for over a month. So I'm pretty pumped about that.**

 **No big writing thoughts this time, though I will add this: I'm aware of the fact that, in the RWBY-verse, there's one language and only one way of saying people's names. I fully recognize and respect that Monty and Rooster Teeth designed the universe in this way so as to keep a tamper down on unnecessary complexities and to keep things simple while the series focuses more on characters and plot.**

 **However, me being me, I just find language and the culture we derive from it to be too potentially interesting to just leave out entirely, plus language is a pretty key thing in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Though we might not realize it because all the audio or writing is in English or Japanese so as to accommodate the language of the reader or listener in question, it's pretty clear that Araki does intend for most of these characters we know to be speaking their native languages across various times, or some combination of English, Italian or Japanese depending on where a part is set.**

 **In the end, I'm writing a fanfic, not meticulously working on animating a series where I've got limited time to establish things, so I can afford to put in a little bit of extra nerd-work adding this stuff. It's fun to me.**

 **On that note, I will pick on RWBY for a moment after having picked on JoJo's and Araki so much so far. Dear Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, wherever you may be now: you named Mistral after a an air current that blows from Southern France into the Mediterranean and then had the two major characters we knew were from that region in Volumes 1 and 2 have very much Mediterranean cultural names (Pyrrha Nikos and Neptune Vasilias, both Greek). Heck, you threw around names for schools like Sanctum and Haven.**

 **Yet it's your Far Eastern setting.**

 **I still put the Italians there anyway because the crime climate in Mistral too easily fits with Passione and mob politics in general for me to feel like they'd be a natural fit anywhere else.**

 **I just wanted to say that having future interactions there is going to be weird. How do you even mix Italian and Japanese/Chinese architectural designs naturally… Ah well, a problem for future gorilla_fingers when he gets down to actually writing the design work rather than current me who's just outlining plot details.**

 **Hope you all have a good weekend.**


	9. Great School Days (Act 2)

"Not when I have **[The Hand]**!"

As Okuyasu spoke, the blue energy around him collapsed into the humanoid shape all at once as a wave of distorted energy flowed from the being. With a flourish of its two hands, the right having the distorted energy following behind it, the being only referred to as The Hand floated behind Okuyasu's body, its two hands facing downward as it posed them just to the sides of Okuyasu's head.

The general reaction among most everyone in the room, from transfer students on down to the local Beacon Academy students, ran very much the same: dumbfounded shock and awe as another person suddenly appeared from out of nowhere behind the Frontier huntsmen. That this figure had some decidedly non-human features clear on it shook them even further, as they all began to wander just what sort of bizarre and foul magics or machinations were at work here. While Pyrrha and Jaune didn't ascribe such foul motives to Okuyasu, their eyes were each widened in shock as they took in the new participant in the arena, neither having even remotely suspected that this would have occurred.

Team RWBY, while far less surprised than many of their contemporaries, did look on at The Hand with a good deal of interest as this was the third Stand they'd ever seen. Initially they had been put off by The Hand's appearance, as the blue, white and gold color scheme brought back memories of Bruno Bucciarati and his own Stand to the four young women's minds. However, upon closer examination they found that The Hand was quite different, not just from Bruno's Stand but from Josuke's.

Crazy Diamond and Sticky Fingers had been humanoid figures with decidedly humanoid features. While a good deal of Crazy Diamond's face was obscured behind the face guard of its helmet and Sticky Fingers' head was obscured from the nose up entirely by its helmet, there were no distinctly inhuman features that marked the two Stands aside from skin color.

The Hand's eyes were the first thing to jump out at Team RWBY after its color scheme: more mechanical or bug-like in nature than human, they were gold in color and had multiple slits running vertically down the length of them. Rather than a full set of lips and a mouth like either of the other Stands that Team RWBY had seen, there just seemed to be a vaguely mouth-shaped hole where the Stand's mouth should have been, with the corners of which being obscured by the black and white helmet worn by the Stand. Between two blue shoulder pads with golden spikes coming out of them was what looked like a towel draped casually over The Hand's shoulders, the ends of which had…

"Well, that's peculiar." Blake blinked, her amber eyes focusing in on the symbols. "Those symbols belong to some pre-lien currency: the Mantlean Dollar and the Mistrali Yen."

Indeed, if hearts had been the major theme of Crazy Diamond's design, the symbols of the old pre-lien money was The Hand's running theme, as those symbols appeared on the back of its hands as well as the sides of its hips. Hell, the entire Stand looked, for lack of a better term, blinged out with all the gold that accentuated its white and blue color scheme. Finally, the way The Hand was posing let those with especially sharp eyes see the palms of its hands: while the left was rather pristine, the right hand had lines darting all across it and two bulbous growths right in the middle of its palms that also had these lines across them.

All told, The Hand was a far more ostentatious Stand that what they'd seen before… and considering that one of the two Stands they'd seen had a hot pink color scheme, that was saying something.

"Can't say that it doesn't fit him…" Weiss rubbed her forehead a bit as she took in the design of the Stand, as her team, Koichi and Josuke nodded in agreement. Unnoticed by the others, Ren and Nora had stared at The Hand the entire time, their eyes wide in surprise as they took in the being that now stood between Okuyasu and Nora.

"Ms. Valkyrie." Glynda spoke up from her position on the side, drawing everyone's attention. "That being there, The Hand, is Mr. Nijimura's 'Stand'. While you are limited in how you may assault Mr. Nijimura himself, you are free to treat his Stand as you would any other combatant in this sparring class." Glynda gave Nora her last instruction as she waited for one of the two of them to make the first move, having already called for the fight to begin.

"Wait." Nora blinked in surprise as she turned her head to look at Glynda, a look of disbelief on her face. "That's a 'Stand'? But-"

"Nora!"

Ren's voice had brought Nora back into focus as she turned to look back to Okuyasu and his Stand, her eyes going wide as she noticed that The Hand was practically right on top of her. With a quick gasp of surprise and a jump back Nora narrowly avoided a punch thrown by the, for now, hostile Stand, its fist driven down into where Nora had previously stood as it shattered the stone floor.

"Holy crap you're strong!" The orange-haired bomber immediately put her mind into the fight at the sight of the floor being so easily broken by Okuyasu's Stand. The floor had been made to ensure that bullets, explosions and Aura based feats of young hunters in training wouldn't do serious damage to it. If The Hand was strong enough to shatter the floor with one punch, then that told Nora that she was dealing with some serious muscle here.

"You'd best not turn your attention away from The Hand Nora, or you'll find yourself beaten to a pulp!" Okuyasu grinned as he and his Stand rushed forward towards Nora, the plucky young woman's face took on a determined edge as she whirled Magnhild around a few times as she and Okuyasu's Stand met in direct battle.

Up in the stands, most students were watching the fight with a great deal of interest. This summoned being seemed to be stronger than most of them and, with its speed forcing Nora on the defensive, seemed to be just a bit faster than most hunters in training as well. That such a thing could come out of a person was a shock to most of their systems and, slowly, it became clear to them just how an outpost of human civilization could survive the Grimmlands for so long if these were their primary weapons.

Among Team RWBY, however, there had been confusion.

"Wait, what's Okuyasu doing?" Ruby Rose asked as she tilted her head to the side, a confused expression on her face as Jaune and Pyrrha turned to face the silver-eyed girl.

"What do you mean? He's using that… Stand, thing to force Nora on the defensive. Seems pretty straightforward if you ask me." Jaune said as Yang just shook her head.

"Yeah, but that's what Ruby means." Yang turned her head to look at Josuke. "I gotta assume Okuyasu's Stand has some kind of crazy ability too, right?" The pompadoured teen just nodded his head as he watched the fight, his gaze focused as he watched each of Okuyasu's and Nora's movements as the two brawled it out on the arena floor. "Then… I dunno, why isn't he hanging back and strategizing? It's clear that The Hand is pretty strong and fast, it could probably keep Nora at bay while he thought of some way to surprise her. I dunno, it just seems like he's being way more aggressive than either you or Bucciarati."

Josuke turned his head very slightly away from the fight to fix Team RWBY with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Yeah, he is, isn't he?" He turned his head back to the fight as he said this, which drew questioning glances from Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha.

"... Oh… oooooh." Blake's eyes widened in comprehension as she leaned forward to watch the fight. "Okuyasu… doesn't do the thinking thing, does he?" Josuke just shook his head no as he continued to watch the fight.

"No, not really." He jammed a thumb over towards Cardin as if this proved some point of his. "I'm sure you've noticed that Okuyasu can act in the heat of the moment and doesn't really stop to consider his actions or options a lot of times. Honestly, the guy just prefers to just act on his gut feeling."

"... That's why you said it'd depend on how long the fight went on for." Weiss palmed her face slightly as she shook her head. "If Nora finds out Okuyasu's patterns or weaknesses, she can start to exploit them to make it so that even The Hand's advantage in speed and strength won't matter." Weiss dragged her hand down her face so that she could see the fight again, as Okuyasu continued to bum rush Nora who continued to bat away his Stand's punches and kicks with either the head of Magnhild or its haft. "Meanwhile, Okuyasu won't stop to consider how he should change up his strategy to reflect this and he'll just keep going in headfirst to try to break Nora down by force."

"To be fair, it works out really well on Grimm… individually. Most of the time." Josuke sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he said this, the fight continuing to play out down in the arena. Several holes and shattered remnants were scattered about the floor as Okuyasu and The Hand continued their chase for Nora, Stand and Stand Master each gunning for Nora's buns and looking to end the fight in as many decisive punches as it would take. Nora, for her part, had done her best as she tried to keep The Hand off of her and to stop it from landing any solid hits. There had been a time here and there where the Stand had grazed her and, while her Aura had dulled the pain, it was clear that this Stand was hitting with a lot of force, if the blip in her Aura bar from even a grazing hit was any indication.

The thing was that despite The Hand and, by extension, Okuyasu keeping up this pace, neither seemed to tire. Okuyasu's case was obvious; he only moved around with his Stand and kept close to it and while he had made sure to stay just out of Nora's reach. The Hand on the other hand was throwing out a crazy amount of energy and yet it didn't seem to have slowed down even a bit from the exertion. Nora was a bit of a ditz, even she in her more reflective moments was all too willing to admit this, but she wasn't dumb: if the fight kept up like this, she'd just tire herself out and then it'd be all too easy for Okuyasu and his Stand to have beat her down into submission.

As The Hand reared back its fist for another hard hit, Nora realized that this was an opportunity for her; she recognized the sort of punch that The Hand was trying to hit her with. Nora took a deep breath and readjusted her grip on Magnhild. Rather than deftly knocking the fist aside as she had been previously, she waited until the Stand was midway through its swing before stepping back and swinging Magnhild, striking the Stand along its upper arm and shoulder. The motion caused a deep impact to appear on Okuyasu's own shoulder and the force of both his Stand's failed punch and Nora's blow carried him and his Stand several feet away from Nora, who used the opportunity to get some space between herself and her opponents.

Nora took a few steadying breaths as she held Magnhild defensively, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she watched Okuyasu right himself, his Stand just floating back into place between Nora and Okuyasu. A glance told the bubbly bomber that her hit had made a slight impact on Okuyasu's Aura, roughly equivalent to what she could do to some of her classmates. However, Okuyasu's various glancing blows had taken her down lower, if only slightly.

If Nora wanted to win this spar, which she really did because losing even to a friend sucked, then she'd need to rethink her strategy. Okuyasu wasn't going to tire out and slow down, but she very well could if he had kept this up. She couldn't count on being able to read every single one of his blows and thus, needed to think of another way to deal with him and his-

When Okuyasu bolted for Nora, her eyes went wide as she immediately ran back away from him, as she expected The Hand to be on top of her in a matter of moments. Yet, despite the Stand's obvious speed from earlier in the fight being greater than Okuyasu's, it hadn't moved faster than him. It stayed at a rough distance away from him and only kept up with his pace and always ensured that it was between its master and Nora. Turquoise eyes watched this phenomena carefully as Nora raised an eyebrow slightly.

'That's weird… it's almost as if his Stand…'

Nora immediately switched Magnhild over from its hammer form to its grenade launcher form.

"Your Stand has a range!" Nora's cry was accompanied by a wide grin and a burst of excitement as Magnhild's revolving canister system gave a quick spin, before a canister of pink dust with a heart shape on the tip fired towards Okuyasu.

"Shit!" Okuyasu and The Hand stopped in place immediately as the projectile came right for them, the two leapt away on instinct as the grenade hit the ground and exploded.

"... I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that your weapons turn into guns or… whatever kind of weapon that thing is." Josuke frowned slightly as he tried to identify Nora's weapon, all the while Okuyasu and his Stand dodged around her various grenades, pink explosions tinged with electricity left in his wake.

"It's a grenade launcher. You see, it has a revolving chamber that holstered six grenades at a time, and a grenade is like an explosive charge that contains Dust in it. Kinda like… oh, ummm… dynamite?" Ruby tried her best to explain the relatively new weapon to someone whose understanding of guns, weapons and ammunition would've come from books that were nearly a hundred years old.

"Holy crap, that's crazy. Great, but crazy." Josuke said in a very impressed tone as he leaned forward on one of his hands to watch the fight. Nora reloaded Magnhild in a space between Okuyasu dodging one of her other grenades, her excited grin still plastered on her face as she took careful aim.

"Well it's good to know you feel the same way about our weapons that we do about your Stands. Makes us feel a little bit better." Yang said with a bark of laughter as she watched the fight with interest, a feeling shared by all members of Team RWBY, JNPR and JOJO.

"But is Nora right, does Okuyasu's Stand really have a range?" Jaune asked as his blue eyes darted between Nora and Okuyasu, narrowing slightly as he wandered what his teammate had planned.

"Yeah. General rule of thumb is that the more powerful a Stand is on its face value, the more limited its range is. A Stand can still have a powerful ability and have a long range but if it can hit things hard and fast, it'll usually end up with a crap range." Josuke pointed to himself. "So, like with my Stand or Okuyasu's, they usually can't maintain their forms when they get further than two meters away from us. They still technically exist and can do some very minor stuff like say, picking things up and bringing them over, but they become weaker the further away from us they are."

The fight suddenly picked up as Nora fired off four grenades in rapid succession, their directions surrounding Okuyasu from three sides with one aimed squarely at him and forcing the Frontier huntsmen to dodge forward to avoid all four of them. As Okuyasu dodged forward, Nora fired off one more grenade; this grenade aimed in such a way that The Hand would have to take it head on lest Okuyasu, still in the middle of his own dodge, would be on the outskirts of the explosion: nothing so serious as to injure him per Glynda's instructions, but just enough that it'd do some damage to him.

"Looks like you were right Josuke, Weiss. It was just a matter of time before Nora keyed into Okuyasu's patterns and weaknesses and exploited them for a win." Blake commented somewhat sadly, having hoped that the fight would go on for longer and be a bit more impressive, as she and the others turned to look at Josuke and Koichi… who still watched the fight with deep interest. It stunned most of the participants… except for one, red-haired tournament fighter.

"Josuke." Pyrrha began calmly as she watched The Hand stand resolutely in the path of Nora's grenade, unwavering and strong as it reared its right hand back. "Ruby and Yang made it sound like you Stand Users usually do some kind of thinking with your Stands when you fight, and that it's somehow key to your ability to win. If Okuyasu's really so bad at it… why was he sent with you all to join the Vytal Festival? Why is he considered that strong?" Josuke looked over to the Mistrali celebrity, his expression looking quite impressed as he listened to Pyrrha slowly piece the puzzle together.

"Firstly, because he's on my team, and they weren't just going to send me and Koichi here without our teammate… I wouldn't have agreed to come if they tried." All eyes watched as the two pads on The Hand's right hand seemed to pulse, the distorted energy from before gathering around them as Okuyasu looked up towards Nora and her grenade with a smirk. "Secondly…"

 **THUUUUUUUM**

"-because Okuyasu probably has the second most powerful Stand in the entire Frontier."

With one violent swing, The Hand's right arm was now stretched horizontally across its torso, a trail of the distorted energy followed in its right hand's wake in an arc. The energy slowly dissipated, leaving nothing in the air between itself and Nora up to and including Nora's grenade. What caused most everyone in the room to blink in utter disbelief and confusion wasn't so much the show of the swing or the energy itself, but the status of the grenade.

It hadn't bounced across the ground somewhere, backhanded away by The Hand.

It hadn't been firmly caught in the Stand's grip and crushed.

It hadn't even been shattered into hundreds of pieces after being punched by the powerful being.

It was gone.

Just gone.

Nora's eyes were wide in disbelief as she experimentally fired off another grenade at The Hand.

 **THUUUUUUUM**

Only to gawk when that grenade, too, disappeared amidst a swipe from the Stand's right hand.

"WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"

The cry was immediately screamed from most every single person watching the fight, jaws hanging loose as disbelieving eyes scanned across the entire arena, looking for some sign of the projectiles that they knew had occupied the space just in front of Okuyasu's Stand a moment ago. Most couldn't even speak beyond that first cry of disbelief, mutters of mixed up confusion and barely understandable syllables strung together as eyes of all different colors just stared on at the utterly bizarre and unbelievable display that had just occurred.

Even Team RWBY, who had thought themselves already inoculated from any further potential weirdness by Stroheim's biography or the Stand battle they had witnessed were now left in stunned silence as four pairs of eyes blinked in disbelief.

"Okuyasu might not be good at thinking things through or strategizing and that can and does bite him in the ass from time to time." Josuke leaned back in his seat as he waited for what he knew was coming next. It had been Okuyasu's go-to tactic, after all, "However, that matters less than for most when your Stand's ability is as ridiculously powerful as Okuyasu's." Josuke rested his head in his hand, as Team RWBY and the rest of Team JNPR slowly turned their heads towards the pompadoured teen.

"What… what exactly is his Stand's ability, Josuke?" Ruby asked cautiously, as Josuke just glanced over in her direction.

"If you're going to be seeing more Stand Users in the future, it might be a good idea for you to get used to figuring out what a Stand's ability is on your own. Think about this as a pretty safe space for you to get some practice in." Josuke turned his gaze back to the fight as the four members of Team RWBY nodded in understanding. "You'll be getting an example of what it is soon enough, I'm sure. Okuyasu does love this little maneuver."

On the arena floor, Nora shook her head to knock herself loose from her reverie as she reloaded her grenade launcher.

'Okay, that was… that was totally crazy. If this were any other situation, that'd be the coolest thing I've seen in a week!' As Nora fully reloaded, she turned her gaze back to Okuyasu, as the scarred teen just stood there behind his Stand, with a wide grin on his face. 'But it's okay. He still has a range, all I have to do is overwhelm him by firing off all my grenades at once and whatever he's doing won't be able to stop everything.'

"You know." Nora was knocked out of her thoughts as Okuyasu grinned, his hands shoved into his pockets. "There are a handful of Grimm that like to stay outside of the range of The Hand. I used to hate fighting them because I'd never be able to get right up on them and beat the ever loving crap out of them; like Nevermores." The Hand's right hand began to glow with the distorted energy again as Nora tensed up, her finger firmly on Magnhild's trigger.

"Now though? Now I couldn't care less about what sort of long-range pests try to stay outside of my range and get me from there." A wide, wild grin stretched across Okuyasu's face as he pointed towards Nora. "Because nothing is outside of the range of The Hand!"

 **THUUUUUUUM**

With that declaration called out for all to hear, The Hand swiped from right to left towards Nora, the trail of distorted energy followed its right hand as it did so. Nora stayed tense as she waited for some sign or trace of the ability, her eyes darted about the arena as she kept Magnhild at the ready. After a second, she noticed the rubble next to her feet as it bounceed up and down, clacking on the ground as Nora thought, for the briefest of moments, that whatever Okuyasu's ability was, that it was somehow coming from underneath her.

A split second later Nora and the rubble ended up not one foot in front of The Hand, as if instantly teleported there.

"Wait, wha-"

The Hand's left hand immediately punched Nora straight in the mouth before she could even finish her bewildered thought, her face scrunched up from the force of the blow as she was immediately sent hurtling back once the punch followed through fully. Everyone gasped, they couldn't have seen that right? In the blink of an eye Nora went from being well outside the range of Okuyasu and his Stand to being right in front of it and getting a face full of fist for her troubles.

 **THUUUUUUUM**

However, when it happened again and Nora soon found the Stand's knee driven into her gut, there had been no denying what anyone had seen. Nora, for all intents and purposes, had teleported to just in front of The Hand immediately after it had swung its right hand at her. This yo-yo effect continued for the next several seconds as The Hand would use whatever its ability was to bring Nora back into range, strike her with a haymaker in the form of its left fist, its knees or its elbows, send her flying and then bring her right back in to do it all over again. The entire crowd was left in stunned silence as they watched the huntress-in-training fly back and forth, to and fro, with seemingly no Earthly force in the arena being present to drag her back towards The Hand each time.

"H-How is he doing that?!" Jaune placed a hand on his forehead as he watched one of his teammates get bounced around like some kind of sports ball, the other members of Team JNPR and RWBY had been just as flabbergasted as he was as they tried to make sense of Okuyasu and his Stand's ability.

"Maybe it's some kind of teleportation? Activated whenever he swipes his hand at something?" Ren offered as calmly as he could as he tried to analyze the situation, his mind failing to grasp at explanations for the utterly bizarre display in front of him.

"That wouldn't explain what happened to the grenade though: it wasn't teleported anywhere, it's just gone!" Weiss' eyes were wide with shock as she watched someone she had written off as a delinquent make so light of one of her friends in a battle, every now and then her gaze shifted up to see Nora's dwindling Aura on the screen above the two combatants. While she still had around half of her meter left, it was clear that each blow was doing some serious damage to her and that, if this kept up, Nora would lose.

"Maybe he just teleported it somewhere far away? We don't know how long of a range his ability actually has." Yang offered with a great deal of uncertainty as she just watched Okuyasu play a one-person game of ping pong with Nora. It was a weak qualification and the blonde bombshell knew it the moment she had said it, but she didn't exactly have a lot to work with as she watched Nora get thoroughly abused by Okuyasu and his Stand. Everyone else sat in silence as they focused in hard on the fight, as they wandered just what kind of power would allow something like this to happen.

As The Hand kicked Nora away and got ready to bring her right back in, Okuyasu noticed something. Nora had lifted Magnhild up and aimed it towards him, the barrel around the grenade canisters opening up to reveal all six grenades in their deadly glory.

"Oh no you don't! The Hand!" Okuyasu had his Stand focus in on Nora's weapon, getting ready to swipe it out of her grasp. As Nora saw his Stand rear its right hand back, Nora forced herself to turn in mid air, facing away from Okuyasu as she aimed Magnhild just behind her.

 **THUUUUUUUM**

As soon as Nora heard the telltale sign of Okuyasu's Stand power, she fired Magnhild, all six grenades launched out of her weapon at once and into the air. Before they could get much of anywhere though, Nora and her grenades found themselves right on top of The Hand and Okuyasu.

"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S CRAZY! THE HAND!" Almost immediately, Okuyasu recalled his Stand and had it reappear behind him, The Hand grabbed Okuyasu by his arm with its left and prepared a swing with its right. As this happened, Nora rolled using the momentum from whatever force Okuyasu's Stand had used to bring her over here and grabbed onto the young Frontier huntsman.

"Shit!"

 **THUUUUUUUM**

Almost immediately The Hand, Okuyasu and Nora were seemingly teleported a fair distance up and away from where they had originally been, the six grenades converged on their original point and exploded all at once, which had left a deep scar on the surface of the arena floor. Before Okuyasu could think to admire Nora for her ballsy-as-all-Hell maneuver, he felt himself being pulled hard. Nora's grip had still been firm on him as she wrenched him towards her, Magnhild still in her other hand in its grenade launcher form. Before Okuyasu could have The Hand respond, a loud 'kthunk' echoed throughout the room as Okuyasu was clocked over the head by the very heavy, very sturdy Magnhild, which had the full force of Nora's swing behind it.

"GWAAAAH!" Okuyasu was sent flying by the force of the blow, his Stand immediately dispersed as soon as he left its range, only to reappear to take the impact on the ground for him several feet away. Nora landed unevenly on the ground herself, the young woman disorientated from all the punishment she'd taken from The Hand just mere moments ago. The audience went silent as they watched this unfold, no one dared to cheer or raise a ruckus one way or the other. All were too invested in the fight to have even thought of breaking the tension by screaming their support for one fighter or the other.

Slowly, Okuyasu stood up and the result of the battle thus far was clear. While Nora overall came off worse for wear, her Aura having trickled down to around forty percent, that one hit had cost Okuyasu dearly: a third of his meter gone in a flash, and the reason why had been apparent. A huge, ugly looking bruise had formed on Okuyasu's face where he'd been struck by Magnhild, his eyebrow split open and bleeding slightly from the force of the hit. Okuyasu, despite this, stood his ground and spat off to the side, a glob of blood impacting on the ground.

Nora, while she hadn't looked as bad as Okuyasu, probably felt as bad if the audience had to guess. She had gasped for breath and stood dizzily on her feet, the disorientation of being forced back and forth in such a manner leaving her wobbly and woozy. Some light bruises had begun to form on her face from where Okuyasu struck her, which spoke volume to how strong those blows were if they had even managed to slightly pierce through the bubbly bomber's Aura.

Despite how beat up she felt and despite the fact that she was still by all means losing this fight, Nora's gaze went from hard and battle ready to worried in a flash as she took in the scope of Okuyasu's injury.

"O-OH JEEZ! I'm so sorry! I should've listened to Professor Goodwitch! I mean, I was just in the moment and you were all intimidating and I just thought I had to take a swing! Are you alright?" Okuyasu cut off any further words from Nora as he raised his hand in the air, a slight grin on his face.

"Hey don't' be fooled; Nijimura Okuyasu's taken a lot worse than this to the face and come out on top." The scarred teen spat again, getting the last bits of blood out of his mouth as he grinned over at Nora. "Besides, if I were in your position I would've taken the swing as well. Gotta say, that hurt like a bitch." Okuyasu gently rubbed at his face a bit as he winced. "Like, really hurt. Shit." Okuyasu waved his hand again as it looked like Nora was going to speak up. "I'll have Josuke take a look at me after. Just keep your head in the game. This is a good fight, and I don't want to win it because you suddenly went soft on me." After a few moments of hesitation, a grin returned to Nora's face as she nodded and switched Magnhild over into its hammer form.

Despite the good feelings of the exchange, Team RWBY and JNPR still looked concerned as they continued to puzzle over Okuyasu's abilities.

"It has to be teleportation. You saw how he used it to carry himself and Nora away. There's no other explanation, that has to be it." Blake said with a firm nod, even as Josuke's silence had left her thoroughly uncertain.

"I couldn't think of whatever else it could be. Anything else is just too crazy…" Team RWBY flinched as Pyrrha said this, their minds suddenly whirling with possibilities. Yes, crazy, but then it seemed like Stands and their abilities ran on the crazy and bizarre. Still, how far off could they be? Bucciarati had only been able to make zippers on any surface and Josuke had just been able to 'fix' anything. Those, while odd, had been at least understandable to the four girls.

"I figured out your Stand ability, by the way." Everyone in the room blinked as they watched Nora carefully cradle her jaw, a smile still present on her face as she worked it back and forth. "Took me a lot of goes on it before I started to piece it all together. What you did to Cardin, with my grenades, what you were doing with me and then what you and The Hand did with the both of us. I gotta say, you've got one extra cool power." The orange-haired girl swung Magnhild around a few times as she reset her stance, all the while she bounced back and forth on her toes as she stared Okuyasu down.

"The Hand, its special power is to scrape away space, am I right?"

The room was deathly silent, which allowed Nora's declaration to easily echo throughout the entire arena and the seats overlooking it. Jaws dropped left and right as the idea passed through people's minds slowly but surely. Even so, there was a lot of resistance to the idea, even amongst Team RWBY and Team JNPR. There was no way, that was too outlandish, too crazy, it was something Nora cooked up to try her best to explain what exactly it was The Hand was doing to her. Nora was a strong fighter and nowhere near dumb, but her head was often in clouds, her imagination often ran wild and her plans usually were some combination of half-baked or crazy.

"You know, you'd make for a pretty good Stand User yourself with how quick you caught on." Okuyasu said with a dry chuckle as he nodded. "Yeah, you're right: The Hand's right hand is capable of scraping away space and whatever occupies it with just a single swipe. Then after that-" Okuyasu clapped his hands together, as if closing a space, "-whatever's left over fuses together to make up for the space, as if the original bits never existed in the first place. That's its Stand Power."

So of course, she was the one to clue in on it before everyone else.

"S-S-Scrape away space?" Ruby stammered and stuttered as her mind practically shut down with the realization, her silver eyes blinking rapidly as her mind sought to fully comprehend what it had just heard.

"Anything that occupies it?" Weiss' jaw was practically limp, her expression shared by great many number of students throughout the sparring hall, all of whom were absolutely blown away by such an unbelievable powerful ability and the fact that it existed at all.

"Yep, she got it right on the money. First try too, which is even more impressive." Josuke said with a slight grin as he crossed one leg over the other. "Okuyasu's Stand Power makes him a danger no matter what he's facing, because even if he isn't too creative or thoughtful in using it, the sheer power that The Hand has behind it makes it an incredibly dangerous Stand. It might not be as fast as my Stand or as strong, but its ability is such that whatever damage it inflicts on anything, even I can't fix it." Josuke turned his head towards Team RWBY as he said this, more speaking for their benefit as they were aware of Crazy Diamond rather than Team JNPR's. "After all, whatever Okuyasu scrapes away, it gets scrapped out of existence. Not even he knows where it goes."

While the full extent of how terrifying that thought was flew over Ren's, Pyrrha's and Jaune's head, Team RWBY immediately went sheet white at the thought. Crazy Diamond, the Stand whose ability was that it could FIX ANYTHING save for itself and its Stand Master, couldn't fix the damage that Okuyasu's Stand had been capable of dishing out. The thought chilled them to the very bone.

"Y-You know, in hindsight, getting my left arm zippered off wasn't the worst thing that could've happened last night." Yang muttered to herself as she unconsciously rolled her left shoulder all the while some very unpleasant images played through her mind. "At least zipper man's power could get fixed. Holy moly…"

"No wonder Professor Goodwitch issued him that warning. If Okuyasu used his power on another person…" Blake muttered to herself as she unconsciously played with a strand of her hair, her bow bending forward as her ears did their best to pin themselves against her head in fear.

"Okuyasu might not think too hard about his actions and he might be brash, but he wouldn't hurt someone like that." Everyone was surprised at Koichi's sudden, powerful outburst, the young man's faced screwed up into a determined frown as he looked at the others. When their attention was turned to him, he suddenly blushed and shrunk back again, while the pompadoured teen beside him just smiled.

"Koichi's right. Okuyasu's a lot of things, but he'd never hurt someone who's an ally or a friend like that. Trust me; I've sparred with the guy and his Stand more times than I care to count, and never once have I felt even remotely threatened by The Hand and its special ability. Nora will be fine… well, fine except for any more punches or kicks she'll take from Okuyasu and his Stand, that is." Josuke chuckled slightly as he said this, Teams RWBY and JNPR relaxing as they heard this.

"You're right… Okuyasu's a bit loud and brash, but, I mean, he seems like a… nice enough guy. I just got a little spooked is all… that's one scary ability. I don't think I've ever even heard of a semblance that was remotely as dangerous as that." Jaune said as he scratched the back of his head, while Pyrrha and Ren just nodded in agreement.

"No worries, I understand. The Hand is a rather terrifying force. Still though, point remains that Okuyasu doesn't use it to its full ability. Usually when it's the three of us together, it's up to me to think of plans that creatively uses his Stand to its fullest potential, otherwise Okuyasu's pretty slow to learn things or adjust himself. It's why the length of a fight is such a do or die concern for Okuyasu. Either he finishes a Grimm or an opponent quick before they can key into his way of fighting, or they adjust and he ends up flailing. Barring a lucky shot, Okuyasu loses fights that go on for too long." Josuke turned his gaze back to the fight, his body language far more relaxed than it had been previously.

"Sadly for him, I think we might've crossed that threshold, if that look Nora's giving him is any indication."

As the two combatants slowly worked out their kinks and made to begin the fight again, Nora surprised most everyone by moving closer to Okuyasu and his Stand than she had been before, in addition to her having kept Magnhild in its hammer form. She was just a meter or two outside of The Hand and its range, but nowhere near what could be considered 'long-range'. When Okuyasu made to move towards her, she kept light on her feet and danced just outside his range. However, whenever he'd wait for the counterattack, Nora would just continued lightly jumped on her feet, always keeping on her toes and always just outside of Okuyasu's reach.

"What exactly are you doing, Nora?" Okuyasu asked, a bit of frustration tinged in his voice, as Nora just shrugged her shoulders.

"Nooothin'." The bubbly bomber said with a grin as she kept on maneuvering just outside of Okuyasu's reach. Finally, the scarred Frontiersman had enough and, with a grin, directed The Hand to ready its Stand ability again.

"Like I said before Nora, nothing and nobody is outside the range of The Hand!" Okuyasu screamed the name of his Stand as it reared its right hand back in preparation for its swipe.

That's when it happened. As soon as The Hand reached back and began its swipe, Nora stopped bouncing on her feet and immediately pounced. The orange-haired huntress in training sprinted for Okuyasu and The Hand, surprise etched on the former's face as his Stand merely continued the arc of its swipe. Nora ducked down and slid on by The Hand as it continued its arc, Okuyasu cursing under his breath as Nora quickly brought Magnhild to bear. With a quick swing Nora pounded the head of her hammer into the back of Okuyasu's Stand, sending it tumbling forward along with the momentum of its swipe. As Okuyasu got knocked forward as well, Nora intercepted him in the middle of his fall. Readjusting her grip on Magnhild, Nora drove the handle end of her hammer into Okuyasu's gut, causing the young man to gasp for breath, before she drove her forehead into his, which sent him stumbling back.

As The Hand recovered from Nora's first hit, it made an attempt to reach out and grab Nora so as to beat the ever-loving tar out of her, but Nora defaulted back to her strategy from early in the fight and played defense, using Magnhild to knock aside blows from The Hand for just long enough for her to get outside of its range and return to her fancy footwork just outside of Okuyasu and his Stand's range.

The entire exchange hadn't gone on long and while nowhere near as devastating as Nora's full swing against Okuyasu earlier, this one paid its own dividends; Okuyasu's Aura levels had dropped by another chunk, bringing him, finally, into the yellow.

"The Hell was that…" Okuyasu muttered as he rubbed his forehead, all the while Nora just smiled as she hopped in place. Nora swung Magnhild a few times as she danced around Okuyasu. She had been right; while Okuyasu's Stand was normally faster and stronger than her, when it activated its ability and started to scrape away space with its swipe, the motion was slow and predictable. While the direction of the arc would almost never be the same, the pace of the swing and the way The Hand would itself follow through on the swing were forecasted well and exploitable.

That is, so long as you were the right distance away.

The bubbly bomber was a big enough huntress to admit it; if she were up close and personal with The Hand it'd kick her butt slowly but surely as it exhausted her through its superior speed and strength. If she was long-range, there'd be no way she could exploit the Stand's pattern of movement during its ability and she'd just be dragged right into close range where, between the disorientation of the space in front of her being instantly erased and The Hand's superior speed and strength, it'd just start wailing on her again.

It was the distance she was at now, just far enough away to stay out of range but just close enough to frustrate Okuyasu with how near she was, that was going to keep her in this fight and, if that last trade was any indication, help her win it. The only way Okuyasu could hope to get her would be if he used his Stand's ability but, in the end, doing so would have only given Nora the perfect opportunity to move in and do damage.

Nora frowned however, as she spun Magnhild around. She was a ditz, but smart enough to realize a few things; Okuyasu seemed like he might've been like her, more of a guts person than a thinking person, which meant that he wouldn't just take this kind of abuse repeatedly. If he were anything like her, he'd try something crazy to try to shake things up, some haymaker to get the fight back on his own terms. If she were in his position, it's what she have done.

Nora's eyes glanced up to the screen before returning to Okuyasu. They were both in the yellow: one more really solid trade on either of their parts would probably win them the fight. Nora could risk going in for a quick trade like the one from before, but if she was right about Okuyasu, then he'd shake things up somewhere in here. What could he possibly do though…

'If I were Okuyasu… what would I do?' Nora hummed to herself with this thought, Magnhild spun through her fingers with an unexpected amount of grace for a giant hammer, before she grinned a bit. 'Yeah, that's what I'd do.' Nora shrugged her shoulders slightly as she internally giggled. 'Welp, I'm just going to need a plan to take advantage of what Okuyasu might do. No, not just a plan… one of my patented, super plans.'

Nora firmly grasped Magnhild in one hand, the other reached down into one of her skirt's pockets as she tensed her knees. Okuyasu grimaced a bit as the swirl of distorted energy once again surrounded The Hand's right hand as the two looked for that one last hit to end this fight in their favor.

" **[THE HAND]**!"

Immediately The Hand made its move and started its swipe while Nora rushed forward to dive underneath his swipe, her free hand ripped from her skirt and tossed something up into the air behind her. Nora ducked and rolled underneath the Stand's swipe, her hammer ready to twirl around and land a hit on the Stand's back once again.

Only for a sudden gasp to break out in the audience when, instead of nothing happening as before, Okuyasu and The Hand teleported a short distance in front of and above Nora, Okuyasu and his Stand reared back their legs.

"I knew you'd try something like that again, now eat this!" Okuyasu barked out, an excited grin on his face as he prepared, along with his Stand, to kick Nora's face in. Nora just grinned herself, as she watched something just behind The Hand reach the peak of its throw.

A large, pink explosion rocked The Hand from behind, a swirl of pink electricity wrapped around it as Okuyasu gasped out in surprise. Nora had given Okuyasu enough credit to suspect he'd try to toss things up, and in doing so had laid a trap: either Okuyasu would follow through with her suspicions, teleport himself forward and end up having his Stand eat the grenade she had pulled free from her skirt directly, or he'd continue with his old strategy and end up pulling the grenade into his Stand's face, where Nora could then just follow up as before.

Now Nora, with a wide grin on her face, flipped Magnhild around so that she was holding the hammer by the head and, with a quick gesture, swung it around so that the handle struck Okuyasu horizontally across the chest as he was propelled forward towards her by the explosion behind his Stand, which knocked him some ways away from her.

"Boop!"

Okuyasu skid across the ground as he landed with a thud, a groan of pain accompanied the landing as The Hand dissipated which had left Okuyasu alone on the floor.

"Mr. Nijimura's Aura has fallen into the red. The winner of this spar is Ms. Valkyrie."

The entire room had been silent as Glynda made this declaration, many people unsure of how to react to the spectacle they'd just witnessed. Sure, for the Four Kingdom hunters, one of their own had just won a match against one of these weird Frontiersmen and their 'Stands', but the fight had been close. Super close, as they saw Nora's bar still hovered at around forty percent. The revelation of The Hand's Stand Power had left many in the room thoroughly freaked out as well.

When a series of nine hands started to clap, however, the room turned its attention to Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO, who were each applauding and hooting and hollering.

"That was amazing! You guys did great! That was so awesome!" Ruby was jumped up and down in her seat as she clapped for her two friends down on stage, Josuke giving a slight whistle as he smiled.

"You actually tried to use your head down there Okuyasu, that was some great work! Way to go Nora!" The pompadoured teen gave his own applause before he stood up and began walking away from the group of three teams. The reactions of the other members of the teams ranged from restrained like Blake, Ren, Koichi and Weiss to excited, as Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune joined in with Ruby. Slowly the attitude passed through the rest of the rather stunned student body as a slow, polite applause rang out from the arena. Nora ate it up as she grinned and walked over to Okuyasu and extended a hand down to the young man.

"Need some help up Okuyasu?" Okuyasu winced a bit in pain as he sat up, a wry grin stretched across his face as he scoffed before he took Nora's hand.

"A tough guy like me doesn't need it but-" He winced again as Nora helped him stand up, "-for your sake, I guess I could let you lend me…" Okuyasu's grin stretched across his face as he looked up to their teams, "A HAND!"

"WOOOO! Yeaaaah! Show them that you're learning from the best Okuyasu!" Yang cheered out with a hearty laugh as she applauded, the rest of the huntsmen and huntresses groaning as they palmed their face into their hands. Nora, for her part, reached over and flicked Okuyasu on the forehead.

"No! None of that! Shame on you!" Nora wagged her finger in Okuyasu's face as the scarred teen just recoiled slightly, rubbing the spot where Nora had, with a surprising amount of force, struck him.

"Ouch, easy, it's just a joke!" Okuyasu groused as he rubbed his forehead. Nora just smiled after a bit and extended a hand out, one that Okuyasu very quickly grabbed in his own grip.

"That was a pretty cool fight. You guys are going to do great in the tournament." Nora offered sincerely, her turquoise eyes sparkled with a palpable excitement as Okuyasu just grinned wryly.

"Heh, thanks, you Four Kingdom hunters don't mess around either. I'm sore all over." Okuyasu muttered as Nora nodded in agreement, her own hand absentmindedly reaching for her jaw. "Just give Josuke a minute and he should be here to patch us up."

As if summoned by the words, Josuke indeed stepped through the entrance to the arena, a wide smile on his face as he waved to the two combatants.

"Yo. Great work you two. Especially you Okuyasu; you did the Frontier really proud today." Okuyasu's face went beet red at the praise of his best friend and leader, the scarred teen sheepishly scratched his cheek before he winced, having had forgotten the deep bruise that was on it. Josuke just laughed as he shook his head and reached forward, a yellow glow surrounding himself, Okuyasu and Nora as he grabbed their shoulders.

Soon enough Nora and Okuyasu both looked as good as new, their bruises and pains withered away under the healing touch of Josuke's Stand Power. As this occurred and the other students on the stands watched with surprise, Glynda watched Josuke's display with a slightly thoughtful look, a finger tapping slightly against her data pad.

"Holy cow that's crazy useful! Think of all the consequence free stuff we could do with you around to just heal us! WE DON'T NEED TO FEAR ANYTHING NOW!" Nora gasped as she tittered excitedly with the possibilities, a mischievous grin formed on Okuyasu's face as well as Josuke's grip on their shoulders suddenly tightened.

"Let's not, shall we?" He offered with a slightly nervous laugh as the pompadoured teen finished fixing his friends up.

"Mr. Nijimura, Ms. Valkyrie, that was a good fight on both of your parts." The three students turned to face Glynda as the professor approached, Josuke backed off slightly so that Nora and Okuyasu could face her more fully. "Mr. Nijimura, your Stand's ability is quite powerful and intriguing, and your uses of it allowed you to perform far better in a fight with someone with ranged capabilities than one might've thought. However, your tendency to fall into patterns was exploited and, though your last maneuver was creative, your opponent was able to predict it due to your previous actions. You need to think of other ways of using your Stand and its power so that these don't occur in the future." Glynda wrote something down on her data pad as she said this, before she finished. "I will, however, also commend you for having such a firm control of yourself and your Stand that, in the heat of the fight, you didn't' do anything untoward with your Stand's power to an ally. Good work."

"Thanks teach." Okuyasu ducked away as Glynda tried to slap him upside the head, a wry grin on his face as he did so. It was short lived as, quickly, some force dragged Okuyasu back towards Ms. Goodwitch and held him in place for her to deliver a quick snap to the back of his head. "Ouch! Jeez, okay, Professor Goodwitch!"

"Very good, Mr. Nijimura. Now, Ms. Valkyrie, had Mr. Nijimura been of a mind, he could've ended this fight very quickly. While you were able to catch onto his abilities quickly enough, your lack of caution in directly engaging a foe you knew nothing about and allowing him to maneuver as he pleased while you played defense could have cost you dearly. In the future, I'd like to see the mind you put to use in the middle and end of this fight a lot earlier in your fights. Otherwise, you also performed quite admirably… though, I will ask that you keep my instructions in mind concerning these Stand Users in the future. What you did could have seriously injured Mr. Nijimura."

"Yes Professor Goodwitch, sorry about that again." Nora said apologetically, as Okuyasu just waved her off as did Josuke, while Glynda just nodded.

"Very good. Finally, Mr. Higashikata." Josuke jumped a bit in surprise as Glynda turned to face him, the pompadoured teen immediately faced Glynda as the combat professor spoke to him. "As you can imagine, this being a training school for hunters, a lot of damage can tend to be done, purposefully and accidentally…"

"Oh, you want me to fix up the arena, Professor Goodwitch?" Josuke asked with a slight smile, but stopped when Glynda shook her head.

"No, but thank you Mr. Higashikata. I'm perfectly capable of handling that particular task myself." As she whipped out her riding crop and carefully maneuvered it around, the various chunks and bits of the arena that had either been smashed by Okuyasu or blown up and scarred by Nora fixed themselves back into place. Josuke gave a small 'ah' as Glynda easily performed the task, before she turned back to face him. "Fixing things is something my own semblance is quite capable of… however, it was what you just fixed that interests me, Mr. Higashikata." Glynda readjusted her glasses as Josuke looked over to Okuyasu and Nora, a small 'oh' of understanding formed on his lips.

"I understand that you're getting an allowance from Beacon like other transfer students… how would you care to earn a bit more lien for helping to heal some of our students in the infirmary, Mr. Higashikata?" Josuke just smiled at the offer, the young man sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he thought about it for a split second.

"Really, I wouldn't even need the money. If you'd want me to help some of the students, I'd be all for it." The sincerity of the statement made Glynda blink a few times, before she corrected herself and coughed into her fist.

"Very good. See me after class Mr. Higashikata; you'll be a little late to your Special Topics, but I believe the professor will make an exception." Glynda looked down at her data pad as she said this and tapped a few buttons. "For now, would the three of you leave the arena so that the next spar may begin?" The three students nodded in understanding as they quickly departed, a slight smile passed across Glynda's face before she caught it and returned to her neutral expression.

"Alright, next up, Mr. Winchester and Mr. Arc." A loud groan could be heard from where Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO had been sat up in the stands, causing a series of chuckles to echo throughout the room as a sense of normalcy returned, even if just for a moment.

* * *

Four Kingdom Students "Special Topics" Class, After Sparring Class

"Didn't think that Team JOJO would end up with a different Special Topics than us. Pretty weird."

This remark by Yang was met by some nods by the rest of Team RWBY and Team JNPR. Immediately after Goodwitch's sparring class had ended, the group of students had been broken up across various places. Teams RWBY and JNPR were joining a bunch of other Four Kingdom first year hunters in the class that had been marked on their schedules as 'Special Topics' while Okuyasu and Koichi went off to their own. Josuke, true to Glynda's word, had met with her after class to head to the infirmary.

"It's a shame, those guys have been some awesome company so far." Nora said with a slight smile as she and the others sat down nearby, her mood still upbeat from the exciting spar she had with Okuyasu.

"Hopefully they won't feel too lonely without us." Weiss rolled her eyes as she said this, a slight smile on her face as the statement earned a bit of a laugh from the others.

"I hope Josuke won't see anything too bad at the infirmary. The professors do their best, but this is a combat school that involves live training against Grimm…" Ruby muttered as she shook a bit, a reaction shared by the other hunters. Of course, if anything serious did happen the staff did their best to ensure most of the student population wouldn't' be forced to witness it; nothing killed morale for being a huntsman or huntress quite like witnessing the very real possible drawbacks of the career. Still, people heard things and, in time, those things they heard shifted into even worse rumors.

"I'm sure he'll be fine Ruby. The way Josuke talks about it, he's basically a soldier back in Morioh already. He's probably already seen his fair share of unpleasantness." Blake said with a bit of a sympathetic tone. There had been things she'd seen as a member of the White Fang that she wished she hadn't, after all, so she could only imagine that the people of the Frontier, with the dire situation they were in, would've likely seen even worse when faced with so many Grimm constantly threatening them.

"Gosh I hope not." Jaune offered with a small shake of his head; innocent though he was, Jaune's imagination ran cold with the thought of what the three young men he'd gotten the pleasure of getting to know throughout the day might've seen and didn't wish it on them or anyone.

"Yeah, seriously…" Yang muttered slightly, the mood having been slightly killed by the thought. The blonde bombshell wouldn't stand for this for long, however, as a grin formed on her lips. "Still, I can only imagine that whatever Josuke's seeing, he won't come out of it nearly as scarred as Okuyasu and Koichi. You saw who their professor for their Special Topics was."

A slight chuckle was shared between the teams of huntsmen and huntresses as they wondered how Koichi and Okuyasu had been holding up.

* * *

"Hey, Koichi…"

"Yeah Okuyasu?"

"I know I'm pretty dumb, so I just wanted to check… you can't understand a word he's saying either, right?"

"No, not at all Okuyasu."

"Good, then it's not just me."

Really, the topic under discussion would've been of interest to even Okuyasu; an entire class dedicated to catching the Frontier huntsmen up on the history of Remnant for the past hundred years outside of Oobleck's on history class, going into far more detail, granted the fewer number of students and an entire class dedicated to the topic, than his usual class would allow for. Both Koichi and Okuyasu would have found this information pretty interesting.

If only they could have understood one word the motor-mouthed professor had been espousing. Five minutes into the lecture after Oobleck took yet another swig of coffee, Koichi finally swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and slowly raised his hand, which caught Oobleck's attention.

"Yes, Mr. Hirose, you have a question?"

"Uuuh, y-yes, Professor-"

"Doctor."

"Doctor Oobleck." Koichi recoiled slightly when Oobleck corrected him, but continued on nonetheless. "Uhhhh… Okuyasu and I are actually having a hard time understanding you with how fast you're talking… would you mind, maybe, slowing down a bit?"

There was an eerie silence in the room as Koichi said this, his gaze and, presumably, Oobleck's gaze locked through the more experienced huntsman's glasses.

"Ah, of course, my apologies my dear boy. I tend to find that I do get a little bit excited whenever I speak at length about history after having my coffee." Oobleck sat his thermos to the side as he clasped his hands together. "Would you like me to start from the beginning of the lecture, then?"

Relieved, Koichi just nodded his ascent. Immediately, Oobleck launched back into his lecture from the top, however, this time through he spoke with a discernibly, purposefully slower pace as he enunciated his words and made sure to reel back on his energy anytime that he started to get too excited.

"I'm terribly sorry about this boys, but the other students don't seem to have this problem. I suppose I should've expected as much: your dialect of the common tongue has probably shifted over time in your isolation to such a point where I and others must be difficult to understand." Okuyasu and Koichi just nodded dumbly at that explanation, not wishing to correct the good professor, as he continued his lecture.

"Wow, it was that easy huh?" Okuyasu whispered to Koichi, as the younger boy just silently chuckled. "Good work Koichi."

* * *

"Those poor souls. They had no idea what they were getting into." Pyrrha said with a slight chuckle, as the rest of the two teams shared a bit in the laughter.

"To be fair, neither do we: class is about to start and our professor hasn't shown up yet." Ren said casually as he had his head leaned down on his arms on his desk, a relaxed expression on his face as he prepared to, possibly, take his own nap.

"Well, whoever it is, they can't be worse than Port." Blake shuddered slightly, having copied notes for her team in Port's morning class.

"Yeah, it isn't a picnic, is it Blake…" Weiss muttered with a great deal of self-satisfaction. For half a minute after, the teens sat in a rather comfortable silence, before eventually Nora swung her head around.

"So guys, The Hand, that was one of the Stand things you were arguing about in that book before?" The bubbly bomber caught Team RWBY off guard as she said this, though Weiss and Blake nodded shortly after.

"Yeah. Stands were brought up in Stroheim's bibliography a few times, they were one of the more unbelievable elements in the book… up until we actually saw one that is." Blake chuckled slightly as she shook her head, still seemingly thrown for a loop. "Guess we have all the proof we need now though, not that it's any less of a surprise."

Nora hummed thoughtfully to herself as she just shrugged her shoulders. "If you guys had explained to Ren and I what exactly these Stands were, we could've told you ourselves that they were real." Ren nodded from his position down on the desk, as Team RWBY just nodded.

"We'll remember that next time Nora." Ruby said with a smile as she and the others turned their attention back to the front of the class. Things were quiet for a brief moment, before all four members of Team RWBY did a quick double take and snapped their heads back to Ren and Nora, even Pyrrha and Jaune seemed surprised.

"Wait what?"

"It's a bit of a story and one that Nora tells better, so I'll let her explain." Ren said tiredly from his position, head resting on his arms, as the door to the back of the classroom opened.

"Yeah! It was totally nuts! These things you guys call Stands, Ren and I were told they were just weird semblances! You see, it all started… all started… all…" As Nora's eyes flickered to the front of the classroom, the normally excited and rambunctious huntress-in-training went dead silent, her turquoise eyes wide in surprise and her mouth slightly agape.

"Nora?" Ren asked, slightly concerned when the long-winded story he'd expected wasn't forthcoming. Team RWBY, and the JPR of JNPR turned to look where Nora's gaze had stopped dead in its tracks and, while Jaune and Pyrrha didn't recognize the professor at the front of the class whom had just come in, RWBY had recognized him straight away immediately by his white coat and white hat.

Ren, however, was the only one whose surprise seemed to match Nora's as Jotaro walked up to the board in front of the class, picked up a piece of chalk, and started writing.

"Ren… Ren… I think… I think that's-"

"I know what you're about to say Nora, but that's impossible. We searched every contact in the CCTS, he doesn't actually exist." Even as Ren said this, he couldn't help but look at the striking similarities, such as-

"But Ren! Look at the back of his head! It's like, part of his hat! It could only be-"

"Nora, we were five, there's just no way…" Even as he said this, his and Nora's breath paused when Jotaro began to write his name on the board. At first, Nora seemed disheartened, seeing 'Kujo' appear over his right shoulder. Ren, as ever, patiently waited, his magenta eyes going as wide as dish plates when the man turned from the board and presented his name.

'Kujo Jotaro.'

"JOTARO!" Jotaro almost immediately flinched when the high-pitched, excited squeal utterly shattered the silence that had built up in the classroom up to that point, his green eyes surprised as they fell upon the orange-haired huntress who by that point had actually jumped up onto her desk and started waving her hands.

"Jotaro! Hey! Look, it's me, Nora! And look who else!" Nora reached down and grabbed a practically catatonic Ren by the arm and hoisted him up, forcing him to wave as well as he just stared on in his own surprise. "It's Ren! Hey Jotaro, do you recognize us Jotaro?! Jotaro! HEY JOTARO! IS THAT ACTUALLY YOU? SAY SOMETHING THAT YOU'D SAY IF IT'S YOU JOTARO! OR MAKE A SLOTH SOUND! HEY, HOW'S EVERYONE ELSE?! JOTARO? HEY, HEY JOTARO!" As Nora kept up this routine, slowly but surely Jotaro ground down on his teeth, an obvious tension building up inside of him until-

"NORA, WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN, YOU'RE BEING ANNOYING!"

Everyone in the room was deathly silent as Jotaro roared at the top of his lungs, Team RWBY surprised to see such a display from the abnormally calm and collected man they had met just last night. More than that, they were utterly surprised by the fact that Jotaro had just shouted such a thing to Nora. Not even Ren had said something along those lines to Nora in all the time that they'd known them.

For many females in the room, this shock was also accompanied by a rather uncomfortable feeling as several female huntresses found a light blush on their cheeks at the sight.

"Okay!" Yet despite all this, Nora just gave a grin and a nod as she hopped down into her seat, a chirp of laughter escaping her lips as she just grinned out to Jotaro, still waving. After a moment, Jotaro himself seemed to calm down as he took a careful look at both Ren and Nora.

"... **Yare yare daze** …" Jotaro adjusted his cap as he sighed, his face hidden from sight as he shook his head. "You two; after classes are settled for the day, come here." A quick jittering nod and a slow nod from Nora and Ren respectively was all Jotaro needed before he raised his head back up, his normally sober expression back on his face.

"As for the rest of you, my name is Kujo Jotaro: I am a huntsman from the city of Morioh in the Frontier and I've mentored the three young huntsmen who have come from our corner of Remnant to participate in the Vytal Festival. Beacon Academy has been gracious enough to offer me this time and position to help inform you all of the history of the Frontier since our two civilizations have lost contact one hundred years ago, so that this integration process might be easier for you all."

Without even skipping a beat, Jotaro turned around and wrote several things up on the board in rapid succession, launching into his lecture with a collected cool and calm that seemed to reassure the rest of the class.

Still, if Nora and Ren took in any of the information Jotaro was espousing, they sure didn't look it. Nora's excitement and sure pulse-pounding joy was still obvious on her face, all the while a slow, calm smile formed on Ren's. Memories long since buried as childish nonsense slowly but surely flooded back to the foreground of their minds.

* * *

The Gulf Between Patch and Vale Proper, Twelve Years Ago

The sun bore down hard on a small, ocean-going ship that charted a lonely course for the mainland of Vale. Its passengers required a ship they could have to themselves but found that, with the Vytal Festival going on, that no captains going straight to Vale would accept losing out on so many potential passengers by letting just five men rent out an entire ship.

So as Joseph Joestar lazily stretched his body out, dressed in a sleeveless red and white shirt and a pair of blue, loose fitting pants, he sought to just relax.

"It'll be a few days until we actually reach the Kingdom of Vale proper. After that, we'll be making an overland journey from one of the minor coastal villages up to the City itself. It'll be a hard march, so we should make the best out of this downtime while we can." Indeed, it even seemed that most of his traveling companions had taken him up on his advice.

The newest member of this Stardust Crusade, Jean Pierre Polnareff leaned up casually against a nearby railing as he chatted away with Muhammad Avdol, who sat on the deck in a crossed leg posture. While he had been meditating to relax his mind and body after the rigmarole of working with Joseph to arrange for any transport from Patch to Vale, he had more than welcomed their new companion's company, the two amicably discussing with each other their own travels.

Joseph smiled: it was hard to imagine that it was only just a week ago back at the outskirts that the two of them had been fighting to the death. Speaking of new friends and fighting, he turned to look at his grandson, Jotaro, and his own new companion, Noriaki Kakyoin, who sat lounged about on deck chairs. Jotaro just seemed to be trying to catch a quick nap, while Kakyoin had a small book in his hands. It'd be a perfectly relaxing image, except…

"Aren't you two going to do something about your uniforms? You guys aren't seriously going to stay dressed like that the entire time, are you? Aren't you two hot?"

Indeed, Jotaro's black, if slightly modified, hunter uniform and Kakyoin's green made them stand out quite heavily compared to the other members of the Stardust Crusade, the two just continued to casually lay about as Kakyoin flipped a page in his book.

"We are Hunters of The Frontier, Mr. Joestar. We should dress the part, even away from Morioh." Still, a small smile tugged at the corners of the red-haired young man's lips as he looked between himself and Jotaro. "Though, I will admit, we might be pushing it a bit." To this, Jotaro could only scoff slightly, while Joseph shook his head.

"I swear, hunters are so much more uptight than they were back in my day. When I was your age, I couldn't wait to get out of my uniform the second I was out of Morioh and traveling about the other Kingdoms." Kakyoin's smile widened a bit as he closed his book, looking up to his leader.

"Perhaps that was just you, Mr. Joestar. Perhaps Jotaro and I are just more dignified huntsmen than you were at our age." The old man barked out a loud laugh as he heard this, shaking his head as he pointed to the two youngsters.

"You know, I might believe that if it were just you Kakyoin, but Jotaro? Hah!" The young man in question 'tsked' at his grandfather's boisterous laugh, as he reached up for his hat and lowered it.

"Whatever, you old geezer…" All the while, Avdol and Polnareff watched the scene go on, an amused grin on the latter's face and a stern, but understanding, look on the former's.

"I see, the dedication of the huntsman of the Frontier to his code of honor and uniform. An inspiring holdover from the older era, where even fire could seem cool." Polnareff just laughed at Avdol's description, as he waved it off.

"More like these two being really uptight. You know, you guys are never going to get any girls to like you if you both act like such sticks in the mud." As Polnareff said this, a shout was heard from down the deck, which drew the five men's attention away from their current conversation.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS! LET HIM GO! I SWEAR, I'LL BEAT YOU ALL UP IF YOU DON'T STOP CARRYING HIM AROUND LIKE THAT!"

As a sailor came out from beneath the deck of the ship, the five Stand Users were treated to quite the sight: in the grips of one of the crew of the ship were two very young, very filthy children, one an orange-haired girl and one black haired boy with a pink stripe going through it. While the latter had seemed to accept his fate and didn't struggle against the grip of the much older sailor, the girl seemed to be fighting and struggling with all her vim and vigor, to such a degree that even the sailor seemed to have a hard time keeping a grip on her.

As turquoise and magenta eyes met the gaze of the Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro heaved a long, annoyed sigh as he readjusted his hat.

" **Yare yare daze** …"

- **To Be Continued- Great School Days (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Nijimura Okuyasu**

 **Stand Name: [The Hand]**

 **Destructive Power: B**

 **Speed: B**

 **Range: D (2 Meters) - B**

 **Lasting Power: C**

 **Precision: C**

 **Growth Potential: C**

 **Elimination: Anything [The Hand's] right palm touches when it does a swiping motion with its arm is erased from this universe, be it physical matters or the space itself. This ability effectively removes whatever is in the Stand's path from existence according to the user's will and it seems the objects are eliminated like an extremely sharp blade had sliced clean through them. While using the ability, Okuyasu can choose between mere removal of physical substances or the erasure of space itself within the areas covered by [The Hand's]swing motion performed by its right hand. Okuyasu also states that not even he knows where the voided objects go. Should there be space erased by [The Hand], the voided space will be filled and "stitched up" by adjacent space and objects, effectively removing any traces of the removed objects ever existing.**

 **It should also be noted that space erasure also gives surrounding objects an unexplained force pushing them towards the center of the eliminated space while the said void is being filled by the surrounding dimension. The space elimination and this curious property allow the normally short-range Stand possesses substantial ranged capabilities, as it can simply remove the space between itself and a target to bring the opponents within reach of [The Hand] and Okuyasu or the other way around, which Okuyasu likes to call it "teleportation". During the swing, [The Hand] is described as moving slower, whether or not this is part of the nature of its ability or due to the obvious and telegraphed nature of the swing is left unclear.**

 **Also Known As: How to make your girlfriend's pelvis disappear**

 **Also Known As: Why you need to think with your head in JoJo's if you want to win more than one fight.**

* * *

 **Stand battles or Stand vs semblance battles involving Okuyasu 1v1 were always going to be more simple than the other fights. It's an unfortunate fact that Okuyasu, when it comes to thinking with his head, is a bit dumb, so the fight wasn't going to impress based on strategy or wit coming from Okuyasu. Hopefully though the overall showmanship of the fight and Nora's maneuvers made it a bit more exciting. We'll see, I suppose, but I suspect some jimmies are going to be rustled.**

 **Now, about that ending: we discussed Needs versus Wants two chapters ago. Let's discuss the worst thing that can happen to a story: when you have a Need that you just can't fill.**

 **For my fellow writers, I imagine we've all had this happen at one point in time or another. We have a plot element that we desperately need and want to expand upon because it's key in some emotional investment or in explaining how a certain thing or series of events happened in your series. However, the way things are set up, you really have no good reason or ability to do so without feeling like you're just expositing or treading over old ground, or you just don't have an excuse to show this shit without it coming off as a confusion and unrelated diversion from the main plot with absolutely no lead in to show for it.**

 **For me, this was Jotaro's softer nature and how Iggy ended up joining the Stardust Crusade. For the latter, it's a bit more obvious what I mean: there's no SWF in this universe because the Frontier was never that rich, so you can't just have them shipping Iggy out in the middle of a desert because reasons. Iggy had to be in at some point in the actual plot of the Stardust Crusade. In this universe, Iggy was always in Vale, that's his home turf and where he lived it up as the king of all dogs for a while. The Stardust Crusaders end up going through Vale on the way to Vacuo because they not only need to pick up Iggy, but they also need to see the Vytal Festival and understand what it could mean for the Frontier in the future. However, I had literally no good reason to flashback to this point in the plot at any time, at all. And I didn't want to just exposit about it because exposition is boring ,especially if you're doing it out of nowhere.**

 **Then there's Jotaro: as many reviewers have pointed out, Jotaro seems like a slightly softer man in this timeline, a more successful family man and a good mentor. There are reasons for this, but they're reasons that lack emotional investment because you wouldn't' get to see them. Jotaro's the sort of guy who runs away from people to keep from forming a connection: in Part 6, Jotaro flatly says that he sought out a wife who was low maintenance and kept himself busy with work and travel to stay away from her and his daughter so that he could protect them. We see in the Stardust Crusade, on top of all this, that the longer Jotaro spends with people, the more attached he gets to them.**

 **So in this timeline, because Jotaro has nowhere to go outside Morioh, he ends up being forced to spend time with his family, which allows them to break down the big lug's resistance over time. He learns to be a better husband and father because, hey, if you're going to be around these people…**

 **Now, does this make sense on a logical level? I assume many of you are nodding your heads yes and saying that this makes sense as part of Jotaro's characterization in the series.**

 **Do you feel emotionally satisfied by this? Probably not because to you, it's just exposition. I wanted to be able to show something of this from Jotaro before we know him today to help build some of that emotional resonance, however, that's immensely difficult because the Stardust Crusade in the initial drafts didn't go that differently and, even where it did, I had no reason to go back to those points to build that emotional connection. To say nothing of the full-fic I could make just featuring Jotaro the family man, so small flashbacks would do that no justice and would just come right the fuck out of nowhere.**

 **So, for the longest time, I just accepted that I would leave these parts a bit more underdeveloped and just let the current plot speak for itself. Yeah, Iggy might not be explained as to why he'd join the Crusade and yeah, Jotaro's softening might never be given a prism to explore it with, but hey, not every work is going to be perfect.**

 **Then Volume 4 aired.**

 **And I stopped.**

 **And I asked myself 'could I make this work and be entertaining?'**

 **And I said yes.**

 **You see, my fellow readers and writers: it is important to have an outline, to have some idea of what you've got planned so that you can work with it to see if it works. It also helps you write quicker because you have in mind what each section of the story is, so that you're not grasping for straws.**

 **However, never write yourself into an absolute corner vis-a-vis your outline. Leave a little space. Because you never know what idea, suggestion or plot element might come along that will end up solving something or improving something that you hadn't seen coming.**

 **Flexibility on top of good planning is important for an author.**

 **Anyway, during these past five days was the anniversary of when I got cut out of my mother's stomach, and you all got this fic to 100 reviews. Gotta say, I continue to appreciate all of your support and I hope I can continue to entertain you all.**

 **Also, I'm going to put out a feeler: Fox On Pie's already brought up the fact that, during fight chapters, the JoJo brackets can clutter the page a bit with how often a Stand's name can come up. Personally, I like the JoJo brackets, but I can see how for readers it might be an annoyance. If you have strong feelings about this one way or the other, feel free to say so.**

 **Have a good week.**

 **Update: A quick consensus seemed to form in the reviews, messages and such that I got in response to asking for your all's opinion. While a very small portion of what I've heard were fine with the status quo, more thought that it was a bit overused and others described it as eye gore. As I said above, I like the JoJo brackets as a stylistic choice, however, if the sheer amount of bold text and brackets is just absolutely turning people off, then I think we're well beyond the point of needing to compromise. I've updated every single chapter and greatly reduced the amount of JoJo brackets and bold text, keeping it to a few spots for emphasis on certain words or when a Stand attack is being launched or a Stand is being summoned. I feel like everyone gets something they want out of this, and we can all feel good about it.**

 **I greatly appreciate all of you who told me your honest opinions on the matter, and I hope that this will be a suitable compromise for all.**

 **Update 2: Apparently whatever i did to fix up all those JoJo brackets created in issue where sometimes there'd be no space after a Stand's name and the next work. I went through all the chapters and fixed up every case where this happened that I could see. I'd like to apologize to ya'll for this chapter's release being accompanied by such a shit show but, thankfully, now that the new standard's been set everything should be good going forward. Thanks for ya'll having patience with these mess ups.**


	10. Great School Days (Act 3)

The Gulf Between Patch and The Mainland, 12 Years Ago

The ship creaked ominously around them as the waves could be heard against the hull. Two young children, filthy as they could be and huddled up into a small nook amidst the cargo of the ship, shivered from hunger as they waited for night to fall. One orange haired and turquoise eyed, the other black with magenta, they had gone through this routine several times now between the village that they had barely escaped alive and here, to this ship. When they had sneaked aboard and found a place to hide, they'd wait out the sailors and passengers as they fell asleep where she would have then sneaked through the ship to get them food. He had ensured that they were fine when they traveled on foot, so she had been adamant that she would have taken care of them on the ships.

After all, what kind of friend would Nora be to her bestest buddy Ren Lie if she didn't pull her weight, after everything he had done for her.

The journey from the ruined village had been a long one for the two five year olds. Though Ren's abilities had kept them safe from Grimm while on the road and had given the young child a strength she hadn't known she could have after so many years alone, that hadn't meant they didn't face other hardships. For Nora, she was used to this; unable to have recalled loving parents or anyone to have supported her save herself, she had become used to doing what she could to survive, even if it earned her the familiar taunt of street urchin from the people around her... that she had understood at any rate.

Ren wasn't though. He had a family and grew up in a nice home. He lost that, all because of the Grimm. Yet despite his own loss and the fact that he owed her nothing, he still saved her and stuck by her side. When she had tried to move onto some other city in Mistral, it had been Ren who guided her away towards the coast. It had been Ren who had signaled that they should sneak aboard a ship and it was Ren who had given them their destination.

Vale.

It was all done in single words though: Nora had been no closer to understanding Ren than when they had first met, and she was sure it was the same for Ren. They had gotten each other's names and Ren had said 'Vale', but that was about the extent of their ability to communicate.

It should've been lonelier for the two children. The isolation, the lack of understanding, it should have crippled their resolve.

Yet...

"We're almost there Ren." Nora smiled softly as she looked over at her best friend, the black haired boy tiredly turned his attention over to her. "What do you think Vale's gonna be like? I've never been there… at least, I don't think I have. Do you think they have a bunch of kids like us there too? I hope they do, because then we could have even more friends. Oooh! Or better, maybe they'll have some good food there. These sailors have all the disgusting stuff on board, fish and dried meat, bleh. Nothing sweet at all!" As Nora babbled on, she caught it out of the corner of her eye: each chirp, each peak in her voice caused a smile to grow on Ren's lips. Each little gesture she threw around had caused his eyes to light up and, every now and then when she made a funny face or some extravagant gesture, he'd laugh.

Maybe she and Ren couldn't communicate, but if her talking had made her best friend smile like this, then Nora would have babbled away forever, even if she had only been talking to herself.

The interplay between the two went on for sometime, Ren just sat there and listened while Nora went on and on. It was how they passed the time, how they made each other more comfortable despite the circumstances. However, as Nora was about to round off into another little rant about the food on these ships, the sound of the cargo bay door being opened immediately alerted them both.

"Nora, shhh." His voice was soft, as ever, as he placed his finger to his lips to shush her. It wasn't a reprimand, but a warning for his own friend. The two huddled closer together as they heard the feet of the sailor approach. They had picked a good hiding place, as weeks if not months of experience had guided them. They had done this again and again, and they had successfully lucked their way into staying out of sight aboard most of the ships they had stowed away on.

Yet this time, it seemed, their luck ran out; the sailor walked some distance into the cargo bay, counting up the supplies, until he stood in such a way that his back had directly faced Nora and Ren, their little eyes widened in fear as they both realized that all this sailor would have to do to see them would be to turn around.

Nora frowned as she turned to Ren, the boy's magenta eyes shifted to her.

"Find another place to hide Ren!" She silently implored her friend, gesturing off to some other box as the sailor slowly turned around. Whatever the man of the sea had expected to check when he turned around, he instead found a very short but surprisingly strong five year old girl as she threw herself into his gut with a punch.

"Gah! What the Hell?!" The sailor grimaced again as another punch was thrown into his gut, as he looked down to see a mop of dirty orange hair just beneath him. "Damn, looks like we got ourselves a little stowaway, eh?" The man reached down to try and grab Nora by the back of her shirt to lift her up, only to be violently surprised when Nora's head snapped around and bit him hard on the hand.

"Agh! You little shit!" Nora kept her teeth sank in firmly to the guy's hand, not letting go as she hoped her distraction would give Ren time to hide. When the sailor swung his arm around to slam Nora into a nearby crate, however, that hope was dashed.

"Nora!" Immediately, the sailor was tackled from behind as Ren threw himself into his back, the sailor forcibly drawn onto the floor as Nora gave Ren a worried look.

"Ren, I said to go find some place to hide!" Nora tried to say with her teeth still sunk into the man's hand, which had ended up garbling her speech. Nonetheless, Ren just shook his head as he pounded his fists into the back of the sailor, who just quickly forced himself back up as he slapped Nora, forcing her off of him, and went to grab both children by the backs of their shirts.

"Alright you damn stowaways. Let's get you up top and see what the captain says we should do with ye'." The sailor said gruffly as he roughly handled the two kids, taking his opportunity for a little bit of petty revenge as he allowed the two of them to bang up against doorways and walls every few steps of their journey.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS! LET HIM GO! I SWEAR, I'LL BEAT YOU ALL UP IF YOU DON'T STOP CARRYING HIM AROUND LIKE THAT!"

"Hey, hey! I thought we all agreed there'd be no additional passengers aboard?"

As the pair's eyes adjusted to the sunlight, they were treated to the sight of the Stardust Crusaders, a group of five men of varying size and dress who just stared at the two young stowaways with various looks of interest, ranging from some big, scary looking guy's disinterest to the look of worry and curiosity from the old man who'd just addressed the sailor who carried the two of them.

"I'm sorry sir, we tried our best to keep the ship clear of anyone else, but it seems like we've had some stowaways." The sailor kept his grip firm on the two of them as Nora continued to do her best to struggle.

"If you don't let the two of us go, I'll break your legs! I can totally do it too, tell 'em Ren!" Nora tried to reach her hands back to scratch at the sailor's, but her flailing did little more than annoy the sailor as he shook her about.

"Wow, a pair of kids that young managing to stow aboard your ship. You all must've kept a terrible watch." Polnareff said casually as he leaned back against the deck, a cheeky grin on his face as Avdol scratched his chin lightly, his eyes keenly looking Ren's manner of dress over.

"Yes sir, sorry sir, we promise we'll get this settled as soon as we get back into port. We'll get these two handed over to the port authority as soon as we can." The sailor sneered as he brought Nora up. "You hear that you violent little shit, once we hit land you'll be handed over to the police. Look forward to that while we keep ya in the hold."

"T-The police?" Nora froze up a bit as the man said this, Ren's own gaze becoming concerned as he saw the worry that struck Nora's features. Ren didn't do anything wrong, as far as Nora was concerned; they just needed to get to Vale to… well, she didn't know. But it was Ren's idea and if it was half as good as his idea to keep them safe from the Grimm, then it must've been a great idea! She couldn't let him get caught up like that when he had been so close to getting to Vale.

"Hey, hey now, they're just a couple of children, surely we don't need to bring the port authority into th-" Before Joseph Joestar could finish his sentence, Nora kicked into action.

Literally: she swung her leg and landed a direct kick into the sailor's family gems. Everyone on board winced as the sailor heaved out all the air in his lungs in one swoop, gasping for breath as he shakily dropped Ren, even as his grip remained on Nora.

"Run away and hide Ren! Do your trick!" Nora used the sailor's loosened grip to turn herself around and once again bite the sailor on the arm. The sailor screamed in pain as, on reflex, he threw his arm out and away from him to try to get this little she-devil as far away from him as possible.

Unfortunately, due to his loosened grip and the fact that Nora herself only had a hold on him by her teeth, Nora slipped out and away from him and far overboard, the tiny girl hit the water in a great splash shortly after.

"OOOOH NOOOO!"

"NORA!"

"S-SHIT! I DIDN'T MEAN TO, SHIT!"

The immediate reaction from those on board was to run over to the side of the deck, where their gazes fell upon the mop of filthy orange hair as it struggled against the currents of the open waters, as Nora sputtered and struggled against the current.

"This is bad, these waters are notoriously shark infested!" The sailor gripped his head in his hands, panic overtook him as Polnareff just slapped the back of the man's head.

"Way to go dumbass! Quick, someone throw the kid a lifebuoy!"

"It's too late, look!"

Indeed, a great shadow hung just beneath the ocean's surface, a grey fin breaching the surf as the shark had been drawn to Nora's persistent struggle against the waves.

"Someone, get down in there and… where'd Jotaro-"

" **ORA ORA ORA!** "

Nora's and Ren's first sight of a Stand wouldn't be as harrowing as Team RWBY's and it wouldn't be of the sort of bizarre and terrifying powers that Jaune and Pyrrha witnessed from The Hand.

However, watching as a giant of a blue and purple man wearing golden shoulder armor and a metallic headband burst forth from the water and launched several punches into a great white shark would have been no less impactful on their young minds. Nora stopped her struggles and merely gaped on, her jaw hanging limp and only slight gasps of surprise being choked out from her throat as she watched this massive, hulk of a being rear its fists back, even while the shark hung back in the air from its initial assault.

" **ORA! ORA! ORA! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORAAAA!** "

It just continued on from there: this randomly appearing giant pummeled the great white shark as it hung in mid air, a few solid punches swinging it about in mid-air until, finally, the being finished the shark off with a great rush of punches, the last of which sent it flying dozens of feet away from Nora. The young girl remained baffled, completely and utterly stunned, which left her unprepared for when someone grabbed her shoulder from behind and turned her, somewhat roughly, to face them.

It was the scary looking young man from before, she noticed, a stern look on his face as he stared down at her. Nora, utterly bewildered by the experience, could only stare up at the young man so many years her senior who had, somehow, just saved her life.

" **Yare yare daze** , you damn brat…"

That sense of wonder and bewilderment was utterly broken at that very moment as the man started to drag her through the water back to the ship. Nora, back to her senses, did her best to struggle against the young man. Her harrowing experience and the exertion she had already put her hunger-strapped body through, however, had already exhausted her.

"H-Hey! Let me go! I didn't ask for your help! I had this under control! I was totally gonna punch that shark in the nose and everything!"

"That right?" Jotaro didn't say much more than that as he just continued to swim for the lifebuoy thrown for the two of them. Between Nora's insistent struggles and screams, the two failed to notice when she shark that had been so easily dispatched had suddenly burst forth in a shower of gore and blood, its chunks floating on the surface of the water as another shadow lurked just beneath the surface of the water.

The two heard the shouts from the ship and, as they turned their heads to look back at the commotion, their eyes widened as they saw the new threat rushing for them. Immediately Jotaro pulled Nora roughly and onto his back.

"If you want to live, shut up and hang on, you brat." This time, Nora offered no qualms as she wrapped her arms around the stranger's neck, Jotaro immediately breaking into a hasty swim as he rushed for the lifebuoy. As Nora no longer struggled against him and was better positioned, Jotaro had been able to make a better pace. Still, it seemed that the creature that chased them from beneath the water's surface was able to swim much faster than the two of them and, just as they reached the lifebuoy, the monstrous being was upon them.

"At this range, I can handle it from here: **[Hierophant Green]**!"

Suddenly, the red headed boy dressed in the green uniform too manifested one of these strange men, this one far and away stranger than the blue and purple giant Nora and Ren had already witnessed. Looking more like a container of green, viscous liquid in white armor, with golden, bug-like eyes and a rebreather mask on its face, the being apparently named Hierophant Green extended its arm out suddenly and rapidly, forming it into a long, thin tentacle that reached out for Jotaro. The young man grabbed onto it and, with Nora secure on his back, the two were quickly hoisted up onto the deck with little issue, while the lifebuoy they had reached for was suddenly destroyed by whatever it had been underneath the water's surface.

Once on board, Nora threw herself onto the deck as she gasped for air, the adrenaline rush of the past several minutes having left her, largely, breathless. Immediately after she got on deck, Ren was at her side, babbling as he often did when he was worried as he checked her over.

"The beast disappeared… it was a Stand." Polnareff whispered under his breath as he looked at the two children, while Avdol nodded his ascent.

"Yes, an aquatic one at that. Even in all my years of travel I haven't come across one." Avdol stroked his chin lightly as the five Stardust Crusaders looked on at the children.

"You don't think that one of them is the Stand's User, do you? That they made it out so that JoJo would go into the water after them?" Kakyoin asked, though his tone was hardly accusatory, as Joseph just chortled slightly.

"I think we can assume that the five year old isn't some great tactician who knew that if she kicked a sailor in the balls that he'd accidentally throw her overboard into water she couldn't swim in." The other Crusaders nodded in agreement, as Polnareff just scratched the back of his head.

"Still, it's a little odd don't you think? We had the other ten men aboard thoroughly checked over. These two are the only people we don't know for certain about." Avdol nodded in agreement with the white-haired young man, as he stepped forward and knelt down so that he was eye level with the two children.

"How is Dio doing, you two?"

Avdol's question brought the two children's attention back to the five strangers. Ren, not knowing what it was that Avdol said, only could tilt his head to the side, unsure of how to react to the people who had, essentially, saved his best friend's life. Nora, on the other hand, immediately jumped to her feet and reached into her pocket.

"You all stay away from us! We're so close to Vale, I'm not going to let anyone lay a hand on Ren before we get there!" Immediately, the five Crusaders tensed up, immediately ready to retaliate if Nora did prove herself to be the Stand User after all. Seeing these grown men tense at the sight of her reaching for her weapon, Nora gave her best' scary face' as she'd taken to calling it when she practiced it in one reflection or another, and pulled out Magnhild.

The Stardust Crusaders practically fell over at the sight of the wooden, toy hammer that Nora pulled out from her pants pocket.

"That's right, you jerks! You aren't so big and tough when you're about to get booped, are ya!" Nora swung her tiny wooden hammer around a few times in what was supposed to look like a threatening gesture, which only drew disbelieving blinks from each of the Stand Users. "Magnhild here hasn't seen battle in days, and it hungers for the dust from your bones! So I dare you all to try anything against Ren and I!" Nora tried her best to pose with the hammer, as Ren just stared on at the scene, a slightly embarrassed flush on his cheeks as he, even without understanding what Nora was saying, started to grasp the nature of the situation.

After a moment, Kakyoin finally broke the quiet amongst the Crusaders, the red haired youth barely contained a laugh as he raised a hand to his mouth. Nora, frustrated that she hadn't been taken seriously, decided at that moment to bring out the worst, harshest insult her five-year old mind could muster.

"W-What do you think is so funny, ya butt?!"

At that, Kakyoin couldn't help himself; a full, hearty laugh bubbled forth from the normally composed teen's chest before he reigned himself back in.

"You know, I really don't think it's her." A nod from Joseph accompanied this, as did a small smile that came to the old man's face as a nostalgic glint passed through his eyes.

"Maybe, but still, that leaves us with a problem either way. Either the boy's the Stand User, or there's someone on board this ship who we didn't check thoroughly enough." Avdol stroked his chin as he continued to look on at the two children; Nora, who looked increasingly frustrated at being ignored by the Crusaders and Ren, who seemed to not understand one word of what anyone was saying.

"Hmmm… perhaps…" Avdol pointed to Ren, which drew the young boy and girl's attention to the traveling fortune teller. " **Tell me boy, you have the look and dress of someone from Mistral. Where are you from**?" The children's eyes immediately went wide as they heard Avdol speak Ren's language so fluidly.

" **You can understand me**!?"

"You can understand Ren!?"

Avdol nodded his head, satisfied, as he turned back to his fellow Crusaders. "I don't think its this boy either. He's genuinely ignorant of the Post-War tongue, and I doubt Dio would allow for one of his minions to be able to communicate with the rest of his organization." The Vacuoan born man stood up to his full height, as Jotaro pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"But… if these two aren't the Stand User, than who is?" Joseph remarked with increasing concern as, suddenly, a shadow loomed over both Ren and Nora.

"So, these two are our stowaways, eh?"

* * *

On Open Waters, That Evening

"Well, between… all of that, I don't think we got the opportunity to actually properly introduce everyone."

All of that. A succinct way to have described the shitstorm that had just blown over the Crusader's journey. While Kakyoin and Polnareff had been stepping stones of their own, the Stand Dark Blue Moon and its master, the imposter captain, had cost the Crusaders their ride and most of their day in travel. The imposter captain had set an almost perfect trap: either he'd be successful in his ambush of the Stardust Crusaders, summarily kill them and dump their bodies into open waters or, should he fail, the explosives he had placed all over the ship would see to it that they'd either die or be stranded on open waters.

With the Crusaders, and two children, stuffed onto one lifeship while the rest of the crew split up two others, this left the group with little to do but wait for help to arrive, hopefully having spotted the signals that the ships had sent off. Until then, the five grown men would use their Stands in order to help ensure the survival of the various castaways.

Nora and Ren turned their head to Joseph, to see that the old man had a very kindly look on his face as he pointed to himself.

"My name's Joseph. This here is Avdol, Polnareff, Kakyoin and my grandson, Jotaro." Each Crusader acknowledged the two children in time with Joseph's introduction of them, though Jotaro only offered a slight 'hn' to the two on his own turn. "I'm guessing you two are Ren and Nora, right? Screamed it out often enough." Nora flushed in frustration at the old man's teasing, while Ren merely tilted his head to the side. A quick translation from Avdol and soon Ren merely looked sheepish.

"What exactly are two kids doing out in the middle of nowhere like this anyway?" Polnareff asked, as Avdol once again translated. Before Nora could speak up, Ren offered up their tale to Avdol, giving the men who had saved his and Nora's lives multiple times now in this entire affair as much information as he could. Avdol nodded as slowly but surely a small, sad frown crept up onto his face.

"I feared as much. This boy is… was from Kuroyuri. About a month ago I heard news that the village had been attacked by a large swarm of the Grimm, utterly destroyed and massacred down to the last man, woman and child. There were supposed to be no survivors. However, this boy managed to get away. He somehow unlocked his semblance during the attack and used it to save both himself and this girl Nora. They've been traveling together, boarding ships and trying to get to Vale ever since." The Crusaders, for the most part, showed some sympathy to the two children, all too familiar with the Grimm and the toll they could take on a community.

"I don't understand though. Why go through all the trouble of sneaking aboard ships and potentially getting caught as stowaways if they were on the same continent as Mistral? Wouldn't it have just been easier to just go there, or to some other neighboring village?" Kakyoin asked, his head tilted to the side, as Avdol translated. Before Ren could speak up, Nora stood up.

"Hey, Ren's kept us safe this entire time! If it's his idea, then it's a good one! I don't want to hear some butt going around and-"

"Nora." The orange haired young girl stopped and turned to Ren, who had been privy to his best friend's words for the first time ever thanks to Avdol. As he spoke, Avdol quickly got to work.

"He says he appreciates it Nora, but he has this." The fortune-teller smiled as Nora flushed in slight embarrassment, the girl nodded her head as she sat back down. As Ren continued, Avdol eyes widened slightly as he smiled. "A very good pair of parents this boy must've had, they raised a smart one." Avdol turned to the rest of the Crusaders. "The boy's mother had warned him away from the rest of Mistral should anything happen. The family's plan was that, should anything occur that might force them away from Kuroyuri, that they'd set their course for Vale instead of anywhere else in Mistral; the risk of being caught up with one of the various crime syndicates in Mistral was too great."

"I've heard that crime in Mistral is horrible Avdol, but is it really so bad as to force families or, Hell, two children to seek refuge in an entirely different country?" Polnareff was bewildered as he asked this, the silver-haired young man grew more disconcerted as Avdol merely nodded.

"Sadly, it is. While the rich never have to worry about much of anything in Mistral, content to just absorb the art, literature and commerce of the land, for the poor, Mistral might as well be a living Hell. Either you stay poor and suffer from day to day in Mistral or you join up with one of the various crime syndicates in hopes that you'll earn enough money and wealth in order to make it to the upper classes. Sometimes, it isn't even a choice you get to make; if you're vulnerable enough, someone who could be easily missed, the crime syndicates will come for you themselves. If these two had gone anywhere else in Mistral, it's very likely that they would've been forcibly taken in by one of the myriad organizations that run the country's underworld."

"See, I told you it was a good idea." Nora sat back, a childishly smug look on her face as, while she barely understood the full ramifications of what Avdol had explained, she understood that it basically vindicated Ren.

"You poor kids. Barely even out of your infancy and this sort of catastrophe has been forced upon you both." Joseph sighed as he shook his head; Joseph very rarely felt as old as he was, a trait he had been thankful for inheriting, in part, from his mother's own Stand. However, in this very moment, hearing the plight of others, Joseph Joestar felt very old indeed. Even in the Four Kingdoms, the lands he, Speedwagon and his grandfather had spent their days trying to get back to, these sorts of tragedies were still commonplace.

"It's not so bad." The orange-haired girl shocked everyone when she said this, Ren's own eyes wide as he looked disbelievingly at Nora after Avdol translated. "Before all this, I was completely alone. I don't remember much of anything really, everything from before is just kind of a blur." Nora smiled as she looked over at Ren, a sparkle in her turquoise eyes. "But now I've got Ren, my best friend in the whole wide world. We can take care of each other, and we'll get past all this and do… something! Don't know what yet, but it'll be the best something anyone's ever seen!"

" **Yare yare** …" Jotaro tilted his hat down, a scoff on his lips as the rest of the Crusaders just grinned as the girl's positive energy just spilled off of her. Ren, for his part, smiled back as Avdol gave him the gist, and nodded his head along with Nora's. Things could've been better, as far as Ren was concerned. His family could've been alive and Kuroyuri could've still been standing. But, if he couldn't have what he wanted, then at least he had Nora with him. The road to Vale would've been far, far worse without her there to keep him up and keep his mind far from home.

"Why don't you two accompany us?" Polnareff suddenly spoke up, which drew everyone's attention to him. "I mean, we'd be some shitty huntsmen if we just left a couple of kids out alone on the road when they'd suffered through an attack from the Grimm. Plus, well, it just so happens that we're on our way to Vale too. You two seem like you've had it pretty rough already; stick with us and we'd be able to see you safely the rest of the way to Vale." Nora, and then Ren, brightened up at the silver-haired Stand Users' offer, before Kakyoin coughed into his fist.

"Polnareff, while I appreciate why you're making this offer, we have to remember that we're on a mission and that mission has a time limit. If we bring these two with us, we'll have to slow down for their own pace and ensure their safety. Do remember that what we'll be facing is far more dangerous than any Grimm, especially if the boy's semblance works as he describes it. We might just want to get them safely to shore and then let them make their way to Vale on their own. The two have gotten this far on their own, I think we can trust they'd be able to make the final stage of their journey." Kakyoin spoke softly, no harsh recriminations or tone to his voice, as he laid this all out.

"What? Come on Kakyoin, you can't be serious. Sure we might run into a bit more trouble, but we'll be able to handle them. As for the time, it'd probably only take a few more days at most. What's the harm?" Polnareff tried to wave off Kakyoin's concerns, as the red haired teen just narrowed his gaze slightly.

"The harm might come to Ms. Holly and… the Higashikata boy" The silver-haired young man flinched slightly at the reminder, as Kakyoin shook his head. "I want to help them, truly I do. They're innocent children who've been forced to stick it out on their own due to the forces of the Grimm... any hunter worth their salt who wouldn't want to help them should be ashamed. However, we've already sworn ourselves to saving Ms. Holly and Higashikata Josuke from their fate. Even a few days might be the difference between life and death for them. We can't just risk her life when we don't have to."

"But, Kakyoin-"

"Kakyoin is right, Polnareff." Avdol spoke up, which drew the focus of the conversation to him. "Ms. Holly and Josuke's lives are in the balance, and every day we waste is a day that they draw closer to death. The choice to put additional pressure on that risk isn't one we should take lightly, even if we have to leave Nora and Ren to their own devices." Nora swallowed somewhat nervously as the conversation went on, Ren left out of the dark as the conversation went by around him. "However, where you're wrong Kakyoin is in assuming that this is a group decision that's already been made, or that we shall have a voice in. In the end, there are only two men on board here who can make the decision as to whether or not risking a few more days is worth it." With that, three of the five Crusaders turned to face Jotaro and Joseph, the two Joestar descendants sat with their arms crossed as the debate played out around them, Jotaro's hat tipped down over his eyes as a slight scowl tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Jotaro…" Joseph looked to his grandson, the grey old man's eyes locked on him as he waited to hear what he would say. Joseph had made up his own mind, he knew what he would want to do. However, in this instance alone, he refused to use his seniority to overturn whatever decision Jotaro would make. Holly was his daughter, and Joseph loved her with all his heart, but she was also Jotaro's mother, his parent. He couldn't tear this decision away from his daughter's only son, especially when the boy and his father were so distant. Sure, there was the matter of Josuke but, well, he had given up any right to hold him to any sort of importance a long time ago. He wasn't going to force Jotaro into one decision or another, especially if said decision would bring Jotaro's ire against the two youngsters who shared their boat.

After a few moments of deep thought, Kujo Jotaro released a deep sigh as he readjusted his hat, his calm, neutral expression on his face as he looked across the other occupants of the ship.

" **Yare yare daze…** so long as they don't get in the way, they can come to Vale with us. I don't really give a damn either way." With that, Jotaro tilted his hat down to guard his eyes from the moonlight as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Now everyone be quiet, I want to get some rest. That imposter was a pain in the ass to deal with." Nora blew a slight raspberry at Jotaro as he threw all this out, the delinquent teen scoffed as he shook his head. "I'm already regretting this…"

Despite all this, the four other members of the Stardust Crusade smiled at the young man. While Nora gave Jotaro himself the stink eye, Ren quickly went about thanking everyone onboard for their generosity, gratitude which was very much appreciated by all but, seemingly, Jotaro. Soon, they all got ready and settled themselves for some rest as well. It had been a long day.

"Well, hope you two are ready. There are going to be a lot more… semblances like you saw earlier on our way to Vale, I imagine. It's going to be a bit of a trip." With a tried yawn, Nora just waved off Joseph's warning.

"Whatever old guy, after today, I don't think we'll be surprised by any weirdness that comes our way…"

* * *

Aboard Strength, The Next Day

" **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORAAAA**!"

Jotaro and Nora watched as Forever, an orangutan who favored a captain's uniform, a pipe filled with tobacco, puzzles and porno, was launched through one of the metal doors of his Stand,a freighter ship called Strength, after one of Star Platinum's punch rushes. The delinquent and the orange-haired girl just stared at the ape, now dead or very nearly so after Star Platinum's assault, Jotaro with a heavily annoyed and frustrated scowl on his face and Nora with wide, twitching eyes.

"We're never speaking of this to anyone ever, is that clear?"

"Crystal."

* * *

Room 1514 of The Horse and Carriage, A Coastal Village of Vale, A Few Days Later

" **Alright Ren, we'll move onto some of the basic building blocks of the Post-War tongue Repeat after me and be careful with your enunciation, alright**?"

After the incident aboard the Stand Strength, the Stardust Crusaders and guests had managed to arrive at the shore of the Kingdom of Vale in, relatively, short order. A passing fishing ship had caught one of their signals and had managed to pick them up a few hours after Strength itself had been reduced to little more than a rowboat, with Forever nowhere in sight.

In the ensuing time, the Crusaders had taken to their own little pet projects while waiting to arrive in Vale: Avdol had taken it upon himself to teach Ren how to speak the common parlance of Remnant in the Post-War world, the spiritual teacher having sought to impart some practical wisdom for the group's charge before they left. Finding that Nora was about as energetic as a five year old could get, he instead sought to focus his efforts on Ren and brushing him up. Joseph, Jotaro and Kakyoin had set themselves to assisting the fishermen in exchange for their help while Polnareff set to filling Nora's head with stories of his own travels across Remnant, the flamboyant, lilting Stand User captured the imagination of the young, orange-haired girl.

Finally, they hit shore and saw just how rough of a journey lay ahead of them. Vale was a country of deep forests and high, far-reaching mountain ranges and beaches far and few between compared to sheer cliffs that had stood against the ocean's current. The natural geography of the kingdom itself had seemed ready to prove itself a harsh obstacle on their path to the capital itself. The Crusaders sought to stock up on supplies, good maps and information while they could. In the meantime, it had been decided that the younger of their group would be allowed to go off and play tourist, it having been their first times having had set foot on Vale. So it was that Kakyoin, Jotaro and, surprisingly, Nora departed to tour the coastal village while Joseph, Avdol and Ren stayed at one of the port's hotels; the old man organized the group's needs according to his own previous travels across Remnant and Avdol continued his lessons.

Polnareff had gotten his own room and had promptly been attacked by the Ebony Devil and his master, Devo the Cursed. This passed beneath the notice of the others in the hotel, as Ren had been absorbed in his lessons with Avdol and Joseph had been busy fiddling with a nearby, old-fashioned television.

" **So, you're sure I'll be able to understand Nora with all this, right**?" Ren's eyes glanced back up from his book as he looked to Avdol, the fortune-teller grinned slightly as he shrugged his shoulders.

" **You'll be able to understand what she's saying… but whether you'll be able to understand her is another matter entirely, I'm afraid**." A good-natured chuckle accompanied this bit of wisdom, as Ren merely nodded his head in determination as he returned to the exercises Avdol had laid out for him, the guru satisfied with the young boy's drive as he turned his attention over to the senior Joestar. "Are you almost ready, Mr. Joestar?"

"Actually, I think I'm ready now, Avdol." Joseph grinned as he stepped back from the tv, all the while Hermit Purple manifested itself around his right arm. "I'd like to know whether or not any of Dio's minions are hot on our heels right now. I'd rather not end up getting hit by another surprise like with that damn ape or Dark Blue Moon." Avdol nodded in agreement with Joseph, as Ren turned his head away from his exercises to watch the strange, to his mind, semblance in action. "Hermit Purple!"

As he placed his hands on either side of the television and called out his Stand, Hermit Purple launched forth from Joseph's arm and penetrated the television on various levels, leaving yet no physical damage on the electronic device. Despite being unplugged from the wall or any sort of connection to the broader world, the television suddenly turned on and began displaying a myriad of channels.

" **Your semblances are very strange, Avdol. My father never described any such feats of magic and power from any other huntsman or huntress he's ever seen**." Avdol nodded slightly at Ren's take on their Stands. While it had been easy enough to convince Nora of the idea that their Stands were little more than funky semblances, Ren's father having had been a huntsman gave Ren some inside knowledge into how exactly a semblance normally appeared and functioned. Hell, the boy had a semblance of his own that had been nothing like any of their Stands.

" **The longer you travel through Remnant, the more you begin to realize just how peculiar this world of ours truly is, Ren.** " The boy, though clearly not entirely satisfied, nodded at Avdol's words, as they both focused on the images and, slowly but surely, the message that Hermit Purple's Stand ability was manifesting on the television screen.

"There-is-a-trai-tor-among-us-Ka-kyo-in-beware-of-him-Di-o's-ser-vant!"

"W-What? Kakyoin is Dio's servant?!" Joseph and Avdol were shocked as the television flickered across several images in its attempt to stitch together words into a facsimile of a sentence. Ren watched on, his magenta eyes wide as he took in the utterly bizarre display.

Then it happened.

The television's screen gave way to grey static as, slowly but surely, the crisp images and sounds from before fell away. Soon enough, the static itself began to form into a new shape altogether and, in time, this shape had become clear.

A man stood, his back to them, large, strong and intimidating on the screen. On his upper left shoulder was a purple star-shaped mark that stood out all the more on the man's deathly-white pallor. His hair also heavily contrasted itself with his near pure-white skin, a shock of long, blond hair that reached down to the nape of his neck and flared out in many directions. At the end of his hair, Ren noticed that in a ring around his neck were horrible, disgusting scars.

Then the man turned around, and Ren could feel it, deep in his bones. As red irises contrasted against black sclerae stared out at the three of them, even Ren, child that he was, knew what it was, what… thing, what horrible thing it was that had instilled this terror into him.

Evil. Pure evil.

"Joseph Joestar… you're watching me, aren't you?" The man, the monster, pointed to them and, in an instant, the television's screen cracked.

"DIO!"

As Joseph himself roared back at the screen, the television finally exploded in a gout of smoke and flame, which launched Joseph against the opposite wall, the older man landed on the ground with a thud and a groan as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Mr. Joestar!"

"Joseph!"

Immediately, Ren and Avdol were upon Joseph, each helped the older man back up to his feet as the grey bearded huntsman winced a bit from his trip across the room.

"I'm alright you two, jeez. I'm not that old yet." The leader of the Frontier shook his head as he sought to clear it of any lingering dizziness, as a serious expression came over his face. "More to the point, you heard the message my spirit photography gave us; Kakyoin is one of Dio's agents."

"You don't really think-"

"I don't, Avdol." Joseph cut the fortune-teller off with a shake of his head, as carefully cradled his chin in thought. "I'd trust Kakyoin with my life, however, the message couldn't have been more clear. For now, we have to assume that Kakyoin is a sleeper agent that could try and kill us all at a moment's notice. We need to be careful…"

"Indeed. We need to get out into the city and inform Jotaro and Nora as soon as-" The door opened suddenly and Ren gasped in shock, as Polnareff stumbled into the room, wounded and heavily bleeding as he stumbled into the three's hotel room.

"Polnareff! What happened?!"

"I'm… tired…"

With that, Polnareff collapsed onto the hotel room floor, and any hope that Jotaro and Nora had of getting help at that moment was, for the moment, lost.

* * *

Not that Nora would've thought to have needed it. If anything, today had all the earmarks of being a great day! As soon as they had settled into the hotel and gotten themselves their first showers in forever as far as Nora had been concerned, she and her best friend had decided their plans, Ren had chosen to stick with Avdol and the old man to pick up on more of the fortune-teller's lessons. Now, Nora adored her best friend, but she couldn't see herself sticking around for those super boring talks of theirs, so she decided she'd join Jotaro and Kakyoin as they toured the city.

Imagine her surprise when Jotaro didn't even raise a peep about her coming with them! Even more so when the day they were having had turned out to be awesome! The five year old couldn't remember if she had ever stepped foot on Vale, so this was as much a first impression of her new home kingdom as it was of Jotaro and Kakyoin's, apparent, first time on the continent.

That Jotaro had first treated her and Kakyoin to some chilled coconut milk and then ice cream was great! She hadn't even known what this stuff was before, but now, she loved it and couldn't have imagined life without it! It was weird; by all accounts, Jotaro was a stand-offish jerk who shouted at her whenever she'd talk for a little while (a little while to her being around ten to fifteen minutes at a time) and was generally just the biggest butt around, but he had still done all this nice stuff for her. It'd been like this ever since he saved her from-

'NO NORA, BURY THOSE MEMORIES UNDER THE ICE CREAM!' The orange-haired five year old immediately took a huge mouthful of ice cream in at once as she sought to push away the memories of their encounter with the ape that definitely never happened and they weren't ever going to talk about ever again.

As Nora sought to ignore that, she smiled slightly as he swung a bit off of Jotaro's arm; the tall delinquent had allowed her to hold his hand through the day and though he'd shout for her to get off anytime she tried to actually swing on his arm, she'd find that he'd relent in allowing her to hold his hand again shortly thereafter.

Nora had by this point decided that adults were weird…

Not that today had given her a dearth of reasons to believe that.

Nora chanced a glance behind her at Kakyoin, who stared intently after Jotaro. The three had been touring the city for a while now and had stopped at some guardrails on an ocean-side cliff that gave a great view of the sea. Kakyoin had been… weird. Very weird, in fact. Nora couldn't quite put her finger on what it was exactly. Maybe it was the overly aggressive way he had handled the mugger. Maybe it was the creepy looks he had given both her and Jotaro all day.

Maybe it was that bug he had eaten…

Now that Nora thought about it, maybe she could have put her finger there and called it a day.

"Ah, Jotaro~, are you going to eat that cherry?" Nora and Jotaro's attention had been drawn back to Kakyoin, who had pointed to the little cherry that sat atop Jotaro's own partially eaten ice cream cone. "I'm positively famished, so I'd appreciate it." Without even another word, the red-headed teen just plucked the cherry off the top of Jotaro's ice cream.

Before he promptly shoved Jotaro over the guardrail.

"JOTARO!"

"Oops, you should be careful there, Jotaro~."

Jotaro cursed as he found himself hanging precariously over the edge of the cliff, his only saving grace being his grip and Nora's intertwined just over the guardrails. The older teen grimaced as he got ready to summon Star Platinum, knowing that a child as young as Nora couldn't-

Couldn't pull him up and over the guardrail like she just did without having even broken a sweat.

'How in the hell…' Jotaro's mind flashed to Ren, as the delinquent calmed his breathing after the near-fatal fall. 'Of course, I should've figured as much; however Ren unlocked his Aura and semblance, he must've found a way to unlock hers too…' Thoughts of Nora on the ship days before, partially starved and filthy flashed through the seventeen year old's mind afterward as he grimaced. 'The only reason we didn't notice earlier was because the two of them were in such a rough state.'

"Oh Jotaro~, thank goodness. I had only meant to poke fun. I didn't want anything to actually happen to you, Jotaro~." With that, and Nora and Jotaro's frustrated gazes fixed on him, Kakyoin popped the cherry into his mouth.

" **RERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERO-**."

As one of the city's horse and carriages pulled up to the cliff side to drop off more sightseers, Jotaro stood up straight as he tightened his hand into a fist.

"Alright Kakyoin… we're going for a ride back to the hotel. You're clearly possessed or some shit… so we're just going to take a nice, quiet ride back to the geezer and the others to get your head examined." The delinquent raised his fist in challenge. "Here's your ticket…"

Kakyoin merely laughed as he picked his cherry up from the ground and popped it back into his mouth. "Now really Jotaro~, are you going to do something so rash in front of an impressionable-GAAAH!"

Kakyoin nearly spat out his cherry when, out of the blue, Nora ran forward and , having had drawn Magnhild, shoved the tiny, wooden hammer into Kakyoin's gut. Having surprised the older teen. Jotaro followed up soon thereafter, as he threw a solid right hook across Kakyoin's jaw, which sent the young man flying towards the cabin. Jotaro took a moment and glanced over at Nora, the young girl's breathing sharp and erratic as she looked back up at Jotaro.

"What!? He was creeping me out!"

" **Yare yare** …" Jotaro readjusted his cap as he looked back to Kakyoin. "Well at least he's…" Jotaro's eyes went wide, as did Nora's, as Kakyoin slowly stood up. By all means, Kakyoin acted like the punch had no effect on him. The only sign it did, the sign that caused many of those sightseers at the cliff side to panic and run, was the one that also deeply disturbed both Nora and Jotaro.

Kakyoin's jaw had broken loose of his face, hanging only by a loose strand of his skin as blood poured from his mouth. His eyes were crossed and glazed, as if half-dead already, as a gurgling laugh left the redhead's throat.

"It'd be wrong to say I'm possessed, Jotaro~. **RERO RERO RERO RERO** …"

"Jotaro, why does all this creepy stuff keep happening to us?"

"Beats the Hell out of me." Jotaro grumbled as he summoned forth Star Platinum. "Nora, go back to the hotel and get the others. Find the real Kakyoin if you can. This can only be another enemy like before." Before Nora could even think to argue, Jotaro snapped his head towards her. "Hurry up dammit, we don't have all day!" Nora squeaked as she nodded her head and immediately bolted.

The orange-haired girl only cast a glance over her shoulder once as she watched Star Platinum engage in battle with some kind of amorphous, yellow blob.

* * *

"Talk about creepy; a Stand that perfectly replicated myself."

Several miles up the road from the coastal village, the Stardust Crusaders and their guests had trudged along. With a small wagon and mule procured using lien traded for with the sale of old Frontier relics and loaded with supplies the seven would need in their journey they marched on, heading up the coastal lowlands towards the next village on their destination, the one that sat between themselves and the City of Vale itself.

"Yeah, you should've seen it. That was the creepiest things I've seen this entire trip now. Totally." Nora coughed into her fist unconvincingly as the five year old did her best to bluff, though Kakyoin and the others allowed it to pass by seemingly unnoticed as Jotaro nodded.

"Apparently it transformed into you sometime after we left the hotel and took your spot during a moment where we were separated. We didn't even notice until it tried to push me into the ocean." Jotaro groused as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, all the while Kakyoin smiled.

"Well, I'm glad nothing ill came of any of it at any rate." Kakyoin walked over towards the cart and motioned to Ren and Avdol, the pair of which sat amidst the supplies while they continued their ad hoc lessons. "Avdol, did you and Mr. Joestar happen to pick up any cherries like I asked?"

The fortune teller nodded with a small smile, as he reached into one of the bags on the wagon. "We did; Mr. Joestar made it a point that we'd all have something to tide us over on the trip. Morale is just as important here as it is in Morioh." As he produced a fistful of cherries, Kakyoin's eyes lit up as he gratefully took the offered fruit.

"Thank you." With that, Kakyoin popped one of the fruits into his mouth. " **Rerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorero~."**

Unseen by Kakyoin, who was absorbed in his little game with his cherries Jotaro tensed up, his fists tightening into a ball while Nora looked about ready to cry while Magnhild had been held at the ready.

" **Yare yare daze**..."

* * *

The Dining Hall of The Grand Vale Hotel, A Coastal Village of Vale, A Week and a Half Later

"Nora, what are, you, doing now, there?"

It was a great relief to the Stardust Crusaders when they had not been accosted by another Stand User in their time traveling the roads of the Kingdom of Vale. The week had passed by in relative peace and silence, which had allowed the seven travelers to make up for time lost thanks to Forever and the imposter captain. Though their pace had to be managed to ensure the two children wouldn't be run ragged, the presence of the cart had allowed them to keep a generally good pace every day while Nora and Ren rested on the cart, though as Nora seemed to be an infinite fountain spring of youthful energy, this place was most often taken up by Ren.

The days passed by as ever: Nora, energetic and rambunctious, would seek to mess around with or play with most of the members of the Crusade, though her attentions would most often fall on Ren or Jotaro, to the former's resigned pleasure and the latter's seeming annoyance. Ren, when Nora hadn't been looking to get him off the cart to play some game or another, continued to show his diligence in his studies under Avdol, the fortune-teller doing what he could to prepare the young boy for the City of Vale before their expected arrival in the next two weeks.

The Crusaders were treated to a sign of Ren's progress when, out of the blue while they sat around eating breakfast, save for Polnareff who had excused himself to use the restroom, Ren suddenly spoke to Nora in a broken, but otherwise functional, use of the Post-War tongue.

"Oh, you know Ren, just trying to figure out how I like this crazy food!" Nora energetically waved her hands towards a stack of fluffed up pancakes before her, having ordered the dish on a whim when the group had stopped to eat at the hotel. "Plain is fine, but there's this stuff the menu calls syrup which is just great too! Then there's this white stuff, butter, it's so tasty!" For the long orphaned Nora, one of the best parts of traveling with the Stardust Crusaders was just all the different kinds of food she had been allowed to partake in as part of this journey. Having scrounged for bread and crumbs before and then having to steal dried meat and fish for herself and Ren during their own personal journey to Patch, the sweet tastes she had indulged in was, in her five year old mind, to die for.

So great was her excitement for the breakfast dish that she hadn't even noticed that it had been Ren who had spoken to her, much to the amusement of the other Stardust Crusaders. Soon enough, Nora's turquoise eyes blinked once, twice in surprise before she immediately swung over towards her best friend in the world and grasped him by the shoulders.

"OHMYGOSH, REN, DID YOU JUST TALK?! WITH WORDS?! THAT I COULD UNDERSTAND?!"

"Uuuh, yes? Yes!" The magenta eyed boy's gaze lost some of its own excitement as he saw the dawning look of pure awe and excitement overcome his best friend's expression, the girl practically vibrated in her seat as her smile stretched across her face.

"Oh Ren! This is the best day ever! From now on we can talk about anything and everything! Oh there's so many things I wanted to ask you but I couldn't understand you and you couldn't understand me but now that isn't a problem because we can actually talk with each other and oh we'll just talk about everything won't we Ren, we'll talk about food and how awesome its been traveling together, even the really crummy parts like the Atlesian ships or walking all the way from the village to the coast back in Mistral, but it wasn't crummy because I didn't enjoy your company because even though I didn't-" This run on sentence continued for a solid five minutes as Nora babbled on and on, the girl's pitch increasing in squeakiness and volume as she just talked and talked and talked, her excitement clear. Ren had long since lost the script and failed to keep up with Nora's ramblings with his very much novice understanding of the language, while the other Crusaders just laughed at the two's antics. Save for Jotaro, who-

"NORA, HE CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU WHEN YOU TALK LIKE THAT, SO SHUT UP AND STOP BEING ANNOYING!"

Nora, rather than pay Jotaro much of any mind, just turned to blow a raspberry towards the older teen. Though Nora had come to find that Jotaro was… weird and not so much of a jerk as first thought, especially after he had helped save her and the others three times now, the five year old still hadn't appreciated his jerkish tendencies. Meanwhile, Nora just smiled and giggled in excitement as she kept a grip on Ren's shoulders, though she had stopped with her babbling, which earned Jotaro an appreciative nod from Ren.

"Ren has made some very good progress so far, but he still has a long way to go. Thankfully he's quite bright and still very young, so he should be able to pick up the tongue rather easily from here on." Avdol said this slowly, his intention for Ren to understand him as well clear as the young boy nodded in appreciation, while Nora nodded far more vigorously.

"Thank you Avdol!"

"Thank you."

Avdol merely shook his head and waved the two children off as he smiled. "I'm a teacher through and through. It pleases me to be able to pass on wisdom to others, even if this wisdom is more practical than spiritual." The Vacuoan born man smiled at the two children as they nodded, while the rest of the Crusaders just continued to eat their breakfast.

Despite the gravity of their mission and the dangers they still had yet to face, the Crusaders were, in that moment, very much at peace. They had overcome numerous challenges, bested a good handful of Dio's assailants and had managed to impart some wisdom and safety to two children that, when all were being honest, had grown on the group of men. Nora and Ren, who had each either lost everything they'd ever known or had never known anything to lose, found that in each other's company and in the company of the five strange men whose boat they had stowed away on, they could put some of that horrible past behind them.

It was with this mind that Ren, after Nora had let him go, turned to the four men before him and genuinely, warmly smiled.

"Thank you, everyone. I, we, Nora and me, are thankful." The gesture was backed up by a warm, incredibly giddy smile from Nora as, for a moment, everything for the Stardust Crusaders seemed at peace.

This peace had not been made to last, however, as Polnareff stormed into the dining hall from the bathroom, a look of murder in his eyes.

* * *

The Next Day

The truth was, they had all been worried about Polnareff.

Even after all he'd said, even after the way he had just up and abandoned the six of them, they couldn't help but worry after their flamboyant companion. While the silver-haired young man was a more distant friend to Ren than Avdol or Joseph had proven, Nora had taken a shine to his stories. To say nothing of the other Crusaders whom had been traveling with the lilting man ever since they had left the Outskirts. The mood at the table for dinner that night was reserved and quiet, a dour, dark atmosphere having settled over the band of Stand Users and their guests.

On the morning of the next day, they had decided they were all going to split up and go look for Polnareff before he could get himself killed by J. Geil and his Stand. Jotaro and Nora, Joseph, Kakyoin and Avdol and Ren would all go off in their own directions in search of Polnareff and whoever found him first would try to talk some sense into him before the others arrived to, if necessary, bring their wayward friend back into the group however they needed to.

When Jotaro, Nora and Joseph had arrived on the scene where the murmurs of crowds had told them many of their compatriots had gathered, they had hoped for a lot of things and, given the description of a man called Hol Horse and his mysterious gun, expected a fight.

None had dared to prepare themselves for the sight of Avdol's corpse.

A stunned silence had overtaken the three of them as Nora's turquoise eyes went wide, her hands placed over her mouth as tears threatened to stream down her face, all the while Jotaro and Joseph just stared on, their expressions unreadable and their eyes shadowed over.

"Joseph... Jotaro… Nora…" The three's head snapped over to one of the side alleys as, to their surprise, Ren stumbled out, tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as well as the three rushed to meet the young boy. Despite the state he was in and despite his inexperience with the language, Ren was able to communicate the basics of what he had seen: how Avdol had stowed him away when he had seen the presence of the enemy Stand Users, how he'd rushed in to save Polnareff from a lethal shot from a Stand called 'The Emperor'.

How Avdol had been stabbed in the back before Hol Horse's bullet had struck him in the head.

Kakyoin had already been here and ran off with Polnareff, which drew The Hanged Man and Hol Horse after them as well. All that was left was Ren and Avdol and the young boy had decided, then and there, that'd he'd wait for the others to ensure Avdol wouldn't be taken away.

The four gathered around Avdol's corpse and Nora, unable to even look at the… at one of the men who had helped save her and Ren, turned her gaze up to Jotaro.

Nora had thought she'd seen Jotaro so angry before, to the point of fury. Whenever she did something to annoy him, to make him mad, he'd shout at her, roar in that overwhelming voice of his, and berate her. It made him come off as such a jerk, even when at other times he'd let her hold his hand or shadow his moves. For the five year old, it had been a mystery as to how someone who you made so angry and act like such a jerk could still treat you with some kindness. Though Nora, still, hadn't found it in her young mind to completely fathom it, at that moment the sight of Jotaro had sparked some manner of understanding in her mind.

Jotaro may have been annoyed before and he may have lashed out, but he was never actually angry with her.

This Jotaro, however? This Jotaro was beyond angry or mad. He was furious. The delinquent had bent down and gingerly picked up Avdol's blood-soaked headband and, with a growl that rumbled deep in his chest, tightened his fist around it.

This Jotaro wouldn't be content to just shout and then go back to his usual, quiet demeanor. This was a Jotaro who was out for blood.

And, as she looked down at Avdol, one of the men who had so helped her and her best friend, even the young Nora felt like she could understand that.

As she dared to take a chance, Nora reached up and wrapped a tiny hand around Jotaro's. The delinquent flinched for a moment, his sharp gaze turned on her and made her shrink back slightly, though she hadn't pulled away. However, in the end the teen had allowed it as he turned his gaze back to their fallen comrade.

Eventually, Joseph Joestar suddenly quirked an eyebrow as he narrowed his gaze. He bent down onto a knee and pressed his right hand to Avdol's neck. The old man's eyes went wide as he immediately pressed his ear to Avdol's chest.

"Oh my God! Avdol's still alive!"

Immediately, the three younger travelers were upon Avdol and Joseph, three pairs of eyes wide in surprise as they took a closer look at the fallen fortune-teller's body. Indeed, when they got right up on him, they had been able to make it out, if barely; the slight movements under his eyelids, the erratic, short motions of his chest. Jotaro, in disbelief, reached forward with Avdol's headband and, gently, dabbed at the wound on his forehead.

Before blood once again covered the spot, the four were treated to an unexpected sight. Rather than the hole they had expected to see from Ren's attempted retelling, they found a groove that had run vertically up Avdol's forehead.

"Holy shit… Avdol must've ducked back at the last minute. The bullet only grazed him rather than punching straight through." Joseph looked over to Jotaro with an urgent expression on his face. "He's lost a lot of blood! We need to get him to a hospital as quickly as possible, but also carefully to keep him from losing more. Jotaro, grab his legs, I'll grab his shoulders. Nora, Ren, held keep his body steady, okay?"

Without even a moment's hesitation, the three had nodded and moved right to their posts: Nora and Ren on either side of Avdol's body as they kept it steady, Jotaro carefully placed Avdol's legs underneath his arms while Jotaro carefully cradled the Vacuoan man's shoulder and back wound as he lifted him up.

Many five year olds would've been freaked out by the mere sight of a close friend's blood, much less being expected to be covered in it while you helped carry him to a hospital. However, for the pair who had witnessed the destruction of Kuroyuri, whom had suffered through a solid month of hard journeying on their own and whom had been exposed to all the strange, bizarre and horrible specters of the Crusaders' journey, they were resolute. They could help save Avdol if they were brave and stuck to it.

As the four slowly trundled off to a nearby hospital, with the assistance of passersby and good samaritans, that's exactly what they accomplished.

* * *

"Avdol's gonna be okay! Avdol's gonna be okay! Avdol's gonna be-"

"NORA, WE HEARD YOU THE FIRST SEVERAL DOZEN TIMES, ENOUGH!"

Joseph shook his head as did Ren, the pair having looked relieved, if drained, as they watched Nora excitedly dance about while Jotaro trudged along after them. After they had seen to it that Avdol would be taken care of Nora had been going on in such a manner for several minutes, the girl's mirth and excitement over the turn of events had bubbled over. Though the four had still felt some shock at the close call, the fact that the situation had worked out, that the Stardust Crusaders had once again pulled through such a harrowing scenario without a loss, left them in a far better place than before.

One that had allowed for Jotaro to withdraw back into his more stoic, if annoyed, attitude. The orange haired girl whirled around and stared after Jotaro, her eyebrows knit together in focus as her lips curled into a slight frown. Jotaro flinched slightly, the young man having had expected Nora's usual, childish antics.

"Hmmm… Okay!" Instead, turquoise eyes lit up as the girl just continued to dance about, though this time without the incessant shouting that had grated on Jotaro's nerves. The teen scoffed slightly as he tucked his hat down. "Oh, I can't wait… Polnareff and Kakyoin are going to be so relieved when they hear that Avdol's okay!" Nora chirped as they continued on, to which Jotaro and Ren offered a nod of agreement. Their pace stopped when they noticed that Joseph himself had ceased moving, the elder Joestar carefully cradled his chin in his right hand as he scratched at his beard.

"What's wrong now, old man?" Joseph hummed to himself at Jotaro's question, as the old man just looked up to his grandson.

"Kakyoin's a smart kid, and even under stressful situations he's always had a clear head. Even if he had thought that Avdol had been killed by the enemy, I doubt he'd miss the signs that Avdol was still alive if they were right in front of him." Jotaro flinched slightly at Joseph's words as Nora and Ren tilted their heads to the side, curious. The older Joestar scratched the back of his head as he looked off into the distance. "I have to wonder if Kakyoin actually thought Avdol was dead at that moment."

Confused looks were abound as Joseph said this as Ren, even with his still novice understanding, had been able to string enough of the sentences together to get a basic idea.

"What exactly are you saying, you geezer?" It was clear that Jotaro was agitated by this line of thought, so Joseph, as ever, paid the teen's attitude little mind as he continued.

"Polnareff's reckless actions, his pride and bravado had nearly cost Avdol his life at that moment. To be kind, Polnareff seems like the sort who needs a rather… hard kick to the head if he's ever going to learn anything. I think that's something we can all agree on, right?" There was a slight hesitation among the three, before they relented and nodded in agreement. Polnareff was a good man and pleasant company, but Brothers above, the man could be stubborn to a fault, something he had demonstrated the day before in spades.

"If I know Kakyoin half as well as I think I do, I think he may have kept Avdol's survival away from Polnareff."

"What, why?" This time, it had been Nora who had fired off against Joseph, as the old man raised his hands to placate the young girl.

"Polnareff needed to learn a lesson about how abandoning his partners in favor of running off on his own could endanger not just his life, but ours. Kakyoin may have figured that doing so, while perhaps cruel in the short term, would be enough of a shock to get through to Polnareff and make him see reason." Nora and the others flinched as Joseph laid this out, unable to challenge him even as he continued. "In addition, think of this: Avdol is very vulnerable right now. He's going to be laid up for a little while now, even with all the advantages of modern medicine at his disposal. We can't afford to wait for him to recover so after we deal with J. Geil and Hol Horse, we'll need to get on a move on."

"So what, we just leave Avdol here and just keep going to Vacuo, you shitty old man?" Jotaro had walked up to Joseph and jabbed a finger in his grandfather's chest, clearly displeased with the idea, even as Joseph sighed.

"I know, I know. It doesn't sound pleasant and I don't like it much more than you do. However, do keep in mind that Avdol knows these lands far better than we ever will and has his own networks of contacts that he can take advantage of to catch up with us. We don't have the luxury of time to wait; lives are at stake, Jotaro." His grandson flinched as Joseph threw this back in his face, as Nora just frowned after the two of them.

"But, if Avdol's left on his own, wouldn't he be in danger, old guy?" Joseph smiled slightly at Nora as he pointed to his head.

"I think that's the other reason Kakyoin didn't say anything about Avdol in front of Polnareff or Hol Horse; as far as anyone connected to our enemies may be concerned, Avdol is dead. The one man among us who might most easily blab about this thinks he's dead too, on top of that. For right now, I can trade for Avdol to be treated at the hospital to ensure a speedy recovery, while we continue on our way to Vale." Joseph grinned slightly as he tapped the side of his head. "When we were planning this trip out, Avdol had pointed out that the island he grew up on was just off the coast of Vacuo proper, and that should we lose track of anyone or get separated, that it'd be a natural meeting up point. We can look to meet him there and then continue on in full force from there."

Joseph's expression became serious as he looked at the three of them, his gaze hardened. "However, all of this rests on the four of us being able to keep up with Kakyoin's act. If any of us spills the beans on this or otherwise blabs, then Avdol will be at risk." Joseph smiled apologetically to Jotaro, Nora and Ren. "It's a lot to ask, but you three are going to need to keep Polnareff in the dark on this and keep quiet about this entire affair. Do you understand?"

Jotaro and Ren took relatively little time between the two of them. The young boy, respectful of his elders and somewhat wise beyond his own years already, merely nodded his ascent. Jotaro, on the other hand, seemed deeply conflicted about the entire affair before he finally relented with a scowl and a kick to the dirt. The affair hadn't sat well with him, but he'd seen the reason in it.

Nora, with a frown on her face, looked up to the old man with a slightly hurt expression to her face.

"It just seems really mean though… Polnareff's gonna be really hurt. It doesn't seem right to just leave him like that." Nora said with as mall shake of her head, as Joseph just sighed and, with an old, tired smile, knelt down to Nora's level.

"Trust me on this one Nora: men like Polnareff, men who're proud and stubborn to the point where they can't see past their own egos… sometimes, it takes a shock like this to put things into perspective for them. This is something important that Polnareff needs to handle; he needs to realize that he can, and should, rely on us instead of storming off by himself and letting his foolish pride dictate his actions. Believe me, this might seem cruel, but considering everything will turn out right by the end, it'll be for the best. Some men aren't so lucky when they're learning this lesson." A deeply regretful look passed over Joseph's face as he said this. "Brothers above know that I wish I had this sort of good fortune a long time ago." The sheer sadness that had filled Joseph's voice caused Nora to flinch, before she frowned even more as she shook her head.

"That's dumb though. That should be something people should know already! Ren and I-"

"You two are very special kids." Joseph smiled as he rubbed Nora's head, which caused a frustrated flush to come to her cheeks. "Went through some sh… stuff together and you all suffered through it long enough to trudge across most of Remnant and run into us. I understand that you two probably get this point more than a lot of people, but… not everyone learns this lesson quite so young, and people should hope they shouldn't have to." Joseph smiled as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Think of it like this; by the end of this, Polnareff will be able to rely on us just as well as you and Ren rely on each other. Don't you think that'd be worth it?" A wily grin crossed Joseph's face as Nora thought for a moment. The orange haired girl turned her head back to face Ren, the magenta eyed boy smiled warmly at her as he just nodded his head after her. After a brief moment, Nora sighed and turned to face Joseph, a smile on her little face.

"I guess I'll try my best…" Once again, Joseph's big old hand came down and ruffled her mop of orange hair.

"Atta girl. Let's go see if we can find Kakyoin and Polnareff then. Hopefully they've already cleaned up the trash." Joseph walked ahead and reached down to pat Ren by the shoulder and lead the young boy on. "Now, I'm not nearly the polyglot Avdol is, but I'm sure I can manage to pick up where he left off. If he knew I'd let you fall through on getting you ready to hit Vale, he'd probably curse me from his hospital bed." The old man gave a wry laugh as he trudged forward, his spirits renewed by the good turn of fortune the group of five had been granted.

Indeed, even as Nora and Jotaro shared a brief look, one that had shown their misgivings, they nodded and followed after. The Stardust Crusaders and their charges had suffered through much these past two days: two of their friends and allies had nearly either died or run off, yet now, it seemed that there was path forward for them all, for things to return, if not exactly to how they were before, to at least some even ground.

It was this day among so many of the days that Ren and Nora had spent with the Crusaders that had instilled in them the values of partnership and trust, one that had been forged in fire between Nora and Ren in Kuroyuri, between the Crusaders themselves throughout their journey and now, between the five Stand Users and the two children.

Yet, their journey was still not yet complete. Many dangers still awaited the group, even reforged as they were in their trials. The path to Vale was open, but fraught with peril and it seemed unlikely that the city itself would offer much safe haven from Dio and his minions.

Yet, together again, the group of Stand Users and their charges would march forward, ready to meet these challenges and more head on.

With a short stop for Joseph Joestar to handle The Empress, of course.

 **-To Be Continued- Great School Days (Act 4)**

* * *

 **A/N: So, before we get into today's topic itself, a quick note on the chapter. As you might've gathered from the last A/N, this little snippet of the story's background, character development and lore wasn't originally part of the Great School Days Arc, as I outlined it. In fact, it didn't exist up until Volume 4 opened up the possibilities for me to explore it, Nora's, Ren's and Jotaro's characters at this point. So I didn't get the time to really super hard-core outline just how long this was going to be. As you can judge from the ending of this chapter, the next chapter is going to pick up roughly where this left off, with another skip. It's funny: originally, Great School Days was going to be the first 2 Act Arc, to break from the previous 3 Act arcs that had been the norm so far. Now, thanks to Vol. 4, it's going to end up being the 1st 4+ Act arc, which I hadn't expected to hit up until The Breach. Funny how things work out.**

 **Oh and before any reviews about the battles: they happen mostly as they did in canon as Ren and Nora, being so young and inexperienced, don't really change anything. I'd be bored writing them again because I'd be treading over old ground, you'd be bored reading them because they'd be treading over old ground and they'd be a waste of space.**

 **Seriously, one of my little annoyances is when authors just completely reuse canon material without changing it. It's why I ended up skipping most of the giant robot encounter during the end of Welcome to Vale. I don't want to use old ground to just pad out the chapter.**

 **That being said, that doesn't mean there won't be a fight (or fights) in these. Just that they'll have been non-canon to the original Stardust Crusaders.**

 **Now then: I love the JoJos. All of them. They're a great set of characters with each of their own strengths and weaknesses and I think they're all pretty great. I might have my favorites, but in the end, I can't bring myself to dislike any of them. Even Jonathan, as simple as he is, is too much of a pure cinnamon bun for me to dislike.**

 **All of this includes the sometimes maligned Kujo Jotaro, who can be given a hard time by the fandom because most people find him to just be this simple, stoic badass who has very little character and doesn't really emote much. Well, all I can say is get on my level. Jotaro might not have the most flashy or flamboyant personalities of the JoJos or even wear his emotions on his sleeves (often) but the guy does have his own complexities as a character. Despite being a self-declared punk and delinquent, the guy has a strong sense of justice and even has a rather soft side to him that peaks through here and there. One of the things I actually like about the runaway girl, up until she become some random fawning girl for Jotaro, was how Jotaro interacted with her in the episodes and chapters after Strength and the encounter with Forever.**

 **The behavior ends up stacking up with other ways in which Jotaro acts through the series: the guy can be surprisingly gentle when you aren't bugging the ever loving shit out of him. Let's his mom kiss his cheek, asks after her health, buys a little kid some sweets and lets her hold his hand in Singapore, doesn't immediately shove Josuke's mom off of him when she's pulling off the grieving, lonely woman episode (one of my favorite comedic moments in Diamond is Not Crash), is actually a pretty legit mentor for Koichi and honestly, in his own Jotaro-ish way, seems torn up that his relationship with his daughter ended up the way it did because of how he was trying to protect her and his wife from his life as a Joestar descendant. Even when Jotaro calls him mom a bitch or yells at girls, that's hardly the angriest we've ever seen this particular JoJo.**

 **And when we see him that angry, it's hardly the roaring, annoyed, shouting Kujo Jotaro. This is just pure, angry, I'm going to kill you Kujo Jotaro. He's put upon in the other cases, sure, but he's never, seemingly, legit pissed off.**

 **All this occurs consistently enough that it seems pretty clear that Araki was trying to give us this identity of a guy who tried to act big and tough for whatever reason (hey, it was the 80s, rebellion was big at the time) but that, at heart, he was a good guy with a pretty solid sense of justice who just happened to be pretty rough around the edges. Hell, the more time he spends with the other Crusaders, the more we see this dynamic take place. Over time we see him refer to Joseph less and less insultingly (i.e., geezer or some variant) and more as just 'old man', which he'd carry on into his adult years.**

 **This, along with Nora's and Ren's backstory in this fic and Iggy's place in the universe now that the Speedwagon Foundation isn't a thing in RBA, are things, characterizations and themes I wanted to explore. For Jotaro, I think it's key for establishing that the Jotaro who might seem overly soft compared to his canon counterpart is merely just given 'better' circumstances and that we can see shadows of this characterization throughout the series. We'll continue to see how the Crusaders impacted Ren and Nora next chapter and we'll also delve into everyone's rapidly art-style shifting dog as well.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all in five days.**


	11. Great School Days (Act 4)

Mountain Glenn, The Kingdom of Vale, Two Weeks Later

"How much longer to Mountain Glenn, old man?"

"Not too much longer now. According to Avdol, it should've been a few minutes ahead of us."

The Crusaders and company had traversed the mountainous terrain that surrounded the City of Vale slowly but surely over the course of their travels. The terrain surrounding Vale is what had made it such a natural fortress and what made the city itself so secure against the Grimm that surrounded them. Protected on one side by the ocean, on another by mountains that scaled hundreds, if not thousands, of feet towards the sky and by the Forever Fall Forest on another, it was as if nature herself had grown around the valley that Vale had been founded in to protect the great city. A fact that had lent itself to the name of the city, and the nation, in the first place.

While this was good for the city itself, it had made travel to the city from any of its outlying settlements a bother. The only way to do so for many of the smaller villages that made up the Kingdom of Vale was by water and, for the other Kingdoms, ocean-going or sky-faring travel were the preferred methods.

For the Crusaders however, who had needed to travel to Vale without the presence of a great number of civilians, they had to challenge Vale's great, mountainous terrain. Now, after so many weeks and after a momentary pause to deal with one Wheel of Fortune and his master ZZ, the Crusaders had found themselves on the precipice of the gate of the City of Vale: Mountain Glenn.

"Now here's what I don't understand, Mr. Joestar; why would you and Avdol have charted out a journey that passed through Mountain Glenn of all places? I've heard the place was a ghost town now a days and pretty much abandoned." Polnareff brushed some hair behind his ear as he spoke, the silver-haired man uncomfortable, even now, speaking of the old fortune-teller.

As Joseph hefted Ren up a large break in the rocks, he just turned and nodded at Polnareff. "It's true, the surface city itself has been abandoned for a while now. However, Avdol had heard through his contacts that the citizens had moved underground into the cavern system beneath the settlement. There should be trains that lead directly into Vale from there and, if we're lucky, we can quickly hitch a ride on one of those without running into anymore of Dio's minions."

"Using the city's natural borders to defend themselves against the Grimm. Quite intelligent." Kakyoin muttered to himself with approval, as Joseph just nodded.

"Yeah; while they have the mountains on one side, hence the name, Mountain Glenn didn't have the same sheer number of natural boundaries afforded to Vale. The Grimm were able to pour in through the other sides. That the citizens were willing to give up some ground to get to safer footing shows a good deal of dedication on their part." The group of six all grinned to varying degrees as they nodded in agreement, as Nora just hoisted herself up a steep incline.

"I'm just looking forward to getting there. We'll be so close to Vale then! We'll have almost made it!" Nora's giddiness knew few bounds as the girl practically bounced in place. Jotaro reached forward and stopped her though, a gruff scoff accompanied the gesture as he pointed out the treacherous terrain. "Oops, sorry."

" **Yare yare daze** … once we get to Vale, we'll be able to drop you brats off at some place in the city too. You'll be safe then and be able to do whatever it is you've got yourselves set on doing in the first place."

Ren and Nora paused a bit as Jotaro said this, a gesture momentarily followed up by the other Crusaders, before they all continued along. They had time to think on that later, when they were safe, or mostly safe, in the walls of Vale. For now, they had just a little ways to go before they reached the city of Mountain Glenn. As they walked, a curious thing happened: a thick fog had begun to roll into the mountain pass they traversed through, so thick in fact that Jotaro reached into one of his coat pockets to pull out a lighter, to try to give them some vision amidst the mist.

"Wow it got hard to see all a sudden." Nora whined slightly as she looked around, the others each carefully nodded their assent as the Stand Users of the group readied themselves.

"Keep your eyes open. I don't want to say anything for sure but, after what we've been through, I'd bet my last Lien that this could be the work of one of Dio's agents." Nora and Ren nodded in agreement with Joseph as they, with the rest of the Crusaders, kept their eyes peeled. After all the strange things the two had seen, very few things could spook or surprise them anymore: the idea of a semblance that could somehow manipulate mist was no longer even remotely an odd idea in their minds. To Nora, it even sounded positively drab in comparison to some of the other semblances they'd seen.

After a few more minutes march, the Crusaders exited the mountain pass and found themselves over a precipice that slowly but surely curved its way down to a valley. In that valley were several buildings, each blanketed by the thick mists they had run into prior. In those mists, however, was something none had expected to see.

People. The Stardust Crusaders had run into the remains and, seemingly, the citizens of the surface city of Mountain Glenn.

* * *

Hours Later

"... There's no one down there. Looks like they've been dead for a long, long time."

Mountain Glenn was a graveyard, this much the Crusaders and their charges had become certain of. When Enya had been defeated by Jotaro, her Stand Justice inhaled by Star Platinum, the fog and mist had slowly given way to the sunlight. When the sun had cleared the thick and obscuring fog, the Crusaders had been met with a gruesome sight.

Bodies. Hundreds of them, if not thousands, all in various states of decay. Justice had disguised this fact with its Stand Power, disguised the damage wrought by the Grimm and time with its ability. Yet now, without it, it was clear as crystal that they now stood in the middle of what may as well have been a mass grave. In worry for them, most of the Crusaders had turned to shield Ren and Nora's gaze from the carnage, from the sight of so much death and destruction.

What they found had perhaps been even more disheartening. Though Nora looked heartbroken at the sight and Ren was saddened, neither child acted in the way one would expect a pair of five year olds who had been exposed to carnage on such a mass level. In the end, it made a sick sort of sense. After all, after Kuroyuri why should Mountain Glenn have shocked them to their core. They'd already been exposed to the devastation that could be wrought by the Grimm first hand.

Yet despite this as they searched the town for an entrance to the underground tunnels beneath the city, Nora seemed troubled afterward, deep in thought as she looked around the remains of the city. Ren's ability had come in handy as well, as it had a few other times in the journey of the Stardust Crusaders; they had been able to surpass Grimm in the area with relatively little concern for their own well-being. Though the kids may have slowed them down in other ways, in this way, they were a boon; if they had to fight every Grimm they came across on their journey, the trip to Vale would have surely taken a good deal more time.

Finally, Joseph had found a way in using Hermit Purple, the Stand having given them a map of the city and a path to the underground settlement.

Perhaps they should've been surprised when what they had found was not the bustling remains of the Mountain Glenn colony, but a tomb. However, after everything the six had seen that day they could no longer feel surprised. Just drained and sad, having seen the failure of such an expedition. It hit very close to home for the three Frontier Huntsmen, as Morioh often found itself on the precipice of becoming Mountain Glenn many times in its history and, for Polnareff, it was another reminder of how tenuous the situation for the Four Kingdoms were. For Ren and Nora, it was yet another evil to chalk up to the Grimm, another horrid act to blame the monstrous beings for.

And yet…

"Old guy…" Nora muttered, breaking the silence that had set in after the Crusaders had decided to hoof it the day or so to The City of Vale. Joseph turned his head to look at the orange-haired girl, as her turquoise eyes looked up to his and, seemingly, begged for an answer. "That… that witch, that woman… how could she do something like that?" Nora pointed to Enya, who had been restrained and carried by various members of the Crusaders on a rotating shift. "How could she just go into a place like that, where people suffered so much and just… treat them all like they were puppets? If she had been in Kuroyuri, she would've…" Nora chanced a glance over to Ren, the young boy's thoughts already having gone to where Nora's had.

If Enya had been in Kuroyuri, she would've made his parent's bodies dance to her whim. The thought disgusted the young boy and Ren, on some level, was grateful that Nora, together with him for such a short time that had yet felt so long now, had understood that.

"Why would someone do that?" Nora asked again, as her mind whirred. Nora understood the Grimm: they were monsters, beasts and demons, only capable of killing. She had seen enough of that in Kuroyuri. The previous semblance users of Dio that they had encountered, while some would shock Nora and disgust her, hadn't been monstrous on a level like the Grimm. She could have coped with and understood their horribleness.

This, this just seemed…

"There are a lot of different kinds of evil, Nora." To the shock of all, it hadn't been Joseph Joestar who had spoken up. As they turned their gaze forward, they found Jotaro, back turned to them, as he adjusted his cap slightly. "The Grimm are evil because they know nothing but carnage. They have no mind for anything but other people's destruction. Their evil is simple, it's dumb and it boils down to their nature. Then there's the evil we do because we can't see far ahead, because we're bastards… like me." Jotaro scoffed slightly as he shook his head, his other hand tightened into a fist.

"Then… there's true evil. The kind of evil who'll use anything; the innocent, decency and the sacred for their own gains, and then crush it all underfoot once they're through. It doesn't care for anything but its own wants and needs, and it'll damn anything and anyone else to pursue its own selfish hunger." Jotaro turned to face Nora and, for once, the young girl was stunned into silence by Jotaro. Not because he was mad at her, not because he shouted, but through the look in his eye.

The intensity, the passion, the sense of justice.

"That's why we've left our homes, that's why we, as hunters, are here now." Jotaro scowled as he turned back forward. "Because innocent lives have been put under threat to feed into an evil bastard's ego. Because when I find him… I'm going to kick his ass."

It wasn't an if, it wasn't a maybe. It was a certainty. Despite how many times Jotaro had saved her life before, how many great feats he and his semblance Star Platinum had accomplished, Nora had never figured Jotaro for someone heroic.

In that moment, with those words however, she did. In that moment, a spark lit inside Nora, and slowly, a flame was born.

She didn't smile, but her eyes shined as she nodded in understanding as she quickly moved forward, her hand grasped around Ren's which pulled him forward, as she fell in behind Jotaro. The other crusaders smiled after the sight, before they too followed Jotaro forward.

* * *

The City of Vale, Two Days Later

"Jotaro! Hehehahahahahahaha!"

Jotaro scowled as the piece of shit that called itself a human being cackled behind him, as the delinquent turned his eyes to look at the newest of Dio's agents. Their arrival in Vale itself had held great promise when they had made it just the day before. Dirty, tired and still worn out from their experiences in Mountain Glenn and the mountains, the Crusaders had been met with the grand City of Vale. For most of them ,it had been the first time they had seen it in their lives and their reactions had shown it. Nora, Ren and Kakyoin had stared on at the great city with a sense of wonder and amazement clear on their faces and even the normally stoic Jotaro had come away from the sight of the capital of the Kingdom of Vale with a dumbstruck look to his face. For Joseph, it had been something he had looked forward to seeing ever since they had started this journey: he had wanted to see to it that his grandson and charge had gotten to experience what he had when he first traveled away from Morioh so many years ago and, to say the very least, he had been satisfied.

For Polnareff, he was just amused by the frontiersmen and children's reactions to a city that, though he had never spent a great deal of time in it, he had seen enough to make it a common, if still impressive, sight.

As soon as they set foot in the city the plan was set: Joseph and Polnareff would immediately get to work on securing a flight on an airship to Vacuo, preferably one that was private, pump Enya for information via Hermit Purple and scan the City of Vale for an orphanage or some form of housing that would take Nora and Ren in and take care of them until they were old enough to have decided what to do for themselves. Jotaro, Kakyoin and the two children, however, would be free to spend their time however they wished. They were new to the city of Vale and deserved as many opportunities to take in the sights and sounds of the city, which for Nora and Ren would be their home for a long, long time.

Or at least, that had been the plan, up until the arrival of one Steely Dan.

In short order, Steely Dan had proceeded to take their plans and upend them almost entirely. Enya was dead, claimed by a brain parasite whose growth had been expedited by Steely Dan's Stand, Lovers. As if it hadn't been enough that Steely Dan had kept them from Enya's knowledge of Dio and his newly acquired Stand Power, the weaselly bastard had revealed yet another card up his sleeve: he had taken Joseph effectively hostage by doing the same to him, having implanted a parasite into the Leader of The Frontier's head and had set his Stand to propagating it. In addition, any damage that was inflicted on Steely Dan would be replicated ten-fold onto Joseph, which effectively held the old man hostage.

What had Steely Dan sought to do with this advantage? Had he tried to force the Crusaders to surrender? Had he attempted to make them turn themselves over or some other act to ensure Dio's victory.

No. He used it to humiliate Jotaro. He had made him bow and bend to his every whim, to beat and humiliate him at every turn he could. All the while he cackled over how he'd thrown Enya to the side and how he had been in the process of murdering Joseph slowly but surely, with Jotaro having been unable to do anything lest he hurt his grandfather.

For Nora, who had followed along behind Jotaro to make sure he'd be fine, it had made her blood boil. It went beyond mere manipulation, beyond simple bullying and humiliation. This man had held Jotaro's family hostage, held his grandfather's life in his hands and then proceeded to use it as he saw fit, ready at any moment to do away with it should he get bored.

It had been a crystallizing moment for the young girl: where she could see, first hand, what Jotaro had meant about true evil. It had also been endlessly frustrating for her to watch Jotaro be so ready to leave this guy alone, to just let him walk away, when they had finally somehow gotten the upper-hand over him.

Yet now that his eyes locked with her's, Nora realized; she had been spotted.

"You fool! Take a look at your little friend over there! My Stand, Lovers, just went into her ear! It's heading for her brain!" Nora flinched back as Steely Dan loudly proclaimed his victory, knife in hand as Jotaro stared on ahead. Nora, a fearful look in her eyes, chanced a glance over to Jotaro, and feared what frustration and anger she might see in his eyes. Yet, Jotaro looked at her with his stoic expression, an even look to his face as his green eyes took her in. The delinquent merely turned his shoulder slightly towards Steely Dan, which caused the knife-wielding bastard to flinch.

"Don't you dare move, Jotaro!" Once more Steely Dan cackled as he slowly rose to his feet, the knife gripped firmly in his hands as he stumbled towards Jotaro. "I just gotta stab you in the back. I'll make sure you never move again!" Steely dan pointed the knife to himself as a wide, sadistic grin crossed his features. "Don't even think about attacking me with Star Platinum. The girl would surely die, and you'd never kill an innocent child, would you?"

Jotaro stood still, for only a moment, before Nora watched as he closed his eyes and sighed.

" **Yare yare da** … Fine, go ahead."

"Hey!" Steely Dan flinched as Jotaro turned to face him, the confidence he had shown with Jotaro's back to him melted away as he held the knife forward. "Don't you get it, I told you not to… to… move…" Turquoise eyes blinked in surprise, to match the expression that overcame Steely Dan's visage as the man seemingly struggled with nothing, his body not moving an inch.

"What's wrong? I thought you were going to stab me. Like this…" Jotaro stepped forward and, in one fluid motion, grabbed Steely Dan by the wrist and forced him to stab himself in the face with his own knife.

"AAAHH! I can't move! Why!?"

"You didn't notice? Kakyoin tied Hierophant's tentacle to your Stand as it escaped. You must be pretty fucking stupid if you didn't realize it was leaving a trail all the way here." Nora's eyes lit up as she stepped out from the alley she had partially hidden herself behind, the five year old's heart soared as she slowly watched Steely Dan's demeanor crumble. The man fell to his knees immediately as he once again resumed pleading with Jotaro.

"P-Please, forgive meeee!"

"You should've asked Enya if you wanted forgiveness. Forgiving you never even crossed my mind." Jotaro ran his forefinger across the rim of his cap as he spoke. Jotaro turned his head over to Nora as he spoke, a his stoic expression meeting her increasingly excited one. "Brat. What do you think would help make us even?"

She had witnessed all the humiliation Steely Dan had put him through, all the insults and physical injuries. She was angry, livid with Steely Dan and ready to see this evil jerk, this scum, get what he deserved. Yet still, Nora was but a five year old who had little in the way of creativity for violence.

So, she had kept it short, simple and to the point.

"BREAK HIS LEGS JOTARO!"

With that, Jotaro turned his gaze back towards Steely Dan, as he approached the dirtball Stand User who only continued to cower.

"L-Listen… D-Dio paid me in advance… You can have it all if you just let me leave…"

" **Yare yare…** you really are just fucking scum…" Jotaro tilted his cap down over his eyes as he stood over Steely Dan, an edge to his voice that Nora had only rarely heard before.

"The debt you owe can't be repaid with money!"

For twenty seconds, Nora watched as Star Platinum beat the ever loving shit out of Steely Dan. She had seen these displays of strength and speed before, but this time, having watched as Dan took advantage of anyone and everyone around him, seeing the extents he would go to in order to have his way… it felt satisfying. Gutturally, viscerally satisfying in a way her young mind couldn't quite put to words yet. However, it was a feeling she'd carry with her for a long time after she'd seen it. Beating up bad guys, breaking their legs, it was a good thing.

However, all good things come to an end and, at the end of that twenty seconds, Steely Dan had been sent flying through the nearest as Jotaro tore a page out of his little black book and dramatically tossed it into the air. After a moment, Jotaro turned on his heel and walked back to Nora, the orange haired girl tensed as she expected the reprimand, the argument over how she'd followed him.

"Let's get back to the others, brat." Instead, Jotaro just walked by her, her turquoise eyes blinked in surprise as she turned back to face Jotaro. After a few seconds, Nora grinned and quickly ran after the delinquent.

"Okay!"

* * *

The Next Day

" **[STAR PLATINUM]**!"

" **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORAAA**!"

Jotaro was up against the wall, having been thrown into it just a moment before by the swipe of the beast's claw right in front of him. Within moments, the beast gave away to a torrent of sand and dirt and flew for him, seeking to break him between the solid wall behind him and the force of its body thrown against him. After he had regained his bearings, Jotaro had summoned forth his Stand and set to beating the flood of sand away from him though, in an almost ironic turn of phrase, it had done Jotaro about as much good as pounding sand.

Though Enya was now dead, with Steely Dan defeated the Stardust Crusaders had just moved on to the rest of their plans. Joseph and Polnareff scoured the city and airports for housing for the children and a private ride for the Crusaders respectively, while Jotaro, Kakyoin, Ren and Nora had played tourist in the city. It hadn't taken long for Joseph and Polnareff to find some housing for Nora and Ren, however, what had proved far more difficult was the ride. With the Vytal Festival going on, airships were busy going to and fro the various kingdoms, looking to carry as many passengers as possible in order to make as much money off the event as possible. In a repeat of the problem the Crusaders faced in Patch, there were no captains willing to take them directly to Vacuo, or one of its coastal villages, in a private flight.

Joseph had been intent on at least trying to 'convince' one pilot out of the many to give them a private flight, to avoid the possibility of Dio's agents boarding the ship as best as possible. However, it was decided that if, after a couple days, this still failed then they'd have to take the risk and board one of the commercial flights.

This left the Crusaders with, at most, a couple days left to spend in Vale. One that the younger of the group had taken advantage of as best they could. After a few hours of playing tourist in their group Kakyoin had decided to grab a book from a little shop simply called 'Tukson's Book Trade' and then return to the hotel; while he was quite excited to see as much of Vale as possible, the past several days had been an exhausting affair and he sought to spend some time just relaxing before they continued their journey to Vacuo.

For Ren and Nora, two Aura awakened children, exhaustion might as well have not been in their vocabulary. Jotaro, on the other hand, had just decided to stick around to keep an eye on them and, to a lesser degree, he'd insist, to take in even more sights of the city that he'd only ever read about, especially the flying stadium that had come to Vale for the Vytal Festival that they had all heard so much about.

Not all was well with the City of Vale, however, as the Crusaders had heard rumors of some beast roaming the streets of the city. A great monster, standing at nearly a story high, that thrashed any hunter that came for it and constantly eluded the grips of the Vale City Police all without having left a trace. Most passed off the rumor as merely that, a story, though the Stardust Crusaders knew better; this beast, whatever it was, could have very likely been a Stand with its master in the employ of Dio.

The rumor was on Jotaro's mind as, after he sent Nora and Ren off to buy something from a corner store while he finally had a smoke to himself, he noticed something in a nearby alley. A little black and white dog, a toy breed by the looks of it, with its back to the alley's entrance, faced up against a group of much larger, fiercer looking breeds. Despite this, the little dog stood its ground, growling and snarling as it did so.

Jotaro wasn't much of an animal person, Hell, he wasn't even a people person, so he figured he'd leave it be and wait for the little dog to just run off once it figured out how badly outmatched it was.

Then the dirt that layered the streets of Vale began to rise up into the air behind the little dog. Sand and salt blown up from the dockyard and beaches of Vale, dirt and pollen blown in by the winds and just plain old filth and run-off from the city all came together and coagulated into this… thing.

Vaguely dog-shaped, with its hind legs replaced by car tires and its lower body basically being the rear half of a black automobile. The front paws, while definitely dog-shaped, had electrical wires, red and blue, running along their length. The face was odd: black holes for the eyes surrounded by metal frames, and a mouth that vaguely looked like a beak, with the top of its head being covered in a mane of feathers. All put together, the thing's head looked like some kind of weird, old civilization mask.

"What… the… fuck?" Jotaro dropped his cigarette onto the ground as, suddenly, the bigger dogs from before had run away, their tails tucked between their legs. There wasn't any doubt in Jotaro's mind that this thing, whatever the hell it was supposed to be, was a Stand, freaky as it was.

The little dog's ears perked up at Jotaro's exclamation as it turned to finally face him, a snarl still on its muzzle as it stared him down, the gigantic beast now positioned behind it and facing the delinquent. Even the dog's face was weird, much like it's Stand: if Jotaro had to put his finger on an apt description, he'd say the dog's face looked vaguely humanoid, just with a muzzle and some dog ears.

"I suppose it'd figure that after running into that fucking orangutan that a weird mutt would also end up being one of the enemy Stand Users." Jotaro growled in slight frustrated as he stamped out his cigarette and made his way towards the little dog. Sounds of cheering and applause could be heard on the wind coming from the giant floating stadium: most of Vale was either indoors watching the Vytal Festival on their televisions or were at the stadium itself, watching the proceedings. The streets were silent, save for Jotaro and the dog.

The little dog, at first confused that the human wasn't running away, snarled again as its beast raised its front-most, right paw into the air.

'Must be one of those weird, stronger ones. I'll still brush it off and get it to buzz off…' The dog thought to itself as it prepared to brush the human aside.

" **ORA**!"

Or at least, that was the dog's idea until Star Platinum appeared and struck at the dog's Stand's paw, blowing it apart in a shower of dirt, dust and sand. The dog recoiled slightly as it and its Stand hopped back, taken aback by the display of strength as the Stand's from paw reassembled. Both Stand Users now stared each other down, Star Platinum and Jotaro versus what would later be known as The Fool and its dog Stand User. For Jotaro, the display by The Fool, while interesting, gave it the appearance of a paper tiger. After all, if Star Platinum could blow it apart with something so simple as a single punch, then the fight might as well have been his.

Cut to the present with Jotaro's back to the wall, and the delinquent cursed at how utterly mistaken he had been. Yes, Star Platinum was capable of blowing The Fool apart, but that was about all it was capable of doing. The Fool's form, malleable and vulnerable to brute force, gave it a maneuverability that Jotaro hadn't expected. Able to mesh and meld around Star Platinum's faster than sound punches with ease even as the great Stand punched at it, The Fool had managed to threaten Jotaro himself numerous times during the battle, which had forced both Stand and Stand Master on the defensive.

' **Yare yare daze** …' Jotaro shook the dust and sand off his person as he took stock of the situation. In all reality, this Stand wasn't all too different from Enya's Judgement, in that it had very little to no physical form that he could assault effectively. In addition, it seems like no matter what he tried, no amount of damage he was inflicting on The Fool was doing any damage to the dog in question; either the Stand itself was somewhere inside The Fool's sand form and with enough punching he could get to it or, worse yet, there was no way for him to hurt the dog through the Stand, and he'd have to get the dog within Star Platinum's range of it in order to actually do anything.

To that end, there was some reason for the delinquent to hope; the dog had stayed incredibly close to its Stand the entire fight, which had to have meant that the Stand's range was about as short as Star Platinum's. If he could get in close to it, then he might have seen about either punching the shit out of this dog or capturing it somehow.

'Only problem... ' Jotaro scowled in thought as he watched Star Platinum barely keep back the rush of dirt and sand, '-even if this Stand's range is short, it's able to extend itself slightly through the sand and dirt it's able to control and shift with. The reach might not be too much greater, but it is greater than Star Platinum's. Even if I were somehow able to get around the Stand, with how mobile it is, it'd be able to slip back into place to guard its master even if I act quickly.' Jotaro readjusted the rim of his cap as he watched Star Platinum continue its punch rush. 'What a pain in the ass…'

For the dog in question, it had faced similar worries. This human was the first of any kind that it had seen with an ability similar to its own The Fool. Even though he had been able to force him on the defensive, the dog was amazed and frustrated beyond belief to find that he wasn't able to crack the human's defenses. No matter where he threw The Fool or what shape he had it take, the blue and purple form of this human's ability was able to punch The Fool so quickly and with such force that its form was instantly dissipated and turned into a cloud of sand. It could reform itself as quickly as the human's Stand could break it down, but therein lay the problem.

Jotaro looked off to the side and noticed something; an overturned trashcan, tossed to the side with its lid by his feet thanks to the ongoing chaotic energy of the fight. Jotaro's eyes carefully glanced towards the walls of the alley and, with a nod, Jotaro bent down and picked up the bin's lid.

"Star Platinum!" The Stand nodded as, with a final rush of punches, it blew The Fool's entire upper body apart in a rapid flurry. While The Fool busied itself with reforming its shape, Star Platinum reached back and took the lid into its hands. With The Fool's form blown apart for the moment, the Stand had a clear line of sight at the dog, who just gaped at the sudden show of power displayed by the Stand.

" **ORA**!" Like a Mistrali sports star, Star Platinum gripped the trash lid like a discus, and reared its body back, its eyes trained on the dog's form. The dog, as it realized what the human and his Stand had planned, bent itself down on all fours in preparation to leap, confident that it could jump away from the enemy and his little Frisbee with all the grace of a… well, cat, but less mangy than a cat.

With a mighty toss, Star Platinum threw the the lid. However, against the expectations of the dog, the blue and purple Stand had thrown the trash can lid diagonally and down from Star Platinum's position. The lid bounced off the wall and, much to the dog's surprise, came at it from the side. With a yelp, the dog quickly jumped up and away, barely able to avoid the trash can lid; it had expected the attack to come from right in front of it and had positioned itself as such. The forced change in direction had caused the dog to throw itself into the air haphazardly, more reflex than graceful maneuver, which had put the dog into an awkward, hanging position in the air, rather than the short leap it had intended.

"STAR FINGER!" Star Platinum quickly pointed its right hand forward and, as if by magic, its fore and middle fingers immediately shot forward, the dog yelping in surprise as it was struck by the attack. To keep itself from dissipating by leaving the dog's range, The Fool was forced to back off of Jotaro to try and rejoin its Stand Master.

" **ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA**!" However, as it tried to move back and away it was harried by Star Platinum at every step, a rain of fists pounding down onto The Fool as it attempted to reach back to its owner. Jotaro, with a firm nod at the outcome of his makeshift plan, rushed forward and to the side, the delinquent jumped up and kicked off the wall of the alley to maneuver himself around The Fool's still bulky form, as Star Platinum covered his movements . As the dog recovered from its hit, it saw Jotaro rush forward towards him as the delinquent removed his coat and held it open. The dog's eyes widened: the human intended to catch him in its coat and then do who knows what to it.

There was nowhere for the dog to run, as quickly as Jotaro approached, so it went with a desperate gamble: the dog rushed forward and jumped straight at Jotaro, the move shocked the delinquent as the little dog jumped with enough force to have easily reached Jotaro's face. Jotaro sputtered and cursed as the dog tore at his hair and the front of his cap with his teeth, his little paws scratching and batting at his face as he struggled against his head. With enough force, Jotaro managed to forcibly toss the tiny dog off his head, several scratches marked his face as Jotaro glared at the small dog. The dog in question looked like it was grinning, of all things, as Jotaro noticed a shadow had cast itself over him.

"Shit…" A glance told Jotaro everything he needed to know: The Fool had once again forced Star Platinum on the defensive as the dirt and sand Stand had slowly but surely spread itself out, Star Platinum's fists simply flew straight through its form as the Stand now appeared to try and envelope Jotaro and his Stand. Before Jotaro could step back towards the dog, The Fool allowed the upper half of its body to break apart and collapse upon being struck by Star Platinum, as the sand Stand rushed forward and placed its two halves on either side of Jotaro, effectively having surrounded him.

"You little…" The dog's barking could be heard, sounding uncomfortably like smug laughter, as Star Platinum sped around and around Jotaro in an attempt to keep The Fool off of his master. The dog itself was quite satisfied; it couldn't overpower this human by keeping The Fool collected into a single mass but, by using the time it had bought distracting the human, it had managed to spread out The Fool just enough where the sand and dirt displaced by the human's Stand's punches wouldn't disrupt The Fool's movements as harshly. Now, slowly but surely, the dog had willed his Stand to reform itself around Jotaro and his Stand, the ring of dirt and sand slowly conforming around the two even as Star Platinum furiously punched and kicked away at the Stand.

Jotaro attempted to use Star Platinum to jump up and over the enemy Stand but had soon found that the sand and dirt would rise up from its formation and strike him back down into its center, before it continued to try and crush him between its two halves. Jotaro, in a moment of desperation, had Star Platinum position itself just behind him and point towards the dog.

"Star Finger!" One more, the fore and middle finger of Star Platinum shot forward towards the dog who jumped back from the Stand's attack. Though Jotaro had hoped that the move would force the dog out of the range of its own Stand and thus dissipate it, or at least, its control over the sand, the delinquent was in for a surprise. With Star Platinum on the dog's side of the sand, the half that had faced the back of the alley rushed forward in an attempt to keep within range of its master. The dog smirked, of all things, as Jotaro's maneuver had only succeeded in causing the delinquent to be hit by a rushing tide of sand, knocking it into Star Platinum and the other half of The Fool.

'This human, he's trouble. That thing of his is strong, but nowhere near as strong as The Fool.' The dog thought to itself as the sand slowly constricted around Jotaro and Star Platinum, the latter doing what it could to keep its master and itself from being crushed, even as Jotaro gasped for breath under the pressure. 'I don't want to kill him, that kind of stuff really isn't my style. Plus, if people start dropping, then other humans might start to come by and try to find me. If I just suffocate him a bit, that should buy me enough time to get out of here and back to my little corner of Vale with my bitches.' A firm nod of his head accompanied this thought as the dog directed his Stand to begin constricting Jotaro even more. 'Okay, a one and a two…' As all this went on, the dog failed to notice the light footsteps that came towards the opening of the alleyway or the shadow that slowly fell upon him.

Meanwhile, Jotaro was in a bind; his back was to Star Platinum who itself was busy, one hand at the sandy neck of The Fool to keep its head from Jotaro's and its other pressed forward into the mass of sand as it sloppily punched away at it in an attempt to keep the dirt and sand from its master's body. Despite these efforts, Jotaro's breathing was labored as the pressure of The Fool fell more and more heavily upon him. His mind raced and, despite himself, his increasingly oxygen starved mind could only think of one last attempt at using the Star Finger to try and either knock out or otherwise injure the dog to get this Stand off of him.

Suddenly though, The Fool stopped. The pressure it had exerted didn't cease, but it no longer attempted to crush him further. In fact, if Jotaro had to describe its movements, the Stand seemed to waver, its attention drawn between Jotaro and his Stand and something else. Before Jotaro could even ponder the possibility, he heard it. Loud and at such a high pitch, it made Jotaro's ears ring as it echoed throughout the alleyway.

"OH MY GOD, A PUPPY!"

"AAAARF!"

Jotaro turned his head slightly to see Nora and Ren, the latter's magenta eyes wide as he took in the state Jotaro was in while the former had reached forward, wrapped her arms around the dog and crushed it to her chest. She nuzzled the top of the dog's head with hers as she hugged it and the little dog, well, to say it had thrown a bit of a fit was a bit of an understatement.

'Oh dammit, what is this!? Where did this fuckin' kid come from? Why the Hell is she so freakishly strong?!' The dog thought to himself as he struggled, in vain, to release itself from Nora's grasp. As it shook around and pawed at her arms and kicked against her, Nora lifted him up, her hands grasped under his forelegs, as she turned him to look at her.

"Oh my gosh! Ren, I'm gonna die! Just look at his face! He looks like people! He's so adorable! Yes you are, who's an adorable little doggie? YOU ARE!" The orange haired terror proceeded to pull the dog back in towards her, by this point the little human-looking mongrel ground his teeth together as he was getting quickly sick of this kid's attentions.

'Okay, that's it, I'm done. I gotta get out of here and away from these people. I'll call The Fool back, scare these kids off and then goooooooooooooooh my God…" The dog paused its struggles as Nora's forefinger started to scratch behind his right ear, the dog's face frozen in a state of forced shock as it continued to grind its teeth together.

"Oh, does a little man like to have his ears scratched? I think he does!" Nora just grinned as he put her free hand to work scratching behind both the dog's ears, as the dog's body went stock stiff and its eyes slowly went bloodshot.

'Oooh… oooh no… that feels… that feels so… NO! FIGHT THE INSTINCT! I am not some fucking house dog! I run these streets! I got bitches lined up for days! I… I… Oh wow… this feels…"' The dog's eyes widened in horror as it glanced down at its right leg, which had begun to twitch. 'Don't you betray me, this doesn't feel that good, this doesn't feel…'

The dog's back leg kicked and scratched at his side and, by the point, it was all over.

'Aaawww yeah… I'm weak… I'm so weak but I don't care. This feels so damned good. This kid knows how to pet a dog.' Slowly but surely, stress and contempt melted away on the dog's face and was replaced by a content look as its leg just kept on kicking. Soon enough, the sand and dirt around Jotaro stopped its constriction and fell away into a normal pile of dust. As the delinquent took deep, harsh breaths in order to stave off the black that had gathered at the corners of his vision, Nora kept on pouring attention onto the dog, as she reached over into the bag she and Ren had brought from the corner store.

"Here ya go puppers, Ren and I bought some treats from the store for all of us. I don't know what kind of snacks dogs like, but I figure we've got something in here you'll like." Nora smiled as she pulled something out of the bag, though that smile soon melted away into a confused frown as she saw what she had tugged out. "Coffee flavored gum? Ren, why'd we even buy this?"

"You just pulled it off the shelf at random Nora… but I don't think that's really what's important right-"

"Oh right, thanks Ren! I just got so excited because this is our first for real day in the city that doesn't involve some crazy Stand thing and I wanted to try out something new and exciting, but I didn't realize I picked out this… whatever it is. Have you even heard of coffee before Ren, cause I-" Nora blinked in surprise when she found the dog hunched forward in her grasp, as it gave a few curious sniffs of the stick of gum before it started to drool. "You wanna try it boy?" Nora used her teeth to tear off the wrapping for the dog before she handed it off, the dog snapped it up in its mouth as it chewed experimentally on it… before the dog practically melted into her grip.

'Ooooh my God… this is amazing.' The dog let out a content little bark as Nora set back to petting it just behind the ear, the dog's eyes practically rolled into the back of its head. 'Is this what dog heaven is like?' The dog chewed on the stick of gum as Nora just giggled, before Ren eventually slapped his forehead.

"Nora!" As Ren caught her attention he pointed forward toward Jotaro who had slowly worked his way out of the pile of dirt and sand, a confused and weirded out expression on his face as he looked at the sight of Nora casually petting the dog that had just nearly suffocated him.

"Oh hey Jotaro, what are you doing playing in the dirt?" Nora thought for a moment. "... Actually that sounds like fun! Why didn't you invite us Jotaro!?"

" **Yare yare daze** …"

* * *

"What? So Iggy's got a semblance?! I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because that… nevermind." Nora shook off the memories of Forever once again as she had allowed Iggy to sit in her lap.

"Yeah, he is, that's why… wait, Iggy?" Jotaro blinked in confusion as he turned to look at Nora, the orange-haired girl just grinned as she nodded her head.

"Yep! Iggy! That's what I've named him! Great name, huh?" The dog, Iggy, groused a bit, clearly unhappy with the choice of name, though another stick of gum and further attention from Nora soon calmed him back down into his state of near catatonic bliss.

"... Nora, you aren't keeping a St-... semblance using dog. We have no idea if this dog's-"

"Iggy!"

"... If… Iggy, is one of Dio's agents or not." Though Iggy looked confused at the mention of 'Dio', Jotaro shook it off as he continued. "Plus, his semblance isn't anything to trifle with. It's dangerous." Iggy smirked at the delinquent as he said this and flashed a toothy, gum covered grin as it chewed on. "If we keep it around and it does turn on us, then it could seriously hurt you all before we can take care of it."

"B-But Jotaro." Nora's eyes shone with tears as she looked up to the seventeen year old huntsman, the girl carefully cradled Iggy to her chest as she did. "H-he's got my scent now. His mommy won't take him back! If we send him back home, he'll be all alone!"

"Nora, I wasn't thinking of…" Jotaro suddenly thought better of saying that he had planned to beat the dog into a pulp in front of Nora, especially with the look she had given him. The dog, too, seemed to realize Jotaro's intention as, quite suddenly, it dug did its best to bury itself into Nora.

'Fuck me, this guy really thinks I'm gonna kill them all. I mean, I totally could, but that isn't really my thing.' Iggy looked up to Nora, a sinister idea forming in his mind. 'Okay, so this kid's keen on me. Cute. I can use this, I hope… gotta go for as pathetic as possible.'

"Awooo~" Iggy whined slightly as he did his best to back away from Jotaro in Nora's grip, as the five year old realized what Jotaro had in mind.

"Jotaro! Don't be a jerk and beat up my dog! That's, like, the worst thing you can do is hurt a dog!" Nora glared up at Jotaro, the teen honestly flinched as he ground his teeth.

"Nora, the dog is-"

"Please Jotaro! I promise! I'll take good care of him! I'll take him for walks, I'll feed him, I'll give him gum and I'll always keep my eye on him. Pleaaase?!" Jotaro scowled slightly as Nora went full pathetic little girl on him, the delinquent looked over to Ren for some kind of support in dealing with his best friend. As soon as he did though, Nora turned her gaze on Ren and the magenta eyed boy went tense for a moment before he, suddenly, sighed and deflated.

"I'll help keep an eye on… Iggy, and tell you all if he tries anything Jotaro." Ren said, as Nora sent a bright, beaming smile her best friends way. Jotaro groused and ground his teeth together as he glared down at the dog, Iggy, in turn, looked back up to Jotaro, its gaze cautious and worried as the teen fought some sort of inner battle.

"... If it tries anything, I don't care if it is a dog, I'll beat it into a bloody pulp."

Despite the threat made against Iggy, Nora beamed a humongous smile Jotaro's way as she shot up to her feet, the move had elicited a yelp from Iggy from the sudden move as Nora jumped up and down.

"Thank you Jotaro, you won't regret it!" Jotaro scoffed at that, but turned his head away from the two as he nodded his head back toward the hotel.

"Come on, we might as well fill everyone else in on what happened." Nora and Ren nodded in agreement as they followed Jotaro back off towards the hotel, the entire time Iggy stewed slightly as he chewed on his increasingly flavorless wad of gum.

'Fuuuck me, this guy means business. If I start anything, it'll probably mean another fight with him. This time I won't have the element of surprise to help me out.' The dog hacked out the flavorless lump of gum as they walked, as Iggy just looked on at the back of Jotaro's head. 'I'll just wait till all these humans are asleep or something and then make my getaway. Clean, nothing to worry about. I'll have some of the other dogs keep an eye out for them so I can avoid them. Yeah, that's the plan.'

When Nora reached forward with another stick of that heavenly chewing gum, Iggy couldn't help but grin as he bit into it. 'Course, until then, I can just keep on enjoying this. Mmmm, good stuff.' Iggy kicked again as, between the gum and the fingers behind his ears, he was once again in pure bliss.

* * *

Two Days Later

Despite himself, for Iggy escape later that evening had turned into escape the next night, and escape the next night had turned into the night after. The dog had insisted, even if just to itself, that it was because the bratty girl, Nora, had held onto him far too tightly both those nights, her freakish strength having kept him from leaving, It was still in the cards that he'd get away from these humans and get back to his bitches and territory. Really.

While Iggy struggled between that and the attentions of the two children, Ren having warmed up to Iggy after Nora had demonstrated the effect the coffee-flavored gum could have in its demeanor, the adults had finally, in their own minds, run out of time to consider other options. In the two days they'd been in Vale, they couldn't arrange for a private flight out of the city and to Vacuo. It was impossible: with the Vytal Festival in full swing, there was too much traffic to and from the kingdom for any pilot, no matter how well they offered to pay, to give up on the sort of payday that the festival offered them if they stuck to their normal routines. The days were counting down and Dio awaited them in Vacuo; they had no more time to waste looking for rides out of the city.

Thus, the Crusaders decided that they'd take the risk of boarding a commercial airship to Vacuo: if one of Dio's agents happened to be aboard the flight, they'd deal with them as swiftly as possible and, hopefully, prevent any injuries, fatal or otherwise, from befalling the passengers. The Crusaders, steeled with resolved, settled in that night with two intentions: they'd leave Nora and Ren at a nearby orphanage that, word in the city had, was run well and would take good care of them and then pay a nice, large sum of Lien to get themselves some seats on one of the next flights out of Vale and heading to Vacuo.

That morning, the group had arrived at Nora and Ren's destination; The Vale City House for Displaced Youths. Specifically set up for children orphaned by Grimm attacks or otherwise left abandoned by the various ills that afflicted the world of Remnant, it seems a natural place to leave Nora and Ren. They'd be taken care of up until they were either considered adults by the city or until they had chosen some career path that would take care of them. It was a stop gap, there to just take care of them until they were old enough to do so themselves. For the Crusaders, it was the responsible thing to do.

Still, that wasn't to say the little blighters hadn't grown on them.

"So.. this is it then, huh?"

"Yeah, looks like it."

Nora and Ren stood opposite the group of four men, Iggy standing beside Nora's feet as he watched on disinterestedly. He had gathered that the adult humans were going off somewhere and leaving the squirts behind. It was perfect: soon as they were gone, he was out of there... after another stick of gum. Nora frowned deeply as she looked at the group of hunters while Ren, sad too, looked far more appreciative and happy, as he bowed his head slightly.

"We can't thank you all enough. You've done so much for us… you all have treated us so kindly even if we couldn't offer much in return…" Polnareff scoffed at the overly polite boy's words as the silver-haired man waved him off.

"Please, like we need to be thanked for this. We aren't heartless, after all, and it was on the way." The lilting accented man gave the two kids a wink as he tilted his head to the side. "'Sides, you kids weren't so bad. Road'll be a little too quiet without you guys in tow, I think." He offered with a slight shrug, as everyone else just grinned at the man's tone.

"Polnareff is right. We couldn't very well call ourselves huntsmen if we left those displaced by the Grimm out on their own, even if one of them happened to have a very interesting semblance." Joseph gave a rough chuckle as he looked down at the two. "My grandfather would've been rolling in his grave if we had left you kids out on the road to yourselves, after all." Jotaro scoffed slightly but otherwise didn't speak up, as Joseph just chuckled to himself.

"You two be sure to be on your best behavior, alright? This will be your home for a while now, so there's no sense in making trouble for them. They'll be taking good care of you." Kakyoin offered with a slight tilt of his head, as Nora and Ren just nodded slowly. The groups turned to look at Jotaro, whose hat just stayed shadowed over his eyes as he shrugged his shoulders.

"You brats take care of yourselves." It was short and simple, but hardly anyone expected much more from the reserved teen. As Jotaro said this and prepared to turn on his heel, Nora finally snapped her head up and stepped forward.

"Take us with you!" Turquoise eyes glistened as Nora shouted, the little five year old doing her best to stand tall and proud to the four huntsmen, who just regarded her with mixtures of amusement and sadness. "I know we haven't been able to do much before, but Ren and I… we'll change that! Ren's semblance is helpful, like you said, and, and we can find something to do to help! I'm getting stronger, and so is Ren, we can take care of ourselves from now on! Please, just let us come with you!"

Joseph sighed as he shook his head. "Nora, listen, we-"

"Alright." Everyone was surprised when Jotaro spoke up, as the teen walked up to stand in front of a very surprised Nora. "You want to come, we'll let you… under one condition." Jotaro pointed a finger towards his stomach, a serious look on his face as he stared Nora right in the eyes. "Punch me as hard as you can right here. If you make me flinch, we'll let you come along. If you can't, then you stay here. Do you understand?" Nora's shock gave way to a fierce look of determination as the five year old nodded. The other Crusaders stood back, curious looks on their faces, as Nora reared her fist back and, with all the strength her little body and Aura could muster, swung right for Jotaro's core.

He didn't even grunt. Even as she looked up to check his reaction, Nora knew what she would find; Jotaro, staring impassively back at her, as he shook his head.

"... Just give us a little more time. We can get stronger…" Nora whined slightly as she cast her eyes down. The orange haired girl stumbled back in surprise as Jotaro reached a hand down and rustled her hair.

"You will. But not fast enough. Not this time." Jotaro readjusted his cap up, as he cast his gaze down at her. "We have our mission and now that we've done our part in getting you two here, we can't wait any longer."

"It's going to be dangerous though..."

"Mmm, even more so than before. That's why you aren't coming." Jotaro turned on his heel and walked back to the other Crusaders, which left Nora staring at the ground, a frustrated look on her face.

"Wait!" Jotaro scowled a bit as he turned his head though, to his surprise and everyone else's, Nora had just run back, picked Iggy up off the ground, and presented the dog to the group of Crusaders. "Take Iggy with you."

'WHAT?!' The dog immediately thrashed around struggled about as best he could in the girl's grip, as his very human like features widened in shock and surprise. ' Like Hell I'm going with them, I've wasted enough of my time as it is. Shit, I should've known that they'd try to get me roped up into something weird! I gotta get out of here, I gotta-'

Iggy was surprised when instead of being forced into any of the adult's grip, Nora set him down on the ground and turned him to face her, wide, turquoise eyes glistening with tears as she placed her hands in front of her face in a begging posture.

"Please Iggy? These guys… they've done so much for Ren and I! So much that we could never pay them back for! They're going off and… and I want to know they'll be okay. If you go and help, then everything will turn out alright. Jotaro said you're strong, and if he thinks that, then you have to be! So please, go and protect them for Ren and me, please?"

Iggy flinched at the desperate tone in the kid's voice and in the shine to her eyes as she sat there and pleaded with him, the dog's jaw opening and closing several times as it shook its head.

'No, this is ridiculous! If it's as dangerous as these clowns have been saying, then I'm going to be in danger too! I'm not going to go off and risk my life just cause some little girl with the best petting skills this side of Vale asked me too.' Iggy hesitated for a moment though, as a thought crept up. 'Then again… there was that one bitch that I think I knocked up… maybe leaving wouldn't be such a bad idea…' Iggy slapped a paw to his face as he shook his head again. 'What the Hell am I thinking, no, there's absolutely no way I'll do it!'

Then Nora reached back into one of her pants pockets and pulled it out; a full pack of the coffee-flavored chewing gum that Iggy had come to know and adore. Unbidden, his mouth started to water as his blue eyes bore down on it. His distraction was Nora's benefit, as the five year old reached forward and once again scratched that damnable spot behind his ears.

"Please Iggy... they're… they're our friends. They're the only ones besides Ren who've ever done anything for me, and... If something happened… I just wouldn't be able to stand it." This time there were no puppy dog eyes. Just streams of tears that ran down Nora's face as she begged the little dog in front of her.

Iggy put up his best effort. He well and truly did. However, after a moment of all this, it wasn't the petting that got him and, while he would insist to the end of his days to any dog that'd ask that it was the chewing gum, that wasn't it either.

Iggy just sighed and, shook his head slightly.

'God dammit… I just can't say no to a kid who treats dogs so well.' Resigned and frustrated, Iggy reached forward and grabbed the package of gum from Nora's fingers by his teeth, as the dog turned in place to face the Stardust Crusaders. He stiffened slightly when Nora reached forward and hugged him, the girl nuzzling the little dog as she did.

"Thank you Iggy! I'll miss you too!" Iggy growled and kicked some dirt from the ground back at Nora halfheartedly. When Nora let go, Iggy walked on over to the Stardust Crusaders and barked at them, waving the package of gum at one of them. Joseph was the one to respond immediately, as the old man, surprised as anyone, reached down and opened up one of the wads of gum for the dog.

Nora stood up, wiped the tears from her eyes and rejoined Ren. Ren reached forward and pat a reassuring hand on Nora's shoulder as he saw the terribly sad and disheartened look on his best friend's face. Nora smiled at Ren, as, slowly, Ren watched as Nora built up the bravest face she could as she turned back to the Stardust Crusaders.

"Okay Jotaro! Fine! We'll stay here while you all go and run off! But you'd better believe we're not going to forget all this!" The little girl did her best to puff herself up. "When Ren and I get old enough, we're going to become Hunters!" The Stardust Crusaders were all taken aback by the declaration, though Nora kept right on going. "We're going to make sure that no one else ends up like the two of us! We're going to get even stronger and… and we're going to break all the legs of every single bad guy and Grimm out there! Then we're going to find you… AND I'M GOING TO PUNCH YOU SO HARD IN THE GUT, YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND UP STRAIGHT AGAIN!" Nora declared as loudly as she could, which drew the attention of numerous people to the small meet up.

Jotaro, as ever, just shook his head.

" **Yare yare daze** … until then, brat. You take care of yourself too, Ren." Ren actually chuckled as Jotaro directly addressed him, as the pair waved off after the Stardust Crusaders. The group of four men, plus one dog, walked off into the distance, as Joseph just grinned to himself, a wily chuckle escaped his throat as he turned to his grandson.

"I don't think they'll see if you go ahead and start cradling that bruise there, Jotaro." Joseph barely stifled his laughter as he watched Jotaro wince, a hand going to the point where Nora had punched him. "Brothers help you if you three ever meet again Jotaro. I think she might actually live up to her promise." Kakyoin shook his head at his leader's well meaning taunts, as he just looked forward.

"As unlikely as that is. Once this is all over, most of us are heading back to the Frontier. Its unlikely we'll ever see the two of them again." Kakyoin said, slightly wistfully, while Polnareff stayed noticeably quiet to their side, the flamboyant, silver haired man barely withholding his own emotions as he kept a grin on his face. Joseph smiled at Kakyoin's words as the old man turned his head, his eyes fell upon Amity Colosseum, and a wry grin formed on his lips.

"Who knows Kakyoin. When we defeat Dio… well, I have a feeling the future's gonna be bright." Joseph chuckled as he placed his own, wide-brimmed hat on his head, which left the other Crusaders confused as they walked off.

* * *

"That was the last time we saw any of them for the longest time. When we got old enough, we'd go visit the CCTS and try to look up their names in the registry, but we never found anything. Anyone we ever told about their semblances waved us off as having been far too young to know what we saw or as just being kids with wild imaginations. After a while… well I guess the best way to put it is that I moved on. Nora'd bring them up from time to time, but I, and sorry about this Nora, figured it was Nora exaggerating some episode from our childhood."

"S'okay Ren, you never really made me feel bad about it."

"Still, I should've had more faith in you. Instead I decided I'd believe everyone else but you. I guess I've got some egg on my face now." Ren sighed as he and Nora finished jointly telling the story, as students rushed about the room gathering or eating their dinner, classes having ended not too long ago. "That's it, I guess."

"So you guys really escaped Kuroyuri on your own?"

"You actually went through all that stuff?"

"You… actually almost got molested by an orangutan?"

Teams RBWY, JNPR and JOJO had gathered around the table to listen in, through Team JOJO seemed a little less interested in the story itself as they had already heard it numerous times from Jotaro or had it passed to them through the Morioh grapevine. In fact, the three teen huntsmen almost appeared… uncomfortable as they ate their dinner, as Koichi in particular had cast his gaze about anywhere but Ren and Nora.

"Yup, we did and… yeah, still have nightmares about that one." Nora's left eye twitched as the long buried memories surfaced again for the second time that day, as Weiss Schnee just looked at the pair of them long and hard.

"... Everything about you two suddenly makes so much sense…" The Schnee heiress muttered to herself as she shook her head, while Nora just snorted.

"Weiss, come on,when did Ren and I ever not make sense?" Teams RWBY and half of JNPR coughed awkwardly into their fists as they cast their gazes to the side, as Ren and Nora just turned their heads towards Team JOJO.

"You all looked pretty familiar with your uniforms when you first arrived, but it was really only when we saw The Hand that a lot of stuff snapped into place for us. I guess this explains why we could never find any of the others in the CCTS." Josuke just nodded somewhat awkwardly as he scratched his cheek.

"Y-Yeah, Morioh isn't exactly on the grid and Polnareff, well, given his role for the Frontier as someone who gathered information, he never particularly liked being on it." Okuyasu and Koichi both nodded their assent as Ren and Nora's eyes lit up at the mention of the silver haired huntsmen.

"Oh, you guys know Polnareff! That's great! How is he? In fact, how's everyone?" Nora asked excitedly, as she leaned forward over her dinner, as Okuyasu just uncomfortably scratched the back of his head.

"Well… Polnareff's doing alright. He doesn't come by the Frontier often, but when he does it looks like he's doing well. He's pretty cool. Uuuh…. Mr. Joestar's still the leader of The Frontier, but he's gettin' really old now." Josuke seemed even more uncomfortable when Joseph was brought up, while Nora nodded excitedly. Even Ren, usually drowsy at this time of day, seemed to be fully awake and attentive.

"I guess that's to be expected. Mr. Joestar was already pretty grey when Nora and I met him and them."

"Yeah, but it's good to hear he's still kicking." Nora smiled as she clapped her hands. "But yeah, what about everyone else? How's Kakyoin doing? He still doing the whole cool and quiet thing with Jotaro?"

Team RWBY, Jaune and Pyrrha all turned their heads to listen; the story Ren and Nora had told had been captivating and actually quite nice to hear. That these five men had made such an impact on their friend's lives, had ensured their safe travel to Vale on top of that, had warmed them considerably to the Stardust Crusaders. They were just as interested in what had happened to the group after their mission.

Those looks of amusement and cheer slowly died as the two Four Kingdom teams took in the looks on Team JOJO's faces. Grim, downcast and doing whatever they could to not look Ren and Nora in the eyes.

Even without saying it, their body language, their expressions, told everyone all they needed to know. Ren and Nora immediately frowned, as Nora's turquoise eyes went wide.

"O-Oh… oh… w-well I mean, I guess we shouldn't be surprised, right? I mean, they said it'd be dangerous…" The girl bit her knuckle slightly, as Ren leaned forward.

"What about Avdol? We never heard anything from him afterward, and... " As Ren finished his sentence and Team JOJO remained silent, realization struck. Magenta eyes dulled a bit as he leaned back in his chair, though the hits would just keep on coming.

"Iggy?"

"We're really sorry… we wish we could give you some better news but... " Koichi looked legitimately distraught as he looked at the two of them, the boy heartbroken to see how hard all this had hit both Ren and Nora.

"Him too huh…" Nora bit her lip slightly as her orange bangs fell over her eyes, a slightly rattled breath left her as she shook Ren by the shoulder. "Ren… Jotaro said he wanted to meet us after classes… let's go, o-okay?" Ren looked over at his best friend, a sad look on his face as he nodded understandingly.

"Okay Nora…" Ren looked out at the rest of the table as he and Nora stood up. "We'll see you guys later, okay?" The rest of the table just nodded dumbly as they watched Ren and Nora leave, the most shocking thing of all having been the largely untouched plate Nora had left behind in her wake. The teams of huntsmen and huntresses all just sat there, quiet for a moment, as Ruby turned to look at Team JOJO.

"If the other three are still alive… then that has to mean they didn't die for nothing, right?" Ruby asked, voice quivering as her silver eyes glistened, as Josuke quickly nodded his head to reassure his first Four Kingdom friend.

"Mmmm. The Stardust Crusaders succeeded in their mission. Iggy and Avdol sacrificed themselves to save Polnareff's life while Kakyoin died having secured important information about… Dio's Stand."

"Who is this Dio guy anyway? Why was he such a big deal?" Yang was surprised when, in response to such a simple question, she watched as all three Frontier huntsmen stiffened practically in unison, as if her just saying his name could've summoned the guy.

"It's… a long story, one that I don't think we should share quite yet. Suffice it to say, Dio's… Dio's a sore point for the Frontier and its history. His defeat was a big reason to celebrate, and it's why the Stardust Crusaders are remembered almost as fondly as the Founders." Okuyasu and Koichi nodded their agreement with Josuke's sentiment, as the rest of the table went silent for a moment.

"Sooo… Josuke." Blake spoke up next, as the black-haired faunus sought a change in topic from the rather grim ones they had tripped into one after the other. "You got carted off to the infirmary so soon after sparring class and you didn't come back for a while. How'd that go?" Josuke, seemingly grateful for the change in topic, grinned as he let loose a breath of relief.

"Really well actually. It was nice to do something I'm pretty familiar with: back home in Morioh, whenever I'd get back from an assignment or just had time in my day I'd stop by the hospital to check to see if anyone needed fixing up. Lots of people are up and walking around right now." At that moment, a girl a few tables away waved at Josuke, and a vague 'Thank you' could be heard over the murmur of the dining hall.

"Wow, that's some Stand you got… bet you feel pretty good about it." Jaune remarked, as Josuke nodded again. Though Josuke did wince slightly, which beckoned curious gazes from the others.

"Yeah… but I couldn't exactly fix everyone. There was this girl they had in there, hooked up to a lot of machinery. Apparently she was torn up pretty badly sometime ago, and she's been in critical condition ever since. Crazy Diamond was able to fix her up, but… well, she's not responding too much."

"I thought you said Crazy Diamond could fix anything… beside yourself." Weiss added the correction at the end, all the while Josuke shrugged.

"It can… anything physical, that is." Josuke leaned forward, a frown on his face. "Wounds to the mind or soul however… Crazy Diamond can't really fix that. The girl's alive, and she's not gonna die at any second, but it's going to take a lot more than what Crazy Diamond can offer to fix her up."

"Still, she's alive, right? That's a start. Shouldn't sell yourself short if you saved someone's life, Josuke." Ruby said with an adorable chirp as she dug back into her food, an appreciative glance from the pompadoured teen her reward for her kind words.

"Thanks Ruby, and I suppose it is at that." Josuke dug back into his food, while Yang just grinned.

"So, when're you gonna get paid for replacing the medical staff, Nurse Higashikata?" Josuke snorted a bit, a few errant chuckles escaping his lips as the rest of the table laughed.

"Well, Headmaster Ozpin insisted that for my services that I'd be paid. I don't really see the point but, he insisted. Said that he'll get the money to me along with the next stipend payment, so I guess I'll see it then?" Josuke shrugged, as did the rest of the table.

"Well, I'd say everyone wins out in the end. You'll fix up just about any physical trauma Beacon students or transfers suffer and you'll earn a little bit of money for your good work. I think it sounds wonderful." Pyrrha offered with a slight smile, as Josuke and the others nodded in agreement and resumed their comfortable chatter, the three teams bonding slowly but surely.

* * *

Frontier History Classroom, Meanwhile

The sound of the door as it cracked open is what drew Jotaro from cleaning up the desk for the end of the day. As he turned to look, he found a sight that was different, yet familiar: a mop of orange hair, silky black hair, turquoise and magenta eyes. The former Stardust Crusader heaved a small breath as he set some papers aside and walked to the front of the desk.

"I had expected you a bit sooner, but I suppose you all had to run off to dinner huh?" He was met with a nod from Nora and Ren, and not the burst of exuberant energy that he had expected. Jotaro arched an eyebrow as he approached the two teens and took them in. Jotaro may not have had the greatest memory of anyone in the Frontier, but still, his mind couldn't help but pick out the little things about the two that were different.

When they met face to face Jotaro was surprised when, out of nowhere, Nora reached forward her arms wide. The taller man rolled his eyes, fully expecting some kind of hug from the energetic girl. When instead he got a hard punch to the gut, one that knocked the wind out of him, he bent over and saw Nora's face clearly: a smile, wide across her face, but one whose inherent joy was marred by tears that stained her cheeks and shined in her eyes.

"So… I got pretty strong, huh Jotaro?" Nora put on her best face as she said this, even as the tears kept on coming. As Jotaro got his wind back, he realized with a slight start what exactly had caused the shift from the exuberant excitement he saw earlier in the classroom to… this. Internally, Jotaro sighed; he knew the two of them would find out sooner rather than later. He supposed that it was fair that they learned as soon as possible, rather than keeping it away from them.

When Nora didn't follow up her punch with another one, as he might've expected and, perhaps, thought he deserved for what happened to three of the Crusaders, and instead reached forward and wrapped her arms around his torso, the man stood as straight as he could but found, humorously enough, that Nora had kept to her word: despite his best efforts, he couldn't quite stand up straight.

"You should've let us come… I would've broken all their legs, and then nothing bad would've happened." Nora muttered into his chest as he could feel her soaking his chest, the older man just sighing as he tussled the top of her head, a gesture he had practiced time and time again now.

"I know brat, I know…" Jotaro turned his head up to look at Ren; the man had a stoic look to his face, one that, funnily enough, seemed to mirror Jotaro's own, though there was still the faintest hint of a smile on the young man's lips. "It's good to see you both again." With that, the smile broke out into a full one, as Ren just nodded.

"It's good to see you too Jotaro… it's been too long." Nora nodded her head vigorously in agreement with Ren, as she tilted her head up to look at Jotaro.

"You're going to tell us everything that happened. We're going to catch up, and then we're gonna… we're just gonna have a great time." The seventeen year old choked out a bit of a laugh as she spoke, Jotaro's own face twitched into a small smirk as he tilted his hat down.

" **Yare yare** … twelve years later and you're still a pain in the ass."

"Twelve years later and you're still a jerk, Jotaro."

In spite of the words, smiles were abound as the three found a place to sit down, relive the adventures of the Stardust Crusaders and reconnect after so many years apart.

* * *

Beacon Infirmary, Meanwhile

"Well, I don't know about you all, but I'd call the first day of this little meeting of the Frontier and Four Kingdoms a rather successful one."

Ironwood nodded his head, a slight grin on his face as he listened to Ozpin, the two heads of their respective Academies cradled cups of coffee in their hands as they watched machinery and life support devices be wheeled out of the infirmary. Glynda, who stood nearby, did her level best to keep an even expression on her face, even as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Indeed. Though, not a total one. I suppose it might've been a bit much to hope that these Frontiersmen would walk in and fix all of our problems in one swing." The mirth in her tone betrayed the joking intent of the normally stern woman's words. At this moment, three adults who each had to grapple with constant losses and setbacks could stand around and, for the first time in what felt like forever, revel in what felt like a victory, even if a little one.

"Now Glynda, we do have to manage expectations. After all, just because old Stroheim said that these Frontiersmen could work miracles, didn't mean we should expect it. A miracle at a time should be all that we expect." Ironwood took a long sip of the cup of coffee, as Ozpin turned a wry eye over to his compatriot.

"Why James, normally you're so results driven. One would think you'd find the lack of total success here a disappointment." Ironwood snorted as Ozpin ribbed him, the Atlesian general just shook his head as he walked over to a window.

"What can I say Oz, when the situation this morning looked as grim as it did, and as it had for so long, any progress is something we should be happy about." Ironwood waved a coffee cup over to a nearby occupied bed, where a wheelchair was being wheeled up. "After all, for months now it's looked like it'd be touch and go if she'd live another day, much less months. Now she's fit as a fiddle and we don't have to constantly scramble thinking any moment could be her last. It's a good start." Ironwood took another long drink of the cup of coffee, as Ozpin nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, a start. She's stable now, but pretty much non-responsive… and as Mr. Higashikata said, that means she's suffering from mental or spiritual scars. It'll take a lot more work to fix than having Mr. Higashikata come in and wave Crazy Diamond's hands over a person. However, we have the safety of Beacon and the best minds available to see that she gets just that." Ozpin smiled as he walked over to the bed and pat his hands on the girl's shoulder in a comforting gesture, brown eyes hidden behind a mess of brown hair, briefly, glanced over to him before they returned forward. Seemingly dead to the world, save for those who could pay careful attention to these slight hints of movement.

"Now, Fall Maiden Amber can start her road to recovery without the specter of the Reaper hanging over her shoulder. That Mr. Higashikata could offer us that much is, indeed, a reason to celebrate."

 **-To Be Continued- Lock and Key (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Well, we did the timewarp again and now we're back to the future (or present, as it were). No big essay this time, as really anything that could be said of writing merit is probably already well known: flashbacks are a flawed tool and should be used sparingly and only when you really need them. In this case, I judged I did need them and while I'm rather happy with the result and enjoyed writing it, I don't' plan on dipping back into the flashback well for a good, long time. We'll be sticking with current problems and current worries, and the plot will move forward, slowly but surely (or as slowly as one can say of a 5 day update schedule).**

 **Speaking of, you all will be getting some content in 5 Days, but it won't be Remnant's Bizarre Adventure (or at least, not the main series). Keep an eye out for a side story that'll be posted up in five days - Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Chibi. It'll be a collection of shorts in the spirit of RBWY Chibi where, if I ever feel like I need just a short break over the course of the five day update period and I want to just spend some time racking out one of the short ideas I have, I'll do so. This way, you all get content from this profile to enjoy still and I get a teeny tiny break when I feel like I might need it.**

 **Until then, I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend, and I'll see you all Friday.**


	12. Lock and Key (Act 1)

Back Alleys, The City of Vale, Evening

"I'm just sayin', I think we might've bitten off a bit more than we can chew here."

"Mercury, just shut-"

"No, I'm being serious here, think about it."

Cinder rubbed her temples as Mercury and Emerald went on behind her. Ever since the end of classes that day, the two had been having their little silent argument as they made their way to the City of Vale. Once they were sure they were out of earshot of anyone, their argument ramped up to the current tone and volume which, though Cinder had normally been content to let the two argue till they were satisfied, actually managed to annoy Cinder.

Because their argument was sparked over the spar they had all witnessed earlier that day, between the Nijimura boy and Nora Valkyrie. One that had, on some level, unsettled even her.

"Let's start from the top of this really crappy list, alright? So, Star Platinum: The World can stop time. Last time anyone we have contact with had seen it or heard about it, the thing could stop time for a full five seconds. Not a lot but with how fast these fights can go, that pretty much guarantees a handful of people are going to get beaten to near death. Still, not so bad in and of itself, right? We can just throw some dogs from The Fang at him to tire him out before going in ourselves.

"Or at least we could up until Higashikata Josuke showed up with this Crazy Diamond. The thing can fix literally anything but itself or that stupid haircut and the idiot attached to it. So basically, unless we land killing blows on anyone we're fighting, he can just plop his hands right down on them and they're right back up. For all we know, Ozpin's probably already brought him in to fix the Fall Maiden." This point, Cinder actually had to agree with Mercury on. Though most of his spiel was something born of a momentary panic, this one key point was one that had brought Cinder concern. The Fall Maiden had been horrifically injured in their battle and, as far as they knew, was completely knocked out of commission. Very few people, after all, took well to having half of their Aura ripped out from them after having been kicked about the battlefield as badly as she had been.

The fact was that the three of them had been horribly careless about their presence there to boot. None of them had taken any precautions to disguise themselves and had been seen by two people; Amber herself and Ozpin's little pet bird, Qrow Branwen. For the longest time, the concern for them had been that Qrow would come to Beacon and that the three would suddenly be under tremendous pressure to avoid him at all cost. After all, they might skate by on him having not been around long enough to get a precise description of the three of them.

The Fall Maiden, on the other hand? She had seen them. Looked them all in the eyes at various points. If she were up and walking again, this would be a tremendous issue. One that they couldn't very well avoid now; if they just suddenly up and vanished from Beacon, Ozpin would know something was up…

But if Higashikata Josuke had healed the Fall Maiden and she could tell Ozpin and the others about their appearances, did they have much choice?

For now, she had decided they did; they hadn't noticed any strange or unusual behavior out of anyone in the school, and if Ozpin had been clued into their identities, he would have them, supposedly, right where he'd want them by having them in Beacon itself. No, he didn't know yet. Up until he did, they had time. Though how much time was another question entirely.

"But you know what, we could deal with that too. If we could just slit this guy's throat and be done with it, then we wouldn't have to worry about him… but you know what'd make getting up close to Josuke a bit of a problem, aside from the fact that his Stand moves at almost supersonic speeds?" Mercury combed a hand through his hair as the grey haired teen just let out a long sigh. "Getting pulled into the range of The Hand and having our heads just disappeared from existence."

"Mercury…"

"From existence. Literally, with one swipe of his hand he can make it as if our heads never occupied the ends of our neck to begin with. Honestly, think about it; I'd rather not see your pretty little face just suddenly replaced by an ugly neck stump just like that Emerald." An elbow to the side knocked Mercury off his balance as bit as Emerald glared at him. Yet, for all her posturing, Cinder could see it behind Emerald's red eyes; honest to goodness fear.

Cinder didn't fear these huntsmen; even with only half the power of the Fall Maiden, she was considerably more powerful than any of them, of this she was certain. Kujo Jotaro would only prove a problem so long as he could stop time and, as Mercury said, there was an easy enough work around by throwing cannon fodder at him. For her two underlings though, these people and their bizarre abilities were something to be concerned about and were very, very lethal. A wrong move in a fight for her meant that she'd use her Fall Maiden powers to force her opponents off while she regrouped. A single error for them could spell doom.

In a sick sort of way, Cinder found it all rather amusing; she might've appreciated just how dangerous a thing like The Hand was if it wasn't arrayed against her.

"What's next? That Koichi kid's gonna control some force of the universe or something? Who knows, maybe whatever his Stand is will control gravity or something crazy like that." Mercury just placed both his hands behind his head as he walked off Emerald's hit to his side. "Look, I'm just saying, when Whitesnake told us about all this Stand stuff, he didn't exactly clue us in on how bad it was going to get. The little Stand Users we're getting out of the White Fang really don't stand up to snuff to the stuff we're hearing and seeing out of The Frontier."

"Which is why-" Mercury stopped his rambling as Cinder finally spoke up, as the golden eyed woman carefully placed a strand of hair behind her ear, "-we are going to take steps to help ensure that we will not face difficulties should the worst happen at Beacon. Neo shall have to begin splitting her time up as our… fourth member sooner than we expected. With her semblance, should Ozpin finally realize something is amiss, especially from the Fall Maiden, we shall be able to make our escape swiftly and without a trace."

"Do we… have to?" Emerald grimaced as she wrapped her arms around herself as Mercury just nodded.

"Seriously, that chick is a certified freak. Have you seen her apartment or anything she owns? Everything's either pink or brown… or both." Mercury shivered slightly as Emerald, for once, nodded in agreement.

"Plus her schedule… she keeps it perfectly split down the middle between her time and her time with Roman. The girl's got some screw loose up there." Cinder turned her golden eyes on the two and immediately silenced them with a look.

"Whether or not that girl is… mentally sound is irrelevant. She'll be our ticket to a swift escape from Beacon should the worse happen and Higashikata Josuke fixes the Fall Maiden. In the meanwhile, we'll contact our dear business partner again. We shall see if he can offer anymore aid, and if-"

Before Cinder could finish her sentence, as the three of them got to a particularly abandoned area of the city, her Scroll suddenly went off. Eyes narrowed, Cinder pulled out the little device and couldn't help but scowl; Whitesnake had called her before she had even pulled her Scroll out to contact him. Again.

"Cinder. Something on your mind, I take it?" Whitesnake's voice piped up over the end of the line as Cinder witnessed, over her shoulder, Mercury and Emerald slightly shiver at the sound of the man's voice.

"Whitesnake… I'd ask again how you managed to have such perfect timing, but I'm sure I'd only hear drivel about that book of yours." A slight chuckle echoed from the other side of the line as she heard Whitesnake shift around in a seat.

"Now now Cinder. If after everything you've seen you find my little book to be so impossible, you haven't been paying attention." A wheel trolley passed him by, a woman's voice distantly asking if he wanted a refill of his tea.

"On your flight to Atlas, I take it? Were negotiations that successful?" Cinder asked calmly, as she heard a grunt of affirmation on the other end of the line.

"Yes, and a little more honey this time, if you would be so kind." Whitesnake's voice was somewhat distant, before the Scroll was pulled back up towards him. "To answer your question, yes, it was. Our little hire on should be arriving in Vale within the next week or so. He'll meet you at one of Roman's designated safe houses. From there on how you use him is up to you, though I would suggest adding his Stand Power to your plans concerning The Breach." Cinder nodded in understanding, before she sighed.

"Speaking of our plans, we've run into a slight hitch. The Frontier Huntsmen that were sent along have proven to be a bit more of an issue than you had estimated them to be, even beyond Kujo Jotaro."

"Hmmm… go on." Whitesnake calmly intoned as Cinder just nodded. For the next few minutes Cinder explained Josuke's and Okuyasu's Stand Powers, a few interested hums and sounds of affirmation echoed from Whitesnake's end of the line before, suddenly, the man sighed a bit loudly and sounded rather perturbed.

"31, 37, 41, 43, 47… It seems as though Gravity has once again conspired to challenge my faith in my fallen master and his Plan by having the Joestars send the very best among them to stand in our way." Whitesnake sounded absolutely aggravated in that very moment though, soon enough, a slight sip was heard on the line as he downed some of his tea. "53, 59, 61, 67, 71… Still, where there is challenge, there is also opportunity… yes, that is what this is." The man seemed to calm down significantly as he said this and set his cup to the side, the Scroll preciously balanced in his other hand.

"A change of plans Cinder; I called for the outright elimination of all these Frontier Huntsmen aside from Kujo Jotaro at your own pleasure because I had thought that hunters this young and inexperienced and their Stands wouldn't prove a worthwhile addition to my collection. It seems I have been mistaken; I wish for Higashikata Josuke, Nijimura Okuyasu and Hirose Koichi to be captured along with Kujo Jotaro and brought to me. My Stand will extract their Stands and soon, it shall be our alliance that has Crazy Diamond and The Hand backing it up. If Hirose Koichi has been dragged along as well, then his Stand must possess some great potential as well" Cinder frowned slightly as he said this, though not out of displeasure. The idea of having these powerful Stands on their side was appealing to her. However…

"The White Fang recruits we've brought in have had promising Stands in their own right, though few that could honestly be said to have even the slightest chance against these Stands. We need something with slightly more… power if we're to reasonably secure them, even in the midst of the chaos of The Breach." Whitesnake hummed on his end of the line, before he snapped his fingers.

"Very well. I had hoped we wouldn't need to reach out beyond the boundaries of our allied organizations for potential Stand Users, but it seems like we've little choice if your report is true. Listen closely Cinder Fall; Gravity and the arrow are closely tied together. While the arrow is capable of drawing a Stand out of a man who survives its test, it is also capable of more; it can feel the potential of strong Stand Users and guide you towards them. The men and women you find who're struck with the arrow in this manner will have the sorts of Stands you seek.

"Be warned though, Cinder. Because it will not be guaranteed that these people will fall in line with you. Ideology and race keeps these White Fang recruits in line… but the sorts of people the arrow will seek out may not care for such loyalties. You will need to be prepared for the sorts of people the arrow will seek out… especially while it is in your hands." Cinder nodded as Whitesnake parted with this information, as the black-haired woman just raised an eyebrow.

"And should our arrow pick out persons of interest that aren't, strictly speaking, readily available…"

"Well, that's why you have Ms. Neo in your employ… and why I have lent you Ms. Miuller." Whitesnake's voice was calm and even as he spoke, before he took another sip of his tea. "Mmmm… Now then, is there anything else, Cinder?" The golden eyed woman just smiled, finally, as she shook her head.

"No, Whitesnake. That shall be all."

"Excellent. Now, then, if you'll excuse me, I have some time before I arrive in Atlas. After Mistral and negotiations in Vacuo, I'll need some rest before I go speak with this camel about passing through the eye of a needle." With that the line went down as Cinder and her cronies just blinked slightly.

"Huh, don't think I've ever heard that euphemism before. I mean, I suspected that he might be, ya know, with the way he talked about this Dio guy-" Mercury sputtered as Emerald rammed her elbow into his side again as Cinder turned an annoyed gaze on her minions, a weary shake of her head as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Let's head to Roman's safehouse. We'll need to pick up an arrow and his little friend. We have some Stand Users to find."

* * *

Central Merchant District, The City of Vale, Two Weeks Later

"Alright guys, that's enough for me for today, I think I'm gonna go ahead and get back to Beacon. We've got that paper due in Oobleck's class tomorrow, so I think I'm gonna finish mine up."

"Alright, your loss man."

Dan D'Lion couldn't have had a better day. The blond young man had just spent a magnificent few hours with his team out in Vale, shopping at some good boutiques and eating at the latest Mistrali restaurant to have opened in Vale and, for his money, the latter had been infinitely better than the former. Dan had felt refreshed in a way that one-thousand hot baths and ten-thousand full body massages couldn't possibly hope to replicate. However, Dan, being the responsible if naive and forgetful one man that he was, realized that he hadn't finished some schoolwork and class was set to begin again tomorrow.

His friends and teammates, a bit more rambunctious than he was, had decided to stay in the city while Dan booked it for the nearest airship that would take him back over to Beacon. However, even in his rush, pumping Aura into his legs to speed him through the streets of Vale, Dan couldn't help but feel wonderful. His time at Beacon Academy had been going amazingly well, his team was made up of great friends and Mary Gold had even agreed to go out with him next weekend.

Yes sir, as far as Dan was concerned he was on top of the world and there was absolutely nothing that was going to bring him down.

That was until he turned a corner and, having been going as fast as he had been, he hadn't noticed the little bag that had been surreptitiously placed in his path. Up until he stepped on the bag full force, which caused several wet, thick sounds and the cracking of bones to echo through the short street. Dan practically fell over himself in his attempt to stop immediately as he turned to look at what it was that he had just stepped on.

Eyes went wide as he saw a pool of deep, thick, red liquid pour forth from the bag, a pitiful mewing sound echoing from it, and a trail of red footsteps that had followed all the way over to him.

After a few seconds, the mewing stopped and the bag ceased to move at all, save for the continuous flow of blood that seeped through the cloth material.

"Oh… Oh my God. I-I didn't mean…"

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee… Well now, looks like you've made quite the mess my little friend. Street cleaners are going to have a good old time getting that off the road."

Dan's eyes turned to the sound of a nearby voice from an alleyway, and they were met with quite the sight. A man, a couple feet shorter than him if you excused the large mound of flat-topped hair he sported on his head. His dress was casual and messy: a dress shirt un-tucked from a pair of dress pants that were wrinkled and looked about a size too large for him. However, it was clear this guy had money to burn: a nice, gold watch that matched a pair of gold earrings sat on his wrist and his shoes were a fine pair of Mistrali leather dress shoes, which couldn't have been cheap to get a hold of. The most striking feature of this man was his face: a bit scrunched up together with narrow, beady eyes. His mouth was thin and wide and had several whiskers protruding from the edges of his face. As he grinned nice and wide for Dan, the young huntsmen grimaced at the mess of teeth that sat just behind his smile, crowned by four large incisors, two on the bottom and two on the top.

A rat faunus.

"Yessir, not going to be easy to clean off dead cat that a huntsman just Grimm-stomped into the pavement. That's going to be a bit messy, and I'm gonna imagine that folks are going to want to know what kind of careless little man had it in him to stomp out a poor little kitty in a sack and then just callously leave it for some little kids to find." Dan shook his head as the man approached, a desperate gleam to his eyes as he looked up at him.

"Sir, please, you gotta believe me, it was an accident! I was just turning the corner so fast and I didn't see the sack coming! I didn't mean to kill the cat, honest!" The rat faunus just nodded his head slowly in an understanding manner as he placed his hand reassuringly on his shoulder.

"I hear ya brother, I hear ya. Trust me, I believe you. I saw everything after all; I was just on my way to pick up that poor little cat of the street myself before you so careless barreled on through and crushed the poor little kitty." The rat faunus lifted Dan up by his shoulder as the young huntsman continued to stare, pale and disgusted, at the formerly white sack, the rat faunus guided him over to a nearby bench as the two sat down.

"Oh God… it's really dead. I swear, I didn't mean to. I love cats! They're precious! I would never do something like this…"

"I believe you kid, I believe you. Still, as things stand, it's the simple truth: you killed a cat. You stomped on its precious little spine and broke it, probably broke it in half with that Aura-filled stomp of yours too if all that blood is any indication. You killed a poor defenseless animal that some uncaring son of a bitch left on the road. It's your fault…" The rat faunus just poured it on, and slowly but surely Dan's complexion worsened and worsened as he placed his head into his hands.

"Fuck… it's my fault… I feel… I feel…"

"Guilty?" The rat faunus asked as a miserable little grin formed on his face.

"Yeah, guilty."

Suddenly, in a quick flash of light, Dan's arms were forced away from him as he felt some great weight suddenly form on his chest. Dan looked down, shocked and in awe, as a giant, old-fashioned, metal lock had suddenly appeared on his chest.

"That there is exactly what I wanted to hear… I'm sorry friend, I didn't catch your name, what was it?" The rat faunus grinned maliciously as he asked this, Dan's eyes wide in panic as he turned to look at him.

"What is this?! What the Hell just happened?!" As the young man screamed, the lock on his chest suddenly grew in size, his Aura-filled body able to take the additional weight, though he still tilted forward a bit in surprise.

"Simple, my friend, you killed that little kitty-cat over there and ya started to feel guilty about it. That allowed this little lock here-" The rat faunus tapped it a bit as it grew once again, which strained Dan further, "-my lock, The Lock, to activate. I'm afraid you're in the grip of my Stand, friend."

"Wait, this is a Stand?" Dan's eyes went wide as he looked down at The Lock. "This doesn't look anything like The Hand, though!" The rat faunus just grinned, a few cheeky chuckles escaped his thin lips as he leaned forward.

"Come now, you didn't honestly think all Stands were alike, didja? I mean, I knew I picked some kind of idiot when I followed you around today, boyo, but I didn't think you were this thick." Dan's eyes went wider as looked at the rat faunus, his lips quivering in fear.

"W-Wait, you've been following me?" The rat faunus chuckled again as he smiles.

"'Course. How else could I have put my cat in your path when you went speeding off from your friends?" Dan's eyes went wide as plates as the rat faunus so casually said this, the man dug out some wax from his ears as he looked over at the young huntsman. "Wow, you must be some kind of shit huntsman for you to not notice little old me. You must be such a pathetic weight on your team…"

Dan's heart pinged at the words before he could get up and resist the rat faunus, as yet further guilt built up in his heart. This, in turn, caused The Lock to grow even larger on his chest. The Stand grew to be about twice as large as Dan's chest as the young man, finally, stumbled back and away from the rat faunus and fell flat on his ass.

"Fuck man… this is so heavy… why is it so heavy?! I'm a huntsman, I should be able to lift a stupid, shitty lock off the ground, it shouldn't have me down like this… fuck, I am pathetic… my team would be better off with me… I should… should-" Dan's eyes went stock wide as he realized what thoughts had sunken into his consciousness, as the rat faunus just chuckled as he stood over him.

"Should what, friend? Leave Beacon? Leave Vale? Leave life entirely?" The rat faunus' toothy grin stretched across his face as he leaned down. "It was that last one, wasn't it? Seems like a weird thought to pop up all of a sudden, isn't it? Especially when you were so giddy with those little friends of yours earlier." The rat faunus reached forward and tapped a long, boney finger against the end of The Lock. "That's the power of my Stand. The more guilty you feel, the stronger it becomes… and the stronger it becomes, the more guilt it can make you feel. Eventually, the guilt of it all, the sheer weight looming on your mind, it'll prod ya into some dark corners sooner or later…" The rat faunus shrugged. "Either that or your rib cage will just collapse in on itself. Either way, you'll be dead."

"P-Please!" Dan threw himself at the rat faunus' feet, tears poured forth from his eyes as he desperately grabbed at one of the faunus' pant legs. "I-I don't want to die! Please, I'm sorry, I don't care if you threw your kitty in my way, I'll do anything if you just let me live."

At that, the faunus' grin grew wide enough to split his face.

"Anything, you say?" The rat faunus leaned down as he turned his head to that his ear faced Dan. "I heard that right? You said anything, right?" Dan just nodded his head vigorously, which caused the rat faunus to clap his hands together. "Excellent. So, here's the deal my little huntsman; I'll take The Lock off of you, free of charge. I don't want your money, I don't want anything you have on you. Hell, I don't even want your services… right now.

"I just want the promise of services to be rendered in the future; a favor that you'll owe me. Fulfill it at the time and place of my choosing, and you'll neeeeever see me again. Of course, if you try to tell anyone about our little deal… well." The Lock grew once again, as Dan whimpered under its physical weight and the weight of his own guilt. "The Lock will come back, as strong and as heavy as ever… if you don't end up immediately reaching for your hunter's weapon and slitting your own throat when that happens, I'd be surprised." The rat faunus' grin was malicious as he held out his hand, long, boney fingers twitched excitedly as he looked down at Dan.

"So, do we have a deal?" Dan looked down at The Lock and up at the rat faunus' hand and, after a moment, he desperately reached up and shook the rat faunus' hand.

"Excellent." With a snap of his fingers, The Lock disappeared and Dan took a long, deep breath of relief as he rubbed his chest, the pain from the weight still beat heavily against him. "Now remember my boy, if you try to tell anyone or try anything… well." For a brief moment, The Lock flashed in and out of existence, which caused Dan to whimper pathetically as he nodded in understanding. "Glad we understand each other my boy. Now, get out of here. I'll find you when I need you."

Without another word Dan forced himself up onto his feet and immediately beat a hasty retreat, all the while the rat faunus stood triumphantly in his spot, a wicked smile on his face as he tugged at his whiskers.

"Yessir, it's good to be Rat Boss Tamami Kobayashi. Good thing that little shit still felt so guilty; made it easy to bullshit the little bastard one last time." Tamami quickly walked on over to the sack on the road and lifted it up, the short faunus jangled it around a few times as the sound of meat and metal bits jangled around inside.

"Little bit of meat from the butcher's shop and a tape recorder and voila, instant idiot bait."

Indeed, Tamami Kobayashi had long since perfected the art of tricking gullible idiots in the City of Vale. As a faunus of few talents save for his knack for trickery and lying, he couldn't exactly make his way far in the city through legitimate means. If his lack of skill in most businesses wouldn't be a turnoff, then his status as a faunus and the physical traits he'd been born with would be. Even the criminal underworld where his talent could've been put to the best use had been highly competitive while he was growing up. Still, Tamami made the most of it, slipping through the cracks and the holes in the city to make his money tricking marks and selling them out to the folks who'd have paid for the kinds of favors the dumb, but powerful, could provide.

Then came Roman Torchwick, the rat bastard. Tamami grinned a bit as he dumped the damaged parts and meat into a nearby dumpster, along with the sack. Torchwick, at first, had just been another faceless criminal in Vale, just some schmo who made his money by having carved out his own little chunk of the criminal element in Vale that he had been best suited to exploit. That and the ice cream bitch he'd had with him for as long as anyone could remember made him dangerous but ignorable, especially if you were small time like Tamami. Hell, Tamami had even done a little side business with him while that mascara-wearing fruit had been, relatively, small time.

Then came the White Fang. The rat faunus spat slightly as he scratched the back of his head. Honestly, he couldn't give two shits about anything the White Fang did or what they thought. From his place in the underworld of Vale, Tamami saw through the bullshit of both sides' propaganda to what he helpfully realized was 'the truth'. Everyone in the world, faunus, human, or whatever, was a bastard and everyone was out for themselves. Which was helpful for him; made him feel less guilty about taking advantage of gullible marks to earn his pay day..

Of course, when Roman and The Fang decided they were going to buddy up with each other and slowly but surely take over the entirety of the underworld elements of The City of Vale, that was when things turned sour. Soon enough all the big fish in Vale were out of the game thanks to Torchwick and The Fang, which left them both very much able to squeeze out even little fishes like Tamami himself. Now, Tamami was a rat, literally and figuratively. He had seen the writing on the wall and knew he was out of the solo business when he saw the signs. If he tried to stick it out on his own, he'd be pushed out of his own little business by Roman and The Fang and be back to square one.

So, if you couldn't beat them, why not join them… and boy, if only Tamami had known what kind of benefits he could get out of joining The Fang, he'd have done so sooner.

The Lock was a Dust damned Godsend, as far as Tamami had been concerned. The rat faunus had never particularly liked the idea of violence and had always used trickery, lies and bribes to get what he wanted out of the city. With The Lock, this was made all the more simple; now he could pretty much skip bribery and move to outright threats and tricks to get what he wanted. Once he got The Lock on someone, there was no one, Hunter or otherwise, who could resist him. Sure, they could try, but eventually the weight of their guilt would crush them or force them to take their own lives.

It was wonderful. All he had to do now that he joined The Fang and Torchwick was what he had done before; manipulate the gullible, stupid and weak into serving his own ends and build up favors that he could call on for Torchwick or The Fang. All the while, if he managed to make any personal profit in his spare time, he was encouraged to do so! Hell, he had been paid by The Fang just for acquiring all these favors! Tamami had become richer than he had ever been by working alone! It was fantastic!

"Best decision I ever made. If I'd known that The Fang would've made me so rich, I'd have jumped aboard years ago." Tamami laughed to himself as he wandered the streets of Vale, keeping his eyes peeled for other marks, people who owed him favors or persons of interest.

As Tamami walked down the streets casually, his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face, his eyes scanned around. Tamami just needed to appear like he belonged, like he wasn't out of place; after all, he hadn't worn the actual White Fang markings, unlike some chumps who walked around with the symbol literally tattooed on them, and so as long as he didn't seem like he was a shifty character, this little rat could squeak on by through the crevices and cracks of the city. It was how Tamami liked to do his business, and it was often how he found his marks.

Only this time, instead of another gullible idiot, Tamami found something far more interesting; a little black cat that had walked out of a nearby bookstore.

Tamami's eyebrows shot up a bit as he casually strode over to a nearby bus bench and took a seat, kicking one of his legs over the other as he kept his eye on the mark from the corner of his vision.

'So that's Blake Belladonna huh? The big bad bull's ex?' Tamami had heard a lot of things on the White Fang grapevine. Very interesting things. Some things that, admittedly, had required just a little pressure from The Lock, but in this case this was gossip that spread freely among the White Fang. Adam Taurus' little ex, Blake Belladonna, the traitor who left the organization and dumped old black, red and edgy.

Tamami ordinarily wouldn't have given a shit; hell, up until he had gotten The Lock he hadn't seen much point in being part of The Fang beyond the safety of joining the winning side in the criminal underworld. However, now that he was in it, little miss Belladonna interested him quite a bit. Word had it that the boss was… upset, to put it mildly. He wanted his arm candy, in Tamami's words, back in his hands and was quite adamant about it. Hell, there was a live order through the White Fang that Belladonna wasn't to meet with any permanent harm and that all care should be taken to bring her in alive and, for the most part, unharmed. So long as you avoided lasting damage to her face or hands, you'd be fine.

Now, Tamami was a rat, and a very greedy one at that. Add to that that no one left an organization like The Fang, or in the manner that they did, without feeling something about what they did, and Tamami knew he had a mark. He just had to figure out how to play her; how to bring forth those emotions and make sure she'd be in place for him to exploit them and he'd be solid. How though?

"Oh. Blake." Tamami's eyes shifted over slightly and he could just barely stop himself from doubling over in surprise.

'Fucking Brothers… that's Weiss Schnee.'

He'd heard it from command; that Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna were on the same team along with two randos. For The White Fang, these were some high priority targets, and the four of them together were most definitely on Roman Torchwick's shit-list. Tamami watched with a great deal of interest as Blake noticeably tensed once Weiss announced her presence, a tension similarly held in the Schnee's body language.

"Oh… Weiss. Hey there. How's it going?"

"Oh, you know Blake… going fine. Just going to a Dust Store. Had to take a bit of a longer trip than usual because… you know what, never mind why, I just had to go to a different store than usual..."

"Right, yeah…"

Slowly but surely, a smile crept up on Tamami's face, a weaselly little grin that showed off his front incisors began to split his face as he watched this awkward exchange between these two. It was delicious; the former White Fang operative and the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company which, itself, had probably been responsible for more accidental deaths of its faunus laborers than every other Dust company combined were together and they were trying their best to hold together a tiny, insignificant, nothing of a conversation. Something most people could do from the time they were five years old.

And these two had failed spectacularly at even accomplishing that.

Their eyes darted off to the side every now and then, seemingly in reflex to some odd word or phrase turned in their conversation, likely accidentally hitting sore spots that they knew existed for one or the other. The sheer discomfort they both expressed as these two, teammates, were visibly uncomfortable with being alone with each other. The stilted nature of their dialogue as they desperately tried to keep some semblance of a casual conversation together.

Tamami was a con-man. He was a scoundrel. He was a no good cheat, a liar and a manipulator… and he was damned good at it all. Hell, he was probably the best at it, even better than Roman. All because he could read people like an unrolled map on a table; a talent that was only strengthened by The Lock and its various properties and Stand abilities.

He could see it all on their faces; they wanted this little accidental meet up to work, they wanted to be able to hold a conversation with each other and they both really, really wanted to be friends. Yet, there was all this garbage under the surface, emotions and feelings that briefly flickered across their eyes and their faces. All of it culminated in a look they both shared as they said their goodbyes and parted, in decidedly opposite directions, one emotion that was clear as day across their faces as they sought to get away from the other, not for malicious reasons, but because of the overwhelming emotion they each carried plain as day.

Guilt.

"Hee hee hee hee hee…" Tamami stroked his chin as he watched the two of them depart, his beady little eyes narrowed down in thought as he stared after the both of them. "Well now… I'm gonna need to call in several favors, do someone a solid he's been wanting and really tap into The White Fang to figure out some… intimate details. If I can do all that, well..." Tamami kicked himself up off the bench, a wide grin stretched across his face as the rat faunus just chuckled under his breath.

"I'll kill so many birds with one stone… it'll be my best work to date." Tamami rubbed his hands gleefully together as he nodded his head vigorously. "Watch out, Tamami Kobayashi's gonna head straight for the top. Adam fucking Taurus himself'll be giving me a pat on the back."

* * *

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, The Next Day

"I dunno Ruby. I mean, this is nice and all, but I feel like you only asked the cooks for a banana split to get on my good side because you're being awfully prejudiced… is that why you guys didn't check in on how we were till the night after all that stuff went down? Is my being a faunus a problem for you, Ruby?"

"NO, I JUST THOUGHT, I MEAN, I SAW YOU EAT SO MANY BANANAS BEFORE I THOUGHT THEY WERE YOUR FAVORITE, NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE A MONKEY, I MEAN, NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT, OH JEEZ I'M SORRY, I DON'T HATE FAUNUS, I JUST LOST TRACK AND HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY I'M SORRY FOR BEING SUCH A TERRIBLE FRIEND?!"

The table laughed good-naturedly at Ruby's flailing as Sun Wukong teased the poor girl. The night after the first classes the Morioh-group had participated in had seen the return of Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias return to Beacon Academy, thankfully unharmed and with several receipts from a Vale noodle shop on their persons. It had only occurred to Team RWBY that the two others that they hard gone out with that day had yet to make a return by then, which warranted no small amount of rampant apologies from all involved.

It seemed things might not have been off to their best starts, as one of the reasons that had risen to the top as to why this happened was all the flurry and chaos caused by the arrival of the Frontier Huntsmen, Team JOJO. For a moment, it seemed as though that the two groups of transfers might be in a spot of bother.

"I dunno, I mean, if I was abandoned by my new friends, I might not ever recover." Okuyasu tossed in a jab, which had caused Ruby to flinch harshly as she spun around to face the scarred teen.

"R-R-Really?"

"Oh yeah, I'd be absolutely heart-broken. Really, that Sun here is putting up such a tough front is commendable. A real man's man." Sun nodded sagely, as he cast an arm over his eyes and pretended to hold back sobs.

That was, until, the two older members of Team JOJO and the S of Team SSSN hit it off. For Josuke, it was an easy thing as always; the cool under pressure and decidedly affable leader of Team JOJO had done his best to reconcile the Teams by first offering his sincerest apologies, and then by doing what he could to ingratiate himself and his team to Sun and Neptune. Sun, being a laid back sort anyway, actually appreciated the efforts the, in his own words, 'almost equally cool' Josuke had made. Add to that the fact that Okuyasu's sense of humor and Sun's seemed to meld quite nicely and things chugged along quite well. Neptune took a little longer but, in time, he followed his leader's lead.

"I just… I just thought we were better friends. After the docks and after I risked my life and Neptune's to help you all, I thought we had a connection, you know?" Ruby's silver eyes went wide and tears poured forth as she dramatically leaned forward and grasped Sun by the lapels of his coat, which had surprised the monkey faunus.

"We are! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-"

"Okay! Ruby, stop, seriously, you've made this so easy for the past two weeks, we're cool, I'm just kidding!" Sun immediately moved to intercept Ruby's incoming waves of apologies, as the red-hooded girl just sniffed as she looked up at him.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Man, it stops being fun to tease you real quick." Sun said with a goofy smile as he leaned back in his seat. "Seriously, we're cool. I'm just giving you a hard time Rubes, that's all. Although, thanks for the banana split. Seriously, I could go for a hundred of these if you really feel like making it up to me." Ruby just nodded vigorously when Sun said this, though this prompted the other blonde at the table to slap the monkey faunus from across the table.

"Don't go extorting my baby sister for food Sun. Not cool… only I can do that." Sun sheepishly grasped at the back of his head as he nodded, a slight wince on his face.

"Jeez, okay Yang, I'll stop, I'll stop, just don't slap the monkey okay, it's not cool." Silence fell upon the table as a few sets of eyes widened at Sun's inadvertent choice of words, even the faunus seemed slightly embarrassed at his rather poor wording. For a moment, it seemed like everyone was just going to sit back and quietly ignore it…

"... Heh… hehehhe… Hahahahahahahahahaha! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

As soon as Okuyasu burst into a fit of laughter, it was infectious. Soon enough, Josuke raised a hand to his lips as the pompadoured teen just chuckled as quietly as he could into his hand. A slight grin formed on Sun's face and, after a moment, Yang joined in on the laughs and, shortly thereafter, Nora too had bust a gut The rest of the table seemed either put off, neutral or bewildered by the laughter; the latter-most was occupied by Ruby and Jaune who hadn't caught onto the humor.

"Ugh, I swear, I could've expected this from these four, but I expected something better from you, Josuke." Weiss commented as she watched the five of them.

"Hey, I couldn't help myself, Okuyasu just kind of broke the dam and… well, there was no stopping it after that." Weiss rolled her eyes as Josuke said this, turning her gaze over to Okuyasu.

"Guess that makes you a terrible influence…" Okuyasu just gave a wide grin as he leaned back in his seat and pointed to himself.

"You mean that makes me the best influence." The winter-themed heiress just sighed and shook her head, while the rest of the table just went about their own business. The table actually managed to remain quiet after the short burst of laughter, as the three teams, well two and a half teams, just broke down into their own little mini groups and shot the shit over this teacher, that assignment or whatever bit of news had interested them.

Soon enough, the slight chatter had been broken by Weiss' Scroll ringing, as the Schnee heiress pulled the device from one of the pockets of her combat skirt and took a look at the message that had been sent. Weiss frowned deeply as she took a look at it, which drew the attention of everyone at the table.

"What's wrong Weiss, bad news?" Ruby asked calmly as she took a bit out of a cookie, as Weiss just shook her head, seemingly slightly unsure.

"No… not really, I guess. Just a message from home." Blake seemed to tense up a bit when 'home' was brought up, though the black haired faunus tried to not draw attention to herself.

"Oh? Your folks checking in on you?" Jaune asked, a slight smile on his face, as Weiss just snorted slightly.

"In a manner of speaking…" Weiss sighed as she shook her head. "My father is deeply interested in what's been going on in Beacon and Vale concerning my career as a huntress…"

"O-Oh, so your dad is checking in to see if you're doing well?" Koichi asked with a slight grin as he, like Jaune, had simply assumed the best out of this. When Weiss released a slightly haughty laugh, both he and Jaune had deflated a bit.

"More like he's looking for whatever excuse he can to get me back to Atlas. He isn't asking, or getting servants to ask, about the friends I've made or how well I'm performing. He's asking about the bad stuff that's been going on around here. The robberies, the fights, the highway underpass the… docks…" Weiss bit her lip as she said this last part, as Blake's bow twitched slightly as she, finally, turned her amber eyes towards Weiss. Her expression was neutral and deeply measured, as it seemed like Blake was trying her best to appear as friendly and accommodating as possible.

"Have you… told him anything?"

"No… No I have not." The words were a bit stilted between the two, their tones of voice a bit forced, as the two just nodded.

"Good, that's good, it'd… probably be bad if he heard anything."

"Yeah, probably would be, he'd probably throw a fit, as usual..."

Teams RWBY and JNPR seemed deeply uncomfortable as the conversation passed along with Sun Wukong, while Neptune and Team JOJO just watched the proceedings with a mix of confusion and interest. After a moment Blake sighed and stood up as the black haired faunus just bit her lip.

"I think I'm gonna go ahead and check the library computers for some news from Vale, see if anything's come up concerning Torchwick or any unusual sightings. I'll see you all later." The table had said their goodbyes to Blake, though Weiss' seemed a little bit strained and those that seemed in the know also seemed rather uncomfortable, as Blake made her way out of the dining hall and through a set of double doors. Sun looked about ready to get up and follow her but, after a moment's hesitation, the monkey faunus sighed and sat back down as he rubbed his temples a bit.

"... Soooo… anyone want to tell us what that was all about?" Attention was snapped to Josuke and his friends as the pompadoured teen spoke up, the group of teens suddenly reminded that their the three of them had no idea what had just transpired.

"Yeah, I gotta say, I'm feeling a bit lost too. Sun hasn't said too much about what happened while he was here ahead of the rest of the team." Neptune chipped in as he leaned forward, as Teams RWBY, JNPR and Sun all seemed to sweat a bit as they thought about how to best work back from this.

"Look… you guys have been here a couple weeks, and don't get us wrong, we trust you guys and all but…" Yang frowned a bit as she tried to think of a tactful way to say what was on her mind.

"However, this matter between Weiss and Blake is… very personal. It's really something that should be started off with Blake telling you about it. So it really isn't our place to inform you all." Yang snapped her fingers and pointed at Pyrrha, a grateful smile on her face.

"Yeah, what P-Money said." Pyrrha smiled slightly at the friendly nickname, before they turned back to the four out of the loop members of their group.

"I suppose that's fair enough. We haven't told you guys everything about our lives or the Frontier, so I guess fair's fair." Josuke said with a slight nod as Koichi just nodded as well, although Okuyasu crossed his arms a bit as he had a very thoughtful expression on his face.

"Suffice it to say that… we've both been a part of things that had indirectly… hurt things the other cared about." Weiss muttered as she shook her head, a slight frown on her face as Josuke and Koichi just nodded in understanding.

"So what, you all haven't done anything about it then? That sounds like a pretty damn bad thing to just let sit like that." Okuyasu seemed legitimately confused as he said this, as Weiss just turned her head to look at the scarred teen.

"You really shouldn't use such vulgarities in open company Okuyasu, it's rather distasteful." She sighed a bit and shook her head. "But, more to your point, we have tried to do something about it… we've agreed that we'd just leave it all behind and not bring it up, and just try to move forward as friends and teammates." Weiss said as she took a bite out of her food, as Okuyasu just scrunched up his face.

"Doesn't look like it's working to me." Everyone at the table kind of flinched at Okuyasu's rather blunt assessment, though none could move particularly quickly to dissuade him from it.

"It's… I mean, they're making… progress. We're working well in team exercises and they don't fight… anymore. I mean, sure, it's a little awkward… a lot of the time, I mean, not all the time, but..." The silver eyed team leader tried to offer up this lame justification, as Koichi and Josuke just raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I suppose that is progress but, as one team leader to another, if there's something going on in your team that's causing two of your members to be able to barely talk to each other without it being awkward, then that's a problem." Koichi and Okuyasu nodded in firm agreement as Weiss just placed her head in her hands.

"We know, we know. It's just hard… I don't feel good about the things that've happened… it's not something I particularly like bringing up. But every time Blake and I get alone, that's all I can think about. How badly stuff around me affected things she cared about." Talking around it had proven difficult but Weiss was satisfied enough with how she'd managed it.

"So you feel guilty." But once again, Okuyasu had just cut right to the heart of it, as Weiss just flinched.

"D-Don't be ridiculous. I don't feel guilty about it! I didn't actually do anything! It's just-"

"OH! Is that why things got awkward when you got that message from your dad? Did he screw her over or something?" Much of the table was going a bit red as Okuyasu crept up closer and closer to the issue at hand.

"Well, I mean, in a manner of speaking…" Ren coughed a bit awkwardly as his eyes dashed from Weiss to where Blake had left and, weirdly, to Sun, as Nora just stuffed her mouth full to keep from speaking.

"Yes Okuyasu, you're… mostly right. My father has inflicted some manner of injury onto things Blake cares about. I don't feel guilty about any of this because my hand was never involved in any of it." Weiss emphasized this with a slight glare at the scarred teen, though she might as well not have even bothered with how little it actually seemed to affect Okuyasu. "However, I do feel bad about the things he has done… and whenever I'm around Blake, I just feel like I can't really get too close to her because of that feeling."

"So you feel guilty about it." Okuyasu just said flatly again, seeming a bit annoyed with how Weiss had tried to weasel her way around it.

"I. Do. NOT. Feel. Guilty. You dolt." Weiss said firmly as she lightly glared at Okuyasu, before she turned her head. "Anyway she's fine with letting it just sit so that's the way it is. All that matters is that we're still operating well as a team and we're doing our best to just let this water run under the bridge." Weiss turned her gaze back to Okuyasu as she firmly nodded. "So that's all there is to it. It'll be fine if we just give it time to let it sort itself out."

Three of the four out of the loop teens at the table nodded, slowly but surely, as they absorbed Weiss' end of the issue. Okuyasu, however, didn't nod and in fact seemed quite dissatisfied with what Weiss had said. After a hot second, Okuyasu leaned forward against the table as he frowned slightly.

"Have you tried just talking about it?"

"... Pardon?"

The other teens at the table blinked and turned to Okuyasu as if he'd just grown a second head, although Team JOJO seemed to understand where Okuyasu was coming from almost immediately.

"Yeah, I mean, avoiding it isn't doing your friendship with her any favors, especially if you've been just slamming your head against that wall like this. Why not just sit down and hash it out, be as honest with each other as possible?" Okuyasu nodded in firm determination as he said this, as if the idea was plain and simple in of itself. The other teens, knowing the problem, could barely imagine it. Just talk out how Weiss' father was abusing the faunus and how Blake had been part of a terrorist group that had killed members of Weiss' friends and family.

"Okuyasu…" Pyrrha tried to offer diplomatically, as Okuyasu just turned to look at her with a slight furrowing of his eyebrow; though Okuyasu seemed to be trying to keep a level head as he shrugged.

"Look, I get it, it sucks, but it's something you gotta do if you really want shit to work out. If you just keep burying this garbage, then eventually it'll come back to screw you around and tear you down. Secrets and evasion and all that other crap just brings people down in the end." In truth, most people at the table really hadn't found it in them to have disagreed with Okuyasu on that score. Ren and Nora had pretty much never kept secrets from each other, same with Ruby and Yang and, meanwhile, Jaune himself had learned a hard lesson about what keeping things from his team, especially big things, could do.

Yet Weiss just frowned at the scarred teen, an irritated look on her face as she just huffed and shook her head.

"Look, Okuyasu, it just wouldn't work so just drop it, alr-"

"Why's that?" Weiss' cheeks flared in anger as Okuyasu interrupted her.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you it's impolite to-"

"Why wouldn't it work? Why would talking to Blake not work out at all? Why is evading the issue and just letting it get between you two so much better than something you haven't even tried yet." Okuyasu seemed to be getting a bit more worked up as the conversation went on, while Weiss just sighed as she rubbed her temples, feeling annoyance with the boor in front of her as it bubbled up.

"Because, Okuyasu, problems aren't that simple and neither are people. I can't just walk up to Blake and-"

"She's your friend, right?"

Weiss' mouth shut almost immediately as Okuyasu said this, flatly and plainly, as he leaned forward further on the table. The scarred teen pointed an accusatory finger towards Weiss, his narrowed gaze locked with hers.

"E-Excuse me?"

"Blake is your friend, right? She's your teammate and your comrade too, right? You want to be closer with her, right?" Okuyasu said each word firmly and with a hard tone, as Weiss nodded.

"Yes, but I don't see-"

"Then why are you wasting time just pissing around this if it's hurting your friendship or keeping you from being on better terms with a member of your team. If the truth can help you two, if it can free up some air, if it can stop some bad shit from happening, then why don't you walk up to your friend, your comrade, your community, your family and tell them the Dust damned truth. Tell her how you feel and how you want to make amends."

Everyone at the table was a bit blown away by how much emotion Okuyasu was expressing as his mood turned. Though Team RWBY had expected that Okuyasu could be a bit scary when they had first met him, the guy had otherwise come off as little more than a lovable oaf or a big ol' teddy bear in the time since that very first impression. This Okuyasu, however, was intense, his brows furrowed and his scars playing into a very hard expression as he pointed Weiss down. Yang had been the first one to catch onto the slip in Okuyasu's words, as the blonde bombshell turned her head slightly over to Josuke and silently mouthed 'Them?' to the pompadoured teen. Josuke, in turn, just motioned with his hand for her to leave it for now, which Yang immediately gave a nod and wink in understanding to.

"If you really care about your friendship with her, then it is that simple. Talk to her about it."

Weiss just stared at Okuyasu, the white-haired heiress mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to work at a comeback. Okuyasu was a dolt after all, a simpleton, a brute and a boor. Surely she could come up with some logical comeback, some way of telling him that all of that was just simple nonsense. It couldn't work. She couldn't talk to Blake about this… because… because she felt… because she couldn't..

"... You're just a dolt Okuyasu, I shouldn't be surprised you're so clueless." Weiss finally muttered with a sigh as she got up from the table. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably return this message before dear father throws a fit." Weiss just stormed off in a huff as she said this, several pairs of eyes followed her as she went through the very same double doors Blake had passed through not too long ago. Okuyasu just grimaced a bit as he leaned back in his seat, a disgruntled look on his face.

"Takes a bigger idiot not to take good advice like that." Josuke looked at Okuyasu for a long moment before he sighed and pat the guy on the shoulder.

"I hear you Okuyasu. You put in your two cents, and that's about all you could do." Okuyasu just grumbled under his breath, saying something that vaguely sounded like an agreement. Josuke looked at his best friend for a moment and, with a slight smile, pat his shoulder again. "Tell you what Oku, head off to one of the training rooms and slap some of those robots around with The Hand. Koichi and I will come by and get you for the next class, alright? Blow off some steam." Okuyasu turned his gaze towards Josuke, the scarred teen's eyes softened slightly as he smiled at his best friend.

"... Thanks Josuke." Okuyasu kicked back from the table and shoved his hands in his pockets, his posture hunched over as was the norm for him as he wandered off. He was tense, sure, but already he seemed to be in a bit of a better mood. As he walked out, Josuke just sighed as he rubbed his temples a bit.

"... So that got tense pretty fast." Neptune coughed awkwardly into his fist as the rest of the table nodded in agreement, as Josuke just turned to look at them.

"Sorry about that… this is something that strikes pretty close to home for Okuyasu. In the entire time I've known the guy, I don't think he's once lied or avoided anything just because it was uncomfortable… for better and for worse." Josuke shuddered at the memory of introducing his friend and teammate to his mom, before he righted himself. "He really doesn't believe in selling anything short or prettying anything up, even if it's himself. It's… complicated, and it's tied up a lot in his family's history and in the Frontier's recent conflicts. Suffice it to say, this is just kind of a sore spot for him."

"Yeah, no kidding." Sun Wukong said with a bit of a shrug as he leaned back. "Don't get me wrong, I think the guy's right. Heck, if I thought I could change Blake's own mind on this I'd try, but…"

"They're both incredibly stubborn people who feel horribly about the things that've happened between and around them, even if they don't want to admit just how awful they really feel." Yang said with a long, heavy sigh as she leaned forward and rubbed her temples.

"Been going on for a while I take it?" Josuke asked, as Yang just nodded.

"Round about since the docks incident we've told you guys about, really… which really was wrapped up in a lot of this crap which goes back even further past that whole mess." Yang shook her head. "They tried to agree to just leave it all behind them and start fresh but… well, what's gone on isn't something you can just promise to drop and wrap up in a night." Ruby nodded solemnly, along with Team JNPR, as the teens just sighed.

"We've just kinda hoped that they're either get past it or eventually work through it but… well, it's not easy." Ruby took a bite out of her cookie to help calm her nerves, as Josuke and Koichi nodded in understanding.

"I guess I can understand that. You all don't really work under the mentor system like we do, so there's no one to kind of force you all to sit down and work through this." The rest of the table seemed deeply interested in this as Josuke blinked. "Oh, I should probably explain; because Stand growth is so deeply tied to someone's personal growth, there's a lot of emphasis put on helping students in the mentor system actually deal with garbage that might muck up their mental state. After all, if you get too locked up in your mind, then your ability to focus your Stand is pretty well diminished."

"Not to mention the other bad stuff that can happen if too much negativity builds up in enough people." Koichi muttered afterward as Josuke just nodded.

"Yeah, we really can't afford to have a large number of people in Morioh carrying that kind of weight around with them… especially if they're on a team of hunters about to go out on assignment." Everyone at the table grimaced at this, as they all nodded in understanding. "So there's a lot of emphasis in members of the same team or people in the community who are fighting for one reason or another to do whatever they can-" Josuke seemed to put an odd emphasis on the last word, a flash of something going past his eyes, before he continued, "-to sort stuff out so that everyone can keep moving forward."

"You know, compared to almost everyone in town being forced to be a hunter because of the Grimm, this actually seems like a pretty nice consequence of how your town's developed." Pyrrha offered slightly, as Ren and Nora nodded in agreement.

"Even without knowing each other too too much, well except for the old man and Jotaro, just being part of Morioh seemed to keep Kakyoin, Joseph, Jotaro and Avdol close, and when Polnareff was with them it still seemed pretty close-knit." Nora offered with a slight smile, as Josuke just nodded.

"Okuyasu wasn't kidding when he said we call Morioh a Town Protected by Love. Everyone's in it together, so we try to not just let people hang if they end up having issues like this. Weak link in the chain and all that." Josuke said as he looked forward. "Although, you can't help every situation." Josuke offered with a small shrug, one that Koichi answered with a nod as the rest of the teens didn't peek in too deeply on that.

"So if this were going down in Morioh, what would… well, I guess they'd be 'mentors' for Weiss and Blake do about this?" Josuke just grinned as Yang asked that question, as he kinda chuckled.

"Honestly, they'd probably offer up Okuyasu's advice and then toss them both into a room until they sorted all this out." The entire table kinda chuckled at this as Josuke shrugged. "Not a perfect solution but, hey, sometimes the only thing you can do to try to settle something is to just hash it out."

"Yeah, I know that from personal experience. Just keeping something like this in between you and your team doesn't help you or them." Jaune said with a firm nod as he shot a grateful look over to Pyrrha, who immediately caught onto Jaune's meaning and smiled with a nod of her own.

"So, what, we just grab them up and force them into a room till they make up?" Nora asked with a quizzical turn of her head, as several members of the table guffawed.

"While hot, I doubt that'd work too well with those two" Sun offered with a bit of a laugh, as Yang just snorted into her own hand.

"If they aren't willing to talk about it in the first place then the only thing we can do is try to encourage them to do so. This place isn't Morioh, and we can't really force them to try to work this kind of stuff out." Ruby said, though she quickly looked over to Josuke. "Not that I think that-"

"I get it Ruby, I get it. Things are a little bit looser here in the Four Kingdoms than in Morioh. You all can afford it, we kinda can't." Josuke smiled reassuringly to the young girl, who just smiled back as she nodded. "We just have to wait and hope that they figure it out then. Like Okuyasu said, he might be bit dense, but he did offer some good advice."

"Speaking of, is Okuyasu gonna be alright. I've never really seen him that bothered before." Ren asked curiously as Josuke just nodded.

"Yeah, Okuyasu will be fine. You all can probably tell by now that Okuyasu… well, he's a guy wears his feelings on his sleeves and feels those feelings in a big way. When he's happy, the guy practically lights up like a bonfire and when he's upset or angry… well, you all got a bit of a taste of that." Josuke nodded back towards where Okuyasu left from. "But he's not the type of guy to drop friendships over small things like insults or disagreements. Just give him some time to work off some stress and he'll be right as rain." Josuke said with a slight smile.

The bell rang as the group looked up at the intercom system in Beacon, as most of them then turned to the half-finished plates of food still in front of them.

"... If we hurry, we might not go hungry next class and still have time to pick up Okuyasu." Josuke offered as he picked up his knife and fork, as the rest of the table nodded in hurried agreement.

* * *

She had heard the bell ring, but Blake hadn't been much of a hurry to get to the next class. The black haired faunus had sat in the increasingly empty library, her bow folded down slightly as her eyes blankly traveled across news item after news item. It was all garbage or old news based on stories from weeks or months ago and even if there had been some fresh lead in here that Blake could use for her team she wasn't entirely sure if she would've been in the right state of mind to spot it.

In truth, her mind was still on the awkward little show she and Weiss had put on in front of all of their friends. Brothers, Neptune and Team JOJO must've thought they were both out of their gourds when she just got up and walked away from the table after that little display. The truth was, Blake probably knew better than most that the status quo between her and Weiss couldn't hold like this. This continued awkwardness between the two of them, their avoidance of actually talking about much of anything lest it stumble into their pasts, all of it wasn't healthy for them or their team. They'd promised to just leave it and move past it because it didn't matter and, honestly, she tried, she did try...

But in the end it did matter, at least to Blake. Not even because of what Weiss' father did to the faunus. No, she couldn't blame Weiss for all that, she simply didn't have it in her anymore to hold Weiss accountable for what her bastard of a father had done to her people. To Blake, it mattered because of what The Fang did to Weiss, her friends and her family. Those that had nothing to do with Jacques Schnee and his company's policy towards the faunus. People who were just friends and relations to the Schnees, who The Fang knew they could get their hands on so that they could some way inflict harm on the Schnee family like the Schnees had done to the faunus.

Weiss hadn't deserved any of that and Blake… she couldn't help but feel bad because of what the organization she was a part of did. Not that Blake herself felt guilty; for her to feel guilty, she'd have needed to have a direct hand in what had happened to Weiss's family and friends… and she didn't. She never killed anyone directly related to Weiss. She never harmed any of her friends or made sure they met a messy end.

None of it was Blake's fault.

None of it was her fault.

She didn't have a hand in any of it.

So she shouldn't feel guilty about it…

Blake's head collapsed into her hands as she thought this over, a frustrated groan escaped her lips as she shook her head.

"So then why can't I just walk up to her and say 'I feel bad about what The Fang did'... it's as simple as that. That's all I have to say. All I have to own up to…" Blake bit her lip as she lightly banged her forehead against the desk in frustration. It wasn't that simple though. She knew it deep in her core; what she… The Fang had done, what she'd been a participant in, if distantly, wasn't something she could just wave off either as not mattering, as they tried now, or as being something she could just talk over. She had felt bad about what she- what The White Fang had done. She couldn't face Weiss while she felt so… so bad.

It wasn't her fault. She didn't have any part in it… she just felt bad.

A ring on her Scroll caused her bow to twitch as Blake ignored it; it was probably her team calling her for the next class that the bell had signaled. Blake just shook her head as she leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. She really didn't have it in her to go to class and deal with the looks her friends and Weiss would give her. She just wasn't ready…

Why did things have to be so complicated with someone she wanted to be her friend…

The Scroll rang again and, yet again, Blake tried her best to ignore it, a slight scowl on her face as she glanced to the pocket that housed the device. They'd probably ring her up another several times to try to figure out where she was and why she hadn't arrived for class yet; Ruby and Yang especially could be very stubborn about this kind of stuff, especially since she had split off from their team when she had unintentionally revealed herself to be a faunus to them.

Still, they'd get the hint eventually.

Yet, as another ring came through on her Scroll, Blake finally growled in annoyance as she tugged the object out of her pocket and brought the screen forward. She was going to tear those two some new…

Blake's amber eyes went wide as she looked at the messages. She went over them, again and again, as she tried to make sense of them. For a moment, her mind just hadn't believed it; there was no way he, of all people, would be messaging her, even if he had taken all the precautions. There was just no way that he'd seek her out now, after all this time…

But no. The way the message was written, the careful use of mixed words and phrases to throw off anyone who might intercept the message, the name… the tone. It all matched him. The timing, even if late, had made sense too; after all, in less than a month, Blake had been a major news story here in Vale twice; once for the incident at the docks and once for the fight under the highway. Of course he'd take notice, of course he'd have seen her…

Of course he'd look to collect on what was his. That very thought terrified Blake to the core of her being, even as the message itself was, on the surface, non-threatening. But that's how it was with him; he fancied himself a peaceful man, who wanted to live a peaceful life with the rest of the faunus and was only forced into violence by other people, by humans. You had to take a glimpse underneath the surface, under the mask of who he pretended to be, to know the truth. To learn what she had learned that fateful day.

That day she had ran away from him and The Fang.

"Adam…"

 **-To Be Continued- Lock and Key (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Woo boy, lot of potential topics for this arc. I had been considering addressing the name thing that came up when Bucciarati wasn't given a Color Tradition name and how that's flowed through to Tamami, but I figured there was a slightly better topic for explaining my creative decisions with this arc.**

 **So, Lock and Key. Obviously, part of it is a reference to the Mook for this arc and his Stand, The Lock. However, Lock and Key also refers to secrecy or some other form of evasion (lock it up throw away the key, etc, etc). Seeing as how I've picked on JoJo so many times now, it's time to turn to RWBY for a bit of light hazing.**

 **If you came away from the end of Vol. 1 feeling like the resolution to Weiss and Blake's little issue was horrifically rushed and not terribly satisfying, then congratulations, you have a fucking pulse. Even among die-hard fans of the series I've talked to among the various problems most people seem to agree that Vol. 1 had a common root complaint that always seems to get brought up is the Volume Finale melodrama and how shoddily it was ended. Like, people got invested into the emotional conflict presented: on the one hand, Weiss' father is some kind of horrific super-racist who goes about treating an entire class of people as essentially slaves to help him make money in a mining industry which, considering the substance being mined is super explosive, probably leads to more than its fair share of deaths. On the other hand, Blake was a part of a terrorist organization that killed who knows how many of Weiss' friends and family, essentially isolating her because people feared if they got close then, well, The Fang would get them and also causing Hell in her family life; while it's probably that Jacques was an abusive asshole even before all this shit, it's still heavily implied by Weiss herself that the guy got to be even more of an abusive dickhead when shit with the White Fang would go down.**

 **This is a legitimate conflict, it's not a gentle misunderstanding. Weiss and Blake have very good reasons to feel guilty as they both benefited/participated in shit that ruined the other's lives. As much as they might want to be angry at each other in order to stave off guilt, they can't help but feel angry at themselves for having profited from ruining innocent people's lives.**

 **Yet, how is this resolved in series?**

" **Welp, this doesn't really matter, all water under the bridge, right guys?"**

 **When I first watched RWBY… years ago now, wow it's been a while, that was almost enough to make me drop the series. The horrifically bad handling of what could have been such legitimate drama that advanced two characters who at the time really, really, really needed it (reminder; Weiss in Vol. 1 herself was pretty simply written and came off as just a spoiled bitch while Blake, between her voice acting and her rather simple characterisation, came off as just kinda 'eh') was just… written off. No, it's fine, they don't need some deep character moments to help flesh them or their relationship out. No, this is fine. Weiss goes from suggesting they should call the police on Blake to being absolutely fine with her presence in the course of an afternoon, this is fine…**

 **If you can't tell, I didn't and still don't think this is fine and I found it absolutely frustrating because, while Vol. 1 did have its problems, I did like it. But at that point I worried that any legitimate drama the series might be able to carry would always be hamstrung by how little time the series writers had to work with. Hell, if they had treated this as being a continuing part of their relation and something that hides under the surface as tension to be resolved later, I'd have been cool with that but no. No. It's treated as a problem that's pretty much solved by just ignoring it. That's really not dramatically satisfying or terribly relatable: Hell, I know people who still, to this day, maintain blood feuds for lesser offenses done to their honor and virtue.**

 **Don't get me wrong, I don't think this shit with Blake and Weiss was done poorly because the writers were bad, Hell no, given what they had to work with its amazing that RWBY Vol. 1 turned out as good as it did. Hell, go back and watch Ren and Nora's little intro to the series: in less than a minute the writers managed to tell us everything we could've possibly needed to know about these two and their relationship (at the time) without clunky exposition and in a way that was funny and endearing. These guys clearly were good at their craft. However, given that their episodes were limited to being between 8 and 15 minutes and they only had 12 episodes a Volume to work with, I just figured that RWBY would always be consigned to just having to oversimplify character conflict and development in order to hit that runtime.**

 **I was both technically wrong and technically correct. Wrong because, hey, we see how well they've done despite those limitations in Volumes 2-4. Technically right because we still blow through so much stuff in order to have enough time for what's 'important' to focus on.**

 **When did Blake suddenly get super duper stressed out about finding shit out about Torchwick or The Fang in Vol. 2, leading her to going to unhealthy lengths?**

 **When did Roman Torchwick suddenly go from being a sly, smooth criminal type to being a super villain who monologues about how the good guys would never win before being eaten by a Grimm?**

 **Because of RWBY's format, we lose out on a lot of development which a lot of other series are capable of fitting in due to their freer formats. Think about all the characters in Diamond is Unbreakable all of whom usually get some characterization or some moment of insight into them before we're ever really expecting Josuke and the others to fight them. Hell, we're never really 'surprised' by a villain's appearance, really. Usually they'll show up before they're much of a focus in their direct conflict, show off their powers and personalities and then we'll get to the meat of an arc. It characterizes them and tells us why we shouldn't like them or why we should be frightened of them. Hell, pretty much every villain in DiU gets at least half an episode or the first part of a two-part episode bloc to build them and their characterization up. And we're very rarely left out of the loop as to what our villains are up to once we know who they are (we generally know what Kira's up to once we meet him, as a small example).**

 **However, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga that has as many pages as can be drawn and published for Araki's update schedule and an anime that's a direct adaptation of that manga. RWBY is a web series run by RoosterTeeth that probably doesn't have a huge budget or a lot of time to get shit sorted out. Again, it's not the people involved because they're all genuinely talented, they are otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with the series through the thick and thin of Vol. 1, but rather the format they're forced to work under.**

 **So, seeing as how this is a fanfiction and we writers of these fan-made fictions have pretty much more creative freedom than any other creative writer under the sun because we have no budget, no obligation and no time limit I figured Hell, why not give this a more satisfactory conclusion. With Stands and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure flare thrown in for good measure.**

 **So with today's update, it's been two months of this 5 day schedule I've been on with you guys. For those of you who didn't read the Author's Note on the 5th, the 10th's update was taken up by Remnant's Bizarre Adventure Chibi, a side comedy short series that'll be non-canon but that I'll write for every now and again (probably once a month) to give myself a nice little break. It's been great writing for you all these past two months and your enthusiasm, kind words and critiques have helped me keep up this pace. Seriously, thank you all and I hope we'll have another month on this schedule. I know I look forward to it.**

 **Hope you all survive this Hump Day!**


	13. Lock and Key (Act 2)

"Honestly, I can't believe that stubborn, pig-headed oaf. Who talks to a lady like that, and constantly interrupting me with that simple drivel of his. Where does he get the nerve…"

Weiss Schnee had done her best to be angry. Really, it was just about the only emotion she had been willing to hang onto. A lifetime of experience, from her father down to today, had taught her one thing; it was easier to deal with a mess of emotions if you buried them in an avalanche of frustration and anger all aimed at someone else. The lesson had proven itself right when Blake's true nature first came to light; she had been so busy being angry about Blake, a teammate and companion, lying to her for who knows what gain, that she had been able to just ignore everything else. Ignore how scared she was of what was going to happen to Blake if she stayed out alone. Ignore how awful she had felt that she had been the one to force her to run off.

How she felt about what her father had done to the faunus to force someone like Blake into joining The Fang in the first place. It had been easier to be angry than it was to try to wrestle with all these other conflicting feelings. Easier to have forced out than to look in. As Weiss reflected on this, she felt her frustration begin to cool as her heels stopped clacking against the ground. Okuyasu, in his own bull-headed way, had only been trying to help. It was true; what she and Blake were doing had not been working. Their team was holding together but that was because they had their partners around to act as glue. If it was ever just her and Blake… what would happen? Would they have been able to work together, or would things just fall apart under the weight of their mixed up feelings.

As Weiss thought about it, she couldn't help the sinking feeling in the stomach, the all-too familiar weight that tugged at her chest. Okuyasu had only identified the problem and offered a solution, as simple as it was. Yet she hadn't wanted to hear it. Because she felt… and the way she acted made her feel…

"Gaaah! Dirty, rotten, unkempt, dullard…" White hair shook about as Weiss again tried to build back up that pool of frustration to combat the unease that welled up in her. Okuyasu tried to be helpful but he was so far off base and so rude about it that he might as well not have. That's what she tried to assert as the truth. What she tried to convince herself of. What emotions she tried to hold onto. What he offered, what he suggested, it was too simple. People didn't work like that. Situations like this couldn't be worked through with just a simple little talk. It was insipid and silly and childish and-

'Why do I still feel so bad about telling him off then!' The Schnee Heiress gripped her head in her hands as she shook her head. It was just her raising, she argued. After all, she had been raised to be prim and polite no matter how boorish or boring the company she surrounded herself in. She had been raised better by a good sister who cared about her and taught her to be strong, by a dear mother who stumbled around the house drunk before noon and a bigot of a father who tossed insults and harsh reprimands around at-

Weiss exhaled deeply through her nose as she just slapped her forehead. Perhaps thinking of all this after having just gotten done having a little back and forth with her family back home wasn't leaving her in the most level-headed of moods. She needed some fresh air, some time to think. Sure, she'd miss class, but she'd just about expected that. She was in no mood to see Okuyasu where she knew she'd have to apo- where she'd have demanded an apology from him.

"I'm getting that fresh air…" Weiss sighed as she closed her light blue eyes and started forward again. Honestly, she couldn't hardly wait to get out onto Beacon's campus, get some fresh air and sunshine and just let all of this roll off her-

"Ooof!" As Weiss turned a corner she slammed her forehead into someone else's and stumbled back, a small bruise that was nonetheless highly visible against her near pure white skin forming on her face as Weiss' complexion went red from frustration.

"Oooh, this is not the day to just be randomly running into me, I am in no mood to stand for such- Blake?" Light blue eyes blinked in surprise as she looked down at the person she had run into. Indeed, she seemed to have run into the teammates who had help to start this day off on such a poor track, their collision apparently knocking some of her hair from her particular style to obscure her eyes slightly. Weiss was surprised to see tear stains run down her cheeks as the Schnee Heiress just stood there awkwardly. "B-Blake, are you okay? Should I just go ahead and get ouf of here or-"

"Weiss!" Blake exclaimed as she forced her way to her feet. "Thank Dust I ran into someone. Listen… something's come up and I need the team's help." Weiss blinked in surprise as she took this in, the Schnee Heiress taken aback slightly by how desperate Blake sounded at that particular moment.

"Blake, what's wrong, what happened?"

"It's The Fang." Weiss' breath cut short as Blake said this, the black haired faunus taking a deep breath as her hair stayed hooded over her eyes. "My boss from back when I was in The Fang… he's found me. He's here in the city right now and… and I'm afraid Weiss. I don't know what he's going to do or what he's got planned, but I know it can't be good. He's never been up to anything good in the time I've known him."

"A-Are you sure?" Weiss asked, uncertain as Blake just nodded.

"Positive. Listen… I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I'm not going to lie, he's very dangerous and very deadly…"

"Are you talking about Adam Taurus, Blake?" Weiss asked, a hitch in her voice as Blake just nodded. "Blake, he's a dangerous criminal! We need-"

"Weiss, please, I'm begging you." Blake reached forward and grasped Weiss by the shoulders in a move that startled the white haired young woman. "I know what we should do… but I know that if we try to bring Ozpin or Ironwood into this, then Adam will just escape and hunt me down. I can't live with him hanging over my head anymore… I didn't even want to bring you guys into it but… after the docks…" Weiss' breath caught in her throat as Blake turned her head up so that her eyes were just barely visible beneath her bangs. They were so red, the thought of how long and how hard Blake had cried for was on the forefront of Weiss' mind.

"I couldn't just leave you guys behind again. I promised you all that and… you all are my teammates… you, Weiss, are my friend." Weiss' light blue eyes went wide as Blake said this, before the black haired faunus continued. "I know we should tell the authorities about this… but I need to deal with this on my terms Weiss and I need to do it so he won't run away. Please, I just need you guys with me. Please?"

Weiss bit her lip as she listened to her teammate pour her heart out. Was this it? After all this time, was this Blake reaching out? Showing that she did consider her a friend…

If she wanted her to be a part of this, did she forgive her?

Weiss sighed as she smiled, and looked to her friend. "Alright Blake, I'm with you." The smile she got from the black haired faunus had told her she made the right decision almost immediately. "Let's go get the others and-"

"I'll go get Yang and Ruby. They should be in class, right?" Blake said with a firm nod as she pat Weiss on the shoulder. "I need one of us to go ahead and keep an eye on the warehouse he's hiding out in, to make sure he doesn't run off before we get there. Can I trust to you keep an eye and ear out for anything off, Weiss?" The Schnee heiress snorted slightly at the question as she just gave a proud nod.

"Of course. I may not be as stealthy as you, Blake, but I'm still a huntress." Blake nodded as she smiled back.

"Good. It's warehouse 80JJ6D down by the dockyards. You'll probably hear Ruby, Yang and I coming before you'll see us, so keep an eye and ear out." Weiss nodded as Blake reached out and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, an appreciative smile on her face. "And Weis… thank you. This means a lot to me." Weiss just smiled wide as Blake walked past her, a giddy feeling building up in Weiss as she nodded to herself.

"'Oh, you're being ridiculous Weiss, you just need think simple like me and talk to her'... suck it Okuyasu." The Schnee Heiress blushed as she shook her head. "I-I mean… I'll get an apology from the dolt later." Weiss quickly ran on her heels as she made for the Beacon airship dockyard to get a ride into Vale as soon as possible. She and the others had an appointment to keep with Blake's little boss, after all.

As Weiss hurried along the hall and towards one of Beacon's many exits, Blake's pace slowed to an absolute crawl as her bow twitched towards the direction Weiss had departed from. When Weiss was finally far away enough that even Blake's cat ears couldn't hear her, the black haired faunus turned towards a nearby corner.

"She's gone. Judging by her behavior, she didn't even notice you were there." She said in a calm, even tone as she crossed her arms under her chest, a disgruntled half-growl heard from the other side of the corner.

"Of course she didn't… no one ever notices me unless they're trying to step on me or get something out of me…" Slowly but surely, a very short figure, about Koichi's height, stepped out from behind the corner. Dressed in a maintenance uniform that may have been a size too big for him, this young man had very few distinguishing features aside from his height. His skin color was pallid and greasy, an all-together unsightly and disgusting appearance. This unhealthy look extended to his hair: thin and long, combed straight and off to the sides away from his face, with the dull black nonetheless shining in the lighting of Beacon's hallways.

His eyes were off; they looked sunken in and were dull, a slight slit running up the center of them as they darted around. The skin around his eyes were dark too, which all-together lent to the unpleasant atmosphere that just rolled off the young man in wave after wave. Finally, after a brief moment, a forked tongue poked forth from between his thin, colorless lips, a splash of red as the snake faunus took care to look around his surroundings.

No one ever took notice of him. Not unless they wanted to bully him or otherwise abuse him. But now, now he was part of something bigger. Now he had powerful friends and a strange,Stand Power of his own. Now not only could he get revenge on all the humans who'd ever wronged him, but now he could get everything he had ever wanted. A sharp frown suddenly formed across his face as he thought about it, a slight snarl to his lips as he pulled out his scroll. That was, if The Lock actually kept his end of the bargain…

* * *

Vale Merchant District, The City of Vale, The Previous Day

"It's a shame that Dan decided to leave so early. Really would've been a lot better with our team leader around…"

"You sure that's just not you missing your boy-toy, Mary?"

"Shut up Mag!"

The group of three teammates had a bit of a laugh at their gentle prodding as they sat gathered around a nearby cafe table. While they still felt nice and full from their meal at the new Mistrali restaurant, the Vale summer had borne down on them quite heavily the entire day. A nice little drink to refresh themselves, along with a sweet or two, was just what the doctor ordered for this continued wonderful day for the remnants of the team. As the three sat around and chatted amicably, Mag's hand reached out for his fork, still sticky from the little bits of pie he had used it to eat with, and gripped it harshly in his hand.

At first the gesture went unnoticed by any of the teens gathered; the other two figured that Mag, the glutton that he could be, was just going to tear into the rest of his pie, while Mag himself was too engrossed in the conversation to pay much mind to what really was a pretty easy and simple movement, one that he'd made several times in the past minute alone.

Thus is came to all of their great surprises when, out of nowhere, Mag threw his arm with the fork in hand back towards his face, shattered one of the lens of his glasses and brutally stabbed himself in the eye with the fork. The two other team members screamed in horror as they watched blood pour forth from Mag's wound, the glasses-wearing teen himself choking on bile from the pain he felt from the wound as his hand harshly tore the fork out of his eye before stabbing it in once again.

"Mag, what the fuck are you doing, stop!"

"I can't! I can't control my body!" Mag's other hand quickly reached out for a nearby knife and stabbed it into his leg, causing the teen to scream further before the fork again again stabbed into his ruined eye socket and wriggled around in there. Immediately Mary and her other teammate screamed for help, all the while a familiar, short figure stood just around the corner and watched the carnage with a wide grin on his face.

"Hehehe… fucking hunter scumbags. That'll teach 'em… no one will fuck with me ever again. Not now that I have this." The pallid young man turned his head to the side, where an almost exact double of Mag stood to his side, wildly swinging his clenched fists around in gestures that the real Mag repeated and resulted in the hunter-in-training's horrific injuries.

Toshikazu Hazamada was a small, small young man. Not just in the height department; he was petty and selfish , only ever thinking of himself and the minor, or even just perceived, slights that the people around him inflicted upon him. The snake faunus, poisonous in a way even the animal he took after could only dream of being, hated the humans around him and especially hated the huntsmen and huntresses who went around and flaunted how much better they thought they were than him, how much more noble they thought they were and, worst of all, how much respect that they got from the people that was never aimed at him.

Not that he had held much better feelings towards the members of his own race when they 'wronged' him. He had wanted to join The White Fang for the longest time, not for any consideration of their own philosophies but because the organization would give him what he needed to exact his petty, insignificant vengeance on the worms around him. Before the recruitment drive weeks ago, he had been continuously turned away due to his stature, lack of training and general weakness, assaults to his pride and ego that he hadn't forgotten: many of the faunus who he was now, ostensibly, allied with were now being treated by The Fang for mysterious wounds they had received.

All of this, this entire power trip that Toshikazu was on, all thanks to his Stand; Surface.

"Hey, listen, I think we've done enough here. The guy's pretty fucked up, so people are gonna be looking around for whatever caused it or for some help. Maybe we should get out of here while-"

"I'm your master and you're my Stand, we'll leave when I SAY WE LEAVE, got it?!" Toshikazu's forked tongue slithered out as he growled at Surface, the Stand flinched in Mag's form as it just nodded. After a moment of thought though, Toshikazu shrugged his shoulders. "We're done here. We've fucked that prick up and people are gonna be looking around for someone to help him or for whatever did it to him. We should get out of here while we can." Surface didn't even react to this little display, the Stand just nodded as it ceased its control over the real Mag's movements.

"Of course, let's get going." Surface readjusted Mag's glasses, the light glow of red eyes just behind the lens visible for but a moment as Toshikazu led the way away from the restaurant. Before they could get too far however, Toshikazu felt a hand grasp his shoulder, the short snake faunus flinched as he figured he'd been caught.

"Aaaah, Surface, just the man I wanted to see. Hee hee hee hee hee~" Immediately, Toshikazu relaxed, though his expression turned sour, as he turned his head to look at the asshole who had the balls to actually reach out and touch him.

"The Lock. What are you doing here?"

Names were a big no-no in the new White Fang. If anyone was captured at any point in time, then names could be used to rat out spies or people who would otherwise be safely hidden amidst the crowd of Vale against the forces arrayed against them. It, thus, became policy for the newest recruits to The White Fang to refer to each other by the names of their Stands. Even if they knew what one and another looked like, so long as they didn't divulge that information and just a codename as the 'limit' of what they knew, it was hoped that it'd prevent a domino effect from hitting the collection of Stand Users now affiliated with The Fang.

Tamami just grinned as he shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Come on, little old me can't just reach out to give a fellow inductee into The White Fang a friendly pat on the shoulder and a congratulations for a job well done teachin' some human hunters a lesson in manners?" Tamami kept whatever disgust he had for the man he knew as Surface to a minimum. In truth, the little shit was, by Tamami's own estimations, a freak; The Lock didn't key into any guilt for any of the actions he took against anyone. As far as he could tell, the kid had literally no empathy.

Still, that didn't have to show through in his performance, especially when he wanted something out of Surface for his own big plans.

"Still, your suspicions are well founded; I am here for something. Come on, let's find a cozy little bench to sit on while we talk, shall we?" Tamami grinned widely, his crooked rat teeth on full display, as he walked forward, hands in pocket. Toshikazu glared after the flat-topped man's back for a moment before he, hesitantly, followed him along. A short distance away the two small-statured men found themselves a little bench to sit at, Tamami easily slid into it as comfortable and relaxed as he could be while Toshikazu was much more hesitant and ensured that Surface was in between himself and Tamami.

"Now then, let's get right to business, seeing as how that seems to be your style, my little friend." Tamami shot Toshikazu a shit-eating grin while the pallid young man just glared at him. "I need you to work your Stand's magic in and around Beacon Academy. I gotta couple of marks that, if I get them, will make me a very wealthy man and'll tickle the fancy of a lot of The White Fang's higher ups. I've got pretty much every angle worked out and every little detail planned out, but I just need your cooperation to help me get Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee."

"Wait, the fuckin' traitor and the rich bitch?" Toshikazu scoffed as he glowered at Tamami. "What could you possibly have in mind, Lock, that could possibly round those two up." Tamami just clucked his tongue as he waggled a finger, a sly grin on his face.

"Now now, that's for me to know and you to find out once Adam Taurus is giving me a pat on the back and a promotion. Suffice it to say, I just need you to use your Stand to… persuade our little Schnee Heiress that her friend desperately needs her help and to move her along her way. I've already got a little catnip for our misbehaving, pretty little kitty to come along thanks to my contacts in The Fang. I just need you to do what you do best: go unnoticed by everyone, have your little drone there bump elbows with Blake and then use the knowledge he'll get to persuade her darling little friend to come out to a little warehouse that I'll designate for ya. Simple." Tamami shrugged his shoulders as he leaned back onto the bench, a wry grin on his face as he winked at Toshikazu.

"Why the fuck should I? You're just some trashy little scam artist. Why the Hell should I want to help you, Lock?" If Tamami was phased by Toshikazu's insults, he sure didn't look the part. Instead, the rat faunus just shrugged his shoulders as he reached into one of his pants pockets and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"Yeah, why should you? Like you said, I'm just a measly and weaselly little scam artist, there's not much I could possibly have that someone like you could be interested in." Tamami's grin grew wide and split his face as he unfolded the piece of paper, so that the top half was easily visible to Toshikazu. "I mean, except for Team JNPR's daily schedule at Beacon but… nah, you wouldn't be interested in that."

"... What?" Toshikazu's eyes went wide as dish plates as he looked at the unfolded paper. Sure enough, the official signs of the document were all there: Beacon's stamp, Team JNPR's name, Ozpin's name and several other flourishes that ensured the legitimacy of what Tamami had presented him with. All that the fold hid was the actual schedule itself, which Tamami had clearly held hostage. "How the Hell did you…"

"Hee hee hee hee… What can I say? I got friends everywhere in this city, Surface. I got friends in Beacon, I got friends in jail, I got friends in the Fang, heck, I even got friends who're interning for the Governing Council. You and I are alike in one way; we can both go pretty well unnoticed. However, for you, it's just because you're passed over by people who think you're beneath their notice. They pass me over because I act the part of someone who's supposed to be anywhere and everywhere." Tamami shook the paper teasingly as he shrugged. "I just called in a favor from some huntswoman attending Beacon. She swiped this schedule out from some kid named Ren while he was taking a nap."

Toshikazu's eyes bore down on the document held teasingly in front of him as he slowly reached out to grab it. Before he could, Tamami pulled back on it a bit, which caused the far more pallid of the two to glare at the con man with a fierce hatred in his eyes.

"Now now Surface, I can't just hand it over to you right now. No guarantee that you'd actually do what I wanted you to do if I handed over the goods first. If you want this, you're gonna have to do me my favor." Tamami gave a shit eating grin as he looked at the other Stand User, the snake-faunus hissed at the rat faunus as he clenched his fists.

"And why should I trust a fucking common crook to keep his word." Tamami flinched melodramatically at Toshikazu's accusation, a faux-hurt expression formed on his face as he reared back.

"My, Surface, you wound me so. You should know by now that my reputation is part of my business." Tamami grinned as he waved the paper in Toshikazu's face. "If I went about not giving clients what they paid for then, goodness me, I'd be out of my business pretty quick. Consider just how many people come to the Rat Boss for business, Surface; I'm good at keeping my word with my clientele." Toshikazu ground his teeth together as Tamami teased him with the paper some more, the young man's eyes darted to and fro to keep it within his sight.

"... How am I supposed to get it if you're going to be somewhere else dealing with them at this warehouse?" Tamami grinned as he realized he had Toshikazu hooked, as the rat-faunus just rolled his eyes.

"Send me a message when you successfully send Weiss Schnee off to the warehouse location I'll give ya here in a minute, and when I verify with a few friends that she's indeed left Beacon, I'll go ahead and send you the schedule over your Scroll. Easy, right?" Tamami's wide grin stretched across his face as Toshikazu began to relent, though he still eyed Tamami warily.

"What about getting into Beacon in the first place?"

"The usual way, my friend; Roman will get one of the lackeys to slip you in, give you a maintenance uniform to go along with your little droid over there and, hey, it'll be as if you've always been there to the saps running the admin over there. Same as always." Tamami waved it off as this really was the simplest part of his plan. "All you have to do is do your usual shtick of being as forgettable and unnoticeable as you can be, get your little buddy to pet or pat the kitty, and then manipulate the little ice princess into getting to my little trap. Simple, am I right or am I right?"

Toshikazu needed only a moment's more thought before he finally nodded, though not without a growl as he stared Tamami down. "If you don't give me this after I get done doing your dirty work Lock-"

"I know, I know. You'll hunt me down, somehow contrive a way for your Stand to touch me and then force me to gouge something out that shouldn't be gouged out. Got it." Tamami slipped up out of his seat as he stretched his back, a wide grin on his face. "It's warehouse 80JJ6D down at the dockyards, seems like a natural place where what Miss Belladonna and Schnee's gonna think is going down will. Once they're there, I'll take care of them. You just get to worry about getting this little itty bitty schedule once you've done your part and then… I dunno, do whatever creepy shit it is you're looking to do." Tamami grinned back at Toshikazu as he gave him a nod. "Meet up with Torchwick, tell him that you need to get into Beacon real secretive like. Tell him Lock sent you ahead; he'll get you to who you need to get to." With that, Tamami wandered on off, likely looking to collect on other favors to secure his trap. Toshikazu just sat there for a moment, stewing in his dislike for the conman, before he finally stood up.

"Let's get going then…" He hissed out as his forked tongue flickered out of his mouth. He'd get The Lock back for belittling him later, after he'd gotten what he wanted.

* * *

Back to The Present

Toshikazu hurriedly mashed in the buttons to send the message ahead to Tamami, eager to get his pay off for doing his half of the work. He had slowly become more and more agitated as time went by as the sociopathic faunus began to suspect more and more that Tamami was going to stab him in the back. When he saw that the rat faunus had received his message, Toshikazu's anger and ire grew more and more as a handful of minutes passed by without the rat faunus answering him.

"That piece of shit. I knew it. I knew he thought he could get away with screwing with me. I'll show him… I'll show him and anyone else who thinks they can fuck with me. Surface, we're going back to Vale, we're going to find that fucking thief and-" A ring on his Scroll broke Toshikazu out of his spiraling hatred as he turned his attention back to the screen. A message with an attachment had been sent from Tamami. The message itself read as sarcastic and smarmy, but otherwise congratulated him for a job well done. The attachment…

The attachment was a clear picture of the entire document of Team JNPR's schedule here at Beacon. Slowly but surely, a warped grin formed on Toshikazu's face as he took the schedule in, as he turned his head to face his Stand.

"Surface… get out of that bitch's skin. We've got what we need… it's time for me to get what I want." Blake merely nodded as, slowly but surely, the outer appearance of the black haired faunus melted away, replaced by an Atlesian Knight-130. It would take him some time to set this up, it'd take him some time to get close enough to get what he wanted… but when he did. When he got her… oh…

No one would ever be able to look down on Toshikazu Hazamada ever again. No, everyone would have to look up to him, to respect him. They'd never be able to step on him ever again…

* * *

Outside Warehouse 80JJ6D, The City of Vale, A Couple Hours Later.

Amber eyes stared down the front end of the warehouse as Blake slowly but surely descended from a nearby rooftop onto the streets of Vale. As soon as she had gotten the message from Adam, as soon as she knew that he was here for her, she had booked it from the library towards the supposed meeting location. She had even shoved some poor bastard out of the way in her rush, a young maintenance man who carried a broken Atlesian Paladin-130 around, likely from one of the training rooms.

Had she been of her own mind then, she might've stopped and apologized. However, here and now, she wasn't. Right now, her mind was focused on what she needed to do, what she had to do. Which was… which was…

Blake stopped short of the warehouse, her amber eyes wide as she cursed under her breath. She really didn't know what she was doing. She had allowed her fear, panic and her residual feelings towards The Fang to drive her… no, it wasn't even her feelings towards The Fang. She had accepted that they'd fallen in on the wrong side, that now they were more terrorists than the fighters for civil liberties she had once envisioned them.

It wasn't The Fang that drew her here, but Adam. Brothers help her though, that still left her without much of an idea of what she was doing here or what she would do now that she was here. Did she think that maybe she could finally talk Adam out of all of this? To talk past the violent shell that had formed around the man she had once held dearly as her leader, her mentor and… her partner. Did she think she was going to stop him if he couldn't be talked down? Did she honestly think she'd improved that much that now she could stand toe to toe with Adam and not lose that fight?

Did she just want to be here, guided by how that miserable feeling in her gut that had hung around ever since she abandoned him. Did she want his forgiveness? Did she want to forgive him? Did she want to try and preserve their connection or did she want to once and for all break things off. Blake whined slightly as she leaned her head against the warehouse door, a slight reverberation as her flesh met the metal. Even after all this time, when she had made new friends and had worked, actively, against The Fang itself, against him, Adam could have this affect on her. However, it there was one thing she was certain of, if there was one thing she knew to be absolutely true here, it was that whatever she was here to do, she had to do it without the rest of her Team.

The sinking feeling returned to her gut as Blake frowned at that thought. Already, not two months after the docks incident, was she effectively running from her team again. This time though it wasn't because she was afraid of them though. She was afraid for them.

Afraid of what Adam would do to them if she couldn't dissuade him from his course of action. Weiss especially. If Adam got his hands on Weiss… there was no telling how much the Schnee girl would suffer before he finally did away with her. Amber eyes firmed in resolve as she looked to the warehouse. Whatever she would try to do in here, whatever her purpose was, one thing had to be clear; Adam couldn't hurt her friends. He couldn't be allowed to and he couldn't be given the opportunity to. She'd settle this, here and now, so that they could be safe… one way or another, all of this with Adam was ending, even if it was without them.

Despite her sense of purpose, she Blake still felt that miserable feeling in her stomach. She had still felt bad for having left them behind again, when she had promised them, her friends and teammates, that she'd make sure to make them a part of her life. Heck, they had already caught her almost sneaking away once in what lead to the highway fight. Said fight immediately brought Team JOJO to mind and Blake just laughed. There was no way she could ask such fresh friends to help her either, if she hadn't been willing to bring along her own team.

Even if Crazy Diamond or The Hand would've been useful… Adam was… Adam was something else. A fact that she knew all too well. Whether that something else was the monster she thought she'd glimpsed on the train that day or the lost man of noble purpose she had always thought and hoped he was, he wasn't something she'd be willing to expose any of her friends to.

Pushing aside her heavy thoughts, Blake took a deep breath in through her nose as she rubbed her hands for a brief moment, before she pulled the warehouse door open, before she slipped stealthily inside. Even if Adam had heard her come in, she might still be able to secure some kind of advantage, one way or another, by keeping herself out of his direct sight. That way, if things went bad, then at least she might have some kind of recourse to fall back on other than fighting him.

The warehouse was large, very large. Open glass top windows on the roof had let in a considerable amount of light as floor upon floor of walkways and ramps maneuvered around a room of numerous, tall shelves, with stacks upon stacks of boxes and crates fitted in and labeled. Honestly, considering it had been Adam who had drawn her here, Blake had expected the meeting to be considerably darker. Though, perhaps this was Adam's thinking too; that Blake would benefit far more from a shadowy meeting between them with her eyes and natural stealth than he himself would. Still, even given that considerations, the way the windows had been left open for this meeting time, just a while past noon, had left the warehouse quite bright.

As Blake sneaked through as best she could, ducking through shelves and stacks of boxes, she kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Adam or his entourage, the black haired faunus quite keen on not being caught out by her former ex before she'd even laid eyes on the guy.

That was when it happened. She spotted him.

Her bow went stock still as her amber eyes keyed into a figure, standing back towards her in one of the shadowed out portions of the warehouse. There had been no mistaking that silhouette though, no mistaking those tell-tale horns of his nor the outline of the mask that appeared just off the side of his face. As far as she could tell, she hadn't been spotted by either him or anyone yet. Good, that was… that was a good start. Blake slowly clambered around as she found a slightly precarious spot to hide in, balanced amidst some crates and shelves in the warehouse that would keep her hidden and, more importantly, allow her voice to carry around to keep from being given away by hearing. With a long, drawn out breath, Blake psyched herself up for this reunion before she frowned.

"Alright Adam, I'm here. What do you want?"

Silence met her at first. Really, Blake had expected that; Adam was nothing if not one with a flare for the dramatic at times. It had been part of what drew her in, what charmed her about him. He really did seem like he was a main character from one of her adult literature books… and when she'd been younger, that attitude, that appeal, had been enough to draw her right into his sphere.

As the moments passed, however, and Adam seemed stubbornly set on not moving or not speaking, Blake narrowed her eyes in realization: something was wrong.

An impression that had been strongly backed up once "Adam" fell over into the light, revealing a mannequin that had been dressed up in a wig, some fake horns and a facsimile of his usual outfit. Blake recoiled slightly at the sight as the echoes reverberated, and suddenly, a weaselly little laugh echoed throughout the building.

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee… sorry there kitty, but I'm afraid your squeeze couldn't be here today. Turns out he's actually been a little bit too busy actually running his cut of The White Fang to come and get you back himself. It's mostly just folks like me who're lookin' to bring you in." The voice laughed again as she heard some faint footsteps moving around, a shadow randomly cast itself along a wall, a tall figure, before it quickly disappeared again. "I gotta say, I gotta thank my friends in The Fang. That message I constructed from their stories must've been on point for you to have bought into it hook line and sinker like this. I might even have to give them a little something extra once this is all said and done."

A severe mix of emotions hit Blake all at once as this smarmy, self-assured, cocky voice echoed throughout the warehouse. Embarrassment from having been so easily manipulated through her fucking ex of all people, frustration that she hadn't seen something like this coming from further away, self-loathing that she had cut her friends and teammates out of this for absolutely nothing, thus putting their relation back several squares again! Finally, there was anger. Blake was fucking furious with this smug sounding bastard that shared the warehouse with her, as amber eyes narrowed dangerously as she pulled out Gambol Shroud.

"You'd better hope you find me before I find you, whoever you are. You won't enjoy what I'll do if I get the drop on you." Blake wrapped the ribbon of Gambol Shroud securely around her left hand as she gripped the gun's holster with her right, her threat met with titters of that weaselly laughter again as she kept her eyes peeled.

"Oh, my pretty little kitty. I don't need to find you to deal with you. Not when you're this close. Hell, you could be in one of the warehouses next door or a few blocks down and it wouldn't matter; so long as I can hear you, so long as I have a general idea of where you are, you're within the range of my Stand." Blake cursed slightly as she maneuvered carefully around, as she attempted to find other vantage points from which to look for this Fang member.

'Stand User huh? Should've figured this would happen sooner or later.' Blake frowned as her amber eyes darted about. 'It doesn't matter. If his range is what he says it is then, by what Josuke and Jotaro have said about Stands, it's going to be pretty weak to be able to move so far away from him. If I just don't' let myself get caught up by whatever it is or its ability is, then I should be able to put this bastard down, nice and quick.'

"If that's the case, then why aren't I seeing either you or your little Stand. Surely if you've got something with that kind of range it's gotta have me in its sights by now. So let's see it… if you're not bluffing, that is." Blake had worked in and around the sleaze of The White Fang for a long time now she'd gotten used to dealing with them and their egos. Just judging by the tone and sound of this guys voice, he was full of himself. A little taunt here and there, a little poke and prod should see him moving about to work his way towards her, or his Stand, one way or another. From there, she could deal with him.

When she didn't hear a frustrated grunt or some exclamation of how mistaken she was and, instead, was only welcomed by more of that laughter of his, Blake faltered for a bit.

Then the papers started to fall into the warehouse.

Blake stumbled for a brief moment and caught herself before she could make any noise. From the roof, paper fluttered into the building, as if blown through the open window tops of the warehouse by an errant breeze before it scattered itself amidst the various layers, turns and corners of the building. Blake, a moment of curiosity having overtaken her, snatched one of the sheets of paper from the air and eyed it warily.

It was… a news story? From Atlas?

"I'm not sure which one you'll be seeing first, so you'll have to pardon me if the story doesn't match up quite right. I'm sure I'll get around to it soon enough though." Another errant chuckle grated against her nerves as Blake scowled at her surroundings. "This one's from a few years ago: some brat from the Belyy Family in Atlas got kidnapped and ransomed back to her family by The Fang. Pretty straightforward, except for this little hitch; The Fang wasn't willing to accept any money from the family themselves. Any ransom had to come from Jacques Schnee himself… and boy howdy, that bastard was stingy. It took weeks before he finally came around to giving The Fang the amount it wanted and by then that poor little girl was absolutely traumatized. The Fang claimed it targeted her because her dad had been considering large investments in the Schnee Dust Company to expand some mines where, in exchange, the Schnee Dust Company would exclusively use their transports for sea trade, which would've inevitably drawn in more faunus labor. After all, gotta keep those costs down, right?"

She'd remembered hearing about this. After one of her own missions in Atlas, she had later heard about how the kidnapping and ransom had gone down. In truth, The White Fang couldn't have been more satisfied with the outcome. Not only had they eventually gotten the ransom they had wanted out of the Schnees, but they had also helped Jacques Schnee alienate himself and his family from a whole slew of allies… for a time. It was never long before his money would bring them back into his orbit.

However, it ensured that no one actually cared much when tragedy did strike at the Schnees and their Dust Company more directly. No matter how many fake, put upon promises of aid and reassurances were given to the Schnees, in time, their falsity, the level of which people truly didn't care, eventually would shine through.

Still, why this person had brought this up confused Blake and, before she could set about racking her brain for a reason why, the voice went on; listing off story after story of individuals who'd been caught up in The Fang's movements in Atlas, of people they'd victimized who, directly or indirectly, had been partnered with the Schnees. After several minutes of this song and dance the voice stopped. Blake figured that whoever it was reading this has given up after none of the stories had earned even the slightest reaction from her.

"Ledyanoy Belyy was one of Weiss Schnee's little gal pals back during that time, apparently."

Blake paused in the middle of moving between crate to crate, the sudden change in topic having stunned her as she could practically feel the smug grin that must've been on this bastard's face.

"Yeah. A few Fang operatives I got to talking to said that was the reason why they targeted her above most other members of the family; while dear old daddy Belyy had been the one doing business with the Schnees, it was his daughter's nice little friendship with young Miss Schnee that had drawn the two families into the other's orbit. Figured, hey, it might help get that rotten bastard Jacques Schnee off his ass if it was a friend of his daughters who we'd kidnapped. Though I can't say I'm surprised it still took him so long, considering the things you hear about the guy."

Blake was about to bite back, ask what exactly his game was, but he continued, his voice echoing through the warehouse. Slowly but surely, each previous news story was given a connection some person or some distant relative to Weiss, some friend or acquaintance or even someone who had just approached her as part of a formal occasion. Blake knew for a fact that most operations like this that The Fang did weren't particularly aimed at Weiss by a wide and large margin, the entire family was targeted in this way….

But even knowing this, even with this rationalization, Blake had to bite her lip as Tamami kept going and going..

"What's your point?" Blake finally shouted as she ducked around, still on the lookout for this bastard. "I know The White Fang did horrible things, things that couldn't be justified even with how noble our mission started off as. I even know that Weiss and her family were forced to suffer because of her father… she told me…" Blake growled a bit as she shoved the growing pit of ill-ease aside. "But that… that doesn't have anything to do with me! I didn't do any of that! You throwing this in my face has no point!"

Meanwhile, secreted off to the another part of the warehouse, Tamami sat in a rather secure and hard to find position. Being so small and being a rat faunus gave him quite the proclivity for getting himself into tight, hard to find places. In his hand, a miniature Lock sat, as Tamami carefully examined its movements.

When The Lock stayed completely settled, not moving an inch in response to Blake's words, Tamami grinned. He had more information, but it would've been all for nothing if Blake honestly didn't feel bad for any of this, or if his estimation of her conscious had been off. With The Lock confirming the lie in Blake's words, Tamami got the next part of his script ready as he produced a handful of accounts he'd garnered from various members of The Fang.

"You know, it's funny you should say that. Did you know that because those Atlesian businessmen are so wary of The Fang and potential relations with the Schnee family that they hire a lot of security? You probably do; I mean, it can't just be the SDC that has access to all those Atlesian Knights and guards, right? Everyone else has to be taking precautions too, right?" Tamami's grin stretched across his face as Blake just continued to sneak around, now doing her best to just ignore the voice that echoed across the warehouse. "Funny thing too: the Belyy's, in preparation for their dealings with the SDC, were one of those families to arm up in preparation for what they Fang retaliation they figured was coming. It would've made it so much of a hassle to get to little miss Ledyanoy if all those guards and Atlesian Knights were running interference.

"Which is why I'm sure Adam Taurus was glad that a group of thirty White Fang members coordinated a little hit and run on the Belyy family's shipping yards. Thirty guards injured or otherwise incapacitated, fifty Atlesian Knights broken and destroyed beyond repair, three Mantle-Class Transports sunk to the bottom of the harbor and, of course, several hundred pounds of Dust lit up in a blaze. That just brought all the security for the family right to the dockyards where they figured The Fang was focusing its attention."

Blake's mouth went dry.

"Funny thing that you don't feel like you had any hand in any of this. After all, my little kitty, you were one of those White Fang operatives that ended up participating in that little bait and switch. It's what got the Boss' attention on you, wasn't it? How dedicated you were to the cause, how willing you were to immediately jump in and start doing whatever work The Fang asked of you."

"T-That's…"

"Oh and lookie here. Now, the little story I listed off after the Belyy's was just a little bit of fun, just a little something I tossed in to entertain myself cause, well, even if I didn't particularly care about The White Fang before I got hired, I do happen to enjoy watching it get taken to Jacques Schnee and his family. Same as any faunus… or well, most faunus, considering present company." Tamami laughed again, the sound reverberating across the warehouse as Blake just glared around. "However, you do key in to a fair number of these. Shall I list them, kitty-cat?"

"Go to Hell you miserable bastard!" Blake shouted back even as she tried to squash her anger against the bastard who'd drawn here into here, only to taunt her with… with all of this.

"Sounds like a resounding yes to me." Tamami barked off with another laugh before he quickly rolled into the next story. By this point, Blake had even forgone her stealthier approach, her frustration, anger and slowly building self-loathing driving her on to try and find this bastard so that she could shut him up. Yet she couldn't and, for her effort, the story's kept on rolling; how Blake had been in one bait and switch operation, how Blake had deactivated some defense mechanism that had kept The Fang from making a key strike, how she had robbed several important deliveries that ruined the lives of those who orbited around the Schnee family.

Combined with the previous stories, of how these people had related to Weiss and her family and how they'd been harmed by it…

Whoever this bastard was, he was throwing all of Blake's thoughts right into her face. Every bit of doubt that had ever come to the surface whenever she was around Weiss, every reason she had thought she couldn't possibly speak to Weiss when she tried and every little memory that came to the surface that convinced her that Weiss had every reason to hate her.

Except, when it came from her, she could do her best to rationalize it away. To shield her mind from the grief that these thoughts had meant to inflict upon her. To try and mitigate the damage. This man, this Stand User, was taking all of this and doing her no such favors: in fact, he seemed to relish directly connecting Blake to each of these little incidents, making her complicity as clear as possible so that there could be no doubt in her mind as to how low she had been, what scum she had been, while she served under The Fang.

And Blake couldn't stand it.

"Shut up! What do you even know!? I didn't kidnap any of those people. I didn't kill any of them! I didn't hurt them or force them to do business with the Schnee Dust Company. I… I didn't mean, no, it wasn't me! I didn't do any of it!"

"Well, neither did Adam Taurus, but you seemed awfully keen on breaking ties with him over all this." Blake stopped in place as Tamami answered back, the black haired Faunus stopped dead in her tracks as the man said this. The Lock had stayed perfectly still even in his slightly shaking hands as Blake rambled on a moment before, and Tamami knew that he had struck gold. "Yes. Adam wasn't really involved directly in a lot of these operations either. In fact, Adam was even too busy to take part in most of the little operations you were performing for The Fang. The guy was a boss after all; he had bigger fish to fry most of the time."

"That's different! Adam was our leader in The White Fang! He knew what all of this would do and he had to approve of all of it…"

"And what, you didn't?" Tamami laughed louder as, seemingly at random, Blake leveled Gambol Shroud in the vague direction of one of his echoes and fired it off. "What? I'm not wrong, am I? Or did you really not think any of your missions through to their logical conclusion? Oh, distracting all the security for the Belyy family couldn't possible be used as an opening for that ransom operation The Fang had been looking into. Oh, robbing this person couldn't possibly ruin their lives. Disabling this security which was meant to keep The Fang from attacking couldn't possibly lead to an attack by The Fang. I mean, you aren't that stupid, right?

"Actually, let me answer my own question: you aren't. You wanna know how I know, kitty-cat?" Blake snarled as she leveled her gun again and fired once more, as Tamami just laughed. "I know because my Stand, The Lock, can tell me when you're lying. Then again, I doubt I'd need it to tell me that, or to tell me how you're actually feeling; it's plain as day judging by your little voice and your actions. Hell, if I got a good look on your face, I have a good feeling I know what I'd be seeing too. No, you aren't stupid… well, maybe you're trying to be willfully ignorant, but that seems like the effort's not paying off to well, aye?" Tamami sniggered as Blake fired off another few rounds, the rat faunus taking the opportunity to sneak into a hiding spot a little farther away while the blast of the gun and the rebound of the bullets echoed throughout the warehouse.

"Clearly they aren't. I mean, just look at you; out here on word that Adam Taurus had come from your hide, shooting at phantoms and so riled up because I'm throwing all of this into your face. You know what you've done, what you're responsible for, and you just can't help but feel that weight constantly, can you?" Tamami grinned as he slithered about the warehouse. All he needed now was sight on Blake. If he could get that, he'd see the moment, the moment she'd crack, the moment she'd be most vulnerable to the power of The Lock. The rat faunus cast his eyes up to the glass-window panels on the ceiling and saw a shadow, standing just off to the side. Upon meeting its sight, there was a nod and a hand gesture that flashed all ten digits several times.

Weiss Schnee was on her way. If the gunshots hadn't already alerted her, then they would soon enough.

"What do you even know? You've only just joined The Fang, you didn't see it degrade like I did, see it turned from its noble purpose. It isn't my fault that it lost its way… and when I figured that out, I ran." Blake by this point had all but ran out into the open, her mind frenzied as it tried to seek out this rat bastard who had taunted her so viciously and so personally. "I feel terrible for what The Fang did, but Weiss-"

"Say, humor me; do you think he beat her?"

Blake stopped in her tracks as Tamami suddenly spoke up.

"E-Excuse me?"

"Yeah. I mean, Jacques Schnee seems the type, am I right? He doesn't seem to much care for the well-being of the people around him; works his workers half to death in unsafe labor conditions, has all these not-so-private private tiffs with employees, advisers or business partners who fail him, generally all around utterly unpleasant human being." Tamami stroked his chin as he grinned. At this point, he was just fucking with Blake, trying to drill right down and poison her thoughts against her. He'd thrown his material at her and it had stuck… now he just had to make it worse. Had to really get in there and turn her own thoughts against her.

"I can imagine it, can't you? Dear Papa Schnee gets home after a long day of dealing with Fang incursions against the SDC and his business partners, and he needs something to vent his frustrations on. After all, he's rich; if they get too upset or cry too loudly he can just buy them something to make up for it, right? Who needs to be a good parent when you've got that much dosh, aye? He seems like the type, right? Hell, I've seen more than my fair share of rich assholes like that" Tamami let loose another series of weaselly chuckles as he said this, all the while Blake's amber eyes darted about.

Inadvertently, Tamami had stumbled onto something that had been on Blake's own mind. That night, when Weiss… she had said that the efforts of The White Fang had poisoned her own family's relationships, had made her father something terrible. She couldn't have meant… she would've said…

But why would she have said it then. After all, at best, she and Ruby were friends, and that was stretching it for what their relationship was at the time, and while the Schnee Heiress and Yang had been at best neutral when Weiss wasn't haranguing Ruby, Blake and Weiss…

"Even if that's true… it doesn't… it wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything to her. I didn't do anything to people she cared about." Blake's voice barely registered above a whisper at this point and yet it carried in echoes throughout the warehouse. Tamami could only smile when he heard it; pitiful, on the verge of breaking, emotions overwhelming her as her excuses and justifications fell away in the face of her guilt. Tamami knew this little psychological dance all too well. He'd played it plenty before and now, with The Lock, he could play it all the better. Tamami looked up again and saw some vigorous nods from yet more shadows. He needed to wrap the little show up; the other main attraction was set to show up very, very soon. The rat faunus slowly crawled into place; a nice, safe spot where he could see Blake Belladonna as the huntress-in-training just stared down at the floor. She hadn't even bothered to continue to look for him, as a defeated look just sat heavily on her features.

Tamami just grinned at the sight; if there was one thing he loved about playing these sorts of psychological games, it was that moment right there. When he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had broken his opponent. Now, he only had to set up for the coup-de-grace.

"No. You're right. It isn't your fault. All those missions you took. All those guards you injured or, let's be frank, killed. The property you destroyed and the livelihoods you ruined. The attention you drew, the frustrations and aggravations you caused. Absolutely none of it could've reflected back on your friend. Sure, it might've set things up, but it wasn't your hand that had taken part in those events right? So you're in the clear. There's no way she could blame you or hate you if any of this came up, right?

"After all, you only put the gun into Adam Taurus' hand. Anytime he pulled the trigger was on him, not you, right? Just because you got Papa Schnee so hot and bothered that he'd start reaching for switch, it doesn't mean that you hurt your friend, right?"" Tamami laughed again, the taunting laughter pinged against Blake's minds as it echoed off the wall. "I mean, that's totally true, right? She'd understand that, right? You absolutely believe that, right? Weiss would believe you, right?""

Blake didn't speak, instead only offering a weak nod. As she did though, The Lock stayed stock still in his hands as Tamami grinned.

"Well then; here's your opportunity to prove yourself right, kitty-cat. After all, your little friend should be showing up right about oh, I'd say- now."

Blake's eyes went wide as dinner plates as the black haired faunus quickly stood up at the announcement, shock clear on her face. Before she could even move, the warehouse door slid open and, true to his word, Weiss Schnee stormed into the building, Myrtenaster drawn at the ready as her light blue eyes scanned the building.

"Guys! I heard gunshots, don't' tell me I'm the only one who showed up… Blake?" Blake slowly shook her head as her eyes met Weiss', the Schnee Heiress confused as she slowly slid out of her combat stance into a less tense one, though it was clear she was still on edge. "Okay, I'm glad to see that the gunshots weren't a big fight breaking out but… where's Adam Taurus, for that matter, where are Yang and Ruby?"

Blake only continued to stare as, slowly but surely, she felt that feeling, that terrible feeling, well up in her chest.

'What… what's Weiss doing here? She shouldn't be here! I meant to come alone…' Soon, that thought piled on top of the others as, slowly but surely, a cascade of misery began to overtake Blake, the sight of Weiss bringing all of her horrid thoughts and feelings forward. 'Of course I did. I tried to just run, again, like I do from everything. From The Fang, from my actions, from all the harm I've inflicted on everyone… if I had been caught or captured, what would Ruby and Yang have thought if they never found out or, worse, if they did find out.

'And Weiss. Now she's here with an enemy Stand User somewhere in the building, between the two of us we're probably some of the most wanted people in The Fang. She's here now instead of with our entire Team or whatever reinforcements Ozpin could find because I didn't want to feel worse by getting any of them hurt by Adam… That's really it, isn't it…'

Tears streamed down Blake's face as she bit her lip, which caused Weiss to flinch.

'It's never been about protecting them or keeping the record straight, it's never been about what's right… it's about protecting myself. From The Fang, from them… from my own actions… Brothers, I'm so pathetic… everything he said was true… I'm… I'm…'

In that moment, Weiss and Blake shielded their eyes as a blinding flare of light erupted from Blake's chest. A moment later, light blue and amber eyes turned back to see what had just happened, and both went wide with surprise at what they saw. An old fashioned lock had just formed, sticking halfway out of Blake's torso. The lock was tremendous and the device easily ran the length of her collarbone down to the top of her stomach and jutted out several inches. Blake's knees shook under the sudden change in weight as she kept herself, barely, on her feet, as Weiss suddenly ran forward.

"Blake, what is that?!"

"Stay away from me Weiss!"

The white haired huntress flinched back as Blake screamed at her, the sight of Weiss' surprise causing Blake to immediately regret her sudden action. That regret seemingly funneled down right into the Stand on her chest as the lock grew in size and weight.

"Guilty." Blake and Weiss snapped their gazes towards a stack of crates upon which stood the short, flat-topped, weaselly Stand User Tamami Kobayashi; a huge, shit-eating grin on his face as he looked down at his two marks. "I imagine that's the word that's digging around in that pretty little head of yours right now, right Miss Belladonna? Well, don't you worry about that. You won't have to worry about that for too long; once we have you and your little friend there, I'll be glad to pop The Lock off of you and let us be on our merry little way."

"You bastard, what did you do to… we?" Weiss anger faded slightly, replaced by slight confusion. Suddenly, the warehouse door slammed behind the two of them as the two huntresses' eyes snapped back to the entrance of the warehouse, where several White Fang thugs had entered, malicious grins on their faces. Glass shattered and fell onto the warehouse floor as several more lept down from the glass tops of the ceiling, as each landed in various positions surrounding the two young women and separated them from Tamami.

"Yes, we. You see, even if I managed to get The Lock on both of you which, hey, you just wait Ice Queen, I'll get to you here before too long." Tamami sent Weiss a disgusting grin as the white haired girl just glared at him, before he continued. "I wouldn't' be all that confident in wrangling you two and bringing you in… the amount of weight I'd have to have The Lock put on you two would likely lead to you all becoming… hmmm, damaged goods, I'd say. Best rewards in The Fang are for both of you alive and mostly unharmed, after all.

"So, I decided I'd keep calling in some favors and offer some of my new friends in The Fang a cut of the reward if they agreed to help me out here." The various White Fang goons nodded and laughed as they all brought out various weapons. Though the pair of young women couldn't see behind their masks, they had to assume that they all had a look none too dissimilar to Tamami's; glee and excitement. "Now, from what I've been hearing, these guys can tend to be pretty useless against you all when you get together but I figure, Hell, if it's just two of you… or, heh, excuse me-" Tamami motioned to Blake, whose Lock had grown even larger with the passage of time, "one of you, they should do alright.

"So good news; you both came here looking for Adam Taurus and, rest assured, before too long you're both going to get to meet him. Won't that be nice? I think it sounds nice. Hee hee hee hee hee hee…" Tamami's gaze darkened as his crooked teeth showed through an unusually wide and malicious smile, as he snapped his fingers and pointed to the two huntresses in training.

"Alright boys and girls; let's earn our payday."

 **-To Be Continued- Lock and Key (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Tamami Kobayashi**

 **Stand Name: [The Lock]**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: E**

 **Range: A**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: E**

 **Developmental Potential: E**

 **Guilt-tripping: By making someone feel guilt, Tamami can then summon The Lock and hook it to the person. Afterward, their guilt on it is multiplied continuously, represented by The Lock growing bigger and heavier, until the victim becomes so guilty they commit suicide. This does not even require the victim to be guilty about something they did. The Lock's weight, growing with the amount of guilt, can kill the victim even if they don't commit suicide. However, if the person doesn't feel guilty at all, The Lock doesn't work on them. Alternatively, should the source of a person's guilt be absolved, the Lock will automatically deactivate.**

 **Also if someone with a lock on them attacks him, the damage will be reflected on the attacker.**

 **Lie detection: The Lock is shown to be capable of detecting dishonesty in a person. Though this power isn't elaborated on in much detail, Tamami explains that The Lock will move if it senses honesty, and stay still if it senses dishonesty.**

 **Also Known As: What kind of lie detector DOESN'T move in response to a lie?**

 **Also Known As: Remember when this guy wanted to sexually assault Koichi's mom and sister? He wasn't even the worst guy to become a secondary ally in Diamond is Unbreakable. Crazy.**

* * *

 **Alright, so yeah, names. Really simple here; I figured that if I was keeping all the character's various characteristics in check, then renaming folks like Bucciarati, Tamami, etc. would've taken up a lot of time and energy that could've been better spent outlining more important parts of the plot and actually writing the story. I did make a compromise though: characters more directly linked to the Asiatic cultures of Mistral will have their names reversed (Ren Lie, Higashikata Josuke, Nijimura Okuyasu, etc.) while others who've lived in places like Vale will have it more western standard (Yang Xiao Long, Tamami Kobayashi, etc.). Plus, unlike with coming up with history and culture, thinking up OC names that would fit both the setting and the original names of the characters would've been a little bit outside my interest and would've quickly veered off into busy work. All for something we all would largely ignore as we called these characters by their original names in our heads.**

 **Not a lot to say here; we see how The White Fang's operations are working in this more integrated setting and we see how Tamami's working his connections and information in this particular setting. Given crime in Vale is more organized and big league than what seemed to manifest in Morioh-cho in canon (which just seemed to be small-time gigs and murder) I reckon that this universe's Tamami would be a little more dangerous. We'll more fully explore this next chapter when I discuss good old Character Economy which, in a crossover, is vital to understand.**

 **Also, I'd like to take this time to thank you all once again; over the course of the last update, we hit 25,000 Hits for this fic. Now, of course, standard asterisks apply; lots of people just hitting the name of the fick and not the arrows, taking them to the first chapter and artificially inflating the number, yadda yadda. Still I figure I can't really measure out how much of that is true and it's easier to just go with the numbers so once again thank you all for your support and words, I do greatly appreciate all of you who've taken the time out of your days to read this very silly little fanfic of mine and who've, further, gone on to review it.**

 **I'd also like to thank Space Cowboy of TV Tropes for recommending this fanfiction in JoJo's and RWBY's fanfic rec pages. It's a pretty big honor and, whoever you might be, I absolutely appreciate the gesture.**

 **Have a good week ya'll. If you're all on Spring Break, enjoy yourselves.**


	14. Lock and Key (Act 3)

"Alright boys and girls; let's earn our payday."

Blake and Weiss recoiled as the White Fang goons slowly descended upon the pair, swords, clubs and blackjacks at the ready. No guns by the looks of it; if Weiss had to guess, they had not wanted to risk killing their 'payday' and would just be content with beating them into submission. The Schnee Heiress quickly backed up to Blake, the white-haired girl's face formed into a sharp frown as she looked around.

"Blake, are you gonna be okay to fight? With that thing on your chest…" Weiss' sentence was cut off as she took a good look at her teammates; the girl looked utterly defeated and miserable, her amber eyes downcast as she looked down at The Lock as it sat perched upon her torso. Weiss blinked when she saw, with her own eyes, as The Lock grew ever so slightly, although she attempted to pass this off as a trick of the light or her own mistake.

"I-I… I dunno Weiss… I don't think I can. I mean, I got into this mess into the first place…" Blake's tone was dim as she spoke, though Weiss just grunted as she knelt down and, with some effort, managed to pull Blake to her feet.

"Which is why we're going to get out of it together. You and me, teammates." Weiss loaded a bit of ice dust into Myrtenaster's loading mechanism. The black haired faunus turned her gaze to Weiss, as she just snorted in derision at her words.

"Yeah, teammates… some teammate I am. I didn't even tell any of you I was coming here, just like last time. Now you have to fight to get both of us out of here because I was too damned stupid to think ahead for once… like always." This time, Weiss knew her eyes played no trick on her as she saw The Lock grow in size on Blake's torso again, as the Schnee Heiress just grimaced as the two were enclosed upon.

"Blake, please, snap out of it. We can… we can discuss this with Ruby and Yang when we're safe. For now, we just need to focus on getting out of this alive, okay? So just… just fight for a little bit and then we can just go back to Beacon, alright?" Weiss didn't have time to stop to see if her words had gotten through Blake's dismal mood as the two had run out of time to chat. The White Fang goon squad had gotten close enough to charge at them.

Without a moment's hesitation, Weiss charged into the fray, her rapier at the ready as she quickly riposted several attempted blows against her and, pulling the trigger on Myrtenaster's mechanism, froze them solid at various points with her thrusts, specifically aiming for their feet and their hold on their weapons or, if she could manage, each other. Weiss knew that a prolonged fight where she attempted to spare her own resources wouldn't go well here; it was still an open question as to whether or not Blake would be in this fight in the first place and who knew how many of these mooks the rat faunus would have swayed into joining him.

She needed to incapacitate as many as she could as quickly as she could. To that end, she froze feet to the floor, weapons into awkward grips in their owner's hands and White Fang Goons to other Goons, as the Schnee swordswoman practically danced in between the various hired lackeys, her blade shimmering with the power of the ice dust she fired from its mechanism.

"Oh, dear Ice Queen, that weapon is quite a beauty indeed. Such magnificent craftsmanship and, I must say, a rather unique dust mechanism. I can only imagine just how expensive that little sword of yours ran." Weiss growled as she turned and, with a flourish of her weapon and hand, prepared to fire off a glyph towards the rat faunus, seeking to silence Tamami. She shouldn't have been surprised when rather than staying where he had been Tamami had pulled a disappearing act, the rat faunus having had once again slipped away into some corner of the warehouse out of sight but hardly out of earshot.

"In fact, tech like that has to be mighty expensive indeed. I wonder, how many faunus got crippled or killed in the Schnee Dust Mines for your dear old papa to afford that little rapier for you. Hell, how much blood is soaked into the dust you're using on the very faunus who've been abused by your family for the past couple decades now." Weiss growled as she barreled through his words, instead turning her already formed glyph onto a number of White Fang Goons and freezing them in place.

It didn't take Weiss long to put two and two together as she listened to Tamami prattle on and as she recalled how Blake had spoken mere moments ago. It was clear that this Stand, The Lock he had called it, required some sort of condition to be met in order for it to be forced upon her. Otherwise, why not have it be used on her right now and have the White Fang spared the vicious beating she had delivered onto a good handful of the goons in front of her. No, if that was in his power, then it very well seems like he'd have used it by now.

While she didn't have a precise idea of the trigger, she had a faint clue; Blake, far more than any other time Weiss had seen her, seemed to be swimming in her negative emotions. She seemed to just bare the brunt of her actions far harder than she'd known the black haired faunus to, and assigned herself an overwhelming amount of blame for her actions. If Tamami's taunts were any indication, the rat faunus looked to do the same to her.

"I mean really, your own friend and teammate, a member of The White Fang. She doesn't even seem like that bad a kid… sure, she's a horrible murderer who helped make sure members of your friends and families would suffer or die under the terror of The Fang, but hey, she left and it seems like you don't hold much of a grudge against her. So really, is it okay for you to be profiting so much from the sort of suffering that'd make a good kitty like her turn feral? Just how much of daddy's money are you wearing and firing out of your little weapon right now, Miss Weiss Schnee?"

Sad thing was, Weiss did have a vague idea of how much everything on her person cost as well as the price of the dust she had fired at his various goons. However, Weiss did what she could to ignore his taunts; she threw herself into the heat of battle, using adrenaline and the sheer moment to moment terror of being in danger, of every move potentially being her last, to keep her wits focused on the matter at hand. It had worked too; despite his best efforts, Tamami's taunts had become the static background noise of the battle, as Weiss tunnel-visioned in on each White Fang Goon, striking her blade across them and freezing them one by one by one.

Tamami had never met Weiss Schnee and thus could only dream of how good she'd gotten at burying any gu… bad feelings she had about her family name. Weiss had spent every single day of the past seventeen years cultivating this skill, learning to bury her emotions so as to deal with the social life in Atlas and so as to deal with the horrific actions of her father, both as a parent and as the head of the Schnee Dust Company. If she just kept her focus, if she just kept her head in the fight, then she'd be able to end this, shut that pathetic little rat's ramblings up and then get Blake to safety.

That's all Weiss had to do. Just keep focused, keep focused, focus. They're just monsters in masks, just monsters in masks, monsters in masks…

On the opposite end of the fight, Blake had actually managed to force herself to her feet, despite the increasing weight of The Lock, in order to give it her all to try and fight back against the goons that had attempted to surround her, even as Weiss gave it her all to bring all their attention to her. Though the guilt banged on in her mind, her every thought turned to her failings as a member of The Fang, as a faunus and a person, there was still enough of her left untouched by The Lock and its influence that she realized that, if she and Weiss were to survive this, then they'd both need to be in this fight.

However, the first stumbling block right out of the gate was how The Lock affected Blake's fighting style. Much like Ruby and Weiss, Blake's fighting style depended on fast movements and graceful agility. Yang was fast, but she was far more inclined to powering through obstacles rather than avoiding them and quickly moving in for a swift blow to a weak point. This was Blake's forte and her preferred method of fighting, as the would-be ninja wasn't quite as strong or hardy as her partner.

The Lock's weight however threw a great big old wrench into that, however. The huge weight that The Lock had put on her torso, not only forcing her center of gravity forward but also just generally weighing a ton on its own, left her movements awkward, as practiced and drilled routines and habits were thrown off by the sheer heft of The Lock. In addition, whenever she could start to build up a good rhythm, The Lock would just increase its weight, causing her to once again stumble and be forced to try and readjust herself once again.

However, it hadn't been all bad; her Aura had allowed her to adjust, somewhat, and while this handicap had given the White Fang Goons around her some room to work around her and even land a few solid hits, she still had more skill than these common goons, little more than cannon fodder in the grander scheme of The White Fang.

No, it wasn't The Lock itself that had begun to spell doom for Blake as she took down and knocked out White Fang Goon after White Fang Goon. It was her own mind.

'How many of them are like me…' It was her mind's voice speaking to her, or at least, something that sounded like the inner-monologue that had often accompanied Blake's thoughts as she meticulously moved through and around the various grunts. 'How many of them right now think they're doing the right thing. After all, a few months ago, I would've thought I was doing the right thing; fighting the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and a traitor who turned their back on The White Fang. Heck, I probably would've been first in line for a mission like this… I would've been thrilled.'

"Please… stop…" Blake's voice shook as her eyes glistened, her thoughts ravaging about her head as The Lock just kept on growing. Another White Fang Goon struck her across the back, Blake reflexively turning and crashing the handle of Gambol Shroud across his head. The move knocked him out, flat and clean, but it also shattered the mask he had worn, revealing… just another face. Another person. Another faunus.

'What gives me the right to judge these people. I was in their exact state of mind not even four months ago. I ignored anything and everything everyone smarter than me ever told me, all because I got the hots for some edgelord with a katana and his prattling on about how the faunus were a race who only wanted to live in peace, but were forced to maim and kill by humans who would never come around to the idea of equality through peaceful means. Hell, my own father begged me to leave The Fang when he did. I'd always looked up to him as a wise man and a great leader…

'But what did Blake Belladonna do when her mother and father left The Fang, when she was forced to choose between them and Adam and Khan? She just abandoned them and stuck with a Fang that had become a cruel, horrific mockery of its previously peaceful self. I left them all behind just so I could follow in Adam's bloody coattails, telling myself day in and day out that he wasn't a murderer, that his sick obsessions were endearing and that his feelings for me didn't pass into outright ownership of me. I left a mother and father who loved me for that and a violent psychopath who turned The White Fang into terrorists.

'Why should I get to judge these people? How different are they from me? How many of them are actually worse off than I am? I have a good family and home on Menagerie, a safe place to return to. If I really wanted, I could just go back to the island and stay with a mother and father who loved me and trusted me and I betrayed them both. How many of these people have actually directly suffered at the hands of humans and have had their outlooks warped by those humiliations and injuries? How many of them have turned to The Fang because they have no other choice? I was just some stupid teenage girl who let her stupid ideas of nobility and justice cloud her eyes from the truth and ran away from home. These people have probably actually suffered horrifically at the hands of humans and I'm STRIKING THEM DOWN! I'M HURTING THEM! IT'S ALL I EVER DO, I HURT THE PEOPLE WHO I LOVE, I HURT MY FRIENDS AND I HURT PEOPLE I'VE NEVER EVEN MET WHY AM I EVEN ALIVE WHY AM I EVEN ALIVE WHY AM I EVEN ALIVE-''

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

With that, Tamami grinned. He had been worried when Blake had managed to stand up and defend herself. When the black haired faunus had managed to actually get up off the floor and force herself to fight the goons he had thrown at her and Weiss. In all honesty, he had very little faith in the goon squad he had put together to take down both of them at once. He had just wanted as much of the reward as possible for himself and bringing on anyone more qualified would risk seeing that reward, that payday split off heavily from him.

However, all that meant was that he just had to turn up the pressure on The Lock, have it peel into Blake's mind. As he said, when The Lock is on you, it doesn't come off until he popped it off. Once The Lock is on you, you don't even really need to feel terrible about certain things for it to begin to amplify what guilt there is inside you to ludicrous degrees. The Lock grew stronger off a person's guilt and, from there, it could strengthen that guilt on its own. A self-sustaining feedback loop that fed into itself more and more until finally, it broke you, whether that left you physically or mentally broken, it didn't matter.

As Blake Belladonna threw her weapon to the side and collapsed onto her knees, The Lock now almost one and a half times the size of her torso, he knew he'd won that front. Tears streamed down the black haired faunus' cheeks as she tore off her bow, revealing her cat ears as she clamped her hands and arms around her head, attempting to drown out all the noise that The Lock likely rattled along in her mind, the voice that it had spoken through to truly manipulate her feelings of guilt.

Tamami had to admit; he enjoyed seeing this sight in a way, though certainly not limited to Miss Belladonna. An admittedly sick sort of way; when someone who held themselves as holier than though was brought down by little more than their own thoughts and feelings, amplified by The Lock. If he had to put words to it, it almost felt like knocking down a precarious tower of cards, with similarly messy results in most cases.

Weiss, snapped out of her tunnel vision by the sound of Blake's scream, turned her head to her friend, light blue eyes wide as she saw a few White Fang Operatives gather around her, preparing to restrain her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Reloading Myrtenaster with fire Dust, Weiss quickly jumped away from her own batch of goons and swung the blade of the rapier around; ordinarily poor form for the weapon in question, it left arcs of the flaming Dust in the air. Some of it would burn the few goons who'd dare try to lay a hand on her teammate, while the rest simply backed off, cowed by the sight of Weiss' manipulation of the dangerous material.

"Blake, listen, I don't know what that rat put in your head, but whatever it is, you gotta try and fight-"

"I've been fighting it Weiss…" Blake muttered under her breath, her words choked by sobs as The Lock just grew and grew on her. "I've been fighting it for years now. Nothing that's passed through my mind wasn't already there when this thing got put on me… it's all been here. I've just been pushing it to the side and trying to ignore it…" Blake tugged at her animal ears as she scowled. "I've hurt so many people Weiss, and I did it for what I thought were good reasons… but I was just kidding myself. Like I always have been." Blake looked up to Weiss, amber eyes shining with tears as she just frowned at the white haired girl.

"Just run Weiss… you still have a chance to get away. You deserve it, at least; all I've ever done is hurt you and your family, even if they weren't the ones doing any harm at all… just because I wanted an enemy. Just because I had to pin all my anger and frustration with this fucking horrible situation between humans and faunus on someone. The least I can do is let you get away… I know that it can't take away everything I've done to you, your friends and your family… you still deserve to hate me for all of it..." Blake tilted her head down as she shook her head. "I deserve it. I bought into Adam's spiel the whole way when it counted, when I could've actually done something to keep people from dying… why don't I deserve to be tossed back to him… why don't I deserve to have to suffer with him again… I deserve it…" Blake shook her head as she muttered those last few words under her breath, Weiss' eyes wide for the briefest of moments before she had to turn her attention back on the other White Fang goons.

Weiss' thoughts raced as she sliced Myrtenaster through the air, a volley of ice and fire exchanged each time as Weiss, on the one hand, sought to incapacitate the goons while, on the other, tried to fend them off before they grabbed Blake and took her away.

'She… she thinks I hate her.' Weiss blinked away some misty film that overtook her vision momentarily as she ducked under the hasty swing of a club from one member of the Fang before she thrust into his leg, freezing it to the floor before she moved on. 'She thinks I HATE her. She thinks she deserves it…' Weiss shook her head as more tears pricked at the corner of her vision. 'After everything that my family's done, after all the harm that I've profited from by being his daughter… she thinks I have the right to hate her.

'Is that why… is that why she stayed away from me? Because she feels like I do… because she feels as guilty as I do.' As the word rang out in her mind, Weiss bit back a growl that had been equal parts frustration and gasp as she ducked under another swing from one of The White Fang. 'This whole time, this whole time, we've been avoiding each other… I thought she hated me.' Weiss resisted the urge to slap herself on the forehead as she shook her head.

'Brothers above us… Okuyasu was right.' Weiss parried an incoming slice from a sword as she practically mentally choked on the words. 'If we just had this out, if we just actually acted like the friends we say we are, then this wouldn't have happened…' Weiss bit her lip as she felt a familiar feeling crawl up in her chest. 'If this Stand really does work on those feelings… then if I reveal to Blake how I actually feel right now, it might leave me open for having that thing stuck on me. But…' Weiss looked over to Blake, who still sat in her spot, as the white haired heiress just frowned. ' I'm not going to abandon her either… and if I don't do something now to try to change things, then we're both going to be overwhelmed. I need her help… I need her to know that…'

"Blake-"

"Weiss, I said get out of here, just leave me-"

"I'm sorry!"

As Weiss Schnee screamed these two words at the top of her lungs in order to cut Blake off, for a moment, it seemed like the room stopped for a moment to look at the Schnee Dust Company Heiress with perplexed expressions.

"What?"

"Yeah, what?"

All except for Tamami, who just grinned from his hiding spot as he slowly but surely crawled his way back into line of sight of the battle, an excited grin on his face as he realized that the moment was nigh.

"Blake, listen. I'm sorry if I made you feel like I still hated you. That was the furthest thing from my mind when I tried to avoid all this! The truth is-" Weiss countered a blow from one of the goons as they tried to interrupt her and were met with a bit of fire Dust for their trouble, "-the truth is, I was worried that you hated me."

Amber eyes were wide, still slightly red from crying, as they watched Weiss move to and fro. "W-What?"

"Blake, my entire life I've profited from my father's vile actions. His abuses of the faunus made the Schnee Dust Company rich in profit if nothing else. I had the finest tutors, the best servants and the greatest access to all the luxuries one could ask for in life. Anything I earned was through the financial investment and support of Jacques Schnee and his blood money…" Weiss frowned as she cut through another masked… no, another faunus, as she felt the weight in her chest linger.

"I've always known how bad things have gotten… I didn't even really try to deny it at home because I knew what sort of man my father was… and I've known it for a long time." Weiss incapacitated another faunus as she kept a careful eye on Blake. "But despite that, I never stopped taking advantage of what being a Schnee could get me. I never tried to fight for your people's rights because I was afraid of how my father would react and what he would do to me. Because I was so afraid and my father was such a monster, five years ago, a peaceful organization turned to terrorism… and I couldn't stop thinking about how it was my family's fault, that it was our own actions coming back to haunt us.

"No matter how many well-wishers came by and told us about how unfortunate it was we were under assault, no matter how many sycophants told my father anything and everything he wanted to hear… I knew that if we hadn't been so abusive, if we lived up to Nicholas Schnee's example, then this horribleness wouldn't have befallen the Schnee Dust Company. All the friends I lost, the members of my family who fell… if we were just willing to compromise, to give up the lien that lined our pockets to make things better for the faunus, then it would end. Because there were people like you in The White Fang, people who were just tired of having to suffer through life. People who, if things changed, then they wouldn't have to turn to what monsters were in The Fang.

"Blake, you don't have anything to apologize to me for. What you did… it wasn't your fault. It's my father's for being such a brute, who cared for nothing but his own legacy. It was… it was our fault at home, because no one challenged him, because we all feared what he could do. Hah… my own sister basically chose to run away from home to get away from him, to sever monetary ties to be free of his influence… but not me. Every month I still get massive sums in an allowance from Jacques Schnee because I'm too afraid to stand up for what I know is right… because that man's made me such a coward."

Weiss turned her gaze to Blake, shocking the black haired faunus as tears brimmed at the edge of those light blue eyes. "At least you were brave enough to fight for something you believed in. At least you were willing to risk it all for change… I just decided I would adopt my father's stance and brand all faunus as monsters, rather than try to sympathize… because if I did, then I wouldn't be able to live with how I've profited from your race's suffering. Even if you were lead astray, it was for a cause you know is right… I know that sitting by silent and not challenging my father is wrong, but I just… just continue to sit there, silent, like a good little girl anyway. Because I'm afraid…

"So I'm sorry Blake, I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry I never told you any of this before either. I'm sorry that I let you think I hated you! Because the truth is Blake… the truth is, I thought you had every reason to hate me. Because you deserved to hate someone like me."

Though the fighting had still gone on strong during Weiss' tearful apology, it had entered a slight lull. Many of The White Fang Goons who had signed up to capture the traitor and kidnap the Schnee Dust Company Heiress hadn't come prepared for the torrent of emotions from Weiss Schnee. For the very palpable regret and guilt that the girl exuded as she poured out what must've been years of pent up emotion and regret into one flow of words. For a brief moment, their blows were halfhearted, their attempts to strike her down slowed, as few among these men and women had it in them to stop her.

They could stop Weiss Schnee, the daughter of Jacques Schnee and the Heiress of The Schnee Dust Company, a member of a family whom had become the symbol of all they hated. Few, however, had it in them to interrupt or stop Weiss, the young woman tearfully throwing herself at her friend's mercy.

That is, except for one visibly grinning rat faunus who stood upon a nearby crate.

"Well, well, well, what do you know! The ice princess has a little hot spot in her heart after all. Almost brings a tear to these eyes of mine to see such warmth and love between two friends who're about to be brought in together." Tamami grinned a wide, mischievous grin as he looked down at Weiss, who glared up at the rat faunus as he tapped his chin. "Now, I wonder; is this little hot spot in your heart big enough for… oh, I dunno, **[The Lock]**!" Tamami's grin grew both in size and in manic excitement as he pointed down at Weiss, the Schnee Heiress gasping as she felt the weight that had formed in her chest grow, as a heat began to build up.

In a flash of white light, everyone in the room expected it to be over. After all, Weiss had been the only one there capable of fighting and Blake, well, she had been effectively knocked out of contention by her own guilt. Tamami himself was so certain of his victory that he hopped off the crate he had stood on and watched on, excited to see just how large this particular lock would be.

All culminated as the white light dissipated and left many of The White Fang, up to and including Tamami, gaping with their jaws slightly unhinged.

While The Lock on Weiss was by no means small, it was hardly the massive, utterly debilitating Lock that had formed on Blake. Hell, it was half the size of The Lock that had formed on Blake's chest to begin with. All eyes blinked in confusion at the tiny little Lock on Weiss, even the Heiress seemed mildly confused about the turn of events, as Tamami ground his crooked teeth together and pointed to the Schnee Dust Company Heiress.

"Well don't' just stand around there like a bunch of idiot, subdue the little bitch!" Several heads snapped out of their reverie as, suddenly, one of the White Fang operatives charged forth at Weiss, the white haired girl surprised by the quick succession of events, which had left her momentarily open.

 **SWISH!**

"GAAAH!" Gambol Shroud quickly sliced through the air and cut into the back of the faunus' leg, a momentary distraction which proved to be all Weiss needed as she quickly thrust forward towards the faunus and knocked him away with a blast of fire Dust. Light blue eyes turned back to the other end of Gambol Shroud, as the weapon in question flew back to its owner who, giving her best effort, forced herself back onto her feet.

"Weiss… you shouldn't… I was the one who hurt people. I've killed people with my own hands. There are people in Remnant who'll never see their families again, and most of them were connected to you and your family. You don't deserve-"

"My family has disrupted the lives of so many families Blake. There are faunus who'll never see their fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters again because they died in some mining accident that just a little more time, care and money could've prevented. They're kept away from each other to keep them from organizing against us or to keep The Fang from infiltrating." Weiss frowned sadly at her friend as, with her renewed focus, she quickly froze a couple more White Fang operatives in place. Despite her admitting all of this and despite Tamami's best mental efforts, The Lock on Weiss' chest didn't grow.

Instead, The Lock on Blake's chest shrunk.

"That still doesn't make what I did right…"

"It doesn't have to. Blake… I don't blame you for what you did, and I can't say I blame the faunus for what they chose to do. It's still wrong, but I can understand those frustrations. I live with them everyday at home. Just because you all have done wrong doesn't justify or wipe away the wrong I've done, or that my family's done either." A White Fang Operative attempted to slice Blake across the back, to keep her from moving away from them, only to find himself cutting straight through an illusion of Aura as Black ducked around, and slammed Gambol Shroud handle into the back of his head, knocking him out.

"I don't understand how you can forgive me for this Weiss…" Blake shook her head, as Amber eyes slowly came back to life, the weight of the lock dropping and dropping as the black haired faunus turned her attention of the combatants that had surrounded the two teammates.

"Because I can't forgive myself, Blake." Weiss parried and riposted blow after blow, the Schnee Heiress quick to adjust to the relatively small change in weight The Lock presented as she fought off the various thugs around her. "Even if I didn't have a direct hand, I've profited from it all… and I can't find it in myself to forgive myself for my past inaction." Weiss and Blake soon found themselves back to back with each other, as Blake's own Lock continued to shrink in size. "But… that doesn't mean I want to hold onto these feelings. That I want them to come between us. I want to forgive you Blake because… because I want to be your friend. A real friend. Not just someone who shares a team with you and silently sits around feeling sorry for herself."

A small, almost unnoticeable smile formed on Blake's face as the two quickly jumped off from one and other, the two huntresses slowly but surely making mincemeat of the various faunus that surrounded them.

"I guess what I'm saying is… I want to forgive you, because I'd like for you to forgive me. Even if I can't ask you to put it all aside… I'd like to. I want to start fresh. I want us to be able to be friends from here on out."

"Weiss…" Finally, The Lock on Blake shrunk down till it matched Weiss' own size, the weight from before now almost entirely gone as Blake just felt the minor discomfort of the current Lock. "I want that too. I've wanted it ever since I ran away from The Fang. I want my friends to know I'm not that me anymore…" Weiss nodded, a smile on her face as she froze another goon in place.

"Me too... " Finally, the two ended up face to face as they moved just past each other, looking to incapacitate some goon or another. "Do you want to finish this talk later? I'd like to be able to bury the hatchet after all this." Amber eyes twinkled as Blake just nodded.

"I'd like that." Soon after, determined glares reached both huntresses eyes as Black spun one end of Gambol Shroud forth, caught the leg of one White Fang grunt, tripped him up into another, before she quickly moved in. In two swift swings of her blade, Blake quickly disarmed both thugs and, weapons out of reach, took her time to make sure that both goons would be good and unconscious with a few well placed kicks to the head.

Weiss quickly cut and gestured a pattern into the air with some of her remaining ice Dust and, before they could so much as scream 'RUN!' Weiss locked down several White Fang goons in a mess of ice, as she effectively trapped them against various crates or the floor. The two huntresses-in-training quickly turned to face down any opponents they had missed in their haste to strike at the ones directly in front of them and both soon found themselves surprised.

Between Weiss' harrowing efforts beforehand and the pair's combined effort then and there, the White Fang Goons who had seemed so menacing before, who had circled them as predators did wounded and crippled prey, were dispatched. Either unconscious from Blake's efforts or otherwise indisposed thanks to Weiss' Dust. The two young huntresses couldn't' help but allow a small grin to form on their faces as they had managed to overcome these challenges.

Only for their grins to immediately fall away as a pair of thin, bony hands clapped, the sound of which echoed throughout throughout the warehouse.

"Well… I feel like I should be disappointed, but then again, I guess I can't say I'm too terribly surprised. There's a reason that rat bastard Torchwick decided to go with Stand Users after all the bullshit you huntresses have put him through. I swear, these guys aren't worth the lien spent on their porcelain masks." Weiss and Blake turned hateful glares upon Tamami as he leaned back against a crate, his incisors chewed on his lip a bit as he stared at the two of them.

"So you two feel good about yourselves? You threw out a little simpering speech about friendship and forgiveness and all that claptrap and you ended up getting by on the skin of your teeth against some low-ranking White Fang thugs." Tamami snorted in derision as he rubbed at his nose a bit. "I shouldn't have been so greedy. I should've just gone ahead and brought some higher ups on board to bring you two down. But no, I wanted most of the reward for myself so I brought these jokers aboard… guess that's just good old greed for ya." Tamami rolled his eyes slightly as he returned his gaze to the two huntresses and took of particular note Blake's particularly angry look.

"What's the matter kitty-cat? Little bit sore that this rat managed to take advantage of your messed up little feelings for Mr. Edgy and got you to come here and endanger your little friend? Or do you just give that look to every guy who ever managed to to make you cry? Cause if that's the case, then Adam must be really familiar-"

Blake hadn't even hesitated as she leveled Gambol Shroud's pistol form at Tamami's leg and shot him through the knee. However, instead of the satisfaction of being able to watch Tamami squirm on the floor as he held onto a bullet wound in his knee-

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

Blake fell to the floor and grasped at her knee, a huge puncture wound suddenly formed on it as it bled profusely, a move which stunned both huntresses as Weiss knelt down next to her friend.

"Blake?! What?! How did that happen?!" Weiss scrambled about as she applied pressure to the wound, an attempt to keep as much blood in Blake as possible while her Aura worked to patch up the wound.

"Oh? Maybe I forgot to mention before… you see, The Lock doesn't just guilt trip any unfortunate saps that it gets attached to. It also protects me from said saps by redirecting damage they try to inflict on me back at them." Tamami's crooked, rat-like teeth showed through in his grin as he pointed to both Weiss and Blake. "Your happy, sappy, bullshit apologies might've gotten The Lock to lay off a bit but it looks like it wasn't to get The Lock to pop off. Which means that you two still, on some level, feel guilty about your actions and are still at my mercy." As he spoke, The Lock on both their chests, having had momentarily ceased their growth, each grew just enough to be noticeable.

"It's gonna be a pain in the ass; now I have to sit around and wait for The Lock to actually get you two incapacitated on its own rather than feeding off the tremendous guilt you two bitches had been carrying around. I'll just have to take comfort in the fact that there's literally nothing you two can do to me in the meantime." Tamami laughed a bit as he passed the two by, comfortable in the knowledge that if they tried anything to harm him, they'd only feel the brunt of that damage themselves. "Guess I'll just go ahead and wait you two out; once The Lock has you two good and pinned down, I'll bring in some more Goons to go ahead and take you two to Roman for delivery." Tamami just laughed harshly as he slid the warehouse door open. "You two are free to come after me of course… but it won't do either of you two much good. Good luck!" With that, Tamami walked out of the warehouse and stalked a block or two away, keen to just sit this bullshit out and wait for Weiss and Blake to succumb to The Lock's own slow processes.

"... I hate that guy. Sooooo much!" Blake bit her lip as her Aura went to work, the black haired faunus glared back at the door as her fingernails dug slightly into the skin of her leg in frustration. "I swear, when we get this Stand off and get our hands on him, he's gonna wish he'd never been born." With Weiss' assistance, Blake made to stand up, her footing a bit shaky as she hobbled onto her feet. With the bullet wound mostly closed, Weiss removed her hands from Blake's knee, the Schnee Heiress equally frustrated as she winced, the weight of The Lock increased slightly in the few moments that had passed.

"We're gonna need a plan if we're actually going to do that though. I'd rather not go through the trouble of trying to beat the ever loving crap out of him only for it to come back on us." Blake nodded in agreement as the Amber eyed faunus scratched her chin, while an annoyed expression tugged at her face.

"About the only way I could see fit of getting him hurt would be to make him hurt himself… and I doubt either one of us would be charismatic enough to get that little rat-toothed bastard to actually give himself the beat down he deserves." Weiss couldn't help but nod in agreement with Blake, her own mind occupied with dark thoughts of what she wanted to inflict on the rat bastard.

"Yeah, I doubt he'd hurt himself willingly…" Weiss tapped on The Lock on her chest as she tried to think up a plan, the rhythmic tapping of metal rang in the pair's ears as they tried to think through their problem. Two pairs of eyes turned to Weiss' Lock as her finger stopped tapping against it, as the two of them looked back up to each other.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Blake suggested with a bit of a wide, cat-like smile as Weiss reached into her combat skirt and pulled out a loadable canister of Dust, dark purple in color and seemingly swirling about the container on its own.

"I think so… if it's what I'm thinking, then I might just finally get an opportunity to use this. It usually throws me off my feet any time I try to use it but… well, with the right ballast…" Two pairs of sinister grins formed on the huntresses faces as they looked out at the open warehouse door.

"Think you can dredge enough guilt on such short notice?"

"Sadly, I think that'll be laughably easy Blake…"

* * *

"Uuuugh… I swear, this is going to be such a pain in the ass." Tamami muttered to himself as he leaned up against a nearby wall. The rat faunus rubbed his temples in an attempt to fight off the inevitable, oncoming headache as he was forced to take stock of the very recent melee between the two huntresses the goons he'd taken onboard to try and restrain them. "No wonder The White Fang decided to switch up tactics to these Stand things. Even giving them a handicap in the form of The Lock didn't keep those losers from futzing this entire thing up. I'll have to remember to actually hire on some stiffer help if I try something like this again.

"Steady on though, Tamami." The rat faunus grinned to himself as he licked his lips. "Soon enough The Lock will manage to feed into those girl's guilt enough to well and truly pin them to the floor. Then I can collect them, get my reward and start living the high life in The White Fang… I wonder if I'll get my own henchmen… I'll have to screen them to make sure that a stiff breeze won't be enough to knock them over first though." Tamami spat out as he spoke, clearly annoyed, as he continued to wait, taking a moment here and there to keep an ear out for the sound of those two approaching. Even if they couldn't actually hurt them, it wouldn't do to let them get the drop on him and maybe, just maybe, find a way to worm their way out of this situation.

As Tamami listened out for any signs of them, he heard the telltale sounds of two sets of footsteps, slowly and laboriously approaching his position. With a snort as he figured the two had done their best to try and sneak up on him with The Lock's added weight, Tamami kicked off from the wall and, at a leisurely pace, slowly walked away from the sounds of their footsteps.

"Wait!" Of course, this effort was immediately halted when Weiss suddenly called out for him, the rat faunus so utterly perplexed by this that he turned his head to take in what he had assumed were the two's stealthy approach. Tamami almost snorted in derision at what he saw instead; Blake and Weiss slowly approached him, arms wrapped around each other as they sought to support the other's weight, as the two huntresses slowly staggered up to him. The reason for their slow pace was soon very much obvious; The Lock had grown quite a bit on the two of them, easily growing to be as large, if not larger, than Tamami himself.

"I have to say, I'm kind of impressed. Most normal people without Auras couldn't even handle a Lock that was half that size without killing themselves or, if they were strong willed, having it crush their chests. Most hunters your age just folded like wet tissue paper with Locks slightly smaller than that too, even if their bodies could take it. You two must be something else… either that or your real guilt is so limited that my Stand isn't having quite the effect it should." Tamami gave a wide grin as Weiss glared at him, all the while Blake stared down at the floor. "Maybe I've spoken a little too soon; seems like kitty-cat's already back to her gloom and doom state." Weiss' glare increased in fury for a moment and Tamami swore that she was going to bolt for him…

Imagine his surprise when, instead, Weiss dropped to a knee along with Blake, as she set The Lock on the ground to take its considerable weight off her chest.

"Please… you can't do this. The White Fang, Adam Taurus… he'll do so many horrible things to the two of us if he gets his hands on us. Who knows what they'll do to me before they either kill me or send me back to my father… and Blake. The way she's spoken about the guy… I can't even imagine being forced to be around him." Weiss bent her head down as far as she could considering the sheer size of the lock. "Please, I'm begging you, just let us go. Don't do this to us."

"Ah, good old-fashioned begging. I was wondering if we'd ever get to this state but frankly, I figured kitty-cat would be too broken and you'd be too proud to ever give that a try." Tamami grinned wryly. "Congratulations Miss Schnee, you've surprised the Rat Boss once again." Tamami just shrugged, however, as he picked at his ear. "As for your oh-so-earnest request, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to turn you down. You two represen way too big a payload for me to just drop out of the kindness of my heart… especially considering I don't have too terribly much kindness stored away in there in the first place." Tamami just grinned as Weiss glared up at him, the Schnee Dust Company heiress bit her lip as she looked down to the side.

"Then… then could you just take Blake and leave me be? She's totally unwilling to act anymore and I had to drag her all the way here just to try and beg you to let us go and… and look at her, she's not even trying!" Weiss sounded legitimately frustrated as she glared over at Blake, who still kept her head down before Weiss looked back. "So come on, please, just take Blake and let me go. How about that?"

"Hah, now that's a Schnee response I was expecting. Guess all that bullshit you spouted in the warehouse back there was just that; bullshit." Tamami shook his head as he grinned a crooked grin down at Weiss. "Your Lock must've started out so small because you don't feel too much guilt about all this at all. Still, more's the better, as a lot of White Fang operatives will be glad to hear that the Schnees are as bitchy and horrible as they all thought they were, right down to the very last one." Tamami laughed a bit as he clapped his hands, Weiss' expression grew ever more desperate as her eyes darted around.

"P-Please, I'm… I'm willing to do anything you want. I'll… I'll get my father to forward you money. I'll find a way to pay you back somehow. Please, just, just don't hand me over to The Fang!" Tamami's expression became thoughtful for a moment as he looked down at her.

"... Anything, you say?" A slightly perverse look crossed his face as he said this, a disgusted look passed over Weiss' face as she, hesitantly, nodded.

"Y-Yes… anything. So please, let me go?" Weiss bowed her head to Tamami again, the rat faunus taking an almost sexual joy in watching a Schnee bow to him, a faunus, before he just laughed.

"Sorry toots, you are pretty cute, but I'm afraid you just aren't worth it… besides, I'm sure if I asked nice enough, the bosses would let me… play with you on my own time." Tamami just reared back and laughed as he said this, Weiss' gaze quickly became horrified as she shook her head lightly.

"You're absolutely serious about all this… turning me over to The White Fang… an innocent, cute girl like me?" Weiss did her best to bat her eyelashes, though the effect was more comical than not as Tamami just laughed again.

"Sorry, but compared to turning you in and getting that sweet, sweet reward, letting you go is way too much trouble." Tamami gave Weiss a shit-eating grin as he got ready to kick The Lock on her chest over. However, he stopped short of that as Weiss' expression suddenly turned into a determined, furious and thoroughly disgusted look as she suddenly whipped out Myrtenaster and pointed it in Tamami's direction, the chambers of the rapier a deep, dark purple in hue in comparison to the previous white, reds, yellows and blues from before.

"Well, I'll give you this you rat bastard, you certainly are a loyal little foot soldier, aren't you?" With that, Weiss pulled on Myrtenaster's trigger and, despite knowing that Weiss couldn't hurt him, Tamami ducked to the side to avoid the point-blank shot of Dust, as he figured it'd just end up killing Weiss and ruining his chance for his biggest score.

The blast of the Dust was intense, a blast erupted for Myrtenaster that nearly swept Tamami off his feet and, were it not for The Lock on her, would've likely blown Weiss far back away from him. When it landed, rather than an explosion or a crack of thunder or some other elemental ability, the purple Dust suddenly collapsed in on itself, before a purple field suddenly grew from the point of impact and the winds around it started to blow in towards it.

Before Tamami could get a better look, he was knocked off his feet and the wind was knocked from his lungs as Weiss was suddenly pulled into him, The Lock carrying him off his own feet as the pair were propelled to the point of singularity where the gravity Dust had made its impact.

"Y-You little bitch! What the fuck are you doing?! Didn't you already take the hint? You can't hurt me, or else you'll just end up hurting yourself!" Tamami called out from around The Lock, so huge was it that he could barely maintain eye contact with Weiss by stretching himself around it, the force of The Lock's weight and momentum and the gravity Dust keeping him placed just in front of it. Weiss just grinned at Tamami, as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"We know, that's why we're going to make you hurt yourself." Tamami just growled in frustration as he glared at the Schnee Heiress.

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean? And what are you talking about we, Blake is-" Tamami stopped himself short as he finally saw it: Blake and The Lock had slowly faded from existence as soon as he and Weiss were dragged away from their spots by the gravity Dust, only a vague outline of Aura remained before that, too, dissipated into thin air. "W-Wait, where the Hell is kitty-ca-

"GAAAAAAAAH!"

 **CRUNCH!**

Tamami's mind went blank as pure, blistering pain ran through his entire body. The Rat Boss barely had a moment to look back behind him before he fell unconscious from the poor shock of it all. When he did, his beady little eyes widened for just a moment at what he saw; Blake Belladonna, a very impish, cat-like grin on her face, as her own Lock had slammed into his back as the three bodies met at the point of singularity where the gravity Dust had hit.

Tamami had counted on the power of his Stand to protect him from any harm that the two huntresses would have tried to inflict upon him. What the rat faunus had not counted on was the fact that his own Stand, a reflection of his soul and an extension of himself, would be used against him. As the gravity Dust reached the peak of its momentary power, Tamami passed out from the pain of being crushed in between two of his own locks before, finally, the Dust dispersed and the three dropped out of the air. Before either Weiss or Blake hit the ground, their respective locks quickly dissipated, which left both of them feeling as light as a feather after their tribulations with the annoying Stand.

As the two caught themselves on their feet, Tamami slammed into the ground, a slight groan to his shortened breathing, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and blood lightly flowing out from his mouth. The two huntresses looked down at him, each satisfied in their own way, for the moment, before they looked at each other.

"Do you think that was a suitably humiliating way of beating him?" Weiss asked as she dusted off her combat skirt, before Blake just kind of looked down at him, before she smirked at Weiss.

"For him or for us?" Weiss paused before she could gloat further, the Schnee Heiress suddenly very much aware of how this particular method of beating the little con artist would sound to anyone else.

"... This wasn't exactly the most dignified way a huntress could overcome their foe, is it?"

"Nope. In fact, pretty sure this is the most embarrassing way any hunter's beaten anything ever." Blake crossed her arms as she shook her head as Weiss just nodded in agreement.

"So we tell everyone we just beat the tar out of him?" Blake nodded in agreement and Weiss sighed. "Good… good. We can probably place an anonymous call with the Vale Police Department to pick up those White Fang Goons we left in the warehouse… as for him, we should probably get him to Josuke's team as soon as possible."

"Yeah, technically we're not supposed to be involved in all this Stand business, after all." Blake rolled her eyes as the two situated themselves around Tamami, before they each turned to the other.

"We should probably pick him up and carry him. Given the amount of force he probably took from that little collision, it'd be unkind to just drag him through the city back to one of the airbuses." Blake nodded in firm agreement with Weiss.

"Absolutely, it would just be horrible of us to do that sort of thing to him."

…

Twenty minutes later and having "accidentally" let Tamami's head bang into the corners of buildings, roadside curbs, perfectly avoidable speed bumps and the occasional pothole, Weiss and Blake walked along in silence towards the scheduled airbus back to Beacon Academy, a lot of thoughts still on the two young women's minds.

"... So, The Lock never popped off until we actually knocked this bastard out, huh?" Blake said somewhat solemnly as her free arm rubbed the arm that drugged Tamami around by the leg, as Weiss just nodded very slowly.

"Yeah… guess that means that we… don't exactly feel completely over all that stuff, huh?" Weiss said with a sigh as she shook her head. "I guess it would've been too much to ask for Okuyasu's advice to just up and fix everything immediately, right?"

"Okuyasu's advice?" The black haired faunus arched a curious eyebrow, as Weiss just sighed and nodded.

"Yeah… after you left the dining hall, Okuyasu grilled me a bit about what was going on. He said instead of just trying to ignore all of this then, if we wanted to actually become better friends, we needed to tell each other the truth and talk this stuff through…" Weiss frowned as she palmed her face. "And I just chewed him out for it…" Blake smiled slightly as she looked forward.

"To be fair, I probably wouldn't have been receptive to that advice either… in fact, I know I wouldn't have. Sun's been trying to convince me of the same thing ever since the docks happened and I just blew him off." The two sighed as they shook their heads, the clack of Weiss' heels and Blake's shoes being the only sound that was made as the two picked the most private and round-about path towards the airbuses.

"... Weiss. We said a lot of things in the warehouse, and we were pretty emotionally charged because of the rat, his Stand and the fight going on." Blake started off as she rubbed her arm again, as she looked over to Weiss. "I just want you to know… I meant everything I said. You really don't have to feel bad… and even if you do, I still want this friendship to work out. I'm… I'm done just having this stuff between us, when I really want us to be able to be friends, like with Yang and Ruby, and for us to be better teammates." Weiss smiled as she nodded in agreement with Blake.

"Me too Blake… and listen, whenever you want to talk about something… anything, I'll be willing to listen. No matter how wretched I might feel while talking about it." The light blue eyed heiress smiled at her… at her friend as she stuck her hand out. "I can't forgive myself for all the things that've happened… but I want us to be able to move forward from now on, rather than just letting all this stuff sit, okay?" Blake just smiled as she reached a hand out and shook Weiss.

"Yeah, sounds good to me Weiss." The two young huntresses just smiled at one and other as they let the moment settle, already the weights in their chests lightened as they felt they could, finally, begin moving forward again.

"Awwww… Now, you see, this is all really sweet." Eyes snapped down to the form of the Rat Boss, as Tamami just grinned a bloody smile at the two girls as he clasped his hands together. "You know, it stands to reason that this beautiful little moment wouldn't have come about without me. I mean, I saw how awkward you two were before all this, and it was clear you all weren't getting stuff done. So, how about you two just let me go and I'll never bother any of you ever again? That sounds like a good deal, right? For being so helpful?" Their bangs obscured the pairs' eyes as they each dropped Tamami's legs immediately, the con man winced as his bruised and battered flesh and bones slammed against the hard pavement. Then, his eyes went slightly wide as both Weiss and Blake cracked their knuckles.

"... I really should've just stayed quiet and pretended to be unconscious, shouldn't I have?"

"Yes, you should have." They both intoned at the same time as they slowly surrounded him.

"H-Hey now, you all can't just keep beating me up when I'm like this. I-I'm injured… and for Weiss, this would pretty much be a hate crime! Do you really want to indulge in the Schnee stereotype like this, ice princess?" Tamami's face dropped in horror as Weiss and Blake just gave him wicked smiles.

"Just this once, I think I will, thank you." Weiss turned a thoroughly creepy expression towards Blake, a mock-pleasant smile on her features as she nodded towards Tamami. "Blake, this little bastard got you the worst. I think you should get first dibs on this." Blake closed her eyes and smiled in a similar mock-pleasant gesture, as she just nodded her head slightly.

"Why thank you Weiss, I appreciate it."

"... I'm not going to like this am I?"

"Well, we really didn't like what you did so… consider this us making it even…"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

 **Tamami Kobayashi was beaten until several of his bones were broken and his face swollen till it resembled an overripe peach. He was then turned over to Ironwood and Ozpin by Team JOJO for interrogation.**

 **TAMAMI KOBAYASHI - RETIRED!**

* * *

School Grounds, Beacon Academy, Soon After

"It's so weird that they never showed up for class. Sure maybe one class after how awkward it was in the dining hall but the entire rest of the day? That really isn't like them." Ruby muttered, a worried expression worn on her face as the group of nine students slowly made for the airbuses to the City of Vale.

"Yeah, and I've asked just about everyone and no one's really seen them ever since lunch. The only hint I got was from someone who said he swore he saw both of them rushing for the airbuses to the city." Pyrrha said as they all hurried along, the remnants of Team RWBY, JNPR and JOJO in a rush to get to Vale as soon as possible.

"You don't think something came up and they ran off, do you?" Jaune muttered under his breath as Yang just sighed.

"I swear, if that's happened again then when I get my hands on her she'd better hope she... oh, Blake, and Weiss too." Yang's momentarily red eyes gave away to her usual lilac ones as, on the way to the airbuses, the nine teens ran into the missing pair, Weiss and Blake smiled in turn as they slowly dragged a broken and beaten Tamami Kobayashi behind them. The sight of two huntresses dragging someone so battered behind them had caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised, however, the casual mention of 'hunter business' had been enough to wave most off.

"Hey guys, sorry, were you all coming to look for us?" Weiss asked in a gentle tone as she just smiled lightly, having worked out the better part of her frustrations by having helped Blake beat the ever loving shit out of Tamami.

"Sorry about that, some stuff came up and I promise we'll tell you about it later but for now we… what's with the look?" Team JOJO blinked in confusion as they all turned to look at the other members of Team RWBY and Team JNPR, all of whom seemed to be slightly shocked still as they glanced between Team JOJO and Blake. Weiss raised an eyebrow as she turned towards Blake, only for her light blue eyes to go wide in shock as she slowly opened and closed her mouth.

"Blake… ummm… well, Blake, you see uh-"

"Hey Blake, what happened to your bow? Did you lose it somewhere?"

Amber eyes suddenly went wide as Blake reached up for the top of her head, slight horror crossed her features when, instead of the fine fabric of her black bow, she felt her cat ears as they stuck out like a sore thumb.

'B-But how, when did I-'

 _Tears streamed down the black haired faunus' cheeks as she tore off her bow, revealing her cat ears as she clamped her hands and arms around her head…_

'O-Oh shit!' Blake slammed her hands on her head as she looked towards Team JOJO fearfully, worried about the exchange students reaction to the sudden appearance of her faunus features.

When all Team JOJO did was blink in confusion, the gathered Four Kingdom hunters just tilted their heads to the side, having had expected some sort of reaction out them.

"Is… something the matter Blake?" Josuke asked slowly as he tilted his head to the side, as Blake's mouth just gaped open for a moment.

"You… guys saw my ears, right?" The three teens just nodded slowly as amber eyes narrowed in confusion. "Then you know that I'm a faunus, right?"

"Y-Yes Blake… we know what faunus are." Koichi mumbled quietly as he arched an eyebrow. "I-I mean.. We do have faunus in Morioh, Blake. We know what they look like. We can tell." Blake just seemed even more confused.

"Then, why aren't you guys more surprised?" Okuyasu just crossed his arms in response, a curious expression on his face.

"Why would we be?"

"BECAUSE I'VE BEEN HIDING THE FACT THAT I'M A FAUNUS FROM YOU GUYS!" Blake suddenly shouted in frustration, as she took deep breaths through her nose. Blake had been through one too many emotional roller coasters today to keep dealing with stuff like this. All three members of Team JOJO just blinked as they looked at each other before they, cautiously, turned their gaze back towards Blake.

"Blake… listen, I don't know how to tell you this but… we knew." Josuke slowly said as he pulled at his collar, as Blake's expression just went blank.

"What?"

"Y-Yeah… I mean, Blake, your bow twitched every time you got emotional about something. You have pretty much vertical pupils… we thought the bow was just a fashion statement or something." Koichi seemed really embarrassed about all this, as Okuyasu just nodded.

"Yeah, though to be fair, I wasn't certain at first. I had to have Josuke and Koichi tell me before I could be sure of it myself." Okuyasu just kinda barked out a laugh as he pointed to his head. "Though I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. I'm not exactly a smart guy, and it'd probably take a idiot like me to actually be fooled by a disguise like that, right everyone?" Okuyasu turned his head back towards Teams RWBY and JNPR… only to find that they stared in shocked awe at the three transfer students.

"... Ow…. My pride…" Yang slapped a hand to her forehead, same as the other Four Kingdom hunters besides Blake, as they took all this in.

"So… you guys have known for a while now?" Blake asked, slightly stunned, as the three huntsmen just nodded.

"Yeah, we didn't figure it was a big deal so we didn't think to bring it up or anything. Just figured you were a faunus and that was that." Josuke scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he smiled apologetically. "Sorry Blake, but that really is kind of a crappy disguise."

"So… you guys don't care about me being a faunus?" Blake asked, stunned, as she just blinked. "B-But you all… you guys never went through the Faunus Rights Revolution… I thought… I figured…" Josuke suddenly looked like he understood as he gave a sympathetic look to Blake.

"Blake, listen; it's true, The Frontier didn't go through all the horrible crap you guys in the Four Kingdoms did to get to where you are with faunus-human relations today. Hell, it's even true that before everything we settled there was still a lot of that old prejudice flying around." Josuke shoved his hands into his pockets as the pompadoured teen looked at her. "But, well, Jonathan Joestar, Robert Speedwagon and… Joseph Joestar have all been pretty clear; Morioh is everyone's home in The Frontier. No matter what kingdom you came from or what race you are." Josuke just shrugged again as he reached a hand up to scratch the back of his head.

"Besides… those were some pretty dark days back during The Reckoning… for a lot of people, it wasn't an absolute certainty that anyone would survive it, much less that Morioh would still be standing Everyone needed everyone in order to fight back against The Grimm that tried to eradicate us all…" Josuke smiled a bit as he looked at Blake. "Kind of hard to still hate someone after you nearly died with them."

"Yeah Blake, it's cool with us that you're a faunus. Never really crossed our mind that it'd be a problem." Okuyasu said with a lackadaisical shrug as he grinned. "Hell, we've got a lot of descendants of humans and faunus running around Morioh these days because… well, folks got needs." Okuyasu barked out a laugh as he elbowed Josuke. "Like Jotaro's wife; she's-"

"Oh cripes Okuyasu, not that stupid rumor." Josuke palmed his face in his hand as Okuyasu just grinned.

"Oh it is not just a rumor Josuke, Mrs. Kujo is totally 1/8th dolphin faunus." When Josuke just snorted derisively at Okuyasu, the scarred teen just flashed a wily grin. "Come on, you've heard her laugh, you know it's true." The pompadoured teen's face suddenly flushed red with embarrassment as he snapped his head towards Okuyasu.

"O-Okay, so she's got that crazy laugh, but it doesn't make it… I mean, that alone shouldn't be proof enough…" Josuke just blinked a couple more times as he leaned forward. "You think so huh?" Okuyasu just nodded as he shrugged.

"Course, why else would Jotaro have married her? You've seen the guy." Before Okuyasu could belt out another one of his laughs, the teens were interrupted when Blake, seemingly prompted by nothing, gave a slow, hearty laugh herself, a few tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she carelessly flicked them to the side.

"... I really should've just talked to you guys and told you." Blake shook her head as she palmed her forehead a bit, a warm smile on her face that soon reached everyone else's as she looked at everyone. "I'm sorry guys. For everything. I've been a real pain about all this. I promise, no more of this." Blake walked over with Weiss to the rest of Team RWBY as she looked at Yang and Ruby. "If I'm going to expect my friends to trust me…" She turned to look at the other gathered hunters, "-then I need to start showing that I trust you all." Yang just gave a big old grin as she wrapped an arm around Blake's shoulders.

"Well hey, here I was about ready to knock some sense into you… seems like whatever happened with short stuff over there already did it for me." Everyone looked over at Tamami, suddenly remembering the severely beaten rat faunus on the ground nearby.

"Yeah… Weiss and I figured Josuke and the others should probably be the ones to turn him in, seeing as how we're not 'actually involved' with all this Stand business." Everyone nodded in agreement as Josuke brought out Crazy Diamond, who carelessly threw Tamami over its shoulder.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Josuke said as he walked alongside Crazy Diamond, the mood of the group of teens already leagues lighter than it had been when they had first arrived.

"So, how about we all go ahead and grab some dinner. Whatever Blake and Snow Angel have been through must've taken a lot out of them." Jaune winced slightly at the slightly withering glare Weiss sent his way as the blond just nervously chuckled. "Team JOJO can join us after they drop the short guy off with Ozpin and Ironwood." Everyone nodded in agreement as the two groups prepared to split off, though Weiss hesitated for a moment.

"You coming Weiss?" Ren looked over his shoulder, the magenta eyed teen raising an eyebrow as Weiss still seemed to carry an annoyed air about her.

"Yes, just, give me a moment." The white haired girl rubbed her temples a bit as she turned on her heels towards Team JOJO. "I'll catch up with you guys in a little bit." The other Four Kingdom hunters just shrugged as they walked off, though Blake had nodded in some understanding, as Weiss stormed off towards the three Frontier Huntsmen.

"Hey, Josuke." The pompadoured leader turned to face the Schnee Heiress, as Weiss just jabbed a thumb over towards Okuyasu. "Mind if I borrow the dolt for a moment?" The three young men blinked as they glanced at each other, before all three shrugged.

"I don't see why not. We'll meet you at Ozpin's office, okay Okuyasu?" The scarred teen just nodded as Koichi and Josuke headed off.

"Alright, see you guys there." Okuyasu called out to his friends before he turned to face Weiss, a curious expression on his face. "Alright, 'sup?" Okuyasu had kept his usual posture and had his hands in his pockets as he casually regarded Weiss, who seemed tense and a little bit aggravated as she crossed her arms and took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"... At lunch. When you heard our problem, you reached out and gave me some advice. It wasn't given in the most… polite or dignified way, and you… urgh." Weiss shook her head a bit as she turned her light blue eyes towards Okuyasu. "I mean… I acted out of line when all you were trying to do was help. You were trying to be a good friend and I lashed out because I didn't want to deal with my own problems or feelings." Weiss bit the corner of her lip slightly as she bowed her head. "I'd like to apologize for that, and I hope there won't be any hard feelings… your advice was actually quite good, Okuyasu."

",,, Is that it?" Weiss gaped slightly as she snapped her head to look up at Okuyasu, a casual grin on his face as he shrugged his shoulders. "Man, you had me thinking it was something big. You really do overthink stuff way too much, don't you Weiss?" Okuyasu belt out a bit of a laugh as he said this, as Weiss went red in the face from a mix of embarrassment and frustration.

"I-I, w-w… Now listen here you boor, I'm trying my best to apologize for being a jerk earlier, and you're just going to sit there and make fun of-" Weiss was cut off as Okuyasu waved her off, a grin on his face as he just chuckled even more.

"Weiss, I've already forgotten all about that." The Schnee Heiress' mouth snapped shut as he said this, though she still tilted her head in confusion.

"Pardon me?"

"Yeah." Okuyasu just shrugged as he reached a hand up to scratch at his cheek. "I worked off some steam using The Hand and I was pretty much over that lunch thing by the time the next class started. Honestly, I didn't really think that much of it." Okuyasu offered a good natured laugh as he pointed to himself. "Gonna take more than a few insults to keep a big, tough guy like me mad for long."

"B-But I, and you, I got so mad, and you-" Okuyasu just laughed at Weiss' spluttering as he shrugged it off.

"Weiss, we're friends. I'm not going to hold something like that against you. Come on; I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm not that thick." Okuyasu just gave her a wily grin. "Besides, it sounds like you took my advice with Blake, so that'd have been an apology enough on its own."

"... You really didn't care, did you?" Weiss asked, genuinely surprised, as Okuyasu just shrugged.

"Don't get me wrong, I got frustrated, but Hell, I get frustrated with Josuke and Koichi sometimes too, and I hardly hold it against them." A grin crept across Okuyasu's face as he looked down at her. "But, if you're apologizin' anyway, then I appreciate it… I guess?" Okuyasu barked out a short laugh as he placed his hands back in his pockets. "Now, was this all you wanted to chat about?" Weiss nodded slowly as Okuyasu just grinned. "Great. Guess I'll see you at dinner then Weiss. Later!" Okuyasu just turned on his heels and followed after the rest of his team, as Weiss finally snapped out of her surprise as she glared at the back of his head.

"You're still terribly rude, I'm not taking that back!" All that got out of Okuyasu was a long, hearty laugh as he waved her off, the Schnee Heiress just standing there for a moment before she sighed.

"Thank you, Okuyasu."

 **-To Be Continued- Skin Deep (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hunter: Weiss Schnee**

 **Semblance: Glyphs**

 **Destructive Power: D - A**

 **Speed: D - B**

 **Range: C**

 **Lasting Power: D - C**

 **Precision: B**

 **Developmental Potential: B**

 **Glyphs: Weiss' semblance is multi-faceted and with a numerous combination of uses. By combining her natural Aura with Dust, Weiss can use the latter material in a variety of ways by manipulating it both through her weapon, Myrtenaster, a multi-action Dust rapier, and through Glyphs that she is capable of creating out of thin air. Limited only by Weiss' creativity and the amount of Dust she has on person, and the types of Dust she's carrying, her Glyphs can form and change the Dust into numerous forms; as just a short example, through ice Dust, Weiss can summon pillars, domes or sheets out Ice seemingly out of nothing, or project it from Glyphs she creates or, in its most humorous example, a giant fist made of ice.**

 **She can also use her Glyphs and Dust to slow down opponents, speed up allies, block hits, charge bullets from other sources of fire, enhance the strikes of her rapier, freeze foes and several other means of manipulating and changing the battlefield. However, unlike Stands with similarly creative potential like [Crazy Diamond], Weiss had a hard limit on how long she can use her Glyphs for; on top of her physical limitations in exhausting her Aura, Weiss is at threat of burning through her supply of Dust using her semblance. Should either run short, Weiss is effectively cut off from this source of power and combat.**

 **Also Known As: Totally a Fullmetal Alchemist character. There's no denying it, you know it's true.**

 **Also Known As: Yo, VIP, let's kick it! Weiss, Weiss, baby~!**

* * *

 **Alright so, character economy. I'm sure a lot of you may have expected Tamami to join up with the crew and to be a sort of ally for the Duwang gang and the CRWBY, as it was in the canon of Diamond is Unbreakable. The short answer to why that isn't happening is quite simple; numbers.**

 **In Diamond is Unbreakable, you had the core four, Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi and Jotaro who, around them, had a limited number of let's call them 'allies'; Tamami, Toshikazu, Yukako, Tonio, Joseph, Rohan, Reimi, Mikitaka, Yuya and Hayato. So we have 14 right there, although not so 'solid' when you think about how limited the development for most of these characters were. Aside from The core four plus Joseph, Rohan, Hayato and Reimi, we really didn't get a lot of out of these other characters. Which is fine; they were all pretty much definitely side characters and could be kind of shunted off to the side when need be like say when you want to develop your main villains on top of that too; Kira Yoshikage got an awful lot of screentime in DiU too, if you'll remember.**

 **In contrast, here's how Beacon is Unbreakable stacks up: Team JOJO + Jotaro, RWBY and JNPR. These are the 'core' characters, the main characters of their respective series who fans of both works will be expecting to see attention poured upon and who I really want to focus my writing around. That's not even counting characters who'll join the main cast later on as the series progresses, but that's another topic for another time. Beyond THAT, we have side characters and main villains to pour attention onto: Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, Roman, Neo, Whitesnake, Ozpin, Ironwood, etc., etc,, etc., etc.**

 **Basically put, when I was working on this crossover, I had to sit down and say "What characters are really needed from both series. Who actually needs to be part of the main cast or cast of side-allies and who is just kind of added, unnecessary weight on the story"? This is neither a confirmation or denial of his presence in this series but, as an example, during the outlining phase of this fic I fucking tortured myself working and reworking Rohan. Trying to figure out if he had a good spot in the fic or if he'd prove to be unnecessary and just kind of a waste of space all things considered. Because I wanted him in here, but not if he was just going to be vestigial. I've come down firmly one way or another, but you'll have to wait and see how I ended up coming down.**

 **Now, on the flip side, while RWBY does have a lot of interesting main characters and allies, they hurt for a lot of good mooks. They got some solid core villains like Cinder, Roman, etc., but they're lacking in those Arc villains that make up such a strong reason why DiU in particular or JoJo in general feels like such an exciting adventure. Which is a weird omission for a series that does its best to really ape slice of life/adventure anime…**

 **But, once again; fucking time restrictions. You can't spend episodes building up and beating an arc villain when you've only got 12 to work with per Volume. Well, you can, but you'd better be sure you get your mileage out of that villain while he's around or make sure you can use him later. Hello Tyrian.**

 **So a lot of the 'villain-turned-allies' from DiU or even eventually neutral villains got converted into full on mooks. This gave me a lot of freeway in making them more threatening and more of a challenge because I wouldn't have to double-back later on to make it seem more natural that oh-hey, this person who threatened to have my mother and sister commit suicide is totally a guy I want to have hanging around me from now on, sure.**

 **Will some fans be disappointed? Inevitably so, but I think this'll end up making for an overall stronger series in light of all the plates I do need to keep spinning.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this little update and I hope you all have a great weekend.**


	15. Skin Deep (Act 1)

Sparring Class, Beacon Academy, Two Days Later

"Mr. Higashikata, I've received word from the Academy's Clinic that you've fully recovered and that they've given you the go ahead to participate in spars. Tell me, do you share the staff's evaluation?"

Josuke doubled back a bit, as did his friends gathered around him, as Glynda had specifically called out to him. Barely having had sat down for sparring classes and ready to watch other students go at it in the ring, the blonde professor's sudden attention had caught the pompadoured teen off guard, as well as the other members of teams JOJO, RWBY, JNPR. Sun and Neptune, sat nearby with their own team, also watched with interest as Josuke's blue eyes blinked away their surprise as he leaned forward.

"Ah, yeah? My legs really don't hurt anymore and I'm feeling pretty alright, so I think I'd be ready, Professor Goodwitch." Josuke added the proper name and title for the professor as he nodded his head, a gesture which earned a good-willed nod from Glynda as she tapped on her data pad a few times.

"Very good. In that case; Pyrrha Nikos and Higashikata Josuke, please report to the arena floor for your spar." A series of hushed mutters and whoops and hollers of excitement passed through the crowd of students as Josuke and Pyrrha stood up and walked off, as a mix of sentiments were spoken throughout the crowd.

"Oh yeah, some fresh meat for the Invincible Girl! Let's see if the Four Kingdoms can make it two for two against these Stands!"

"Yo, Josuke, let's see if you can land even one hit on Pyrrha. Team CRDL can't do it even with all four of them grouped up on her!"

"Let's see another crazy-ass Stand!"

The remainder of Team JOJO just sat back and shrugged off the various catcalls of the students, as Koichi looked on nervously while Okuyasu grinned and leaned forward.

"Hah, finally gonna get to see baby face go in for a fight. I got a good feeling about this one." Okuyasu rubbed his hands together as nervous, but excited, energy built up in him, which caused the remainder of Team JNPR to look at them curiously.

"Not for nothing, but Pyrrha's even tougher than Nora is. She hasn't been beaten by a single student in all of Beacon… heck, she hasn't lost a fight since she came out onto the tournament circuit over in Mistral." Ren said evenly as Jaune just nodded, the blond leader smiling faintly as he looked towards the arena.

"I've seen Pyrrha fight up close and personal in our spars. Trust me, she's good. I imagine Josuke had to be pretty strong to be your leader Okuyasu, but Pyrrha's just on a different level from most of us. Right guys?" Jaune looked to team RWBY and paused when he saw that, rather than ready agreement, were patient and thoughtful looks of consideration. As Jaune turned to his own-orange haired teammate for backup, he was even further surprised when he saw Nora scratch her chin as she stared down at the arena floor. "Nora?"

"The Hand was stronger and faster than me Jaune." Nora said evenly as she tilted her head to the side. "I only won because Okuyasu couldn't really think of how to use his abilities too well… no offense, Oku!" Nora quickly turned to offer an apologetic smile to the scarred turn, as Okuyasu just waved her off.

"No offense taken, that's exactly what happened. It's no secret that I don't strategize so well." Members of the group moderately frowned as Okuyasu, without seemingly being put down or discouraged, once again degraded himself. It was a behavior they had increasingly noticed but, given the big guy's attitude never seemed to dip like Jaune's, they'd left it be. Nora just shrugged her shoulders as she turned forward.

"Anyway, Crazy Diamond is supposed to be even stronger and faster than that… and Josuke's a lot smarter than Okuyasu." Okuyasu vigorously nodded his head.

"A LOT smarter." He emphasized, to which Nora looked over to Ren.

"We've seen what Stand Users like that are capable of… heck, from what you've told us, Crazy Diamond sounds a lot like Star Platinum. I'm not saying that Pyrrha's gonna lose, gosh knows that I could never beat her and no one else has either… but, it isn't guaranteed to be easy." The orange-haired girl looked back down at the arena. "Not this time, I don't think."

"Josuke and Crazy Diamond could probably beat me." Even team RWBY seemed surprised when Yang said this, apropos of nothing, as the blonde bombshell rolled her left shoulder. "If I didn't get going with my semblance and if he boxed me in, I'd probably be in trouble. It just seems to be the way these fights go… how most fights go, now that I've been forced to look at it." Lilac eyes narrowed in focus as Yang leaned back in her seat. "Then again, Pyrrha constantly beats me without me laying a finger on her, even with my semblance fully charged. I think Nora's right; Pyrrha's in no way guaranteed to lose, but I don't think this is gonna be a fight that'll go down easy one way or the other. They'll both have to clobber each other if they want to win"

At that, a bright smile flashed across Yang's lips. "And that's got me pretty excited!" The blonde's serious demeanor seemingly melted away as she jumped up and forward, her hands cupped around her mouth to help throw her voice as Pyrrha and Josuke made their way into the arena. "Go Josuke, go P-Money, give us a show!" At that, the thoughtful demeanors of the various teams melted away as they started cheering both of their friends, who just smiled and waved at them and largely ignored the rest of the crowd.

"Good luck Pyrrha, this is gonna be my first time fighting a Four Kingdom hunter, so-"

"Go easy on you?" The green eyed spartan suggested with a bit of a grin, as Josuke just sent one right back.

"Don't hold back. I'd rather not win my first fight just cause you were taking it easy on the new guy in town." Josuke said with a bit of a laugh as the two walked into the center of the arena.

"I wouldn't even dream of it Josuke." Pyrrha said with a light-hearted chuckle as they both nodded at Glynda, who gave an approving look to both, before they separated somewhat.

"That's great." Josuke said over his shoulder, an honestly excited look on the young man's face as he stretched out a bit.

"Alright Miss Nikos, same rules apply for you as did Miss Valkyrie; you may fire your weapon and take serious swings at his Stand, however, contact with Mr. Higashikata himself must be carefully considered as to not permanently injure him. If at any time it seems like thing might pass into this territory, I'll step into ensure Mr. Higashikata's safety. I would prefer to not have to do this. Is that clear." Pyrrha nodded as she reached back and drew out Miló, as she left her shield dangling on her back as she precariously held her weapon in its short sword form.

"Of course Professor Goodwitch!" Pyrrha said with a firm nod as she got into a combat ready stance, all the while Glynda turned her gaze back towards Josuke.

"Mr. Higashikata, your Stand please." Josuke just nodded as he placed his hands in his pockets, a light breath passed through his lips as he focused. The crowd quieted down as they leaned forward; they had all seen and been surprised by The Hand's appearance, and had come to keep the design well within their mind. Many were curious as to what the Stand of the leader of the oddball Frontier huntsmen team would look like.

"Crazy Diamond!" With that call, Crazy Diamond materialized forth from Josuke's body, the hot pink and silver Stand rushed forward to position itself between its master and Pyrrha, a determined look on its features as its eyes, matching Josuke's, stared on ahead towards the red haired spartan.

The crowd responded in a way few might've expected;

"Holy crap, that is one pink Stand!"

"Damn man, gotta be a brave dude to be willing to walk around with something covered in hearts, hah!"

"Yo Pyrrha, don't do too much damage to that thing okay, it's really pretty!"

Josuke and Pyrrha just ignored the crowd as a mix of bemusement passed through it. This was a Stand that befitted a team leader? This almost naked thing, as far as most onlookers were considered, didn't appear even half as threatening or strong as The Hand. Some of this was the shock and awe of their first Stand sighting passing through them as Okuyasu and Kujo Jotaro slowly normalized the idea of Stands and Stand Power among the student body.

Among the respective teams and friends of the two combatants though, the response was quite different.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Ren… HIS STAND IS SO PINK!" Nora had little stars in her eyes as she leaned forward against the seat in front of her, a wide smile on her face. "Ren, Ren, if I ever had a Stand, I'd want it to be that pink~!" Nora practically cooed as she looked down at Crazy Diamond, her magenta eyed friend just smiled and rolled his eyes slightly at her reaction.

"Yes Nora, I know. You've said so often enough when we were growing up." Indeed, the idea of 'Star Platinum, but pinker and with explosions' had been a fantasy that Nora had passed around during their time growing up in Vale. Though it had passed from Ren's mind as time made him push the memory of the Stardust Crusaders away, the thought still brought a warmth to his body, as memories of days long since passed momentarily filled his mind.

"Don't let the color scheme fool you, Crazy Diamond is a pretty powerful Stand." Ruby said with a firm nod, just loud enough for both their circle of friends and Sun and Neptune to hear, as everyone seemed to get the picture.

"Hey there's nothing wrong with pink; takes a real man to walk around with so much pink in his soul." Sun offered with a sage nod as he piped up for all his friends to hear him, his own teammates lightly rolled their eyes as Jaune just snapped his head towards him.

"Really? Huh…" Jaune scratched his chin for a moment before he turned to Weiss. "Hey, Snowflake, how would you like it if I-"

"No."

"Okay…" The almost automatic response to Jaune was more than enough to shut the poor young guy down as he turned his attention back to the arena floor. Josuke still had that grin on his face as he looked across the arena to Pyrrha, where a far less excited but still good natured smile was on the tournament fighter's visage.

"Are both combatants ready for battle?" Glynda asked casually as she glanced between both fights, the two students just gave her a nod of confirmation. "Very good; let the battle commence."

Pyrrha didn't waste a second; as soon as the fight was called Miló was switched into its rifle form and, as quickly as she could pull the trigger, three bullets were fired out of the barrel of the gun and streamed towards Crazy Diamond. The move inspired some surprise in the crowd, who'd not seen Pyrrha go for her weapon's rifle form so quickly, and expected it as part of some more general strategy similar to Nora's. They expected that Pyrrha would exploit some range disadvantage that Stands like The Hand were said to have, and that she'd just keep away from Crazy Diamond to win the fight from there.

What they didn't expect was the gleam that passed through Crazy Diamond's eyes as they followed the bullets as it tightened its fists and tensed its muscles.

" **DORA DORA DORAAA**!" Crazy Diamond's battle cry echoed throughout the arena as the stand in short succession punched each of the three bullets out of the air, the bullets themselves clattered onto the ground in the same time as the shell casing for their dust charges as Josuke just stood impassively and Pyrrha nodded, as if she had come to understand something.

"I see, the others weren't overselling it then." Pyrrha quickly changed Miló back into its short sword form as she pulled Akoúo̱ from her back and slid the shield onto her left arm. "Your Stand really does move fast enough to intercept rounds."

In truth, that wasn't the entirety of what allowed Crazy Diamond to accomplish such a feat. It wasn't just that his Stand was almost as fast as a bullet, but that it was also incredibly precise and capable of seeing the bullet as it was fired. In addition, Josuke had taken some of his time and used it to study up on the more modern weapons of the Four Kingdoms that had developed in the time between The Reckoning and the modern era and, while most of the information he found was heartening, there were a few sore spots. Single-action guns that required a reload or a secondary trigger to keep firing, semi-automatics and even shotguns, Crazy Diamond's near supersonic speeds and excellent precision could handle. Not as well as Star Platinum: The World, but then, that Stand was on a whole other level.

It was the automatic weapons that the Four Kingdoms had developed that Josuke would have to get more creative with. Still, that was another problem for another time; right now, the pompadoured teen could only grin and smile as he nodded.

"Yeah. I'm guessing you were testing out whether or not you could actually fight me at range and get away with it." Pyrrha just grinned as she nodded.

"Was it that obvious?" Pyrrha chuckled as she swung her blade around. "I wanted to see if, like Nora, I could exploit your Stand's potential range issues with my own longer range. Sadly, it seems like you'd be more than capable of deflecting my bullets and, after that, all I have is a javelin." The spartan warrior chuckled as she just grinned good-naturedly, still taking the fight lightly. "I doubt I could get that moving fast enough to surprise you." Josuke just shrugged his shoulders as Crazy Diamond tensed itself up.

"Guess that means that if you want to win, you'll have to risk getting up close and personal with my Stand." Pyrrha just nodded with a slight smile as she tensed her body.

"Seems so." Josuke just grinned at Pyrrha's response as Crazy Diamond readied itself. While Josuke was by no means sure of his victory, he was glad that the Mistrali warrior didn't have any aces up her sleeve for fighting at range. If she had, then it would've been a bit of a problem; Crazy Diamond, unlike The Hand, had no way of bringing her into fight her directly. Now though, he stood a much better chance. He'd seen her fight previous during the past couple weeks; he had a vague idea of how she fought, how fast she was and how strong she was. All of which was pretty impressive by Josuke's reckoning. The fact that no one, not no one, not even during a one versus four had managed to land a hit on her had been greatly impressive to the pompadoured teen.

However, rather than let that fact discourage him, Josuke just reached into his pocket. Pyrrha tensed for a moment, before she blinked in confusion as Josuke pulled out a comb and ran it through his hair a couple times.

"Great. That'll make this fight pretty fun then, I think." The young, blue eyed man said with a great deal of confidence and excitement, as he placed the comb back into his pocket. Pyrrha just lightly chuckled a bit as she nodded in agreement.

The fight paused for a moment as the two combatants measured each other, ready to go on the offensive at a moment's notice. Pyrrha, unsurprisingly, was the one to make the first move. Pyrrha reared her left arm back and with a solid arc tossed her shield at Crazy Diamond, Akoúo̱ slid gracefully off of her left forearm and spun through the air towards Josuke. Josuke kept his eyes on Pyrrha as he mentally ordered Crazy Diamond to just deflect the oncoming shield away, which the Stand sought to do with as little effort and Aura as possible. With a casual swing, attempted to backhand the flying shield away.

Only for both it and its Stand Master to look on in surprise as a gush of blood came out from the back of Josuke's hand where the shield had contacted Crazy Diamond's.

'What?!' Josuke thought to himself as Crazy Diamond immediately poured Aura into its hand and arm which, alongside the Stand's own natural strength, allowed it to bat the shield away with very little additional damage. 'I knew the edge of that shield was sharp, but… it didn't seem like she threw it with enough force in that swing for it to be moving with that kind of momentum. How did she…' Josuke's thoughts were interrupted when Pyrrha charged forward towards him, Miló at the ready in one hand, as he prepared Crazy Diamond to go forward to meet her. She had lost her shield, which meant that her left side would be wide-

Akoúo̱, seemingly out of nowhere, had flown back from where Crazy Diamond had knocked the shield away and was caught in Pyrrha's left hand, where the red headed Mistrali warrior casually slipped it back on as part of her charge.

'Okay, WHAT?!' Josuke's face didn't betray surprise, but rather, a slight grunt of frustration as a newly shielded Pyrrha met Crazy Diamond directly. The surprises continued to roll as Josuke, finally got a look at what Pyrrha's fighting was like up close and personal. Pyrrha's swings, thrusts and movements of her shield wouldn't have suggested a lot of force or a great deal of momentum, comparatively speaking. Yes, she would've been strong and fast in her own right, even compared to Neo who Josuke had, shortly, fought back under the underpass, but it shouldn't have been something that Crazy Diamond would have to adjust to.

What made it so was how odd her movements were going. At varying points in her swings, Miló would suddenly swing forward with more speed and force than what should've been expected. When Crazy Diamond punched forward to try to get an advantage on Pyrrha or drive her off, Akoúo̱ was able to meet his blows head on and, surprisingly, stand up to them without even the slightest dent in the face of the metal. Crazy Diamond's fists left scars in it, but the shield itself held strong.

To Josuke's own vision of the fight and especially Crazy Diamond's enhanced senses, her movements were… unnatural. They suddenly changed momentum and heft without any sort of notice and, whatever metal that shield might've been made of, it shouldn't under its own power have been strong enough to deflect blows coming from Crazy Diamond. Not so easily as they had been.

Sensing an opportunity after an attempted shield bash caused Crazy Diamond to stumble back slightly, Pyrrha twisted Miló around and jabbed for Crazy Diamond. Josuke's eyes widened as Crazy Diamond moved both of its hands to catch Pyrrha's blade, the Stand and Stand Master grunted under the unexpected force as the blade, seemingly, continued to move towards them despite the double-handed grip Crazy Diamond had on it. These looks widened into surprise as Pyrrha reared her left arm back and prepared to slam her shield's face into Crazy Diamond's head.

" **DORA**!" Fighting against the strength of Pyrrha's arm and the continued momentum of her sword, Crazy Diamond twisted Pyrrha around by her sword, which caused the spartan to stumble slightly from the sudden movement and had her shield swing go wide. Crazy Diamond reared back one of its fists, ready to throw a punch in to capitalize on this misstep but, with characteristically unnatural swiftness and response time, Pyrrha quickly leveled her shield to tank the hit while she got back into position and Stand and huntress went back to the usual routine of trading blows.

Josuke's eyes narrowed as the gears in his mind turned. As loathe as many of the older generation in Morioh were to acknowledge it, Josuke was by far the strongest hunter in his generation. Not for the strength and tenacity of his Stand or even the Stand Ability it carried with it; or rather not just for those reasons. It was the mind and guile that he had inherited, some muttered wrongly, that had allowed him to make the most of these gifts and drive them to new heights.

Right now, his mind screamed one thing at him at the top of its little lungs; this wasn't Aura. Aura hadn't allowed either his own Stand or Ruby and her team to move in such an unnatural manner. the laws of physics still broadly applied to them, even with Aura-enhanced speeds, stamina and toughness. Then again, as Josuke thought about it, Weiss' Glyphs seemed to allow her to play around with that concept. In fact… the only things that seemed to allow any of them to break the laws of physics were Ruby and Weiss'...

In one moment, Josuke's thoughts crystallized as his blue eyes narrowed in focus.

'Whatever she's doing, she's using a semblance to accomplish it.' Whatever her semblance was, it allowed Pyrrha to manipulate her body or the things on her person to allow them to hit stronger, harder and faster than her own physical limitations might've otherwise allowed for. Whatever her semblance might've been it was also, for all intents and purposes, invisible to the naked eye.

'Her previous fights make a little more sense now.' Josuke thought as Crazy Diamond continued to trade with Pyrrha. Despite both of their best efforts the fight so far had been a stalemate, though one that Josuke had purposefully prolonged. The pompadoured teen wanted time now that he broadly understood what Pyrrha was doing; if he could crack the code on her semblance, then he'd immediately be at a better point to win this fight. So as Crazy Diamond did what it could to trade favorably with Pyrrha's swings, the cogs and wheels in Josuke's mind whirred.

'This is why it seems like she's so impossible to hit or her swings are so difficult to avoid; whatever her semblance is, its allowing her to change the momentum and speed of her swings on a whim, as well as strengthening her armaments so that they can better stand up against the force they're going against.' Josuke looked at both the shield and the sword which, despite Crazy Diamond's attempts to deflect, pummel or otherwise damage them, had been left relatively unharmed.

'That also explains the shield… and suggests something else pretty worrying.' Josuke recalled the opening of the fight; the shield which had flown forward with a surprising amount of force and had, just as mysteriously, returned to Pyrrha despite the awkward arc he had sent it flying off towards. 'If Pyrrha's able to manipulate objects at a distance, then that makes her semblance something on the level of Professor Goodwitch's… which isn't great news, all things considered.' Josuke continued to watch the fight unfold between Pyrrha and Crazy Diamond as fist met shield, swings of the blade were barely avoided and, several times, Crazy Diamond had to bring up both its arms to guard against a hit.

'Despite what advantage it's giving her, Crazy Diamond is keeping up… with a little bit more time, it and I might be able to adapt to how her semblance is affecting her movements. Those first few times were probably meant to surprise me, to knock me off my footing and let her sink a good few hits in so that she could follow up from there.' Josuke watched through Crazy Diamond as Pyrrha tilted her shield to expose its edge and quickly jabbed for his Stand's side. Having seen it as an opportunity, Crazy Diamond quickly ducked to the side and sent an uppercut into the underside of the shield, the power of the blow working alongside the forward momentum of the shield, unnatural as per usual, to knock it forward and up, exposing Pyrrha's entire left side and knocking her out of her stance.

Crazy Diamond moved in, tensing its muscles and swinging for Pyrrha's exposed torso when Pyrrha quickly brought her sword down to block Crazy Diamond's fist with the flat edge. The force behind the blocked stopped Crazy Diamond in its tracks, once again frustrating Josuke with how unnatural Pyrrha's movements were, as a seemingly equally unnatural force pulled Pyrrha out of her poor stance and back away from him, where she could readjust before diving back in, that focused, but friendly, look to her eyes still everpresent.

The crowd applauded the quick show between the two fighters; despite their own biases telling them that Pyrrha had this, many in the crowd still found the hotly contested skirmishes between the Stand and the Invincible Girl to be wildly entertaining. Josuke, meanwhile, still pondered over the meaning behind her semblance, a look that told Team JOJO and Team RWBY that the pompadoured Stand User was far from out of this fight.

'All of this begs a question though; if she is capable of using this to exert influence on things that are even out of her hand on not on her person… why hasn't she used it on me.' Crazy Diamond had not signaled, nor had Josuke seen or felt, any unnatural influence upon its person. They both saw and could feel the unnatural heft to Pyrrha's blows and blocks and even her movements, but neither felt a similar force acted upon them. 'If she wanted to win and win clean, there have been a few times in this fight where she could have reached out with her semblance and knocked me off my footing. She could've moved a punch, adjusted a block, created openings out of nothing with a semblance like that.' Josuke's blue eyes narrowed as he tensed himself.

'Unless of course her semblance can't act on me for whatever reason.' Josuke arched an eyebrow as the thought crossed his mind. 'Still, if it is similar to Professor Goodwitch's, then it should be able to. The fact that she could manipulate her shield with it even after having thrown it suggests that too. There must be something else other than distance that affects whether or not she can use her semblance on me… but what?'

Josuke's mind immediately flew through all the possibilities that he had examined through the various semblances he had witnessed and read about since coming to Vale. Unlike Stands, who had to have some kind of weakness as a drawback to their powers, bar no cases, semblances were a bit free of that stipulation. Their weakness was that they were straightforward and, after you learned about them, easy to predict. Even the spookily creative ones seemed to have reasonable drawbacks. Ruby could move fast, Yang could make herself stronger, Glynda could manipulate objects, meanwhile Weiss' was pretty much burnt out if she ran out of Dust while Blake's was just a distraction.

Pyrrha's semblance wasn't a Stand. If she wasn't using it against him in the ways he could imagine, it wasn't because that was some semblance specific drawback. It was because the nature of her semblance prevented her from doing so.

'What then… what is it about Pyrrha and her gear that differentiated her from Crazy Diamond.' Josuke looked Pyrrha up and down; assuming Pyrrha herself was a normal teenage girl which, judging by her awkwardness around Jaune he could check off that box, then the only thing that really stood out about her besides her combat ability was her gear. It was the exception rather than the rule when Four Kingdom folks seemed to wear armor. Off the top of his head, Josuke could only think of three people who did; Jaune, Cardin and Pyrrha. The former two made sense though; Jaune was just a walking brick wall with Aura enough to tank a lot of hits even if he couldn't dish it out, more armor would just enhance that. Cardin was slow and vulnerable to quick movements, so armor would just help to cover him up and let him tank hits while he swung that mace of his…

Pyrrha was fast, maneuverable, her weapons favored all three ranges of combat, she was specialized in multiple styles from sword and board to rifle fire, and she had a semblance that made it almost impossible for you to hit her and difficult to figure out how hard and fast her swings were and where they could come from. So why deck herself out in metal armor that would just slow down so many of that natural strengths? What was the point in making sure that she was… covered in metal.

'Even her head and neck, she has a circlet and necklace placed around them. Her sword makes up for the hand that doesn't have any metal sheathing while her left arm has the bracer and the shield. Literally every part of her body has some kind of metal attached to or around it.' Josuke bit his bottom lip. As it currently stood, there was no way he could be absolutely certain about this hunch. It could just be that Pyrrha hadn't yet employed her semblance against Crazy Diamond because she didn't want Josuke to key into it. It could be that she just held back out of courtesy…

So, there was only one way to be sure. Josuke was going to have to get in her guard and try to knock Pyrrha Nikos' lights out. Josuke just smiled slightly as the thought had crossed his mind. 'Easier said than done, probably. Then again, isn't that the way it goes in fights like these.'

The smile faded from Josuke's face as his eyes narrowed in determined focus. 'No matter which way her semblance works, I have to use her unnatural momentum against her if I want to force an opening. I have to leave her no options but to try and use her semblance against Crazy Diamond. If she succeeds, then I have my answer and this fight pretty much becomes an endurance test; what lasts longer, my Stand Power or her physical Aura. If she fails…' A small smirk came to Josuke's face as he finally spoke for the first time since the battle began.

"Great." For a moment, Pyrrha was taken out of her own thoughts by the pompadoured teen's exclamation when, suddenly, another row between Crazy Diamond and the spartan began and she returned her focus to the battle. Josuke's eyes flew around the little patch of the arena that she and Crazy Diamond had clashed on; while he kept his eyes focused on Pyrrha's movements so as to keep his Stand's vision and focus on the battle, his eyes would flash downward towards the floor every now and then as he carefully watched how Pyrrha moved across the stone floor as part of her movements. Once he had gotten a good feel for her footwork, Josuke knew that it was then or never.

" **[Crazy Diamond]**!" Josuke's shout echoed across the arena as Crazy Diamond reared its fist back, Pyrrha raising her shield in preparation for a block, her short sword reared back for a counter. She stepped forward with her left leg, positioning her lower body to help tank the blow that she had expected to come from the Stand. Her surprise, as well as the entire audience's, was evident when Crazy Diamond instead swung down and low, its fist smashing into the floor just as Pyrrha was set to step into it. The deep hole in the ground easily dwarfed even The Hand's own impressions on the hard stone from weeks before and Pyrrha tripped forward as the sudden hole in the ground knocked her off her footing. It didn't matter, with her semblance it'd be an easy enough matter to-

"FIX IT!"

Green eyes widened as the stone that had flung itself out from the floor glowed that vibrant yellow as the arena floor sealed itself around her boot, the spartan's foot now sealed beyond its ankle into the floor. Her stance was broken and, until she pulled her leg from her boot, it wasn't set to fix itself anytime soon, which Crazy Diamond immediately exploited.

" **DORA**!" Crazy Diamond's left arm reared back as the Stand lightly floated above Pyrrha, her own awkward stance lowering her head in comparison to the large Stand. Pyrrha responded by throwing her shield up to block the downward swung blow, its left hand deftly connected with the face of her shield. As it did so and as Pyrrha's lack of a stance caused her entire body to wobble, Crazy Diamond's right fist uppercut the underside of the shield, practically presented to the Stand with how Pyrrha was forced to tilt it in order to block the Stand's other blow, as Pyrrha soon found her entire left arm throw off to the side, as even the force of her semblance couldn't add enough strength to her resolute defense to have held steady in her broken stance.

Crazy Diamond reared its left fist back, Pyrrha reaching her semblance out to her sword to move in to block, same as last time. However, instead of punching forward, Crazy Diamond's hand darted forth to grab the blade. While it had been a move that cost Josuke some of his own Aura on the screen above and had resulted in a cut that bled away on his left hand, as Crazy Diamond tossed her last line of defense to the side in those swift seconds, it reared its right fist back and swung for Pyrrha's face.

Pyrrha's mind whirred as the minuscule seconds passed and Crazy Diamond's fist approached her. The Stand's blows ensured that the momentum of her body was too far gone for her semblance to force her head or neck to move, not to mention how ill positioned she'd been thanks to the Stand having sealed the floor around her leg. Her lines of defense were gone and she couldn't just up and move away in those short moments.

It was then that Josuke could've swore he'd seen it, as Pyrrha's mind reached for the last line of defense. A black fog that seemed to surround Crazy Diamond's fist as it plowed forward. Nearly invisible to the naked eye, but not to Crazy Diamond, not when it was so close and had attached itself to his own Stand.

In the crowd, the gathered huntsmen and huntresses watched with baited breath. Among those of the Four Kingdoms, some part of their mind still insisted that Pyrrha would get out of this. That the Invincible Girl, however pinned in she looked, was still just that; invincible. They'd seen her win dozens of spars against numerous opponents even when entire teams had been thrown at her. Never once had Pyrrha Nikos been struck. A precedent that had dated back to even her tournament career.

Perhaps that was why the entire arena could hear it when it happened. Everyone was shocked into silence when Crazy Diamond, the Stand of the Frontier Huntsmen Higashikata Josuke, plowed its fist into Pyrrha Nikos' face.

The silence was soon broken twice over.

"GO JOSUKE!".

" **DOOORARARARARARARARARARARARAAAA**!"

As Okuyasu cheered from the crowds for his best friend and Koichi, meekly, cheered after, Crazy Diamond exploited the opening it had made. A flurry of blows struck Pyrrha about the torso and face as the Stand sought to use her disorientation to its own advantage. After a handful of seconds and half of her Aura being depleted by the rain of blows, Pyrrha finally recovered; she brought her shield forward to tank the rain of blows that had come from Crazy Diamond while she focused her own semblance on all the metal on her, including her trapped boot. Pyrrha warped the metal as much as she could to loosen it and, having lacked any sort of actual pivot point due to her awkward stance to pull herself out without it, had her semblance force the metal on her body up and away from Crazy Diamond which tugged her out of her boot and away from the pink Stand and its master.

Josuke clucked his tongue as Pyrrha pulled this off and kept Crazy Diamond at the ready, Stand and Stand Master watched warily as Pyrrha Nikos, seemingly, hid behind her shield while she took deep, gasping breaths for air. Pyrrha reached a shaking hand up for her face and winced; even through her own Aura, she had felt that rain of blows. She was almost certain that if her Aura hadn't healed them, she'd be covered in bruises from the barrage. She didn't even need to look up to the screen to know that the trade had spent a good deal of her Aura. What she's heard was true; Stands like Josuke's and Okuyasu's punched and punched hard. Punched so hard that each one was a considerable drain on your Aura to protect against.

Her lungs greedily gasped in air as her heart beat faster and faster. Blood pumped through her veins and flushed her skin as sweat poured down her otherwise pristine visage. She could see in her reflection of the back of her shield as her pupils had dilated to take in more information while adrenaline pumped its way through her body. Her hair was an absolute mess, whipped about too and fro by Crazy Diamond's flurry of blows. Her legs shook and for a moment, her arms felt heavy and sore from having had tanked so many of the Stand's blows through her sword and shield.

'How long has it been since I felt like this.' Pyrrha thought as she looked at the unfamiliar reflection in her shield, almost captivated by the girl she hadn't seen in so many years. 'How many years since I was pushed to the very heights of what I can do… how long since I've actually enjoyed a battle for the sake of it. Where there were stakes, where my victory wasn't assured… where victory meant something to me.'

Deep in her green eyes, she swore she saw it; a spark she had thought long since dimmed. The crowd surrounding the arena was dead silent, as they figured that Pyrrha took her beating just then about as well as they had; with stunned, unbelieving silence. Yet when she dropped her shield and looked Josuke in the eyes, the crowd's jaw dropped at the sight.

A look that wouldn't have been ill-fitting on Yang Xiao Long as Pyrrha twirled Miló around in her grip.

"So, I guess that is how your semblance works." Josuke said aloud as he placed his hands in his pockets, a surprised look crossed Pyrrha's face. "I guess it makes sense. I had wondered why you didn't try to use it on me. I guess I've got my answer now." Josuke grinned as Crazy Diamond slammed the 'armored' section of its fists together, while Pyrrha just grinned back.

"You are full of surprises, Josuke." A thoughtful expression crossed her face before she spun Miló around in a move that, with some fiddling, adjusted the weapon into its javelin form. "Make no mistake though; I am going to win." Josuke just grinned at the tone in Pyrrha's voice. It wasn't one of self-assured victory or arrogance. It was one of desire; she wanted to win and she was going to take it.

"Well Pyrrha-" Josuke just grinned back as Crazy Diamond tensed itself, "-you're going to actually have to earn that against me." Both combatant's smiles didn't leave their faces as, after a moment's hesitation, Pyrrha leaped forward and thrust her spear towards Crazy Diamond, who knocked it aside by the shaft as he moved forward. To its and Josuke's surprise, rather than further engage, Pyrrha harried Crazy Diamond with the end of her spear as she pedaled back, keeping just enough range between herself and Crazy Diamond for her to re-position her spear for another jab.

As the crowd saw the expressions on the two fighters faces and, more importantly, as their friends saw the good-natured feelings that had still flooded through the fight, cheering resumed amidst the arena crowd. While many were more hesitant than before, as suddenly the possibility that Pyrrha Nikos may very well lose had sunk into their minds, JOJO, RWBY and JNPR cheered loud and hard for their two friends as the battle raged on the arena floor.

Pyrrha had succeeded in getting Crazy Diamond off of her immediate person. As she harried him at range with the point of her spear and rebuffed attempts by Crazy Diamond and Josuke to move in, she danced and hopped away from Stand and Stand Master. However, Pyrrha also showed a new twist to her strategy and her semblance: at moments when she had harried or countered Crazy Diamond successfully with blows empowered by her semblance, she'd thrust forward with her spear just past Crazy Diamond's sides and, using her semblance, extend the range of her spear by letting go and allowing it to flyforward. The move had produced some solid cuts on Josuke's arms and sides as, even when Crazy Diamond grabbed the spear, the polished, slender nature of the weapon and Pyrrha's semblance ensured that it could be slipped out of the Stand's grip and back into Pyrrha's.

It had effectively increased Pyrrha's range and allowed her to not only harry Crazy Diamond, it had also allowed her to harass Josuke himself. Harassment, however, was the extent of it; even when openings for more direct hits against Josuke's person may have been available, her spear would always curve off towards cutting into Josuke's arms and legs. Harsh enough to draw blood and drain Aura, but nothing Beacon's medical staff couldn't patch up.

Pyrrha had been driven to excitement by a fight and she wanted to win, but there were rules to this spar and she wasn't about to go crazy against a friend.

Josuke meanwhile, kept careful track of Pyrrha's patterns as the pompadoured teen parsed through her movements and attacks as he attempted to find another opening or another misstep he could exploit. Pyrrha's focus on mid-range had made that task more difficult than it was previous as Josuke now needed to account for not only how to avoid being poked and prodded by Pyrrha's spear on top of everything else. Thinking had been made slightly more difficult as well; before, when she was at close range, Pyrrha hadn't the inclination to harry him or ensure he hadn't thought much about the fight. Now, Josuke was forced onto his toes as the spear occasionally poked through Crazy Diamond's defenses and Pyrrha just danced and ducked around the Stand or rebuffed its fists with that shield of hers.

However, in the end, it hadn't been enough to throw him off completely and soon, Josuke had a plan.

As Pyrrha saw another opening in Crazy Diamond's defenses, she lunged forward with her spear, her arm thrown forward as she let go of her weapon and guided it towards Josuke with her semblance. In that moment, two things happened: Josuke purposefully stepped forward as the spear passed, another cut added to the handful on his arms and legs as Josuke just grimaced from the pain. Crazy Diamond followed up on the movement stepped forward into close range against Pyrrha, as the Stand swiftly swung its arm around and pinned Pyrrha's against his side. Green eyes went wide as Pyrrha attempted to call her spear back, the weapon slipped back into her hand as she realized that Crazy Diamond and Josuke were now inside the weapon's effective range. The champion fighter reached out with her semblance as she tried to get Miló back into its short sword form. She might not be able to swing it with her arm pinned in by Crazy Diamond, but she could use her semblance to at least ensure the weapon would hurt either it or Josuke enough to get them to let her go.

That had been the plan, up until Josuke had ducked down and around Crazy Diamond and, with as much force as he could muster, kicked at Pyrrha's only stocking clad leg, the blow having slammed into her heel and ankle. With her armor on it to act as a conduit for her semblance, the blow would have meant little or nothing to Pyrrha normally, especially backed up by physical Aura. However, without her armor, with her Aura already partially drained by Crazy Diamond and forced into an awkward stance against the giant Stand which, on top of having grabbed her arm, was now throwing punch after punch towards her face which she had to protect with her shield, Pyrrha yelped in surprise as the kick from the Frontier Huntsmen had knocked her leg out from under her.

" **DORA**!" Crazy Diamond reared its right fist back and tensed its muscles like metal coils before it unleashed a horrible haymaker, a blow savage enough on its own that even had Pyrrha been properly stanced and with her semblance fully behind her it would've knocked her away. Now, gripped by the Stand out of stance, with the leg that would have braced her body against the hit kicked out from under her, Pyrrha's form, already shaken, collapsed as her entire left side was thrown back. Between her right arm which had been pinned underneath Crazy Diamond's left and the opening of her left flank, Pyrrha had been positively exposed.

" **DOOORAAAA**!" Again, the Stand roared as it launched its fist forward and clocked Pyrrha upside the head, the blow struck Pyrrha limp as her head spun from the force. In the moments where her senses had been knocked loose, she attempted to raise her shield up back to defend herself as she had successfully shifted Miló back into its short sword form. However, as the blow had knocked her down and back, the face of her shield planted into the ground, Crazy Diamond raised one of its legs and stamped down and effectively pinned the shield between the stone floor and the Stand's boot. Even as Pyrrha tried her best to remove her arm from her shield's holsters, her green eyes stared up at the blue eyes of Josuke's Stand.

In a moment, one thought crossed her mind as Miló hung ineffectively behind Crazy Diamond, Josuke having positioned himself so that Crazy Diamond stood between him and the blade.

'I lost.'

" **DOOORARARARARARARARARARARARARA- DORAAAAA**!" With Pyrrha's arms pinned or her defenses otherwise knocked aside, Crazy Diamond pummeled Pyrrha with its right fist, a rain of blows that culminated in one, tightly wound punch. As the blow connected, Crazy Diamond released Pyrrha's left arm and stepped off her shield which allowed the blow to dissipate as Pyrrha skid across the floor. The cheering ceased as the crowd watched Pyrrha come to a halt some ways away from Josuke and Crazy Diamond, a silence that had only broken once Glynda Goodwitch herself had shaken off her own surprise to confirm the results.

"That's enough; Miss Nikos' Aura has fallen into the red, the spar is over. The winner is Higashikata Josuke."

As the fight had gone on, the possibility had become more and more real in most people's minds. However, for a great deal of the youths gathered in the arena's many seats, Pyrrha Nikos was a celebrity. Someone they idolized a strong, untouchable warrior, who had won every tournament she'd participated in while in Mistral and who had come to Beacon to become a Huntress and defend mankind against the Grimm. Even having had seen the fight themselves, having watched as Josuke slowly but surely picked his blows with Pyrrha and used his strange Stand's strength, speed and natural abilities to win the fight, many were still stunned.

Only a very select group of students had reacted to the fight immediately after its conclusion.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Way to go you two, that fight was incredible!"

"Dust yourself off Pyrrha, you did great!"

"Crazy Diamond's two and zero now! Keep it up Josuke!"

Teams JOJO, RWBY and JNPR applauded their friends as Josuke had Crazy Diamond quickly go over to force Pyrrha's boot out of the arena floor, while the pompadoured teen walked over to the Mistrali warrior himself. The crowd soon followed up on the excited reactions of the three teams and a round of applause soon spread across the crowd, though it seemed many were far less concerned about ensuring their applause had gone to both combatants.

As Josuke stood over Pyrrha, the red headed spartan gasped for breath as light bruises covered her skin, her exhausted Aura having yet to fix her up completely. Green eyes swiveled over to Josuke who just grinned down at Pyrrha, and extended a hand down to her.

"Here, let me help you up and give you a quick fix." The pompadoured teen didn't brag or boast, didn't rub his victory in her face. Pyrrha smiled; it wouldn't have been like Josuke to do such a thing. Still, the mere fact that he hadn't made the loss easier to swallow… on top of other considerations.

"Thank you, Josuke. That was… that was a lot of fun."

That had been the most excited Pyrrha had gotten for a fight in what felt like an age. As Pyrrha clasped her hand around Josuke's, she felt strength and vigor return to her muscles as her physical body was fixed as per Crazy Diamond's abilities. She felt refreshed and renewed as she and Josuke lifted her up off the floor, while Crazy Diamond tossed over her boot.

"Great to hear. You certainly didn't make it easy either; I can see why a lot of people placed good odds on you to win going in." Josuke pat his uniform down as a light glow surrounded it; the various cuts and slashes in the cloth removed as he fixed it up. "I'll have to take a quick visit to the nurse's office to get patched up after this." Pyrrha frowned apologetically as she watched some red still seep into Josuke's uniform.

"Sorry, I made sure it'd be nothing too serious, but-"

"Hey, rules were only that you had to be careful when you went for me. I think you managed that just fine." Josuke said good-naturedly as he pat himself down, and winced for his effort. "Trust me, I'll be fine. I've taken a lot worse and kept on going." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pyrrha believed Josuke as she watched the pompadoured teen leader just grin back at her.

"Congratulations you two on your bout." Goodwitch approached the two as Pyrrha reached down to get her boot back on, the two teens turned to face their professor. "Your forms were excellent, your strategic considerations were sound and your use of your semblances were on point. However, Miss Nikos, when faced with a new opponent with abilities or in conditions that run counter to your usual strategies, it would be wise to take time to think of new ones or new ways of using old tactics to gain an edge. Still, you put up a strong effort and your form, as ever, was strong… when your opponent wasn't able to break it down." Pyrrha nodded as Glynda turned her eyes on Josuke. "Mr. Higashikata, you were a little too open to risk to yourself in order to obtain your victory for my liking. Your Aura, while not drained, had been depleted to half its standard through sheer attrition alone by the end of it. Be more careful with yourself Mr. Higashikata. On the field of battle, there's going to be no one to fix you should anything happen." The blond professor combed a strand of hair behind her ear as she said this, before she nodded. "Regardless, excellent work."

"Thank you professor." Both teens intoned in answer to Glynda, as Pyrrha nodded her head respectfully while Josuke offered a more full bow. Glynda Goodwitch internally smiled, already having preferred Josuke's sign of respect to his teammate's casual disregard for authority but, with a stern expression, nodded the two of them towards the exit. "Now then, while I fix up the Arena, for the next round I want…"

Most students save for those called immediately tuned Glynda out as several just talked amongst themselves. Videos were being put up on the web as they spoke and a storm of news and rumors flew out from Beacon as immediately the grapevine grew and coiled itself in and outside of Beacon Academy. All the while, Josuke and Pyrrha's friends and teammates sat, pleased if surprised, as they waited for their friends to return.

"Man, even if I knew to expect it, kinda hard to believe that it happened." Yang said casually as she leaned back in her seat and tossed a few strands of hair behind her ear. "P-Money finally got beat. She didn't let him have it easy, but she got beat."

"I know. I can't believe it, really. Pyrrha is the best in our year and she's still considered probably one of the best fighters Beacon Academy will be able to offer up as a huntress. Hard to believe that even Josuke could break her winning streak." Weiss had known and studied up on Pyrrha for a while before she arrived at Beacon, as she had known roughly around the same time she'd decided to attend the Academy that Pyrrha would be a student as well. It had been part of her initial plan to assemble a team that would've been truly impressive and powerful, both in terms of actual strength and reputation, to earn her validation ffor herself and against her father who had believed her training as a huntress would have proven to be a waste of time. While Weiss couldn't be more thankful that Ruby, Yang and Blake had become her teammates and that they'd become such strong friends, her mind still whirred with the information and stories she'd gathered about Pyrrha.

The Invincible Girl… well, former Invincible Girl, now.

"W-Well to be fair, this is about the best place where Josuke could fight…" Koichi muttered slightly as he drew everyone's attention to him, curious looks across all their faces. Koichi fidgeted slightly under their combined gazes, but pressed forward. "I-It's an opponent he can see coming and that he can plan around, where he's got clear rules as to what's allowed and what isn't. Even not knowing Pyrrha's semblance ahead of time, he had space and time to figure it out. Once Josuke knows who you are, what you can do and what exactly he's up against, unless you're just flat out as smart as he is or stronger than he is, he stands a good chance in a fight."

Okuyasu nodded along with his smaller friend as he rubbed his chin. "At this point I can't count the number of times Josuke and I have gone toe-to-toe… and he's beaten me every single time. The only time it was ever really close was the first time when I had the drop on him but, well, after that he just knew how to handle me." The scarred teen shrugged his shoulders. "Mostly it's just the more experienced or better hunters in Morioh that he really can't consistently beat. He says it's cause they have experience on him, which I guess makes sense." The other teens nodded in understanding.

"Plus I suppose it's not like Josuke's now 'invincible' because of his win." Ren muttered thoughtfully as he watched the two exit. "Pyrrha did manage to make him bleed quite a few times by changing up her tactics or through sheer surprise."

"Yeah… really doesn't matter how good your Stand is, if your opponent's able to just flat out get the drop on you, it can be hard to come back from." Koichi said as he looked down. "Josuke's strong because it's hard to rattle him or get him worked up. He can keep a cool head even if he's hurt or in a dire spot. It what makes him a good leader." The others nodded in some understanding.

"Hard to imagine that Josuke of all people could get worked up though. Even when we tease him over the whole JOJO it's more fun than really anything to worry about." Ruby said with a small smile, as Okuyasu just glanced over at them.

"Yeah, it's hard to get him worked up… mostly." The scarred teen scratched his cheek slightly as a thought crossed his mind. "Just don't insult his hair, ever. Trust me." The other Four Kingdom hunters just blinked at the sudden declaration, before they all slowly nodded.

"Oookay." Jaune said lowly as he turned his head towards the entrance to the room. "Well in any case, it was a good fight, and it looks like Pyrrha didn't take it hard, so that's good." Everyone nodded in agreement as they turned their attention to the new fight that had started on the arena floor. All except for Koichi who, for a brief moment, still felt… off. The silver haired young man cast his gaze about the room as he sought out the source; a few maintenance men going around and cleaning some of the empty seats in the room, some groups of students nonchalantly chatted while the fight was set up and the other teams really just didn't seem to have paid their group much mind. All in all, everything looked normal.

'So why do I feel like I'm being watched?' Koichi thought to himself as he nervously swallowed, before the doors opened to the seats to reveal Josuke and Pyrrha as they walked along. The two had been in a rather companionable silence as they had, Josuke having insisted that he could go see the nurse during lunch so that he could see some of the other spars. Pyrrha had acquiesced and the rest of their journey back had been quiet, up until that moment.

"Josuke." The pompadoured teen turned his head to face Pyrrha, who had bit her lip slightly as she looked up to him. "When you figured out my semblance, you didn't exactly tell anyone what it was. You just kind of kept it to yourself. Mind if I ask why?" Josuke blinked a couple times as she asked this, before he just put his hands in his pockets.

"Does your team know what your semblance is, Pyrrha?" Josuke asked, seemingly out of the blue, as the red headed tournament fighter just nodded vigorously.

"Of course! I wouldn't dare think of not telling them! For us to work together as a team, it's important that we know what the others can do." Josuke nodded at this declaration as he just scratched the back of his head.

"I figured, you didn't seem like the type who'd hold that back. So, far as I'm concerned, they're the only ones who really need to know, or are helped by knowing ahead of time." Pyrrha blinked in slight confusion, before Josuke continued. "Like I said with Okuyasu, figuring out what your opponent's capable of is a big part of Stand Battles and, if you ask me, seems like it should be a big part of fighting someone with a semblance. Getting experience in picking apart your opponent's skills and movements for clues as to what they can do and then putting that information together in good training is vital itself. If Okuyasu or… Koichi-" Josuke shook his head slightly at that, but pushed forward nonetheless, "-were to ever fight you, I'd want them to have an opportunity to practice this stuff rather than just have them know ahead of time. After all, even in the best case scenarios, I might not always be around to do it for them. Same thing goes for Team RWBY, especially if they want to work with us in tracking down enemy Stand Users."

"I see." Pyrrha said with a slight nod. "That does sound reasonable… quite responsible too." The green eyed girl smiled slightly as Josuke just shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm a team leader. That doesn't just mean I have to think about how to order those two around. I also have to be on the lookout for their well being and growth as hunters. I was given this responsibility, so I have to live up to it." Pyrrha nodded as her eyes flickered over to Jaune, before she looked back to Josuke with a firm look of understanding.

"You aren't the only one who thinks like that." Josuke smiled slightly as she spoke up.

"I figured; Ruby and Jaune seem like they take their jobs seriously too. It's good to see." Josuke yawned slightly as he fixed his uniform again, a few stains were forced out and away as the pompadoured teen nodded over to their friends. "Speaking of, let's go ahead and get some praise and adulation thrown our way. I think we earned it for that fight."Josuke said with a slight laugh as Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

"Yeah." The red headed warrior followed Josuke for a moment, before she paused. "By the way, Josuke? I'm looking forward to our next spar." Josuke just grinned and nodded in agreement as he continued forward, having left Pyrrha to stand there. It was true; for the first time in a long time, Pyrrha did look forward to a fight. For the longest time, fights for Pyrrha were just… obligations. She was a lock to win thanks to her semblance and it seemed like those that were thrown against her couldn't touch her. Older fighters, younger fighters, those with more experience, those who just had raw talent, it had all washed together into a sea of boredom as slowly but surely her talent, her major skill, just lost its luster in the face of constant victory.

Now though? Now she was actually excited for a fight. Nervous about the potential outcome and raring to go to see to it that it'd be a good one. She hadn't expected to be so thrilled, nor had she expected her loss and, judging by the looks many of the people were giving her, neither had many other people. However, for the former tournament fighter, wins and losses hadn't mattered. Purpose and excitement, being able to live a life she wanted and felt fulfilled by, had. It was why she had left to become a huntress; the fame and fortune that she'd won back in Mistral had isolated her from people, rather than surrounded her by them, and she had found that she felt no purpose in her fights, as simple affairs as they had become.

Even here in Beacon, her fights against Grimm and other students hadn't proved to be too thrilling. However, here had come a transfer student from some place most people hadn't thought had existed, and who fought her not just on an equal footing, but a superior one. She could've easily expected it from the staff, but from one of her peers? It filled her with a fire that she hadn't felt in a long time. Not since when she had first signed on to be a huntress and she thought she'd find renewed purpose. Not since way back when she had first started fighting, to earn that fame and fortune she thought would give her and her family's life meaning and a place outside of where they had long since dwelt. Not since-

" _I'm merely saying, Miss Nikos… you never know in a business like this when someone might come around who'll go right ahead and knock you off that pretty little pedestal your fans and sponsors have put you on… or what sort of dangerous accident might happen that'd put you and your way of life at risk. Think of what we're offering as… insurance. You'll keep doing what you're doing, and all we'll ask is for a slight cut or a favor from one of the strongest fighters in Mistral to make sure no would be usurpers or little mistakes occur."_

" _Are you… threatening me. sir?"_

" _No my dear child; just laying out what sort of opportunity you have in front of you. We could do wonderful business together… or not."_

Pyrrha had felt her throat immediately dry up as the memory hit. She… she hadn't thought about that in a while. It hadn't mattered; she had left Mistral, left her fame and fortune behind to be a huntress, to be a normal person. Even if reputation followed her, she wasn't Pyrrha Nikos, The Invincible Tournament Fighter. She'd had no reason to think of these things again, of these old worries and thoughts that had plagued her not so terribly long ago.

Why was she thinking of all of this again anyway? She had just been excited to fight Josuke again, to experience this thrill again…

Just been excited to fight.

Just that.

Pyrrha's expression dropped slightly as she looked down to the side, before she tried to push the poisonous thoughts off. They were just old worries, old poisons that she could ignore. Things… things were different. She'd chosen differently. Chosen right.

Yet still, as she walked over to her friends, she couldn't help but feel concerned and could only hope she kept those thoughts off of her face as she smiled at everyone.

As she did, she and the others failed to notice as one of the maintenance men tipped his hat up, his eyes followed Pyrrha's form closely, like a predator drawn to pray, as he watched her every movement. A snake-like tongue darted out from between his lips as he lowered his hat again.

He'd waited long enough. He'd found out enough about their routines and Surface would find out more once he made his move.

Soon… soon no one would ignore him again.

Pyrrha Nikos would be his.

 **-To Be Continued- Skin Deep (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hunter: Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Semblance: Polarity**

 **Destructive Power: B**

 **Speed: C**

 **Range: C**

 **Lasting Power: C**

 **Precision: A**

 **Developmental Potential: D**

 **Polarity: Pyrrha Nikos' semblance allows her to, at will, create and manipulate a field of magnetic energy that is capable of interacting with both objects on her person and with objects in the environment within a range of roughly 10 meters. Polarity has the power to lift extremely heavy gear and metal and is precise enough that Pyrrha can use it to manipulate objects in the air or that are being acted upon by another source of momentum (either her own, an opponent's or otherwise). The ability itself can and does have a myriad of uses, however, in comparison to other semblances with less set limitations (objects need to be able to interact with magnetic forces, within range and sufficiently not acted upon by a harsh enough force for Pyrrha's Polarity to overcome it) that the developmental potential of the ability is limited to the speed, size and number of objects that can be wielded and the amount of force behind Polarity's magnetism.**

 **Pyrrha regularly uses Polarity to knock away or otherwise adjust an opponent's movements in order to garner herself an advantage, uses it to adjust hers or an ally's movements or reinforce their momentum/strength with the magnetic force (such as assisting Jaune in shielding himself from a direct strike from an Ursa Major). She can also use it to out weaponize metal around her or another person, wielding them haphazardly or with some precision (in the case of giant metal gears versus or her own shield when thrown). When combined with her Physical Aura, this allows Pyrrha to tank or swing with force and speed otherwise unexpected and to nimbly move around opponent's attacks by manipulating both herself and them.**

 **As bronze is not a magnetic metal, this leads to the assumption that Pyrrha's equipment is either brass, a bronze alloy containing iron and/or nickel or some RWBY-verse metal that is plated in bronze or otherwise designed to look like bronze.**

 **Also Known As: Somehow a secret semblance, if Cinder et al's dedicated segment of piecing together what it is was any indication.**

 **Also Known As: Doesn't work on glass.**

* * *

 **Skin Deep, or otherwise, on the surface. It's a phrase that can have a lot of meanings depending on how you want to use it. The most often is of course used to refer to physical attraction (beauty only being skin deep), but it can also be thought of as referring to traits and quirks that can only be observed by the eye. A shallow, cursory glance of a person that can only give an equally shallow look at their person and character. Such as what might happen to a character in a fandom that is less interested in her and more interested in what she means for other characters and a show that, through the meta pressures being exerted on it, can only give us a very slight, only skin deep examination of her character.**

 **Pyrrha is an interesting character to me and that's in spite of what the show made clear was her fate very early on. You don't nickname a character The Invincible Girl, talk up how much of a badass they are in combat, claim inspiration from Achilles and then go on to only lightly dip into her backstory if you don't intend to kill her off for dramatic effect. Maybe I'm a bit heartless in laying it all out like that, but honestly, it speaks again to the strength of RWBY's character writing that Pyrrha was as endearing as she was even if she wore a sign around her neck that basically read 'dead girl walking'.**

 **Side note: don't get too comfortable Jaune of Arc. Or you Thora.**

 **Anyway, once again, we have the meta pressures exerted on the show to thank for the fact that simple things like 'What was Pyrrha's home life like' or 'what's her family like' or indeed 'does she have any living relatives aside from a vaguely mentioned mother' go unanswered. When you have 12 episodes that run between 8-15 minutes, you aren't going to use them to develop the shit out of the character who is fated to die in order to up the stakes and exert some development for other characters who will outlive her and who are a bit higher on the main character totem pole.**

 **Which is a shame because honestly, Pyrrha's right up there in terms of potentially having a way more interesting reason for becoming a huntress than most of the cast. Here we have someone who has achieved in this world the comfort and luxury that can only come with fame and fortune. She has sponsors and she's won tournaments which, presumably, come with some sort of monetary win. She probably could live a life that'd make Hercule jealous and yet she doesn't. She instead chooses to become a huntress. Part of that is because she's lonely and that fame and fortune has isolated her which, while excellent ways of making her interesting and giving her some key motivation, still doesn't tell us a lot about her.**

 **Compare and contrast to Jaune Arc; how much hay have people made over just Jaune's family and how they might've reacted to how he left for Beacon? Because we're given information on them, what they're like, what relatives are alive and, most importantly, what Jaune's relationship to them is, we're able to not only develop them into more complex ideas and people, but we're also able to develop Jaune. The idea that Jaune was discouraged from following his dreams but does so anyway, above even the discouragement from his folks, tells us a lot about his character.**

 **Were Pyrrha's parents upset? Were they even alive for them to be upset? Is that why Pyrrha felt so lonely at the top? Did she even have a family at all? Was she an orphan who just so happened to be good at fighting. Again, we really don't know because we aren't told much because time restraints.**

 **So what this leads to is that even in fics where Pyrrha is the focus or half the focus, she isn't greatly developed in the fandom outside of those brave souls who're willing to make up backstory and additional information for her. Pyrrha becomes in fanfiction what she is in the show; kind of a tool used by writers to help give context and development to characters around her while having limited amounts of it herself. Endearing as Hell, nicely written and voice-acted but still, more element of the plot than a fully developed character.**

 **So here, we start a few things; we hint at some trouble for Koichi, we develop more of Josuke's identity as a Stand User, leader and just all around good, smart fellow, remind people that just because Okuyasu lost doesn't mean that the deck is stacked against Stand Users and we begin to give, first and foremost, Pyrrha and Jaune their turn at the development wheel.**

 **All with Toshikazu being our villain of the arc, whose Stand can only mimic a person on a skin deep level.**

 **For those unaware, I also posted a little short story called Days Passed in between this update and the previous one. It is short but I just felt like writing some introspective character stuff for Ruby. If you haven't seen it but are interested, go nuts.**

 **Hope you all are having a good week so far and I'll see you all in five days.**


	16. Skin Deep (Act 2)

Medical Lounge, Beacon Academy, Thirty Minutes Later

"Well Mr. Higashikata I have to say this is a bit ironic; you're both the reason why so many of my nurses got to go to Vale City Memorial Hospital instead of hanging around here and why I still have a job despite your Stand. Have to admit, all those years of medical training of mine kind of seem like a waste when your Stand can do my job in a minuscule fraction of the time."

"Heh… sorry Professor Pea-aaaaOUCH!"

Josuke yelped and winced as Professor Peach dabbed at his deeper cuts with some peroxide to clean them out before she'd get to work on stitching them up. The woman, in and around her mid-thirties with pinkish-yellow hair, glanced up at the young man as he sounded off with a slight roll to her eyes.

"I did warn you that these would all sting, right? You don't have physical Aura and you can't fix yourself so I have to resort to some less pleasant methods of making sure you don't get an infection. I won't tell you to hold back your cries because this stuff does hurt like a bitch, but just don't move alright?" Josuke nodded as Professor Peach returned to her work, the young man winced as he bit his lip.

"Like I said, sorry. I know it must stink to have lost so much of your staff because I just happened to wander in." When Professor Peach snorted derisively, Josuke just looked on confused.

"Dear, I was kidding. Honestly, those guys and girls are going to get way better paying jobs over at the hospital in the city. They just stuck around here because they were needed for the Huntsmen. With you here, they can be better used elsewhere." Peach's taciturn and otherwise sarcastic look turned genuine as she looked up at the pompadoured young man. "Also, as a doctor, I'm hardly going to complain about the fact that you being around makes sure that no one in this school's going to live with a serious, crippling injury. So stop sweating about it, kid."

Josuke nodded as he winced again, this time as Peach stitched another one of his cuts closed. "I swear though, you're going to need to be more careful in these spars. I get that you don't fight yourself, but getting wounds like these is going to slow you down in your everyday life." With that said, Peach turned her head to glare up at Josuke. "Speaking of, I better not hear anything about you pulling anything dangerous anytime within the next couple days. The medicine will help accelerate the process, but if you over-exert yourself you'll tear open these stitches and then I can guarantee that I'll throttle you." Josuke stiffened a bit at her gaze, though her nervously laughed it off.

"O-Of course professor, whatever you say." The teen sheepishly scratched at the back of his head as he said this while Peach just went back to work. The two stayed in relative silence for the next few minutes. "So, that kid that they had in here a couple days ago, they figure out what happen to him yet?"

"The Mag kid, you mean?" Peach hadn't even bothered to look up from the next wound which, after careful consideration, she just dabbed with peroxide to clean out before she bandaged it up. "'Course that's what you mean, that's all most people who've seen the kid can talk about. Okay either pull up your pant legs or drop 'em, need to get a look at those cuts on your legs now." Josuke flushed slightly as he just rolled his rather loose uniform pant legs up, which revealed a few more spear cuts courtesy of Pyrrha.

"Well I'm sure you won't be surprised that Ironwood and Ozpin obviously think it was either a Stand or semblance attack, though their bet is on the former rather than the latter. No one reported seeing anyone suspicious in their immediate vicinity, and there aren't exactly a lot of 'long-range' semblances on record that're known to do that to a kid. Jotaro, meanwhile, seemed pretty forward that it could've easily been a Stand." Peach looked up to him. "They still have no idea who or why he would've been targeted by anyone though. No one on the kid's team can think of any enemies he might've made, and either Mag isn't owning up to some person he's seriously pissed off or he's just as clueless as they are. For all intents and purposes it looks random."

"That doesn't make sense though…" Josuke muttered as he leaned his head into his hand. "Why risk exposing yourself like that by just attacking someone at random in a way that could only be accomplished with a Stand or semblance? At least that Tamami guy had the ability to make sure his targets kept quiet and he had a reason for getting so many favors together." Peach snorted as she looked up to Josuke.

"Well, looks like Jotaro really is funneling all this stuff down to you all. Can't say I entirely agree with that but what do I know." Peach continued to treat Josuke's wounds before she spoke again. "You're right though. Ozpin and Ironwood don't like it either. It suggests that the White Fang and Torchwick are letting in people with screws loose and giving them fantastic powers like what you kids have. It isn't exactly good news for the City of Vale. Heck, it's why my own staff were so readily hired by the hospital… stuff's getting worse down there." Josuke again winced as he moved to apologize, before Peach interrupted.

"If the next words out of your mouth are 'sorry' or 'we're sorry for all this' I'll slap you Mr. Higashikata." Josuke's mouth immediately snapped closed as Peach snorted derisively. "One way or another, The White Fang and Torchwick would be causing trouble in the series and making sure people got hurt. The only thing these Stands have contributed is that now it's being done in slightly more creative ways. This is Vale's problem, the presence of Stands just added a bit of spice to it. 'Sides, not like you Frontiersmen are the ones who handed over this Stand crap to them." Josuke hadn't bothered to argue back, as Peach's tone suggested a certain level of 'argue with me and I'll make this hurt even worse'.

"Well… thanks, I appreciate it." Peach just smiled good-naturedly as she finished up with the last of Josuke's cuts.

"Listen, I'd stick up for you and your Stands even if you guys did accidentally drop all this in our lap. The number of kids I've seen wander into this lounge that made me think 'Brothers, they'll barely be able to live normal lives after what's happened to them' that you just clapped your hands together and fixed? At this point, a lot of people owe you, Mr. Higashikata. In ways that they couldn't pay you back for even if they spent their entire lives trying. Least any of us can do is give you Frontier folk the benefit of the doubt." Peach dusted her hands off as she stood up and quickly re-examined her work. "Welp, it's been a while but it looks like I can still stitch up some normal folks as well as I can treat folks with physical Aura."

Josuke grinned as he slipped his uniform jacket back on while he moved to get up on his feet. "So we're done here then? Thanks Professor Peach, I appreciate your help. Now if you'll excuse me-"

"Not. So. Fast. Mr. Higashikata." Peach prodded a finger into Josuke's chest, as she forced him to sit back down in the bed. "You, my little huntsman, have several cuts across your arms and legs, some of which required stitches. You also bled all over yourself in the time it took for you to get here… quite a bit, but it's not surprising considering how curiously long it took for you to get here." Josuke flinched as Peach's tone had become harsh and poisonous towards the end of that sentence, as the blue eyed teen just sheepishly scratched at the back of his head.

"T-There were still spars going on that I needed to watch…"

"What you needed to do was get to this lounge as soon as possible so I could treat you immediately. Maybe then I'd feel more comfortable letting you loose. As it stands, you've got four sets of stitches in your arms and several more cuts after that and you've lost more blood-"

"I haven't lost that much blooooooooooooood~" Josuke tried to stand up to prove his point, but the sudden movement caused his head to spin, as a lightheaded feeling overtook him. Peach pushed the disoriented young man back down onto the bed as if having proven her point.

"Yes, you have. Here's what's going to happen; my classes are actually coming up right now, so I have to go. You're going to lay down in this bed and you are going to get some rest. When you wake back up, then you'll be free to go off and do whatever crazy stuff you might think you're going to get up to." Peach turned and walked away from the bed as she made for the door.

"Wait, you're just going to leave me here alone? Well, who's to say that I won't just get up and wander off once you're out of here?" Josuke asked, as Peach opened the door. The doctor just turned to face the pompadoured teen, a faux-friendly grin on her face.

"Because, Mr. Higashikata, I have it on good authority that you're a noble huntsman, and that you'd never disobey the direct orders a more experienced hunter gave you, especially if it was because they were concerned over your own safety and well being. Why, if anything were to happen to you because you didn't follow a superior's commands, that would just be heart-wrenching for myself and everyone involved. Then again, I suppose I'm technically not your boss. Just a wise, experienced huntress whose only interest is your well-being. I'm sure Mr. Kujo would understand you casually disregarding my orders just because you wanted to wander off and be with your friends."

Josuke's mouth had gone dry as she spoke, his blue eyes wide in surprise as his mouth opened and closed several times. "B-But my team-"

"Will be informed that you're staying here to rest and recover. Now, are we going to have a problem, Higashikata Josuke, Huntsmen of the Frontier City of Morioh and Leader of Team JOJO?" Peach narrowed her gaze slightly at Josuke who, despite his displeasure at having that damn team name brought up, nonetheless shook his head.

"No ma'am."

"Good. Now, you go ahead and just get some rest. You've got some pain-killers on the desk next to your bed that should help put you out like a light. When you wake up in a few hours, you should be free to go." Peach just casually waved the young teen off as she closed the door behind her.

Josuke sat there for a moment, as he eyed the door to the lounge. In truth, he could've very easily gotten up off the bed, provided he didn't do it too fast and get light-headed again, and just walk on out of here. As Peach herself said, she had classes, which meant she wouldn't be able to just hang around to make sure he followed her instructions. However…

"Jeez… barely here for more than a couple weeks and they're pulling rank." Josuke sighed. He didn't want to just casually disregard the directives of a superior, more experienced hunter and Jotaro probably would've disapproved if he put himself at risk when there wasn't anything immediately dangerous going on. The pompadoured teen took his jacket off and hung it over the back of a nearby chair as he shimmied up in the bed.

"Ah well, I am feeling pretty tired after that fight… I suppose the others won't get up to too much trouble without me."

* * *

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Lunch Time

"Hopefully Josuke will be alright. He looked a bit out of it when you guys started to walk him over to the nurse's office."

Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO sat around their usual spot in the dining hall, sans Josuke, as the group of teens picked at and ate their meals. Okuyasu looked up as he woofed down some spaghetti, the scarred teen waved off his friends as he swallowed.

"Ah, you guys worry too much. Josuke's gotten hurt worse than that and been held up for longer. Peach said that he'd be up and at 'em after he rested for a few hours. Baby face will be fine." Okuyasu seemed confident enough of this as he dug back into his food. The others seemed somewhat mollified, but only just.

"I mean, I guess he would probably have been hurt worse seeing as how you all are technically full-fledged hunters." Yang paused for a moment as she thought, before she continued. "Why does he take those kinds of risks anyway if you guys don't mind my asking? Seems to me like he could do his part for The Frontier if he just sat back and acted as a continuous medic; just keep propping folks up when they fall." The others nodded at the strategic consideration, though many of them seemed surprised that it came from Yang of all people, as Okuyasu just shrugged.

"A few reasons I guess. Crazy Diamond is more than its ability to heal folks for one. You guys have seen it multiple times now; that Stand is capable of dishing out damage and changing up fights at a moment's notice like it's no one's business. It'd be a waste to just hold it back because people might be afraid that Josuke'd get hurt." Okuyasu leaned back a bit as he scratched his cheek as if he stopped to consider something before he continued. "Second reason is Josuke himself probably wouldn't forgive anyone who'd try to keep him from doing everything he could, up to and including fighting on the front lines, to serve The Frontier of folk in general.

"Guy's grandfather was a pretty middle of the road huntsmen, but he died serving Morioh as best he could. Real last stand sort of stuff that ended up keeping other hunters from fallin' to the Grimm too. There's more to it than this but Josuke… well, he feels like he owes it to live up to that example." Everyone nodded in some understanding as they took this in.

"Still, wouldn't that be the case for a lot of folks in Morioh? Like you guys have said, pretty much everyone currently living or who came before you all were hunters. Surely Josuke isn't the only guy running around with that kind of motivation in his pocket." Blake's curiosity earned her a very, very slight nod from Okuyasu, as the scarred teen again postured to think.

"L-Like Okuyasu said, there's more to it than that… but, well, it's pretty personal stuff." Koichi said softly as he poked at his food, his eyes darted across the cafeteria from time to time. "We only told you about his grandfather because Josuke's proud of that. Everything else is… complicated, let's just say." Everyone blinked at this. Sure, everyone had their problems, but from what they'd all seen Josuke seemed pretty level-headed and well adjusted. Then again, as Ruby and Yang glanced at each other, even good folks had their fair share of problems.

"Say no more, we understand." Jaune said with a slight sigh as he poked at his food. "Let's just talk about something a little more pleasant." Nora nodded along with her leader as she turned to face Pyrrha, the orange haired girl's eyes gleamed as she looked at her fellow teammate.

"Yeah! Like the awesome fight Pyrrha had with Crazy Diamond! It looked almost half as amazing as my fight with Okuyasu!" Said scarred teen barked out a laugh and had sent a small thanks Nora's way as the bombastic young woman so praised their own fight, before Nora just barreled on. "So Pyrrha, you gotta tell me, did you think it was awesome too? Or did you think it was AWESOME!"

Of all of them, Pyrrha had blended the most into the background. She had spoken up rarely ever since they had sat down and had barely even touched her own food. In fact, the red headed spartan warrior seemed greatly distracted, her eyes somewhat glazed in thought as she picked and pulled apart at her food. When Nora suddenly screamed in her ear, Pyrrha flinched in surprise.

"Aaaah!" The fork went flying, heading straight for another group of students as it passed by the various, shocked members of the table. Okuyasu nearly choked on his food as he quickly stood up straight and summoned the right arm of his Stand.

"THE HAND!"

 **THUUUUUUUM!**

The fork immediately teleported right back in front of Okuyasu, where The Hand's left hand appeared from Okuyasu's left shoulder to grab it out of thin air. The scarred teen sighed slightly as he sat back down and laughed. Everyone at the table seemed impressed for the few seconds after the feat.

"Woo boy, that was close."

"Pyrrha, you alright?" Jaune asked as everyone's attention turned back to the girl in question, who just blushed furiously over the mishap.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine Jaune, just fine. Just… a little distracted is all. Nora surprised me there for a second." Pyrrha said as she took a few, short breaths to calm herself down.

"Sorry Pyrrha, I didn't figure I'd catch you off guard like that." Pyrrha smiled at her orange haired teammate as she just shook her head.

"It's okay. Like I said, I was just distracted." Ren raised an eyebrow as he casually handled a glass of tea.

"You have been rather quiet ever since Professor Goodwitch's class, Pyrrha. Lien for your thoughts?" The magenta eyed boy sipped on his tea as he posed the question to Pyrrha, who just paused for a moment before she shook her head.

"Really, I'm fine. Just… just a lot on my mind is all." The rest of the table frowned slightly as Pyrrha stood up and took her tray with her. "I'm actually not very hungry at the moment. I think I'm going to go ahead and just take a bit of a walk, maybe clear my head. I'll see you all later." With that, Pyrrha quickly strode off and left her fellow teammates and students somewhat perplexed as she departed.

"Well… that kind of happened." Okuyasu muttered slightly as he took another bite out of his food, as Weiss just nodded.

"I'm somewhat surprised as well. I wouldn't have figured Pyrrha would take her loss so hard. She's been pretty clear on how little she's cared about her fame and reputation for sometime now." Weiss leaned a hand against her cheek as they all watched Pyrrha walk off. While it hadn't been obvious to Weiss at first, the white-haired girl somewhat blinded by her own ambition upon her first encounter with the Pyrrha Nikos, overtime it had become more and more clear just how ill at ease Pyrrha felt with her fame. Heck, she had the hots for Jaune of all people and a lot of that seemed driven by the fact that he hadn't cared for her fame a lick.

"I mean, it's hard to lose and it's probably even harder to lose when you've only won for so long." Yang said with a bit of a shrug as she chomped on a bit more food. "I mean, I was pretty much top dog at Signal Academy back home and I know that the first few times Pyrrha just manhandled me I felt pretty sore about it." Ruby, Weiss and Blake turned to face Yang, disbelieving expressions on their visages.

"'Pretty sore.' Yang, you went straight to the training halls and didn't come back to the dorm till you were forcibly locked out hours later when Pyrrha first beat you. They had the place locked down for days because of all the sheer number Atlesian Knights they needed to replace in there" The blonde coughed awkwardly into her fist from this reminder, though she continued nonetheless.

"Anyway, my point is that it's pretty understandable, and at least she's taking it… comparatively well." Lilac eyes glanced at the three sets of withering stares her teammates had sent her as she nervously chuckled, as Koichi and Okuyasu just blinked.

"Well look, if there's anything we or Josuke can do to help her out, you guys know we'd be up for it. Josuke wouldn't want any hard feelings." Ren shook his head as Okuyasu spoke up, an appreciative smile on his face.

"Thank you Okuyasu, but I agree with Yang on this. Pyrrha's probably just in shock over this; she just needs time to think it through and then it'll be fine. If she was really upset with Josuke, we'd have seen it right there on the arena floor. There's just a lot that's going to be going on for her once news of this spreads."

"Yeah… so much of her reputation has been built on that aura of invincibility. Pumpkin Pete made her their mascot for so many of their products because she got so famous Remnant over for her tournament performances. Heck, she's considered one of the best fighters of our generation, and even older, more established tournament fighters got knocked off their perches by her. When word goes over the CCTS about her loss, there's probably going to be more than a few raised eyebrows back home in Mistral…" Jaune muttered solemnly as he looked off to the side, as the rest of the gang just nodded in some agreement.

"Not to mention what this will do for Josuke's reputation. Guy just beat The Invincible Girl in front of an auditorium full of people with Scrolls. Considering you guys were already an object of curiosity simply for having been from The Frontier and with your Stands, that's probably gonna bring a whole lot of attention to you guys in general and Josuke in particular." Blake's casual calm as she analyzed the situation kept the group from thinking on the matter too much, though Okuyasu did seem to sweat a bit as he looked over at the black haired faunus.

"... What kind of attention are we talking about here. Cause I can think of something we're all really not gonna like…" Okuyasu shuddered as he cast his eyes around, which only drew confused expressions from the others gathered at the table.

"What exactly are you talking abou-"

"Hey, have you all seen Josuke around?" Several pairs of eyes glanced off to the side, where a young woman stood. She seemed anxious as she looked across the table, a broken Scroll in her hands as she fidgeted a bit.

"Err… he's in the medical lounge right now. Professor Peach said not to bother him." Ruby tilted her head in confusion as the girl just nodded vigorously.

"Okay! I just wanted to see how he was doing and, uh, oh right! Ask if he could fix my Scroll. That was it…" The last part had been muttered under the young woman's breath as she said this, before she wandered on off. Before the group could even collect their thoughts, another young girl sauntered up to their table. And then another. And another. And another one. And so on, so on so forth.

Minutes later, the conga line of young women ceased, Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO thoroughly annoyed as they finally all departed, as Okuyasu just banged his head on the table.

"Damn Brothers… I thought we wouldn't have to deal with this… I should've known better…" Okuyasu just repeatedly slammed his head on the table again and again, as everyone else just stared awkwardly.

"Wait… Okuyasu, was this… was this a common occurrence?" Okuyasu sighed as he rubbed his temples, and he craned his neck to look up at the other occupants of the table.

"Let me put it to you guys this way… you'll learn to hate being single around Josuke." Okuyasu leaned back in his seat as he rubbed at the sore spot on his forehead. "Baby face is like… like a magnet for chicks, I guess would be the best way to put it. They just practically flock to him and… ugh, it's depressing." The various members of the table blinked slightly as their thoughts focused in a bit.

Six foot one inch, dark hair, light eyes, a strong frame, his uniform did give him a pretty nice looking silhouette, charming but approachable, intelligent and a strong Stand to boot…

"Yeah, I can see it." Jaune had been the first one to speak up, which earned no small amount of snorts from the female members of the table, though they one by one agreed nonetheless.

"What? I don't get it…" Yang snorted as she playfully patted her sister on the head, Ruby's confused expression twisted into one of frustration as she tried to shove her sister off of her.

"Never change Ruby." The lilac eyed blond had a toothy grin on her face as she looked over at Okuyasu. "I'm guessing you don't have much luck in comparison then, Okuyasu." There was a slight tease at the edge of her voice, a tone that she had often employed against Jaune. Though she, and the others, were surprised when Okuyasu just nodded.

"Yeah. Most girls back home think I'm a pretty scary guy for a lot of reasons, and it doesn't seem like opinions have changed all that much here in the Four Kingdoms." The scarred teen's blunt assessment, as ever, surprised the rest of the table as again Okuyasu put himself down without having dipped into a Jaune-like state of melancholy.

"Whaaat? Pshaw! Okuyasu, you're like, the third least scary guy I know! You're only beat out by Jaune and Renny here!" Nora grinned as she reached an arm around each of her teammates, who just each blushed slightly at the slight hit to their manly pride, though Ren, having been used to Nora's ways for a long time now, rolled with it and took the compliment as intended.

"Thanks Nora."

"No problem Ren."

"Yeah, the guy with the Stand who can erase space and you with it isn't terrifying at all." Weiss spoke with a slight amount of sarcasm and a roll of her eyes, but in the end even she relented. "However, you don't really live up to the sort of fear that should inspire, so Nora has a point. You aren't quite so unbearable when people get to know you." Okuyasu barked out a laugh at this, as he pointed over to the Schnee Heiress.

"High praise coming from you Weiss." The other members of Team RWBY just grinned as he said this.

"You have no idea; I only knew my friendship with Weiss was really solid when she considered that maybe I'd be an okay leader, possibly." Ruby reached over and wrapped her arms around Weiss in a makeshift hug, which only further flustered the white haired girl. "Look at us now! We're practically sisters"

"Yep, progressively getting less chilly when she's speaking with you; that's just how Weiss shows her affection!" Yang joined in with her sister, while Blake had just looked on with a wide smile. Weiss on the other hand sputtered and angrily spat out minor insults to her teammates, much to the amusement of the rest of the table. They looked around and, for the most part, they'd all finished their meals with a great deal of time to go before the next class.

"So, what are you guys feelin' up to before the next class? Sit around here and shoot the shit or should we book it around campus for a bit?" Okuyasu leaned back in his chair and rested his hands behind his head, while the rest of the group took a moment to think.

"Actually… I think I'm going to go ahead and do some quick training before the next class." Everyone turned to face Jaune as the leader of Team JNPR gathered his things and smiled, however weakly, at the rest of the group. "I figure that I didn't get my turn to be stomped by Cardin today so I might as well get some work in while I can, right? I'll see you guys at the next class." Jaune quickly departed soon after, as the rest of the group just blinked in some confusion. With a shrug, the group just continued to chat for a bit before they made their decision and, unnoticed by them, a maintenance worker soon departed the hall soon after.

Time passed as the three remaining members of the team decided to wait out the clock in the dining hall. As the next class approached, Ren and Nora pulled out their scrolls and quickly sought to contact Jaune and Pyrrha. After several attempts, both team members blinked in confusion as their efforts came up empty.

"Well… that's unusual." Ren muttered slightly, a concerned look to his face, as Nora nodded along.

"Jeez, where did all this drama-llama stuff suddenly come from. Things were so cool this morning with the spar and now… bleh." The rest of the table nodded along in agreement with Nora and Ren.

"Should we go look for them? Make sure they're alright?" Ruby asked as she crossed her arms, as Ren just shook his head.

"If it was something as serious as the last time Jaune pulled something like this, Jaune would tell us what's bothering him or what's on his mind and I'd extend the same trust to Pyrrha. They're both good friends and committed to the team; if it was something serious, they'd have reached out to us." Though Nora seemed slightly less certain, Ren's confidence had been enough to mask that from Nora's visage. "I have a suspicion as to what might have Jaune a bit frustrated at the moment, especially given how off Pyrrha's behaving right now. It's something we'll have to dissuade him from later, but letting him work out a bit of angst beforehand wouldn't be a bad idea. Afterward, we can all sit down and have a talk with Pyrrha." At this, Okuyasu and Koichi just arched an eyebrow as Ren turned to address the two of them.

"You might not've noticed, but Jaune… well, he isn't the strongest out of all of us. He was made team leader and he's been good at keeping the team together, but no one really knows why Ozpin made him the head of our team. Pyrrha's doing her best to help him catch up in terms of his combat prowess and we encourage him all we can but… well, you've seen how much Jaune's willing to beat himself up. So all of this kind of comes together to make Jaune… down on himself, to put it lightly." The two members of Team JOJO nodded, as Ruby frowned.

"Jaune's a good guy, but he doesn't quite see a lot to like in himself. We just try our best to be there for the guy because we're friends and because, like they said, he's tried his hardest in the meantime."

"So what, you think Jaune feels like he held Pyrrha back and that's why she lost to Josuke?" The other members of the table just gawked at Okuyasu for a moment, as they all opened and closed their mouths as the surprise slowly but surely passed.

"That's… yes, Okuyasu, that's what I'd have to surmise." Magenta eyes blinked away the last of their surprise as the scarred teen just snorted derisively.

"That's dumb. Pyrrha lost because Josuke got the better of her. No one's fault, it just happened. Kind of a silly thing to think, right Koichi?" Okuyasu turned to grin at his fellow teammate, and immediately a frown formed on his face as Koichi seemed deep in thought. "Yo, Koichi!"

"Ah!" Koichi snapped towards Okuyasu, the short young man blinked as he shook his head. "Sorry Okuyasu, I wasn't… I wasn't paying attention. What did you just say?"

"I said that it was ridiculous that Jaune felt like he was holding his team back just because he's not as good as they are. Completely ridiculous, am I right?" Koichi sat there for a moment as the young man obviously did his best to keep an even expression before he gave a forced grin to Okuyasu.

"Yeah… right Okuyasu." Koichi coughed into his fist as he looked around again, his eyes jittered and shook slightly as he got his tray up. "Listen, uh… I think I forgot something in my room. You guys go on ahead to class and I'll meet you there." With that, Koichi sprinted off, every now and then the silver haired boy cast a glance over his shoulder as he ran off. This left Okuyasu confused and befuddled, as he turned to the rest of his friends with a confused look on his face.

"What? Was it something I said?" The others just sighed as they shook their heads.

"One moment he's able to key in, the next he's oblivious…" Weiss rubbed her temples slightly as the brown eyed teen just blinked in confusion.

"To be fair, it doesn't seem like it was entirely the conversation that got to Koichi. He's seemed pretty distracted all day." Blake offered up as she flipped a page in her book.

"Still, that's just more drama for the table then. Swear, you'd think we'd had our fill of it for a while once Weiss-cream and Blakey got done patching things up." Yang sighed in slight frustration as she leaned back in her chair, as her partner and sister's partner just sent slightly withering glares her way.

"Well, what's the plan of attack then?" Weiss suddenly sighed as she leaned forward against the table. "Let them all air it out for a bit, rope them up and then just force them to hash it out?" The Schnee Company Heiress earned a few nods from around the table, as she sent a slight glare Okuyasu's way as a response to the shit-eating grin on the scarred teen's face.

"Couldn't' have put it better myself." Okuyasu just laughed a bit as he and the others stood up with their trays in hand, as they all wandered off to get ready for class."

* * *

"Okay, just like Pyrrha said… shield up, move in, bash against the chest, make an opening aaaand…"

In the midst of one of the numerous training halls in Beacon Academy, Jaune positioned himself against one of the esteemed Huntsman Academy's 130 Series Atlesian Knights. These practically out of date and obsolete machines had served various purposes across the kingdoms as their shelf lives slowly but surely came to an end. For the huntsmen and huntresses of Beacon and other Academies, that purpose was primarily security in less key places and as training dummies. Easily disposable and replaceable, the 130 Series Atlesian Knights were practically made for the role.

In a measured pace against the active Knight in front of him, Jaune made his steps carefully, waiting for his opportunity. Pyrrha's lessons rang out in his head as he observed how his opponent moved. Just as he saw an opening, just when he saw a moment he could have struck-

"Hey Jaune."

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Caught of guard and thoroughly surprised, Jaune wildly swung his sword in response, his tensed body immediately sprung. The sword swing, having been so utterly random, seemed to catch the Knight off guard as well, as Jaune's blade managed to catch it by the neck and sever it cleanly. "... Aw man… that would've been so cool if I did that on purpose…" Jaune swiftly turned his head to the source of the voice and allowed for a small, forced smile to cross his lips when he saw the shortest member of Team JOJO. "Hey there Koichi… the bell did ring a few minutes ago, didn't it? The others send you to come pick me up?" Jaune asked as he walked up to one of the platforms on the training floor and pressed a few buttons, which caused the floor to lower as mechanisms activated to bring up a new Atlesian Knight.

"No… I just thought I'd come by myself and check on you is all." A half truth, but half of the truth nonetheless. In part, Koichi had wanted to get away from the others because… well, he had been getting increasingly nervous. He had felt eyes on him for the entire day while he'd been with the rest of his friends and the sensation had started to get to him. Having been trained to be the scout for Team JOJO in combination with his Stand, Koichi had long since been used to having a gut feeling for these sorts of things.

He'd hoped that if he broke off from the others, then maybe he'd duck whatever eyes had been on the group and that he'd have some slight peace. For what it was worth, it seemed to have succeeded; Koichi didn't feel like he had been watched for awhile now.

However, just because that had been a reason didn't' mean that had been the only reason.

"I just thought I'd come check on you myself. We all talked for a little bit after you left and, well, I just thought maybe I could help a bit." Koichi offered with a friendly grin as he moved down to one of the benches around the training floor. Jaune tried his best to appear grateful for Koichi's gesture, but even he felt that the effort had come off as halfhearted. He sighed as he shook his head and ran a hand through his hair as another Atlesian Knight was raised to the training floor where it activated soon after.

"I appreciate it Koichi, but there's not… oh who am I kidding, there's probably something you could do. That's part of the problem." Jaune sighed as he shook his head. The words had felt terrible on his tongue, but they had been a part of how he felt. As he turned to face the Atlesian Knight, Jaune got down into his stance and slowly maneuvered around his artificial opponent.

"It's not that I don't want everyone's help, or to ask them for advice on how to deal with this… but, I hate that I want that because I don't want to be a burden." Jaune muttered as he deflected a hit from the Atlesian Knight back with his shield. "I mean, I get it, I'm not the strongest huntsman like either Okuyasu, Nora or Yang, and I'm not the smartest like Blake or Ren, or I'm not the best of both worlds like Pyrrha, Weiss, Josuke or Ruby. I need my team's help and they've been all too willing to give it. I can't count the number of times I've thanked them and should've thanked them for how patient they've all been with me. They keep encouraging me and I keep doing my best to support them however I can…

"But… well, I can't just sit back and pretend that they don't have better ways of spending their time than using it to just help me catch up, to just make me average at being a huntsman." With that, a slightly stinging flurry of blows was launched by Jaune as he bashed his shield into the chest of the Atlesian Knight and followed through with the rest of Pyrrha's taught maneuvers. In the end, he'd managed to badly damage it, but it hadn't been knocked clean out of the fight, which only further frustrated Jaune.

"They're always so nice and so understanding, they promise that you're not holding them back and that you're helping them too… and that one day, you'll have their backs just like they've had yours. But that day just seems like it's never gonna come no matter what, and it gets so hard to believe, right?" Koichi spoke up with a knowing frown on his face, as Jaune just shook his head.

"It's more like they're always so nice and so understand, they… wait." Jaune blinked as he dashed back from the Atlesian Knight. He turned to look at the short boy sat behind him, who just nodded his head slightly.

"Believe it or not Jaune... I-I think I get where you're coming from with all this." Jaune turned his attention back to the Atlesian Knight as Koichi said this, though he quickly dashed around the machine so that he could face the younger boy. With an obvious nod, Jaune motioned for Koichi to continue, as the silver haired young man just rested his head in his palms. "A little over a year ago now… my Stand was just an egg."

"An egg?" Jaune practically tripped over at this, though he managed to keep his footing as Koichi continued.

"Yeah. Most kids unlock their Stands when they turn twelve. The Joestar family, the familial line Jotaro's a part of, has been infamous for unlocking theirs earlier… by the time I was thirteen and a half, I still hadn't unlocked my Stand. When it finally happened… well, it was just an egg. It was white with green spots and all it did was sit around do nothing.

"I was ashamed, even if my family did their best to try to console me. It's everyone's job to do their part for Morioh, everyone's expected to kick in… and regardless of whether or not my Stand was garbage, they'd still find a place for me. But… well, I just took one look at that egg and I felt worthless. Like there wasn't anything I could do for anyone. Your Stand is a reflection of your soul, after all. What did it say about mine that my Stand popped out and couldn't do anything at all?" Koichi frowned as he shook his head, as Jaune just kind of bit his lip.

"Jeez, Koichi, I had no idea." A deflected blow drew his attention for a moment as he carved out another chunk of the Atlesian Knight, still frustrated that he couldn't put it down. "Well, obviously something changed right?" Koichi nodded, however dimly, as he smiled a bit.

"They were putting me through training to row boats and run supplies to and from Morioh and The Outskirts. I was just going to go off with some bit of treasure the real huntsmen and huntresses would dig up, help buy food and other things everyone wanted, and then get it back. I was going to be an errand boy, basically. No one would've remembered my name and no one really would've needed to. During one of the trips however… we came across Josuke and Okuyasu. They had formed their own team a year before and already they'd gotten a lot of buzz around them… most of it was for how well they were doing as huntsmen.

"When we came across them, they were in a tough spot; we didn't get the details till later, but they'd been ambushed by a pack of Beowolves; since The Hand and Crazy Diamond don't have range, it's hard for those two to scout out on their own. This was the time all their preparation didn't end up doing much for them. Josuke had gotten hit early and hard, and was pretty much immobile while Crazy Diamond defended him. Okuyasu was doing his best, but… but he was distracted. A Beowolf was coming up behind him and was going to tear into him while The Hand was busy with an Alpha right in front of him.

"I don't know what happened… at that moment, I wanted to run away, but… someone was going to die. A huntsman that I should've been helping was in danger. The rest of my group didn't have great Stands either and we were too far away to get their attention… just under fifty meters away, in fact. I just… I just felt like I had to do something. That I actually had to be worth something for once." Koichi looked up, a small grin on his face. "The next thing I knew, a sound echoed off from a nearby tree just behind Okuyasu. It caught both his and the Grimm's attention; it gave him enough time to see the Beowolf and to deal with it while it had its back to him. It figured something was coming up behind it…"

"It was your Stand, right?" Jaune bounced another attempted hit off the face of his shield, as Koichi just nodded.

"Yeah. At that moment I guess you could say my Stand hatched; Echoes had just kinda rushed forward and put my wish into action. Echoes can make sounds on any surface it touches, so it had just quickly dashed up to the clearing and put a sound on a nearby tree." Koichi looked back down as he continued. "It wasn't anything at all really, I could've done the same thing if I was up closer, but my Stand had the range and speed to get up where I needed to be.

"Afterward, my Stand was evaluated and… well, I got put on Josuke's team to help give them some range. Really, that's all my Stand was actually good for. Even then, it doesn't have the longest range… just fifty meters." Koichi slinked his head into his hand as he sighed, Jaune nodded along as he had finally dealt enough damage to the Atlesian Knight to put it down.

"Still, at least you changed in some way to earn that. You actually contributed to them and proved yourself in the heat of the moment. You shouldn't… you shouldn't be down on yourself like that Koichi…" Koichi smiled sadly at the tone of voice that had pervaded Jaune Arc's words, as he tilted his head to the side.

"But?"

"... But I know how you feel." Jaune turned back to the training platform as he set for another Atlesian Knight to be brought up. "At least you have some idea of what you did to earn your way onto a team with such great guys. I have no idea how I even managed to get so lucky to be on the same team as Nora, Pyrrha and Ren, or to be classmates with Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang." Jaune hesitated for a moment as he turned to look over at Koichi. "Promise to keep this a secret?"

"I barely talk much anyway, so you shouldn't worry about that." The shy boy said with a slightly derisive chuckle as Jaune nodded.

"... I faked my way into Beacon. I shouldn't even be here. Heck, when I first got here I didn't even have my physical Aura unlocked. At least you HAD a Stand of some kind. I wasn't even that worthwhile." Jaune shook his head as Koichi blinked in surprise, as the blond young man ran a hand through his hair. "I don't even have a story like yours that explains why I'm even here in the first place. The only thing I did during initiation was… was just not get in the way. I was barely of any help and my lack of ability showed." Jaune faced the open pit where the mechanisms brought up the next Atlesian Knight. "Yet here I am… not just on a team with people way better than I am, who I have no business even being in the same room as… I'm their leader. I'm their leader when they're so busy trying to help me out… and I had the nerve to hate that they wanted to help."

"Because the time they spent helping you could be better put helping themselves…" Koichi muttered, as if he knew all too well, as Jaune just nodded.

"Yeah… I didn't want to think of it like that then, because it'd just seem so pathetic. I just wanted to be a hero, and I hated the idea that I needed to be slung up by others to deserve to be here at Beacon. I let myself get bullied for weeks because of that." Jaune laughed harshly as he ran a hand through his hair, as Koichi again nodded. "I just… don't want my problems to be their problems. Because they have enough to worry about without needing to drag my weight around." Koichi just nodded drearily.

"But they're always there, and they always say they've got your back… and you know that it's true. No matter how bad you are, no matter how much you hold them back, they'll be there with you through thick and thin and they'll always have a hand ready to raise you up instead of themselves."

"And then you see how that affects them; the chances they lose out on, the time they waste…" Jaune turned to look at Koichi, his eyes a bit wide. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not so self-centered to think that Pyrrha lost because she spent time training me. There was a lot going on in that fight; her semblance couldn't effect Josuke's Stand, which is a big part of Pyrrha's defense, Crazy Diamond is as fast and strong as you guys hinted it was and Josuke could use its ability pretty freely while Pyrrha's was pretty limited." Koichi blinked as Jaune rattled that off so quickly; with enough time, he'd have come up with a similar look at the fight, but it seemed like Jaune had already pieced that together just by observing the situation from the stands. "Point is… just because it isn't all my fault, doesn't mean that I helped or that I didn't hurt Pyrrha's chances. She's been such a great friend; we train pretty much every evening, she's always so encouraging and she says that… I dunno, she says she sees something in me that's worthy of being here. She's my best friend… so it's just hard that I offer her literally nothing in return."

Koichi couldn't help himself when he fidgeted as Jaune's words. Even to someone as dense as Okuyasu, Pyrrha's… feelings towards Jaune were pretty readily apparent. They'd been forced to agree, literally forced in Okuyasu's case, to not say anything about it to Jaune on pain of severe beating, but that itself had been easy enough to agree to.

"Right…" Koichi, nonetheless, understood Jaune's point of view. "When you can't actually have their backs or help them the way they help you… it just… it just makes you wonder sometimes…"

"Would they be better off without you." Jaune finished for Koichi as the two young men sighed simultaneously, their moods having sufficiently dipped as they took in their surroundings. "I mean, look at me. My best friend is probably so frustrated that the lifetime she spent earning her reputation as a an invincible fighter is gone and I'm just sitting here, whacking away at Atlesian Knights I can barely put down because… because I want to try to get better so that she can stop bothering with me."

"Yeah…" Koichi hadn't been there for totally selfless reasons either. He'd been here because of those eyes he felt on him, that feeling of being watched. However, rather than go to his friends like they would've wanted him to and rather than coming here just to be there for another friend… here Koichi was. Just hiding so that he wouldn't have to be a burden to Josuke and Okuyasu. "We kind of suck…"

"Hey, at least you're here to commiserate with me Koichi." The silver haired young man just looked off to the side as the platform finally raised back up to level with Jaune and Koichi, as the young man just turned with his sword and shield at the ready and faced his robotic foe. However, his readiness, dulled by the slight funk he and Koichi had fallen into, was immediately deflated entirely when the Atlesian Knight in front of him failed to move so much as a servo. "What the? Ah, don't tell me this thing broke on the mechanism on the way up here?" Jaune sighed as sheathed Crocea Mors into his shield and placed it at his side as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well you're from around here right, do you know how to fix it?" Jaune just laughed at Koichi's question, the blond haired, blue eyed young man momentarily uplifted by the silly question.

"Koichi, just because I live in the Four Kingdoms doesn't mean I actually know how everything from here works. I actually grew up in some backwoods village out on the Western Coast of Vale… honestly, before coming to Beacon, I hadn't seen an Atlesian Knight once in my entire life." Jaune walked up to the malfunctioning machine as he continued to just scratch at his head, as he looked around the body of the machine for any signs of what may have caused it to break.

"See anything?" Koichi asked curiously as he got up off the bench and walked over, as Jaune just shook his head.

"No, it looks like every other fresh Atlesian Knight they throw up here for training. Doesn't look like anything broke in the transfer. It should be working." Jaune tilted his head to the side as he scratched as his chin.

"Maybe try kicking it or something?" Koichi tilted his head to the side as Jaune just chuckled.

"Come on Koichi, it's an advanced piece of machinery. I don't think kicking it's actually going to do anything about it. It's not like a Scroll that you can slap and it'll get fixed." Jaune said, seemingly without sarcasm, as he continued to try and look over the malfunctioning hardware in front of him. Despite his previous assertion, as the minutes passed and the Atlesian Knight still showed no signs of movement, Jaune finally reached forward and slapped the side of its head as he tried to get it to work.

'Yeah, it's an advanced piece of machinery, you can't just hit it...' Koichi's inner-thoughts muttered in his mind, the young man far too proper to have voiced such a sarcastic remark aloud. After a few more thwaps, the two were surprised when Jaune's efforts were, seemingly, rewarded. After one last good, hard knock, the visor of the Atlesian Knight powered on, its characteristic red glow beamed out at them as its body shook a bit and servos and gears activated in turn.

"Alright, never mind Koichi looks like it worked. You sure you aren't some secret tech genius?" Jaune asked with a slight grin, as Koichi just shook his head and laughed a bit.

"Nope, but I guess a broken clock can be right twice a day still." The little moment had made the two feel momentarily better as the lighter tone had eased them out of their more depressed states. That is, up until the Atlesian Knight once against ceased moving and just stood there, with only its glowing eyes there to have signaled that it was on. "Great, what's wrong with it now?" Koichi whined a bit as the two students looked at the robot.

When the head of said robot rippled for a moment, before the sharp edges and cuts of its machinery softened into a more human-like shape, both young men immediately paled and backed away from the Atlesian Knight. The process was… weird, to say the least. Slowly but surely, the hard edges of the machine either sank away or were moved to other parts of the body as the already very human-like machine shifted into a more perfect facsimile of a human. As the top and back of its head slowly shifted into a shaggy haircut, the human it seemed to look like became more and more clear to the two until-

"J-Jaune, it is just me or is this Atlesian Knight-"

"-Starting to look like me? Yeah, I think it is Koichi."

As the Atlesian Knight finally took the full shape of Jaune Arc, it glowed red hot for a moment before an explosion of steam erupted from it, one that had momentarily forced Koichi and Jaune's gaze away from it. As they turned back to face it, both pairs of eyes widened at what they saw; for all intents and purposes, it was a perfect copy of Jaune Arc. Save for his sword and his shield, it had everything else that was on Jaune's person. His armor, his hoodie, his shoes and jeans. Its hair was an immaculate copy, scruffy and tossed about in a way that perfectly mirror's Jaune's own messy hairdo. As the former Atlesian Knight turned its gaze up to look at the two, the huntsmen flinched as they looked into it's only imperfection.

Instead of a pair of bright blue eyes as had been the norm for Jaune, this Jaune's eyes were red in a similar shade to that of the visor of the Atlesian Knight. No ambient glow, however the eyes themselves seemed to burn slightly, the red coiled around as the Jaune in front of them grinned.

"What… what the heck is this? How did the Atlesian Knight turn into me? Why did it?" Jaune pulled out Crocea Mors and his shield, as Koichi just flinched back.

"It… it must be the work of an enemy Stand!" The Jaune in front of them laughed as he clapped his hands.

"A perfect deduction, really on point." 'Jaune' stretched itself out a bit as it worked out the kinks from its transformation, red eyes glanced between the two as it shrugged. "Though I wouldn't flatter yourself too much Jaune. I really hadn't intended to turn into you. Frankly, I'd hoped that in her huff, Pyr would've passed through here and I would've gotten to her that way. Would've been so simple and clean if that's the way it happened." A small grin formed on 'Jaune's' lips as he looked himself up and down. "Though I suppose I can't complain too much; I can make do with this. I doubt Pyrrha will mind me so much if I come at her looking like this."

Jaune didn't understand exactly what had happened, and he wasn't sure of what this Stand may have been capable of, but one thing that was certain; this thing had just threatened his best friend.

"Like I'd let yoooooooaaaaah!" Jaune shouted as he rushed forward, his posture sure and Crocea Mors at the ready as he prepared to cut at his copy. Jaune's momentum was immediately halted as 'Jaune' kicked forward into the face of his shield, the force of it having had been enough on its own to send Jaune's arm flying away. The copy of him then moved in and, with a quick jab, punched Jaune right in the throat. "GAAAAH!" Though Jaune's Aura had tanked most of the hit, he still felt a good portion of it, as he gasped for air that just wouldn't come.

The copy of him then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground, a grin on his face. "'Like you'd let me' you say? Looks like I will then if you're the only thing that's in my way, Jauney-boy." His copy taunted him with Cardin's nickname, Jaune's anger flared as he glared down at… well, himself.

"W-Who are you?" Jaune gasped out through his own pained throat, as his copy actually seemed to take the question into consideration.

"You know... I would say that I'm you but really, that's an insult to me. After all-" 'Jaune' reared his head back and slammed it into Jaune's face, where a little blood spewed forth from Jaune's nose and mouth from the blow, "-I'm stronger than you and I'm faster than you." At that, 'Jaune' quickly threw the original huntsman into Koichi who had attempted to run up to help. The two crashed to the floor as 'Jaune' dusted his hands off. "In fact, judging by those fights I watched these past couple days and what I saw on the CCTS of The Hand, I'd say I'm probably about as strong and as fast as that Stand."

'Jaune' grinned maliciously as he marched on forward towards the two downed huntsmen, who scrambled back to their feet. "I'm also a lot hardier; between my master's Aura and my own metal body, I can take a Hell of a lot more punches than you, Jauney-boy." Jaune rushed forward again and, again, with a speed and strength that easily equaled The Hand's, he manhandled Jaune and tossed him away, where Koichi could only do his best as he tried to catch his friend and help him back up to his feet.

"Really, it'd be a lie to say that I'm you, cause frankly, I'm nothing like you. After all-" 'Jaune laughed as he pointed to himself', "-if I'm a Jaune Arc who doesn't suck, them I'm really not cut out to be much of a Jaune Arc at all, am I?" 'Jaune' just grinned as he watched the anger flare up in his real counterpart. Though he didn't have Jaune's memories, he did have his behaviors and personality in there somewhere, so he knew all the right buttons to push to get his real self up into a tizzy.

Jaune didn't disappoint either as with another frustrated growl he launched himself towards his mechanical counterpart. 'Jaune' just laughed derisively as he ducked down and kicked at Jaune's shin, the blow knocked one of his legs out from under his grasp which had wrecked the stance Pyrrha had taught him. From there, a solid uppercut to the jaw had sent Jaune flying back towards Koichi again, a little more blood oozed from his mouth as he slowly stood up.

"Hmmm… well, I guess if I'm not you, then what that makes me is just Surface." Surface grinned as he shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that sounds good, just call me Surface Jauney boy. Plus, I'm not much of a 'who' as a 'what', if I really had to think about it."

"Then what are you then… why are you doing this?" Jaune muttered with a great deal of anger and frustration as he stood back up, as his copy just tapped his chin a bit.

"If you haven't put it together, which I know is usually your strong suit, I'm a Stand. Think of me as like that copy-robot from Perman. You know the one I'm talking about, right?" Surface asked as it tilted its head to the side, as Jaune and Koichi just blinked in confusion. "You know, Perman? The Mistrali comic?"

"Uuuh… sorry? I only really read X-Ray and Vav." Jaune had admittedly been caught off guard by this change in topic, as Surface just seemed indignant.

"X-Ray and Vav? You read that garbage? Should've figured, everyone just seems to have such shit taste. They don't know what's actually good. Such superficial pieces of shit…" Koichi's ears picked up on a slight echo to that sentence as he glanced off to the side and noticed a door to the training hall that had cracked open. The second voice that had muttered that statement had come from there and Koichi's eyes widened as he noticed a slight shadow cast against the floor near the door. Before he could take a good look at the person who hid just behind the frame, Surface continued.

"As for why I'm doing this… or well why 'we're' doing this, I should say… it's like I said Jaune." Surface's expression suddenly became manic and crazed, as the Stand creepily licked its lips in a move that unnerved both the original Jaune and Koichi. "We've got some business with Pyrrha… some long, hard business that we really need to address. We wanted her here, but if you're going to be kind enough to donate your skin I suppose we'll make the most of it." Surface laughed a bit as it shook its head, while Jaune seemed like had been seconds away from bursting into flames.

"You… you'll never get to her! Pyrrha's strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Crazy Diamond! She's strong enough to handle someone like you! You won't stand a chance against her!" Jaune shouted over at his copy, as Surface merely gave Jaune a wide, face-splitting grin.

"Under normal circumstances, you might be right Jauney-boy. However, with your skin? Well…" Jaune watched as slowly but surely Surface took on more and more of his 'normal' mannerisms. It slouched a bit, it nervously shifted about, its eyes, while bright and cheerful, seemed reluctant to meet his. Surface coughed into its fist nervous as it kicked the ground underneath it, a sheepish grin on its face. "I-I really doubt Pyr will see me coming. After all, I'm just Jaune Arc. Nothing for anyone to worry about, right? I'm harmless as a sack full of kittens being thrown into a river." Surface gave another big old laugh as it broke the charade, Jaune's face twisted into a dark glare as Surface just pointed over to him.

"All I have to do is get close enough to touch her, and then I'll copy Pyrrha too. Without being able to see the threat coming, that should be easy enough on its own. Not like I'm going to meet any serious opposition either. I mean, who's going to stop me? The pity-party brigade here?." Jaune's face contorted into one of anger as he reared back his weapons again and charged.

"I'm not going to let you touch her, you bas-taaah?" Jaune suddenly stopped mid-charge, his arms positioned in a way that mirrored Surface quite exactly. Jaune tried his best move his body under his own power and, after a moment, realized in a panic that he couldn't. Blue eyes widened in panic and met red eyes, which just looked at him with a great deal of amusement.

"You see, you are going to let us Jauney-boy. You're not going to be able to do anything to stop us." Surface laughed, a laugh that was seemingly echoed from one of the nearby doors. "Because as of right now you're caught in my Stand Power. So let me lay it down for you Jauney-boy. If you couldn't do anything to stop me before, then I'm afraid you're just shit out of luck.

"Because I'm Surface, and when you're within my range I go from being a puppet, to a puppet's master. And Jaune, before we go get Pyrrha, I'm gonna make you dance."

 **-To be Continued- Skin Deep (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Toshikazu Hazamada**

 **Stand Name: [Surface]**

 **Destructive Power: B**

 **Speed: B**

 **Range: C**

 **Lasting Power: B**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Mimicry: Surface's primary ability is to copy the appearance of another person. This also makes him adopt the same personality of who he is copying, though the extent of this seems to change if Toshikazu is speaking through his Stand.**

 **Forced-Movement Synchronization: Surface can only use this ability while standing in close proximity to the original being it is copying; it forces the original to mimic its same actions.**

 **Also Known As: Wow, when I first outlined this, I had forgotten these were [Surface's] canon stats. The thing's actually pretty bad ass.**

 **Also Known As: I GOT NO STRINGS TO HOLD ME DOWN!**

* * *

 **As we're heading for our next major climax of the series next arc (the first being the Josuke vs Bruno fight that followed up the first several chapters) this chapter was meant to act as a bit of a trough where the characters could kind of bullshit with each other as the plot begins to accelerate back up towards its next peak. Having constant action, while it can be fun for some people, can also be exhausting to write and to read. After all, if your characters are constantly in danger, then the danger stops being unique and becomes the new norm, which is never a precedent you really want to set in your story. So having troughs in between big, heavy moments in the plot and even between certain rising actions in a rising climax can help give some diversity and difference in kind that's needed to keep a story from feeling stale from either too much peak or too much trough. It's the reason why you can equally get burnt out on high-octane action scenes if they come in one after another or really, really bored by uninteresting long talky-bits in a movie.**

 **Troughs like this are also important for setting up arcs and development. Last chapter gave us a hint of what Pyrrha's going through and this chapter gives us some insight to our local knight and Koichi. Team JNPR will hit their arc a little sooner, but it was nonetheless important to set up Koichi's character investment and struggle before we actually got to his initial arc, keep it clean and keep it from feeling front-loaded.**

 **Once we hit the climax next chapter, the work put in here will have hopefully paid off before we roll into the next rising action and the big climax of this series of arcs before moving into the more extended trough to come after.**

 **Anyway, an announcement; the next update on the 9th is going to be a Remnant's Bizarre Adventure Chibi short. I've pretty much settled on doing these at least once a month to give me some time to unwind and also to just ease up and write something a lot more light. I promise this has nothing to do with the fact that Persona 5 came out yesterday, I swear.**

 **If anyone tells you any different, it's just lies and slander. I promise. Really. You can trust me. Also, as a quick heads up; I am posting this story over on Spacebattles as well, so if you want to have a place to either talk about this fic or ask questions I may or may not be inclined to answer because of spoilers, feel free to stop on by.**

 **Have a good week everyone!**


	17. Skin Deep (Act 3)

"Because I'm Surface, and when you're within my range I go from being a puppet, to a puppet's master. And Jaune, before we go get Pyrrha, I'm gonna make you dance."

Jaune Arc's limbs flew about as he was manipulated by whatever phantom force that Surface had forced upon him. The young man had tried his best to fight against the foreign influence, and yet had found that despite his strength that he had been strung along by Surface's whims. As Surface demonstrated its complete control over Jaune's person, it brought its hand up to scratch its cheek, a move that Jaune quickly mirrored even as his body shook as it attempted to resist.

"Do you see now, Jaune? So long as you're within my range, you have to copy every move I make and any attempt to fight is… well, to be frank, useless. This is the power of Surface, and it's how I'll make Pyrrha Nikos my woman… whether she's ready or not." Jaune again glared hatefully at Surface, yet for all his rage he may as well have been a rat in a cage as Surface continued to toy with him, swinging his limbs to and fro as the Stand mock-danced with Jaune.

Koichi ground his teeth together as he watched this; if he went for where he suspected Surface's Stand User was, then he knew that the Stand would use its control over Jaune to stop him. Whether that would have ended up being through an attack from Surface or having Jaune attack Koichi himself, neither option exactly appealed to Koichi. Thus, the only option Koichi had seen moving forward was to force Surface out of Jaune's range… but Koichi had no way of doing so. Echoes was pathetically weak in a straight up fight and, if Surface's words rang true, it had been as strong as The Hand.

However, a thought crossed Koichi's mind… he knew that Echoes was no match for Surface, but Surface, on the other hand.

"You'd better let Jaune go, or else when I get over there, I'll have my Stand beat you into nuts and bolts, Surface!" Surface turned its head to face Koichi while Jaune's eyes glanced over to see the normally timid young boy as he bolted over, a green glow surrounded him as he ran for the pair. Surface, for a moment, seemed nervous… before a malicious grin formed on his face.

"Hey, Jauney-boy." Surface worked its magic on Jaune's limbs, as he forced Jaune's body to retrieve his shield and flex it open. Koichi stumbled for a moment at the sight, which had been all the hesitation that Surface had needed. "Why don't you go ahead and teach this little bastard not to get involved with the big kids!" With that, Surface swung its arm forward and, with a great deal of force, backhanded it towards its side. Jaune's eyes widened as his arm immediately followed the swings of the arc.

"KOICHI, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

" **[ECHOES]**!" Even as Koichi called forth his Stand, it had seemed far and away too late. The shield had met Koichi's form before the young man had even a moment to react himself.

 **CRACK!**

Jaune's eyes widened with horror as he heard the sound. It hadn't been one he was overly familiar with, but he'd heard it often enough. Growing up as a young boy surrounded by other rowdy young boys in the countryside where there wasn't much to do but to get into trouble, well, the sound of broken bones was something you'd eventually find etched into your mind.

He watched as Koichi was flung several feet backward while the green glow around him died down and a slight shimmering of dust had dissipated from in front of him, Jaune knew what he had been forced to do. Koichi just lay there and twitched slightly, his head turned away from him and Surface as the young boy just gurgled out the odd sound or two.

"Well, looks like I underestimated both of our strengths, Jauney-boy. I mean, I hadn't intended to kill either of you two when you came in here… but Hell, I guess people won't mind too much. Who knows, maybe if people find him before he suffocates to death on his own blood that bastard with the stupid looking hair can fix him up." Surface remarked casually as it forced Jaune's shield from his hand.

"You… you killed him. No… you forced me to kill him!" Jaune turned his gaze back towards Surface; if Jaune's eyes had shone with rage before with what Surface had merely implied, the young huntsman was outright furious now. "I won't let you get away with this! You'll pay for what you're doing!"

"Please Jaune, I think you and I both know that's not how this is going to shake down. Especially while I'm wearing your skin." Surface grinned as it had Jaune walk over to Koichi, the blond huntsmen grimaced as he was forced to. However, because of his and Surface's positioning, his back was turned to face Surface, while its Stand User hid behind a door and listened in. Thus neither Stand nor Stand Master saw when a look of surprise came over Jaune's expression, nor the curious look that followed.

As Surface forced Jaune to search Koichi and, in good time, produced a pen Surface just grinned. "Gotta admit, these Frontier dickheads wearing their uniforms all the time makes it easy to count on them to have little instruments like this. Makes what I need to do to you so much cleaner Jaune." When Jaune was forced to turn to face Surface, that hateful expression was on his face as Surface brought the pen up to Jaune's right eye.

"Oh! Before I forget…" Surface grinned maniacally as he forced Jaune's other hand to reach into his pocket. Before long, the blond knight had pulled out his Scroll, his blue eyes widened as Surface had forced him to drop it on the ground before he stomped on it. If Jaune could've spared the thought, he would've despaired at how he still had payments to make on the device. However, as Surface forced him to jab the pen even harder on the bottom lid of his eye, he had forgotten that momentary despair and was faced with panic at the slowly mounting pain.

"Now like I said, I didn't want to kill either of you when I got in here. I just wanted to get your skin, knock you both out and then move on… I mean, after I had my fun with you two, of course." Surface chuckled maliciously as it brought the pen up underneath Jaune's eyes as he young Huntsman's expression turned from angry to horrified in an instant. "You see, I don't actually like killing people who piss me off… it lets them off too easy. I like to have fun. Nice, slow, painful fun. It helps put rat bastards like you in your place. Makes you taste the suffering that people like you have forced onto me, humiliates you in a way that I get a lot of pleasure from. Superficial pieces of shit like yourselves deserve this for all the shit you all have put me through over the years.

"Now, you have physical Aura, which would ordinarily make this trick a little bit more difficult… but, well, you did just get done going through a lot of practice and, even with all the Aura in the world, the eye is such a vulnerable and soft target. It doesn't even need a lot of force under normal circumstances to pop it." Jaune had sweat heavily as he felt the pen get pressed up underneath his eye, as Surface just chuckled darkly. "I guess that works to my benefit this time though. If I need more pressure, then I need more time to build it up… and more time building it up is more time you feel the pain of having your eye squeezed. Slowly but surely crushed against the wall of your own eye socket, nerve endings flaring up painfully and loudly, screaming for you to force away the source of irritation and pain from one of the most sensitive parts of your body.

"But you can't. Even as instinct rails against you, even as your body begs you to do something, while you're under my power, while I have you under my control, you can only suffer this pain." Jaune could feel the pen puncture as it felt like it had nearly punctured the skin under his eye. However, at that moment, he hadn't been sure as to what had made him more uncomfortable; the pain in his eye or the obvious pleasure Surface had taken in this. "Eventually, force will win out, and in a mere matter of seconds-"

 **SQUIIISH**

There was the briefest moment of hesitation, one that had gone unnoticed by Surface as it flinched from the sudden appearance of the sound, surprised that the moment had come so soon.

"AAAAAHHH!" Jaune screamed as the sound rang out, nice and loud to Surface, and thus his master's hearing, as Surface ended its control over Jaune's body. As soon as he did, Jaune collapsed onto the ground, his arm having instinctively flung itself up to his head before the young man passed out from the overwhelming pain.

"Wow, guess this guy was even weaker than I thought. I would've figured his Aura would've held out for a lot longer than that. Master was really getting into it too." Soon enough, Surface's personality seemed to shift in a more Jaune Arc-ward direction as the door to the room opened and revealed Toshikazu Hazamada in his maintenance get up, the young man frowned severely as he looked to his Stand.

"Let's get going Surface, we need to find Pyrrha Nikos quickly. No telling when the security in the camera room will actually get around to noticing any of our changes to the system." Toshikazu muttered as he cracked his neck, as Surface just chuckled.

"Guess getting snuck in as maintenance really helped things along. Torchwick's advice worked like a charm too, if the fact that no one's come to help these poor guys is any indication." Separated from his master's influence, Surface spoke much more calmly and softly, though with a confidence that still marked it as distinct from Jaune Arc himself. Toshikazu grinned slightly as Stand and Stand Master spoke, as he nodded his head.

"Yeah, guess that stupid bastard is good for something other than giving me you after all. When we get around to making folks in Vale pay for what they've done to me, we'll have to remember that." A malicious little grin crossed Toshikazu's face as he brushed a greasy strand of hair aside as he nodded down the hall. "Now let's get going. If Pyrrha hasn't shown up to her classes then she's somewhere around campus. We just have to find her and then… well, we'll do what we do best. She'll come around, eventually." Toshikazu chuckled darkly, a slimy, perverted expression on his face as Surface nodded as the pair walked away from the training room and slammed the door closed behind the two of them.

Moments passed as their footsteps echoed down the hallway.

"Hooooly crap, that was close." Jaune muttered under his breath as he knelt up off the ground and threw the pen to the side. There was an ever so slight bleeding puncture wound on the skin of his lower eyelid though, thankfully, that had seemed to be the extent of the damage as his Aura had protected his actual eye from any sort of serious harm. "Koichi, what the heck was that? How did you survive getting hit like that?!"

Soon after, Koichi sat up as well, red marks on his face and more than likely bruises on his arms as a little bit of blood pooled out of his nose and mouth. He winced in pain, but smiled nonetheless, as he just pointed behind Jaune. The huntsman's blue eyes blinked as he turned his head, before he immediately stumbled back onto his ass in surprise. What had floated just behind Jaune in that moment was like nothing Jaune had ever seen in his life, not in all his years in the country nor in his months of study here at Beacon Academy.

It was a lime green color mostly, though blotches of black and other various shades of green patterned its tail in a camouflage-like pattern, while the underside had been black. Its eyes, beak and muscular accents on its arm were gold, alongside the very tip end of its long, long tail. Though to call the little orbs at the front of its face eyes was perhaps far too simple. Even by the standards set by The Hand's odd, bug-like eyes, this thing's eyes were basically just cylinders, with a noticeable bit of metal seemingly hooking them into the rest of its head, the top of which was adorned with a gold spike. In fact… the beak and eyes just seemed to jut out from underneath a helmet?

And were those skateboard wheels just before its tail?

'What the Hell am I even looking at?' Jaune couldn't help but think as he took in the entire creature's appearance, a mish-mash of so many things that it all nearly broke Jaune's perception. All told it was a very weird, very odd looking little thing.

"That's what did Jaune. My Stand, Echoes."

"Wait… THIS is your Stand?" Jaune emphasized the word as his disbelief was evident, Echoes crackled out a very shrill noise as it slowly moved around him and went back over to Koichi. "It, it doesn't even look like anything! At least what Blake and Weiss said about The Lock made it sound like a real lock, this thing's just… I don't even know how to describe it." Koichi nodded in understanding as Echoes dissipated into him.

"Echoes is one of the more… out there Stands in terms of appearance. No one really knows why it looks the way it does for what it's capable of doing, but it is what it is." Koichi cleaned the blood off of his nose and mouth and rubbed at his bruises a bit as he smiled lightly. "Anyway, I was able to summon and dissipate Echoes quickly enough that it could tank your hit for me with it's Aura. It still hurts a little cause… well, Echoes is pretty weak, but it was better than taking the hit for myself."

"And the noise? It sounded so real." Jaune still seemed stunned; between the sound of his neck snapping and the squelching sound, it had seemed like those things had actually happened. He hadn't even realized he needed to react for a second, though luckily it seems Surface and his Stand Master had failed to notice his failing. "Wait… did Echoes?"

"Yeah, Echoes made the noise. It formed it on the side of Surface's head so that it'd sound like the real deal to both itself and its Stand master. Honestly, I think I got the noise from the sound of some fruit being crushed. I haven't actually heard an eyeball get popped before, for obvious reasons." Koichi grimaced at the thought, as Jaune just grinned.

"Wow Koichi, that's amazing! You got them to buy that you and I were both down by making those noises! Great work on the neck-snap too man, it even fooled me!" Koichi seemed slightly embarrassed and oddly distraught when Jaune had said that as the little man just coughed into his fist.

"Y-Yeah, what can I say, I've gotten a lot of practice in with Echoes…"

"Still, to get it around so quickly and without them noticing, your Stand must be pretty fast even if it's not so strong." Jaune said with an encouraging smile as Koichi just shook his head.

"No, not really… Echoes is actually pretty slow too. The only thing it has going for it is its long range. It can go out fifty meters from me and maintain noises like that in an area of fifty meters around itself. All I had it do was appear to tank your shield's hit, disappear, materialize its hand besides Surface to place the noise and then dissipate back off. It moved pretty slowly all told, but its range lets it pull little tricks like that off." Koichi, despite the skill of that trick, still seemed down on his Stand. Jaune noticed this but, given the gravity of the situation, hadn't felt that he could get down and serious about persuading Koichi otherwise about his Stand.

"Well it saved both of us from being put down for a very painful sleep, so it's good in my book Koichi." Jaune had said gratefully as he bit his lip. "Right now though we need to focus on making sure Surface and its Stand Master get nowhere near Pyrrha. If it touches her… if it gets so close to her because I screwed up and it got me, I couldn't forgive myself for putting her into that kind of danger." Jaune said sternly as Koichi nodded while the pair ran out of the training room. They could still distantly hear Surface's and Toshikazu's footsteps down the hall as the pair of huntsmen kept their distance and lightly pursued.

Koichi had allowed Jaune to run out ahead of him, so as to have positioned himself behind his fellow huntsman as he glanced nervously back to the training room. Yes, those sounds had been lifesavers, they had quickly turned what could've absolutely been a knockout for both of them and an assured victory for Toshikazu into, at least, a tie. Now, at least, he wouldn't get ahead of them when it came to Pyrrha. His quick thinking had resulted in the sound that had made Surface think it had successfully squashed Jaune's eye… but there had been something that Koichi hadn't told Jaune.

As Koichi's eyes glanced nervously about before he, finally, pursued Jaune, the thought had hung in his head; the sound of bone snapping hadn't come from him or Echoes. The blow had come too quickly for him to have done much more than summon Echoes to take the brunt of it. As Koichi caught up with Jaune and they made their silent approach a ways from the footsteps of Surface and Toshikazu, they slowed down. Jaune because he had needed a plan before going in, as rushing up to Surface hadn't been an option, while Koichi had just decided he would tail Jaune.

"Okay, okay, okay…" Jaune sighed as he rubbed his temples, the duo having had done their level best to keep quiet and keep away from the pair some ways in front of them. "So, Surface, strong as The Hand and capable of controlling me if I get within its range, which is far enough away that I wouldn't even be able to hit it with the tip of my sword. You have Echoes, and it has the range, but none of the power… jeez, we really don't have much going for us here." Koichi nodded in agreement as Jaune continued to rub at his temples.

"Do you have any idea where Pyrrha might be? If we can just get to her before he does, we can fill her in and make sure that she's ready for them before they show up! That way she can deal with them." Koichi said with a nod, as Jaune frowned.

"I would ask why we wouldn't go get everyone else but... " Jaune frowned as they continued to tail the two. " … We really don't have time. If they find Pyrrha before we can get anyone else's help, who knows what they'll do to her. If I could call them that'd be another story, but if we took the time to run to class to get them..." Jaune frowned as he thought for a moment. Suddenly, a spark hit his eyes as he smiled slightly. "I think I might know where Pyrrha is though. Problem is that if we try to go right to her now, we'd either have to take the long way around or we'd have to get right past those two." Jaune and Koichi continued to sneak as they tailed Toshikazu and his Stand, as Jaune just tapped at his chin.

"... Koichi, do the bits of noise Echoes makes need to be within fifty meters of you, or do they just need to be within fifty meters of Echoes?"

"Huh? Oh, they just need to be within fifty meters of Echoes. Why do you ask Jaune?" As Koichi tilted his head to the side, Jaune Arc continued to visibly think over this matter before, eventually, a smile formed on his face.

"I think I just thought up a way to get him nice and far away from where Pyrrha'll be without getting up close to him. Listen close, Koichi."

* * *

"Alright Surface, where the Hell is Pyrrha anyway? You've copied that dickhead, so you've gotta have an idea at least." Toshikazu muttered over to his Stand as the initial part of their search turned up empty, which had left them them with just a series of empty dorm rooms and access-ways having been checked with no sign of Pyrrha Nikos.

"Like I've said other times boss, when I copy someone I only take on their physical appearance and their personality quirks. I really don't take on their memories or much of their actual knowledge. Sorry about that, I know it's a hassle, but it's just the way it is." Toshikazu frowned at his Stand's words but on some level he felt satisfied nonetheless. Having his Stand be so obedient and apologetic, practically kissing his feet for not having been able to do what he could, while also having the face of an insufferable huntsman had the snake faunus feeling quite good about himself. Much better than when his Stand had taken on the forms of other, strong willed bastards.

"Whatever. Let's just keep searching then, we're bound to hear or see a sign of her sooner or later if we just-"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just needed to get some, fresh air, for a bit. Huh? No, it's okay, I just called, to check in, on things, and see how you were. Right now? Oh I'm alone, right now. Just needed some, time, to think. Nothing serious. At all. So, what are you up to?"

Pyrrha's voice came through a nearby window and, though distant, they could both tell that it had been on the ground floor. Toshikazu and Surface grinned at this turn of events. Toshikazu had definitely been the more excited out of the pair, as Surface despite its own joy at having found their target, couldn't but notice how… chopped up Pyrrha sounded.

"So, she hid outside, and she's still by herself. This couldn't have gone any more perfectly." Toshikazu immediately rushed off, Surface not having time to voice his thoughts before he rushed off after his master. The pair quickly emerged from the building and ran for the spot they had heard Pyrrha's voice…

Only to be met with a wall covered in strange symbols that varied in size and shape and scrolled across the wall. The chopped up sounds seemed to have come from them as, after a moment, Pyrrha's sentences repeated themselves.

"What the fuck is this? It looks like fucking gibberish!? Why the fuck is this even here and why is it-"

"Oh! Jaune! Hello there! And, Koichi, too? How are you, two, doing today?"

"Fuck!" Toshikazu cursed loudly under his breath as he and Surface sprinted off to where they had heard this, intent on spying on the situation and, if necessary, using Surface's control of Jaune to make their move. When they arrived they found the similar gibberish placed against a tree that, once again, exuded the sounds they had heard. "Okay, what the Hell is-"

All at once, the pair heard several sources of Pyrrha's voice scattered about them, the red headed Spartan's kind tones echoed slightly across the empty canvas. As they looked around they saw several signs of the graffiti scattered around, the very sight of which caused Toshikazu's blood to boil.

"What the fuck even is all of this? Why is it making so much fucking noise! Fuck, I can't even hear myself thinking! Surface, get rid of all this shit! We won't be able to find Pyrrha over all this damned racket!" Toshikazu commanded his Stand, as the copy of Jaune just grimaced at him.

"Master, don't you think-"

"Yes, I did think Surface, and I told you to get rid of this shit!" Toshikazu ordered his Stand, as Surface just sighed as he got to work destroying the graffiti. Unseen by either Stand or Stand Master, Echoes hovered on the edge of one of Beacon Academy's buildings, approximately fifty meters away from the furthest of its markings across this section of the campus. Approximately thirty meters away from Echoes, Jaune and Koichi quickly ran through the school's dormitories, as Jaune hurriedly rushed towards the rooftop of his own building while Koichi doggedly followed.

"Alright! If what I'm getting from Echoes is right, it's working! They're totally distracted!" Koichi smiled as he looked up to Jaune, the blond huntsman smiled satisfactorily as he nodded.

"Yeah, your Stand's range was actually insanely helpful Koichi. Between its own fifty meter radius and its connection to you, we could lead Surface and his master nice and far away from where Pyrrha's gotta be with your Stand's power, and then just let Echoes cover the area in those various notes to sound like Pyrrha's talking." Jaune grinned as he quickly ascended the flights of stairs. "Thanks to your Stand Koichi, we'll get to Pyrrha before that bastard even has a clue that Pyrrha's nowhere nearby." Koichi blushed slightly at the praise, but quickly smothered it as he shook his head.

"You thought pretty quickly about what to do Jaune. If anything, you're more to thank for the plan than I am." Jaune just shook his head.

"Nah, I just came up with the idea first. Without you there was no way I was doing anything against Surface. I'm sure you or Josuke would've thought of something like that easily."

True, Josuke would have thought up of that plan in relatively short order as well, especially if he had been taken under the influence of Surface. Heck, he might've even thought up other plans for how to deal with the Stand. Still, as Koichi considered the resources as Jaune's disposal, no Crazy Diamond and just his Echoes, and the speed he had come up with the plan, he couldn't help but still feel impressed by his friend.

"You're being too kind, Jaune." Koichi muttered slightly as Jaune just laughed sheepishly.

"Right back at you, Koichi." This circle of self-deprecation and credit handing off may have continued forever had the pair not finally reached the top of of the staircase and found the door to the roof access. "Alright, if she's anywhere, she's gotta be here. Pyrrha and I come up here all the time to train by ourselves… she's gotta be here. It'd be the one place we could find her to talk to her after classes." Jaune seemed so sure as he rushed for the door, so certain as he quickly forced it open and burst forth onto the rooftop.

"Pyr! There's a Stand User on campus who's… who's… Pyrrha?"

That certainty and excitement, the hope that he had finally done something well, died on his lips as Jaune had come to the empty rooftop, not a soul to be seen as he cast his eyes about. Koichi soon followed him, the silver haired young man's expression similarly died down as he took in the sight, as a slow wind blew across the rooftop. The pair stared on, uncertain for a moment, before Koichi slowly turned his head. Jaune had stood stock still the entire time, his fist clenched as he looked out across the open rooftop, which had concerned the younger man.

"Jaune… it's okay. We just got it wrong the first time. We'll keep looking and-"

"Koichi…" Jaune interrupted, a hand combed through his hair, as he paced about a bit. "I get that. We still have some time to find Pyrrha. Of course my plan didn't work on the first try… not a lot of them do. I really kind of expect it for most of them." Jaune clenched his teeth slightly as he waved a hand to the empty rooftop. "What I hate… what I don't understand is how I screwed up this badly." Koichi seemed confused for a moment, as the statement seemed to directly contradict Jaune's previous. Before he could have spoken up, Jaune continued.

"Pyrrha's my best friend. She's my partner. We're supposed to be in this through thick and thin and she… she's been perfect about it. Even when I didn't tell her how troubled I was, she could see it. She knew without me having to say anything, and she reached out." Jaune scoffed as he kicked at the roof. "Yet here we are; she's so bothered by what's happened, so… so hurt by something, that she wandered off where none of us could've thought she'd be. To just be by herself… not only did I not pick up on that, but I didn't even try to reach out when she showed that she had been even a little troubled. What did I do? I ran off to wallow in my own shit, worry about how I needed to improve to stop holding her back. I'm a miserable partner." Jaune turned and, despite what Koichi might've expected to see from Jaune, the young Arc's expression was stony and determined.

"I said I'd be a good partner, I promised I'd be a good friend… and you know what? An Arc never goes back on his word." Jaune stormed off back towards the door. "Come on Koichi, Pyrrha wouldn't have left campus for this. She wouldn't want us to worry about her, so if we keep on looking, we'll find her eventually. We have to… I have to make up for this. All of it."

Koichi stared at Jaune's back as he walked off, before a smile crossed his face. He nodded and followed after the leader of JNPR.

"Yeah, we'll find her! After all, we've still got time! It's not like-"

At that moment, the bell had rang to signal the end of class and Jaune and Koichi stumbled as they looked around in shock.

"Crap, that's class! The school's going to be packed soon and Surface will be able to blend in with the crowd!" Koichi shouted as he placed his hands on his head in a panic. "At this rate, it'll be hard enough just to make sure he doesn't sneak up on us and get us while we're distracted trying to find Pyrrha with all these people running around."

"Darn… Koichi, just recall Echoes. We might need it around if things go south. Maybe it won't do much, but something is more than nothing." Koichi nodded as he called back Echoes, though it would have taken time for the Stand to return from its near max range. "Also, Surface had me destroy my Scroll… I don't suppose you guys have Scrolls yet, do you?"

With a shake of his head, Koichi had caused Jaune to curse under his breath as he ran forward. "Guess we're going to have to get to the others the hard way then. Hopefully they'll all stay grouped up after class is up and we'll be able to find them all together. At this point, we need everyone if we're going to find Pyrrha before Surface and his Stand Master!"

With determined looks, the two ran throughout the halls, much to the confusion and befuddlement of their fellow students.

* * *

"Hey there Jaune, how's it going?"

"Yo Jaune, good to see you man, where were you last class?"

"Jaune, hey, watch out for the teachers man, they aren't too happy you skipped class."

Surface smiled as good-naturedly as it could as it waved back to the people that had spoken out to it while it and Toshikazu had walked around. Soon after the class bell had rung, that mysterious graffiti had disappeared and left nothing but the noises of students as they made their way to and fro around the school. This had been to the great joy and annoyance of Toshikazu. On the one hand, it would've allowed them to successfully blend in among the student and thus make it easier to sneak up on Pyrrha Nikos or any other pests who might have gotten in their way.

On the other hand…

"Hey Jaune, your friends and team seemed pretty worried, you might want to check in on them soon."

"Uh yeah, will do. Thanks. Sorry, just in one of those moods, ya know?" A friendly, if dorky, smile accompanied this as other students just smiled and nodded before they walked off. Toshikazu, it seemed, was the only one who blended in. The only one who nobody had taken notice of. The only one who was being ignored by the rest of the student body. Surface, Jaune, he had been getting attention. Positive attention. People paid attention to it. People liked it. People stopped to talk to it before moving on.

But they ignored him, walked all over him as if he was just some kind of snake beneath their tread.

It fucking infuriated him.

"Hey Jaune, I saw Pyrrha walking off somewhere after lunch. Didn't see where she went but she didn't look so good… you know, maybe you should do something nice for her. I dunno, maybe… a friendly chat? You know, I'm sure that'd help her get out of her funk."

"Yeah, I'm looking for her right now. Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated."

As this went on, Toshikazu became angrier and angrier before, finally, he snapped. He couldn't take this bullshit anymore.

"Why are they all talking to you and not to me…" Toshikazu muttered under his breath as Surface turned to it, a tilt to its head as it looked at him curiously.

"What? Man, why does it matter? So long as they're talking to me and thinking I'm Jaune, then that's good, right? Means that we're fooling them. Them not talking to you just means that you can blend in and not get noticed-"

"That's exactly my problem you piece of shit!" Toshikazu cursed at his Stand, Surface recoiled slightly at Toshikazu's anger before the diminutive young man turned away.

'This happens every single fucking time. Every time I have Surface copy one of these fucking bastards or bitches, it always gets the attention! Even when people should be marveling at how I'm hanging out with people who're well known or respected, I never get any of the attention! Hell, I'm hanging out with a fucking loser and people still aren't paying me any mind! It's all about him! These superficial shitheads just care about status, whether you're handsome or pretty or a hunter, they don't actually care about anything else! Fucking bastards and whores…' Toshikazu bit at his thumb as he spiraled into these hateful thoughts, Surface concerned as it reached a hand out for its master.

"Oh Jaune, there you are!" Stand and Stand Master paused as they turned their heads slightly, a momentary panic passed between both as they saw Nora and Ren. The pair walked up to them, friendly, if concerned, smiles on their faces as they walked up to Surface.

"Jaune! We were so worried when we couldn't find you after class! We thought something might've happened and we couldn't get in touch with you with your Scroll! Everyone broke off to try and look for you and Pyrrha we were so worried! Thank goodness it was nothing!" Nora smiled nice and wide as she spoke, as Jaune just nodded.

"Y-Yeah, no worries guys. It was nothing… I just forgot to charge my Scroll this morning so it ran out of batteries. Heh, you know me, clumsy, forgetful Jaune, always making mistakes like that." Surface laughed weakly as it put on its best Jaune performance, as Nora and Ren frowned at the self-deprecation.

"It's okay Jaune, we all make little mistakes sometimes." Ren offered his council as he spoke, as Surface just nodded along. "At any rate, this is actually great that we found you. We can call everyone else and tell them that we got you, and then we can all look for Pyrrha together. Come on, we've all already checked the south and east side of the school, so there's only so many other places we can be."

Surface brightened up at that bit of news; considering that it and its master had come from the west side, it meant that Pyrrha was situated somewhere on the northern part of Beacon's campus. It cut down on a lot of the areas they had needed to check. However, they needed to ditch these guys first…

"Hey listen, rather than group up, maybe we could all split up again! You guys can keep going and search back that way, and I'll start heading up to the north part of campus. If any of us find Pyrrha, we can call the rest… or if I don't find Pyrrha, then I can just meet you guys at our next class." Jaune grinned as he scratched his head. "Yeah, that would work, right? Since I don't have my Scroll…" Surface muttered, as Nora and Ren had cast glances to each other before Nora spoke.

"You sure Jaune? I mean, we don't have that many more places to check… you can come with us and it'd be fine." Nora offered, as Jaune just shook his head.

"Nah, it's cool. It'll be faster this way and I won't slow you guys down. We can cover more ground like this. Seriously, you guys trust me, right?" Surface offered with a typical, downplayed Jaune Arc grin, as Nora and Ren just smiled weakly.

"Yeah, we trust you Jaune… alright, I suppose it's a sound enough plan. If you don't find Pyrrha before we do, we'll all just meet up at the next class. See you there, Jaune." Surface nodded as Ren and Nora made to leave, the Stand relieved that the tense moment had passed. "By the way Jaune… is there something wrong with your eyes? They look awfully red." Surface nearly tripped on its own feet as Ren had brought this up, the Stand cast its gaze over its shoulder as it just laughed uncomfortably.

"O-Oh you know, I just got into a little accident in the training hall! Took a bit of a hit to the eyes and now they're all red! Couldn't handle those robots too well! You know, just… just Jaune Arc screw ups!" Surface laughed uncomfortably as it and its master walked off. "Anyway, like you guys said, I'll see you next class, later!" Before Ren and Nora could have continued, Surface turned the corner with Toshikazu, the two booked it for a bit as they attempted to make sure that they weren't going to be followed. When they had, Surface released a sigh of relief as it smiled.

"You heard that right? Those guy already checked most of the rest of the school for us. Now all we have to do is head north and we'll be sure to find Pyrrha first! This is a lucky break, right boss?" Surface turned its head to look gleefully at Toshikazu, only to have found that its Stand Master had stood there fuming and cursing under his breath. "Boss?"

"THEY ONLY NOTICED YOU AGAIN!" Toshikazu practically screamed as he turned his maddened gaze back to his Stand, a violent look to his eyes as he glared at Surface. "THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS! I FUCKING HATE YOU, YOU BASTARD! YOU'RE MEANT TO BE MY STAND, YOU SHOULDN'T STAND OUT MORE THAN ME!" With that, Toshikazu threw a hard punch at Surface…

"YEEEEEOOOOOW!" Only to find that between his Stand's metal body and its Aura, that his blow had not only bounced off but it had done more damage to his own hand than he had done to it.

"... Wow, that wasn't smart boss. I mean really, I'm made of metal, what were you expecting?" Surface tilted its head to the side as it spoke, before one well placed glare caused it to stumble back.

"Shut up!" Surface obeyed the rather short command as Toshikazu turned back towards the corridor, the long hallways stretched out to the northern side of the campus. "Let's just get Pyrrha and get this over with. The sooner you're out of Jaune's skin and into hers, the sooner I can stop being ignored and have my woman." Toshikazu stalked forward, a bitter and angry expression on his face as Surface merely nodded and followed.

Meanwhile, back with Nora and Ren, the two had walked away from where they had encountered Jaune as they moved toward the western portion of the campus. Their mood had noticeably deflated after their meetup, as Nora just sighed mournfully.

"He's hiding something from us again… I thought… I thought he would've trusted us after last time. I thought we had gotten beyond stuff like this." Nora muttered as she crossed her arms around her torso, the girl obviously distraught. Ren, in a rare show for him, actually moved to put his hand around Nora's shoulder in a comforting manner, as Ren had known too well that Nora would take this hard. The orange haired girl hadn't even flushed as she took advantage of Ren's momentary lapse in his emotionless facade and wormed her way to his side.

"Nora… Jaune's just... It's like Joseph said way back when. Sometimes people are stubborn and it takes some time and effort for them to learn their lessons… often the hard way." Nora shook her head at the thought but Ren just rubbed her shoulder a bit. "Jaune's a good guy, he'll come around before Polnareff did, I'm sure. We've just… gotta be patient, I guess. Jaune just doesn't like foisting his problems on others. Makes him feel like a burden. We shouldn't be surprised that he wouldn't just walk up to us and tell us what was wrong." Ren muttered somewhat sadly as Nora, finally, nodded grimly.

At that very moment, Koichi and Jaune turned the corner, much to Nora and Ren's surprise, as Jaune's gaze brightened up immensely when he saw his two teammates.

"GUYS! THANK GOD WE FOUND YOU! Listen, we don't have much time to explain: there's a Stand User on campus who's had his Stand copy my appearance and can control people who he's copied by being in range of them! The guy is after Pyrrha and I think he's going to try to rape her! We need to find her right now and stop him before it's too late!"

Ren and Nora just stared in dumbfounded surprise as Jaune blathered all this out in a second. The magenta eyed young man and the turquoise eyed young women blinked once, twice as they heard but didn't so much comprehend what Jaune had said. However, before long, Nora had gotten Jaune's intention and, with a bright smile, she leaped out of Ren's hold and wrapped her arms around Jaune in a bear hug, which had surprised the blond young man.

"Oooooh Jaune! I knew you trusted us, I just knew it! I shouldn't' have doubted you for even a moment! I should've known that if there was something like some Stand User trying to rape Pyrrha, that you'd…" Nora's happy little blathering stopped immediately as those words passed her lips, as suddenly both she and Ren had very stern, very angry looks on their faces. "Wait, hold up… could you repeat that?"

Jaune did and, within moments, the three members of Team JNPR plus Koichi had sprinted off, after having called the rest of the group.

* * *

Pyrrha sighed as she cupped her face in her hands, a slight shake of her head having sent her ponytail swinging side to side.

"I should be going to class… I shouldn't be just sitting out here, making the rest of them worry…" Yet despite her own words Pyrrha had stood there alone in between a few buildings on campus as she lowered her arms to wrap them around her waist. Honestly, Pyrrha hadn't wanted her friends to worry about her and she hadn't meant to stay out for so long. Yet, when she had thought about leaving, of going back to her friends without having had put her thoughts behind her… she hesitated.

Not because of them and certainly not because of the fight… well, not directly because of it.

Pyrrha sighed again as she kicked off from the side of the building and paced about. For so many months now, Pyrrha had been in a bit of a holding pattern when it came to Beacon itself. She went to class, she studied, she sparred and that had been about it. It was a routine, something she had gotten awfully good at fulfilling from her time as a celebrity. She had done her job and done it well, as could be told from her marks at the top of her class. Yes, Pyrrha was an excellent student, a great fighter and, surely, would end up as a fabulous huntress.

However, those achievements and accolades had meant very little to her. Classes were informative but with enough attention paid, she got by quite easily in them and even helped Jaune and Nora get through in their studies. She had won every single spar, bar none, and had barely broken a sweat during any of them. The Grimm posed little and less threat to her save for the truly large, truly dangerous ones. Even those, however, had fallen before her and her team and had been a passing moment rather than the norm in the Academy for Hunters. Pyrrha had worked and worked hard, yet there was little denying that she had… well…

Pyrrha had felt bored with Beacon. Something that had carried over from her time as a tournament fighter and athlete. It was horrible to say of course, it was horrible to think, yet… there it was. Beacon bored her.

Now, that was only true of the school and its various programs. In so many other ways, Pyrrha had more fun here at Beacon than she'd had in years. Being with her new friends, Hell, actually having friends who liked her for who she was rather than what she was, hanging out with them, eating with them… just, passing the time with them. It fulfilled in her a way that dozens of fights, the Grimm nor Beacon had in so long. Jaune especially had been on her mind a lot, had made her heart race and had been her first friend. All of these things had made her decision to leave Mistral, to quit tournament fighting, feel like the right one.

She'd just gotten bored with fighting, she thought. She had no challenge that wasn't ridiculously above her level of skill, like teachers or truly gigantic Grimm, and she just couldn't have had fun with it anymore. She'd grown up. She'd moved on. It had been what she told herself when her heart whispered darker possibilities; that she was flighty, that the she had just given up on tournament fighting and Mistral when they… when they had come was because she was bored with it and hoped for some actual challenge here at Beacon. That her friends had just been bonuses, and that what The Invincible Girl had sought was a challenge.

That her friends and Jaune were just whims to placate her while she suffered through Beacon's training. That her other reasons for having left Mistral, the ones that had nothing to do with grand, moral qualms about wasting her talent when it could have been put to use against the Grimm, were the ones that had driven her. For so many months now, she had managed to put that dark little voice aside, had managed to sweep it under the rug of her mind as she moved on with her life.

Then came the fight with Josuke. What she had expected at the outset of the spar, just another win to be rung up by the Invincible Girl, had turned into something that Pyrrha, in her long years of fighting in tournaments or here at Beacon, had come to disregard as an impossibility, as something that she had just moved beyond.

She had lost.

She had lost a fight with an opponent of age with her, with someone who had not been terribly more skilled than her like a teacher nor who represented some unimaginable threat.

The thought had sent shivers up her spine. Pyrrha had never felt so excited by combat for so many years now. The clash of skill, the heat of the moment, the give and take as they each sought momentary advantages. The bruises and cuts inflicted, the sounds of her weapons clashing against Crazy Diamond's fists. She hadn't felt quite so enlivened by combat in so long, not since… not since she had first entered the tournament scene to try and elevate her family out of their poverty. Not since she had felt that fighting had stakes for her beyond whether or not she might feel even momentarily excited by the prospect of it.

After the adrenaline had passed, after the moment to moment brawling had ceased and Pyrrha had lost, all these thoughts collapsed in on her mind as the young, red haired woman came to a deeply uncomfortable realization. She hadn't changed, she hadn't grown up. She hadn't grown bored with fighting because she sought some higher purpose to it. She grew bored with it because it failed to stimulate. When she had found an opponent who could finally give her that challenge, she had latched onto it, relished it and had fought with all the vim and vigor available to her.

Brothers alive, she eagerly awaited her and Josuke's next spar so that she could try and beat him! So that she could try and earn a victory that would be contentious and well fought and exciting and, and, and…

In that moment, thoughts of having been a huntress, of having been above this sort of crass desire for challenge and excitement, had been beyond her mind. That was perhaps the worst of it. She was a huntress, a symbol of hope and peace in Remnant, someone who was meant to be a hero to the rest of humanity. Someone who should've been above these sorts of petty desires now. Someone who should've been excited by the prospect of being a hero, of saving people, in the same way Ruby and Jaune were.

The truth was that those poisonous little thoughts in Pyrrha's mind were right… she was just a flighty, silly young woman, who had left her old life behind because it failed to excite her, because she had felt lonely and lost and wanted something else from life… because when a threat had come around that she couldn't face, she had felt she had nothing worthwhile to keep her around in Mistral. Jaune and the others, who'd praised her for her bold sacrifice and morality for leaving behind a life of luxury to become a huntress, hadn't known how wrong they were, hadn't known how much of a selfish coward she was.

Pyrrha hadn't felt so disappointed with herself in a long, long time. Not since she'd actually left Mistral, as a matter of fact. It hadn't just been that her life there had come to be a miserable trek of loneliness and disappointment, but also… them… the very people she had tried to lift her family out of poverty to avoid.

"Hey. Pyr! I've been looking for you!" Pyrrha's head snapped up as she was called out to. She turned her gaze to see Jaune at the opening of the space between the two buildings she'd hidden herself between, a friendly grin on his face as he waved at her. For a moment, Pyrrha's gut sank as she saw her crush, her leader, standing there. She hadn't yet figured out what she was going to do, what she would tell them, and the thoughts had weighed heavily on her still. Yet, she couldn't afford to just turn her best friend away from her, so Pyrrha forced a smile on her face as she waved back to Jaune.

"H-Hey Jaune, how are you?" Pyrrha tilted her head to the side as Jaune walked over to her. "Have you all been worrying about me? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, I just… needed a little time to think, is all." Jaune waved away Pyrrha's words as he nodded.

"Ah, no worries Pyr, we all understand. Heck, I went off and thought about a few things myself… you know, just, rattling around this head of mine to see if anything would shake out." Jaune grinned slightly as he shook his head a bit for effect. Pyrrha frowned slightly as Jaune said this and even more so as her eyes narrowed upon having noticed something… off.

"Jaune… why are your eyes so red?"

"Oh, I just got some extra training in too in the meantime. Had a little bit of trouble with those Atlesian Knights… you know, they're just so above my own skill level, they managed a good hit and well, I'll go talk to the nurse later about it if they stay red. I've already talked to Ren and Nora about it and they agreed." Jaune smiled as he tried to wave it off, as Pyrrha just looked on with concern.

Around the corner, Toshikazu cursed as he bit his thumb slightly. They were so close now, Surface was so close, he just needed to get up and touch Pyrrha and then everything would fall into place. If they just got that, then he'd be able to make Pyrrha Nikos his woman, and then everything would be fine. They had watched Pyrrha and her team for the past couple days and took in their behaviors and quirks, which had formed the basis of Surface's behavior.

They had come across a little… quirk, something that had been quite clear about how Pyrrha viewed Jaune Arc. Though it sickened Toshikazu to no end that the woman he had desired would view some worthless huntsman in such a way, as it had been a worrying sign that she was some worthless, superficial bitch, Surface had come away with a good point. Pyrrha's superficial, flimsy, bullshit crush on that bastard Jaune Arc could play right into their hands. Make it so easy to just get right up on her, touch her and get this entire mess over with. Then everything would go well for Toshikazu. People would finally look up to and respect him with Pyrrha Nikos wrapped around his arm.

He'd finally be someone to these bitches, whores and bastards.

All Surface had to do now was not fuck it up, and not have hinted at Pyrrha that something might be off. To that end, Surface just calmly continued the conversation as it tried to move past Pyrrha's concerns.

"Anyway Pyr, like I said, I just wanted to do a bit of thinking… after you left, I realized that I hadn't exactly been a good teammate or friend to you in that moment." Pyrrha's green eyes blinked slightly as Surface said this, the young woman tried her best to smile amicably as the person she thought was Jaune spoke.

"Jaune listen, I-"

"No, let me finish." Surface said, as it sighed in a very Jaune-like manner. "You've been there for me a lot Pyrrha. You've been my best friend here at Beacon and a great teammate and you're always looking out for everyone on Team JNPR. Yet at the moment when you actually needed me to reach out and realize something was wrong, I didn't immediately follow you. I wasn't as dedicated to you as you've been to Team JNPR." Surface had kept it all nice and vague, kept it unclear as to exactly what he meant. He had none of Jaune's specific memories but just having watched Team JNPR interact, it and Toshikazu had learned the general dynamic of the team. So long as it kept itself vague, it knew it could sneak up on Pyrrha, knew it could spring its trap.

"Jaune… listen, you shouldn't worry about that. Your issues were major, it was about how you felt you didn't belong here and about you being here in the first place. This is just… me being stupid and silly." Pyrrha muttered as he reached an arm across to hold the other, a frown on her face.

"Pyrrha, you've always been there for me even when I didn't ask you to. I don't care if you don't think your issues are as big as mine, I need to be willing to be there for you like you are for me… like you're always there for me." Surface walked up towards Pyrrha, the red haired champion fighter blinking slightly as Surface's tone shifted from normal, everyday Jaune to something… huskier?

"J-Jaune?"

"You're always there for me Pyrrha, and in ways that go above and beyond what you do normally for our other friends. I owe you so much, am indebted to you so much… when I failed to be there for you, I felt like such garbage. I hadn't realized how much you meant to me… how much you should've meant to me." Pyrrha went red in the face as Surface spoke and both the Stand and Toshikazu grinned internally as they felt that they had her right where they wanted her.

"You… you really mean that…" Pyrrha whispered, as if disbelieving as she slowly reached a hand out. Surface's eyes glanced down towards Pyrrha's hand as the Stand fought to keep itself under cool. It was so close now, if it panicked, it'd tip her off and get her to run away. It needed to play it cool.

"Of course Pyrrha… I should've realized how close I wanted to be to you. I should've realized what you felt about me sooner… Pyrrha, I care deeply about you, as more than a friend." Surface gave the best damn smile it could muster as it looked Pyrrha in the eyes, as the green eyed girl just smiled gently.

"Well… in that case…" Pyrrha's hand continued to reach other, as Surface finally made to grab at it. The move had opened its body up, which it had felt was of little consequence…

That is, up until Pyrrha had punched Surface across the fact with enough force to spin it around while she grabbed its hand, forced it behind its back and roughly pulled it with enough force to have ripped a normal person's shoulder out of its socket. Pyrrha's arm then reached up and wrapped around Surface's neck in a chokehold, as the Stand could practically feel the heat from the glare that Pyrrha had sent at the back of its head.

"Who are you and what have you done with Jaune. I won't hesitate to rip your arm off if you don't start talking right now." Unlike with Toshikazu, Pyrrha had been strong enough to leave a slight dent where she had punched, which registered as a deep bruise on 'Jaune's' face. "You bastard… you put on his face and you walk up to me, and you start talking like that, talking like you understand anything about who Jaune is or how he'd act. They were nice words but Jaune… Jaune Isn't that smooth. I've watched him dance around Weiss long enough to know that." If Pyrrha had been in the mood, she might've smiled wistfully at the thought. But right now, she was worried about her leader and friend, and this bastard had just pushed a whole lot of her buttons all at once. Pyrrha might not have been one to get excited about a fight but with the right motivation you could absolutely, positively piss her off.

"So you're going to tell me what you've done, or else I'll make what Weiss and Blake did to that one guy look like a friendly, gentle massage by comparison… and trust me, I'm fully capable of that." Pyrrha's green eyes bored into the back of Surface's head as Toshikazu watched from around the corner, a panic having formed in both his and Surface's gaze. For a moment, Stand and Stand Master panicked as the jig seemed to be up and as Pyrrha had Surface deep within her… clutches.

Pyrrha had a hold of Surface.

Pyrrha hadn't known what to expect from Surface when she had wrangled the being into a chokehold, its arm behind its back, as she sought to force out information on what it had done to Jaune. What she had most definitely not expected was that Surface would laugh, loudly and proudly, as it did its best to look back at her with those red eyes.

"Well Pyrrha, in the simplest terms right now I'd say… I'm you."

With that, Pyrrha felt the skin underneath her arm heat up to an unbelievable degree, hot enough to partially eat through her Aura and lightly burn her. The tournament fighter yelped as she backed off and away from Surface, her green eyes went wide as she watched the visage of Jaune fade away until only that of an Atlesian Knight remained. Soon enough, however, even that visage began to shift and twist, steam billowed off its form as slowly but surely it took a new shape, one that Pyrrha had recognized immediately.

Herself.

All details about her, from how she dressed to how she did her hair, had been replicated perfectly by the being in front of her. The only thing that was wrong with it, the only thing that had been wrong when it had taken Jaune's shape, had been its eyes which still lightly glowed red as Surface stared back at her with a wide grin.

"You're a Stand!" Pyrrha attempted to reach into her pocket to pull out her Scroll so she could have summoned her locker, only to find that her body practically froze in place before it had been forced to take up Surface's stance as it just smiled at her.

"You are correct, my dear Pyrrha. A pity that you only just now found that out; it's a little too late in the game to have your guard up now. Looks like our little plan worked." Pyrrha quirked her eyebrow as it spoke of an 'our' before her green eyes shifted over to see Toshikazu as he stalked out from the corner he had hidden behind.

"Let me guess, you're this thing's master then…" Pyrrha practically growled out as Toshikazu just leered perversely at her, Pyrrha having felt deeply uncomfortable under his gaze and with her movements so restricted.

"Right you are Pyrrha Nikos… my name is Toshikazu Hazamada, and this is my Stand, Surface." Surface gave a slight bow, one that Pyrrha had been forced to return. The red haired tournament fighter practically snarled as she realized that, in having bowed to her, Surface had forced her to bow similarly to Toshikazu. "I guess we should be making our introductions quick. After all, no telling when someone will show up, and we've really got to get our relationship off on the right foot."

"Excuse me? Our relationship?" Pyrrha bit back as she and Surface stood back up to their full height as Pyrrha glared at both. Despite the seeming appearance of metal when its visage had shifted, Pyrrha hadn't activated her semblance on Surface. She had been burned by the attempt to do so on Crazy Diamond and sought to think of another way to deal with this Stand and its master.

"Yes, our relationship. You see Pyrrha, I've been watching you for a long time now. I've seen all your fights and I've spent as much time as I could observing you. I've decided that you're the perfect woman for me; someone who'll finally make all these superficial shitheads stop overlooking me and realize how important I am." Toshikazu grinned maniacally as he pointed over to Pyrrha, who just glared back at him. "You're the Invincible Girl after all; with you wrapped around my arm, there's no way anyone would be able to step all over me ever again." A forked tongue darted out between his lips as he said this, Pyrrha's expression grew evermore disgusted as she watched the leer this little sociopath was giving her devolve more and more.

"And just what makes you think that I'll go along with this after you did who knows what to Jaune and after you kidnapped me?!" Pyrrha said through grit teeth as she glared at Toshikazu, the diminutive faunus just glared back at her before a sadistic smile came to his lips.

"Because of all the stuff Surface and I can offer you, Pyrrha! Think about it: with my Stand, I can take anyone who's ever done anything bad to you and make them helpless! Hell, just think about it; Josuke beat you earlier today right? Well, that's not going to do your reputation as the Invincible Girl any good, either for you or for me. So I can have Surface take him over so that, in your next fight, I can force him to throw and get you an easy win! It's a good deal right; you go back to being invincible, and I get to have you back as a winner! We both get something we want!"

" _No my dear child; just laying out what sort of opportunity you have in front of you. We could do wonderful business together… or not."_

"Are you kidding me? You think I'd be so put over about losing that I'd want you to do something to one of my friends?! What delusion are you living under that you thought I'd accept this, that I'd throw away anything and everything else because you're trying to kidnap me and force me to be with you? What makes you think you're going to get away with literally any of this?!" Pyrrha couldn't help but feel worried on top of her anger. This guy had been absolutely out of his gourd, it was clear that there was no rational thought anywhere in that head of his. He had just seen something he wanted and was going to try to take it, regardless of what logic and reason might've told him otherwise. The rat guy had at least sounded like he had some sense, according to what Josuke had dipped out to the rest of them; this guy just sounded out and out insane.

The look he gave her as she said this, the hateful, spiteful glare, had only solidified this impression she had of him.

"I see… so you are just a superficial bitch after all. You don't get what I'm offering you. That's fine…" Toshikazu reached into one of his pockets and, to Pyrrha's horror, he pulled out an x-acto knife, which he immediately produced the blade of. "I'll make you understand. After all, you're caught in the grasp of my Stand… there's nothing you can do to keep this from happening Pyrrha. You will be mine…"

Pyrrha's green eyes glared at Toshikazu with a mix of pure anger and worry as she struggled against the hold Surface had on her. As she continued to find that the Stand had continued to hold her in place with seemingly no effort, Pyrrha realized that she needed to do something drastic. The Mistrali tournament fighter reached out with Polarity; though she didn't like the idea of it, she needed to use that x-acto knife in order to get Toshikazu to back off. If she used her powers to manipulate it and attack him with it, maybe he'd finally get the point. Maybe-

 **THUNK**

Everyone paused when, out of the blue, Toshikazu's x-acto knife suddenly flew out of his hands and slammed into Surface's side. Three pairs of eyes blinked in disbelief as the hunk of plastic and metal stuck quite firmly to the Stand's waist, as Toshikazu reached forward and tried to pull it off.

"Fuck, what the Hell just happened? Why is this thing stuck to you?!" Toshikazu turned his gaze to glare at Pyrrha, a hateful expression adorned his slimy features. "Bitch, what the fuck did… you…" Toshikazu shivered slightly at the look Pyrrha had given him, a mix of raw determination and hate that had seemed to cause her green eyes to light aflame.

"I see. So the Atlesian Knight underneath your facade wasn't just for show." Pyrrha scoffed as she glared at both Stand and Stand Master. "Looks like neither of you actually knew me as well as you thought." Panic immediately overwhelmed Toshikazu as he backed up slightly and pointed towards Pyrrha.

"Surface, force her to strangle herself, we can carry her off campus to someplace safer while she's unconscious!" The snake faunus ordered his Stand with a delirious screech as, to his and his Stand's horror, Surface hadn't moved a muscle.

"I… I can't move. What the fuck is happening…" Surface muttered under its breath as, suddenly, its limbs did move; its right arm snapped back and struck Toshikazu across the face, in a move forcibly mirrored by Pyrrha, that had sent Toshikazu flying.

"I guess it's fine to let you two know, since you'll be going to meet the Headmaster and General soon; my semblance is Polarity. It allows me to control conductive metals with a thought, so long as they can be magnetized." Pyrrha demonstrated her control over the metallic Stand as Surface was forced to take a step back away from Pyrrha. "Not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, is it?"

"What, what the fuck is this!? Is this how you won all your fights?!" The Stand screamed over at Pyrrha, who just seemed to ignore it as they both walked back away from each other under Pyrrha's directions.

"You know, in a way, you all remind me of a lot of people I've met in my life. People who only sought to use and abuse my name and reputation to further their own ends. It hadn't mattered what I wanted or if they didn't know me at all, it just mattered that I was the Invincible Girl and that they could profit off of me somehow, or they could get famous or they could get something out of me.

"I guess that's why I'm rather… hmmm, I guess Okuyasu would call it Dust damned pissed off that you tried to pull the wool over my eyes with Jaune." Another step and Pyrrha's glare intensified. "Jaune might not be able to see everything about me… it might hurt that even after all this time I can't speak to him plainly either, about either my feelings or my problems, the way I ask him to do the same for me… but Jaune does see me as myself. He never cared about the Invincible Girl, even after he found out who I was. He just cared that I was Pyrrha Nikos, and that I was his partner and friend…

"And you two did something to my friend. You did something to my leader and partner." Finally, after several steps, Pyrrha pointed directly towards Surface and Toshikazu, without Surface having copied the move, much to the Stand and Stand Master's horror. "Disturbing as you are, horrible as you are, disgusting as you are… I might've been willing to be the better person and let you off light even with what you tried to do to me, because in the end, I've dealt with people like you before… and worse, even." Green eyes narrowed as Pyrrha positioned her hands parallel to the other, as Surface suddenly seemed to tense under some unseen pressure.

"You, however, made the terrible mistake of doing something to any of my friends, the people who make my life here at Beacon so bright… you're going to pay and pay dearly for that." With that, Pyrrha clapped her hands together with a great deal of force. One moment, Surface buckled, the illusion of Pyrrha Nikos cast over it flickering as its body momentarily resisted the forces being arrayed against it.

The next, Surface was scrap, crushed into little more than a hunk of metal by Polarity.

"Nooo! My Stand! The White Fang gave me that! You bitch, how am I… how am I…" Toshikazu's bluster died almost immediately as he looked upon Pyrrha and felt, literally felt, the red hot fury as it came off of her in waves. Immediately, Toshikazu was on his feet and ran off, a desperate edge to his gait as he sprinted away. To where, he knew not, all he knew was that he needed to get away from there as soon as humanly possible.

He had almost done it too, before all of a sudden a swirl of roses whirled in front of him. Ruby Rose had appeared in front of the disgusting little cretin, a deep frown on her face as her bangs obscured her eyes as she held Crescent Rose menacingly. Immediately Toshikazu turned tail to run again, only to find his route once more cut off, this time by Yang and Blake as they turned a corner. The blonde bombshell cracked her knuckles menacingly while Blake casually swung Gambol Shroud around by its ribbon.

As Toshikazu backed off, he was bashed in the back by a flat wall of metal, and turned to see the shield of Jaune Arc, flanked by Nora and Ren as the three other members of Team JNPR appeared. The slithering bastard tried to make one last attempt to slip away, but was met first by a sheet of ice that caused him to slide and fall on his ass, and then the force of The Hand's Stand Power as it pulled him into the powerful Stand's grip. Okuyasu, Koichi and Weiss all glared daggers at the diminutive faunus before Okuyasu tossed him in front of Team JNPR, who had by that point all regathered, clearly glad to see that they were all fine, but nonetheless still furious with Toshikazu.

"Pyrrha… did he try to hurt you in any way?" Ren asked grimly as his magenta eyes turned to Pyrrha, who shook her head slightly.

"No… though not for lack of trying." At that, Jaune's grip on Crocea Mors and his shield tightened, as Toshikazu looked desperately between all four members of Team JNPR. "I thought he had hurt you terribly Jaune, so I was ready to pummel him but… well, now that I see you're alright, I guess I'll leave what we do with him to you, leader."

Toshikazu turned to face Jaune Arc, a desperate edge to his gaze as he looked at his only possible source of salvation. However, any hope he may have had for making it out of this situation in tact melted away as he watched Jaune Arc adopt a faux-thoughtful expression, as anger still burned behind his blue eyes.

"Nora?"

"Yes, fearless leader?" The orange haired girl chirped as she glared down at Toshikazu.

"... Break his legs."

Nora just gave a wide, wide smile as she nodded and put Magnhild away. "Not even going to use the old girl for this… this has always been something I wanted to try." Nora said as she cracked her knuckles and a spark of pink electricity scattered up her arms.

"YOU ALL CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, YOU SHITHEADS! YOU CAN'T! I'M POWERFUL NOW, I HAVE A STAND THAT COULD KILL ANY OF YOU WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT! I'M IMPORTANT, YOU CAN'T JUST-"

"ORA!"

Toshikazu's megalomaniacal rant had been immediately cut off as Nora punched him right in the mouth; teeth, blood and spit flew in all directions as Nora's semblance charged fist knocked Toshikazu for a loop. The bubbly bomber reared her fists back as she grinned maniacally and took a deep, long, breath.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~!"

"GHGHFSHGHKL!"

 **Toshikazu Hazamada was delivered to Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood by Hirose Koichi and Nijimura Okuyasu with most of the bones in his body broken and left needing to eat through a straw for several weeks. While the two were implored to not abuse potential sources of information so thoroughly in the future, their efforts at reining in enemy Stand Users, even without their team leader, was marked with praise.**

 **TOSHIKAZU HAZAMADA - RETIRED!**

* * *

"Hey Pyrrha… can I… can I tell you something real quick?"

"What is it Jaune?"

Okuyasu and Koichi had scooped up what Nora had left of Toshikazu Hazamada and made to deliver him to Beacon's staff, intent on meeting the others in the next class when they had finished. Teams RWBY and JNPR, meanwhile, had decided to take their time, most having figured that if they were this late then a little more time wouldn't hurt, especially considering the important reason they had been late.

RWBY had walked quite far along ahead, distracted as they talked about this new Stand User and how he could've infiltrated the campus, while Ren and Nora had given Jaune and Pyrrha some space, at the behest of their leader.

"Listen, Pyrrha… when you left at lunch, I really should've followed you and asked you what was up. I wanted to apologize for that." Pyrrha smiled softly as she shook her head.

"Jaune, you don't have to-"

"I'm serious Pyrrha." Jaune said firmly, which had surprised Pyrrha to some degree. "You're my best friend and the best partner anyone could've asked for. You always ask me if something wrong if it's clear I'm not quite in the right state of mind and you always try your best to help me, no matter what. I knew you were upset by something and I knew that you probably had stuff you wanted to work through, but… I just didn't follow through. I left to go commiserate by myself because I felt like I had let you down with your loss in the first place. Pretty stupid I know."

Pyrrha could only smile at Jaune's words, so typically Jaune and so much more earnest than what Surface had offered, as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"I want you to know that I'm there for you, like you're there for me. I want to be a good friend and partner Pyrrha, starting from here on out." Jaune smiled nervously over to the redheaded Spartan who internally swooned at the boy's characteristic yet thoroughly odd charisma. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. This was her chance. Jaune had offered to be there for her, he wanted her to let him in the same way she had worked her way into him. He was trying, he wanted to hear her out. All she had to do now was talk, to get this gunk out of her system before it poisoned her. To… to maybe lay everything out on the table. All she needed to do was talk… all she needed…

"Jaune, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Really though, it's okay. I just… got used to everything and it took me some time to get over the fact that my life's just going to be different now. Sponsors will probably drop, people will stop thinking so highly of me… its change, good and bad, and I just needed some time to process it was all. Really, you don't have to worry about me Jaune… I was just being… flighty, is all." Pyrrha rubbed her elbow slightly as she finished, Jaune's concerned gaze hadn't left her for a moment.

"Are you sure Pyr?"

"... I'm sure, Jaune." Pyrrha had done her best to fake a reassuring smile for her team leader and, despite herself, had actually managed it. Jaune smiled back at he nodded.

"Glad to hear it Pyrrha. Still, I promise I'll try to be there for you as often as you are for me from now on." Pyrrha just nodded gratefully as she ran a hand through her red ponytail.

"I look forward to it Jaune." WIth that, the blond haired, blue eyed leader of Team JNPR hastened his pace to catch up with Ren and Nora, which left Pyrrha to watch after him with soft eyes. Jaune really was someone who cared deeply about the people around him. He might not have always been the most observant, but when he knew something was wrong, he would be there for you in a heartbeat. Hell, he had risked himself against Surface and done what he could to help her, from Koichi's telling of the story, because he wanted to make sure she was alright. Even if he still only thought of her as his best friend, it warmed Pyrrha heart to no end. She still hoped, and hoped quite deeply, that one day she and Jaune would be something more. That one day he would see what he meant to her… that one day-

'You'll just pass him by, like you have all your other whims, you silly little girl.'

The poisonous thought had crept into her mind again, as Pyrrha just shook her head. No, Jaune had promised her and she'd promised him. She would be there for him and he'd be there for her. No matter what happened or what emotions ended up flaring or dying.

'What happens when things get dangerous? When it becomes a danger to be around or near him? Will you think that then?'

Pyrrha frowned as she just nodded to herself again. Of course. Jaune meant so much to her. She wouldn't abandon him in some hour of need. Wouldn't leave him behind during a crises, wouldn't leave someone she cherished when-

'Like your family back in Mistral? Stood your ground and stayed with them when things had turned south, didn't you? When you had been given the perfect excuse to leave your boring, lonely life, you totally stuck by their side. You flighty witch.'

Pyrrha's footsteps ceased for a moment as this particular, dirty little thought finally stuck. Before any of the others could notice, Pyrrha continued her gate, a somber and dour expression on her face as she remembered...

 _Two men had waited outside the arena when she had stepped out, dressed in fine coastal suits that surely cost them a pretty penny. She had avoided fans who knew nothing about her and so called 'friends' who only wanted to associate with her for her reputation and money and just wanted to go home. She had thought these were more sponsors and dealers who had wanted her business, who had wanted to make her an offer._

 _When they had produced weapons and had informed her that eyes were on her associates, she had gone along with them. They had dragged her to a giant limousine, one that stretched for several dozen yards and had stood several dozen feet in the air. It had been well and truly massive, and the size of which had caused even Pyrrha to gape in awe. She had been lead inside before the vehicle had driven off, told that their boss had wanted to speak with her, to arrange a deal._

 _She had looked around for a man, looked around for this boss of theirs and, for a moment, she thought she only spied a giant… blob?_

 _Her green eyes had gone wide as the blob produced a head and hands and two, fat legs had shifted in the seat. Black eyes and bright pupils stared at her as a great, wide mouth crunched on some finger food… and, seemingly, fingers. Pyrrha had known who this man was before he had introduced himself._

 _After all, everyone in Mistral knew who Polpo was._

 _"I'm merely saying, Miss Nikos… you never know in a business like this when someone might come around who'll go right ahead and knock you off that pretty little pedestal your fans and sponsors have put you on… or what sort of dangerous accident might happen that'd put you and your way of life at risk. Think of what we're offering as… insurance. You'll keep doing what you're doing, and all we'll ask is for a slight cut or a favor from one of the strongest fighters in Mistral to make sure no would be usurpers or little mistakes occur."_

 _"Are you… threatening me, sir?"_

 _"No my dear child; just laying out what sort of opportunity you have in front of you. We could do wonderful business together… or not." Polpo drank deeply from his goblet of wine, as he stared down at her. "Although… if you choose not to, I can't guarantee your safety or your continued victories here at the arena. It might just be safer for someone like you to retire. After all, why not get out on top if you aren't willing to take a smart investment like this…_

" _Unless of course, you're under the rather mistaken impression that you could stand alone against Passione's resources, Miss Nikos? That you could keep your associates, bosses… and family safe."_

She could've alerted the authorities, could've told her family… could've told her employers and could've put that money and fame she had fought for to help her family survive in cutthroat Mistral to use in protecting them so that she could stay with them. So that she could stay in her homeland. No matter how bored she had been with her life, how few friends she might've had, her family and home were worth fighting for weren't they? Even against a foe as dangerous and terrifying as Passione?

Instead, she had announced her retirement and immediately made preparations to leave Mistral and go to Beacon…

Pyrrha's eyes closed as those poisonous thoughts haunted the back of her mind as she had steadily fallen in behind Jaune and the rest of Team JNPR.

* * *

Unbeknownst to all three teams eyes were upon them. They watched their every move and studied then, always looking across them and taking in information.

In particular, the eyes had focused upon one of them and had taken an… interest, you might say, in one of them in particular.

Hirose Koichi, the entire time, had felt the eyes upon him. Yet he could say nothing, as his fears and his insecurities fought against each other.

 **-To Be Continued- Echoes (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Three Months. Aside from two Chibi updates, I have updated this story every five days for three months straight. I would like to take this moment to thank you all once more. Whether you offered simple thanks and support for me continuing to write this story or you've offered criticisms as to what you thought could be done better, your input and honesty on all counts has been a great boon to me continuing to keep up with my routine. Though I greatly enjoy writing for its own sake and would likely continue even if I had little more than a handful of readers, your excitement and kind words have truly been a great fountain of support for my efforts.**

 **See you all again in five days, and I hope you all have a thoroughly wonderful Easter weekend (or just a weekend, for those otherwise inclined).**


	18. Echoes (Act 1)

Sparring Class, Beacon Academy, One Week Later

"The next match shall be held between Dove Bronzewing of Team CRDL and Hirose Koichi of Team JOJO. The two of you, report to the arena for your spar post-haste."

"Ah jeez, you have to be kidding me. Even Professor Goodwitch is using that stupid team name now? Why is this my life? Why have you all done this to me?" Josuke sighed as he rubbed at his temples, his friends all smiled at the usually mature and put-together young man's apparent misery.

"Oh come on, it isn't that bad is it JoJo?" Yang asked with a wide grin, the blonde bombshell practically guffawed when Josuke turned to face her with a dark, angry look on his face.

"Please stop… I can't be held accountable for what I might do if you keep calling me JoJo…" Josuke muttered as Yang just shrugged.

"Whatcha gonna do JoJo, write a strongly worded complaint?" A teasing grin had formed on her features, as for but a brief moment, a slight quirk at the tip of Josuke's lips gave away his own amusement.

"I'll use the word 'vehemently' in there somewhere. Who knows, maybe I'll even swear." The entire circle of friends gasped in dismay at this.

"Oh! Still my beating heart, I just don't know if my poor virgin eyes would be able to handle reading a letter with such vulgarity in it!" The group eventually broke down into either slight grins or chuckles at Yang's melodramatics.

"Alright Koichi, go down there and make Team… make us proud." Josuke flushed as he nearly tripped, much to the amusement of everyone else. When Koichi had not answered back and, in fact, had been noticeably absent from the merry-making of the rest of the group, Josuke turned a concerned eye over to the silver haired young man.

Koichi's eyes were anywhere but on the arena or on his friends as they darted about, the young man thoroughly distracted as he cast his eyes about.

"Hey… Koichi?"

"Mr. Hirose!"

Between Josuke's concerned tap and Glynda's shout, Koichi suddenly jumped in surprise, a shocked look on his face as he looked around before he blushed, rather thoroughly embarrassed that he'd been so distracted.

"Y-Yes!? I'm sorry! My mind was… elsewhere. What did you all say?" Everyone else blinked at Koichi's reaction, as Ruby just pointed down to the arena.

"You've been called down for a spar with Dove, Koichi. You should probably get down there." At this, Koichi blanched as his skin took on a pale tone, as the young man turned his worried gaze over to Josuke.

"W-What? Josuke, didn't they tell Glynda about Echoes? I can't go down there and fight, I'll-"

"Do fine, Koichi." Josuke had done his best to reassure his friend, a good-natured grin on his face as he pat the young man on the shoulder. "Listen, we made sure that you wouldn't get paired with someone way out of you skill level. Echoes should be able to handle this if you just think smart and do what you do best."

"But-"

"Yeah Koichi, don't be so down on yourself. Heck, Team CRDL is who they usually end up pairing me up with to spar here, and you know how low on the totem pole I am usually." Jaune scratched the back of his head at this, before he grinned over at Koichi. "Come on, your Stand's great Koichi, I'm sure you'll find some way of working around Dove. You showed me just what you were capable of just last week!"

Koichi took in Jaune's words and despite the bond that the two had formed over the course of their actions against Toshikazu and Surface, he hadn't seemed anymore relieved. However, as it become more and more clear that he wasn't getting out of this and that his friends weren't going to help get him out of it, Koichi sighed and drooped his head as he waved down to Glynda.

"I-I'll be down Professor…" Koichi slid off his seat and walked over to the exit of the room on his way to the arena, as the rest of his friends and team cheered him on to encourage him. As soon as he was out of sight, frowns were abound as Teams RWBY and JNPR rounded on over to Josuke and Okuyasu.

"So… you guys are sure about this, right?" Blake asked, her amber eyes glanced down to the arena where Dove had already arrived, much to the hooping and hollering of his own team and some other select members of the crowd. "I mean, I get it, when it comes to Stands we should always keep an open mind but, well, Koichi's… well, Koichi's-"

"He's just so little!" Nora cried out to finish Blake's thought as the black haired faunus just nodded in appreciation of the bubbly bomber's interjection.

"Don't get me wrong, Echoes is a cool Stand and I saw it in action first hand but even I can tell it isn't exactly a combat Stand." Jaune muttered worriedly as he looked over to Okuyasu and Josuke. "Are all of you really sure about this?"

"In a tournament, I could see what Jaune described as being useful to your team." Weiss said, sounding quite sure of herself, before she glanced over to the two of them. "However, a fight on his own does seem… unwise."

"Eh, you all are worrying too much." Okuyasu waved off the others concerns, much to their surprise, as Okuyasu leaned back in his seat. "Koichi'll do just fine. He'll get this guy out of the fight without even having to actually land a single punch on him."

"As heartening as it is that you have that much faith in him Okuyasu, I have to question just how reasonable that is…" Ren muttered in disbelief, one that had marred everyone else's expression as well.

"No, Okuyasu's right." Everyone practically gave themselves whiplash as they snapped their heads to face Josuke, who watched as Koichi came into the arena slowly and uncertainly. "Koichi can win this fight if he just uses Echoes' abilities to their best use. Dove isn't as good as most of you and he's an opponent roughly of Koichi's own level of skill. Koichi can win this, he just has to keep his head in the fight and not let his nerves get to him." Everyone seemed stunned by that assessment before, finally, Ruby Rose just shrugged her shoulders with a smile.

"If you say so Josuke." With that, and the surprised looks her own Team and Team JNPR gave her for so readily agreeing to Josuke's assessments, Ruby turned forward and loudly cheered the young, silver haired boy. "Gooo Koichi! Whoop him good!"

"Rubes, probably shouldn't make it a habit to readily agree with anyone just like that." Yang shrugged her shoulders as Ruby just grinned.

"Well, Josuke's not just anyone. He's a friend and, when it comes to Stands, I think I can trust him to know what he's talking about." Yang moved to open her mouth, however the lilac eyed girl stopped as she took a moment to consider her sister's words.

"... You know what, fair's fair. Go Koichi! Kick some ass!" With that, the other members of the three teams joined in with the cheering.

Koichi's gaze worked its way up to the crowd as he heard the others cheer for him. Despite their reassurances though, Koichi hadn't felt better. Even more than the fact that he was being forced to fight with his decidedly not-combat effective Echoes, there had been something else that tore at Koichi's mind. Something that he couldn't get out of his head.

That even when he was in the middle of an arena with dozens upon dozens of people staring at him, watching his every move, he still felt the eyes on him.

Koichi was trained as a scout. It was his job to be ever aware of any danger, to be able to feel out threats before they got close to his group. Echoes and its long range made it easy and his Stand, in some ways, was even more aware than he was. All of this contributed, he was sure, to this feeling; he could feel someone glowering at him in the crowd, he could practically feel their breath on the back of his neck as his eyes darted around looking for someone, anyone, who might've inflicted this horrid feeling upon him.

There were his friends Okuyasu and Josuke, his new friends in Teams RWBY and JNPR, Team SSSN with Sun and Neptune, though they were more friends of friends if he was being honest. There was Dove's team, the rest of Team CRDL. Then there were several other transfer students who dotted the seating arrangements. There was the Mistrali Team that he had often seen some of their members talking with Team RWBY; Mercury, the black haired girl, Emerald, Cinder Fall. Beyond them there was…

Koichi's eyes snapped over as he looked at the black haired girl.

'Wait… no… that's not right is it?' Koichi frowned slightly as he looked at the girl, her eyes staring down at the arena attentively as Koichi rubbed his head a bit. He had felt like a fog had descended over it as he looked at her. 'Was… was she always here? I mean, I know she was; she's there fourth, so she'd have always been here, right? It makes sense that she's there so… why does it feel like I don't remember her being there? Why is this bothering so much right now?'

Koichi shook his head slightly as he closed his. Everything he remembered about Cinder and her team told him that this fourth girl had always been there.

First and foremost, she was their fourth team member and had been since the start of the semester.

Secondly, she was also from Mistral.

Third, she had actually bumped into him in the hallways a little over three weeks ago, now that he thought about it.

And her name was…

Her name was…

Koichi practically choked when he suddenly realized; he didn't know her name. He knew the rest of Cinder's Team's names because they had made such pains to generally be around Ruby and her team. Why, why couldn't he remember her name then? If she'd been here the entire time, then he'd know her name too, right? That's why he had noticed this time when he'd seen her, that's why he'd felt so off about it!

Why could he only remember those three things about her?

When Koichi opened his eyes to look, he was surprised when he found that her eyes had looked right back into his. From this distance, it had been hard to tell, but he felt it in his gut… she had been staring at him. Moreover, she had smiled at him, a slight grin as she acknowledged his look.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Hirose?" Glynda finally asked as she readjusted her glasses, as Koichi's gaze snapped over to her.

"Y-Yes Professor, I think there's something wrong! There's a…" Koichi turned his head back to look at Cinder's team, only to be utterly baffled when the girl had disappeared, gone in the time it had taken him to look over at Professor Goodwitch. Blue eyes scanned about as Koichi tried to find her again before he realized that she was just flat out gone. He sighed as he rubbed at his eyes and shook his head. "N-No Professor, guess I'm just seeing things."

"Heh, pressure's gone to the short-stack's head, the kid's so scared to face me." Dove muttered with a wry grin as he hefted his sword up, Goodwitch turned to give a disapproving look to Dove before she turned back to Koichi.

"Are you ready to fight, Mr. Hirose?" Glynda asked as she tapped a few buttons on her data pad, which caused the screen above to light up. Koichi swallowed nervously for a moment before he nodded, however hesitantly, to which Glynda only nodded approvingly. "Good. Same rules as always for Stand combat, Mr. Bronzewing; any attacks that might inflict serious harm on a normal person are to only be directed at Mr. Hirose's Stand, anything else and I'll call the match immediately. Is that clear?"

"Crystal, Professor." Dove had said with a casual shrug as he readied his blade, while Glynda just turned back to face Koichi.

"Mr. Hirose, your Stand." Koichi just nodded as he took a deep breath and, with a great deal of nervousness, summoned forth the odd-looking and utterly unordinary Echoes.

The reaction from the crowd was almost as immediate as it was disturbed.

"Holy crap, would you look at that thing?! Doesn't even look remotely human!"

"What is it? A bug? A lizard? A… skateboard?"

"Whatever it is, thing's friggin' ugly as sin man. Ye Gods."

Koichi blushed slightly at the cacophony started up by Echoes, but otherwise ignored it as he and Dove took to their starting positions opposed to one and other, each of them looked determined as Glynda's eyes looked the both of them up and down.

"Alright, begin!"

Immediately, people nearly choked when Koichi broke for a dead sprint away from Dove, swinging his arms with as much force as he could have as he beat a hasty retreat. Dove, despite his surprise, recovered quickly and made to pursue Koichi, as he believed that the young man would retreat so that he could think up a suitable plan to deal with Dove as Josuke had Pyrrha.

Only to be surprised when instead of fading back with Koichi, Echoes had rushed forward to meet Dove's charge, the Stand's tail whipped out in order to wrap around one of Dove's legs and trip him up. The move garnered some surprised gasps from much of the rest of the room as Koichi got about as far away from Dove and Echoes as he could, the radius of the arena having been shorter than fifty meters. Dove had immediately fallen face first as Echoes screeched, seemingly taunting him, as the Stand hopped around on its arms as it circled the young huntsman. Dove quickly pushed himself back onto his feet, his sword at the ready as he glared down at the Stand.

"What the? Alright, that's how you want to play this? Fine! Your thing having a long range must mean its pretty worthless up close right, well then, have some of this!" Dove reared his sword back and swung it down at Echoes and found immediately purchase against the Stand's helmet. However, to his and others' surprise, the blow had largely glanced off Echoes' body, and resulted in only a very minor cut across Koichi's forehead.

"Echoes isn't terribly fast or terribly strong, but it's still a being made up entirely of Aura. If Cardin is the best hat trick that can be thrown at Jaune from their team then Dove isn't likely to be as strong as he is, which means that Echoes shouldn't have a hard time using its Aura to absorb his hits." Josuke muttered slightly as he leaned back in his seat. The leader of Team JoJo had nodded his head in approval at Koichi's moves throughout the fight; the only way the short young man had stood to lose this fight, by his reckoning, had been if he stayed up close enough for Dove to just start beating him about the face with his fists.

Limited from being able to shoot Koichi and with the young man so thoroughly out of his own reach that Echoes would be able to body block attempts to get at him while Koichi ran for it, then Dove had no choice but to directly engage Echoes itself. A move that ultimately proved fruitless as Dove hacked and slashed at Echoes; the chittering little Stand hopped away on its arms or slithered around the blows that had been meant for the snake-like Stand. Even when blows meant for Echoes had managed to connect, the nature of Stands and their connection to Aura absorbed most of the blow, which only further infuriated Dove.

"This thing is really starting to get on my nerves!" With that, Dove made to switch his sword into its rifle form. If he couldn't slash or stab at Echoes without it bouncing off, then perhaps several Dust rounds fired at it from point blank could get the point across. However, as he readied his rifle, Echoes reacted with the utmost haste as it leaped for Dove. With Dove's weapon tangled in between forms, the teen had no way of batting the Stand away as soon it grabbed onto his leg with its tiny little arms.

"In addition, Echoes might be slow, but it's a pretty slithery little Stand. You'd be surprised how hard it can be to nail when it's right on top of you." Indeed, Echoes held true to Josuke's estimation of it. As soon as Echoes had managed to grab onto Dove's leg with both arms the snake-like Stand had slithered and wrapped its way up Dove's leg as it worked its way up towards his head. Dove couldn't strike at Echoes with his sword or shoot at it, lest he inadvertently stab himself or shoot himself, so he reached down and tried to forcibly pull Echoes off of him tail first.

The Stand responded by sliding the end of its tail in between the gaps of Dove's plate armor and, securing itself by stabbing into one of the leather straps that had held the metal armor to Dove's body. Despite this, Dove was a great deal stronger than Echoes and successfully pulled most of its actual body off of his torso and forced it to look at him. Echoes responded in short order as it immediately reached forward and bit into the skin of Dove's hand, which forced him to let go of the green Stand. Soon, Echoes latched itself onto his arm, wrapped around it a couple times and then slithered its way up towards the Four Kingdom huntsman's face.

"Brothers above, what the Hell kind of weirdo are you that you have such a freak show Stand?!" Dove roared back at Koichi as he tried to punch the Stand about the face. To his surprise, he felt the sharp bits of Echoes' 'face' cut back into his own Aura, the sharp break and metal edges to its eyes standing sturdy against his blows as Echoes finally got right up in Dove's face. The Stand reared back like a viper and pulled its fist back for a great punch, as Josuke and Okuyasu tensed and leaned forward, a gesture followed by the rest of their friends as they awaited for some great show of force.

 **BWOOOOONG**

Indeed, as the punch connected and a great torrent of air followed behind it, the result of which was a great, echoing sound that reverberated across the entire room and sounded vaguely like a loud, large gong being struck. Most people would've expected such a show to be followed up by a great deal of damage. After all, neither Crazy Diamond nor The Hand had made such a cacophony when either of them had struck anyone. Instead, Dove surprised everyone by just blinking confusedly before he turned his head back towards the Stand, a clearly mystified expression on his face.

"What? I… I literally didn't feel anything. It honestly just felt like I got hit by a bit of air..." Koichi grimaced a bit and immediately Echoes followed up with another punch, this one to the opposite side of Dove's face.

 **KABOOOOOM**

If the last sound had been a humongous gong having been rung, then this one had been a large explosion that had, seemingly, gone off in Dove's face as another torrent of wind followed up. Yet, despite the noise and show, Dove once again just nonchalantly looked the Stand in the eye before he laughed.

"Wow, you've gotta be kidding me, this Stand is weak as shit!" With that, Dove roughly grabbed Echoes by what could vaguely be described as its throat and fought with it as hard as he could. As he did so, the Stand seemed to panic as it threw a couple of punches into Doves arms, its hands pressing to just about every available space as Koichi watched on. There was a slight sweat to Koichi's skin as he grabbed at his own neck where the especially perceptive could see two rough hand print shaped bruises begin to form, though it seemed as though that was about the extent of the damage having been done to Koichi for now. Koichi's gaze hadn't left Dove's body and, from all the way in his own little world, Koichi seemed… different.

It had been something that Team JoJo had seen time and time again when Koichi had gotten 'in the zone' as it were but for everyone else in the room, it had been the first time they'd ever seen the skittery, scared young man look the way he did. The boy looked… well, confident, for lack of a better word. The steel in his eyes wouldn't have been misplaced coming from either Okuyasu or Josuke as they stared an opponent down for battle and, despite the fact that Echoes had no visible effect on Dove's person with its punches, he hadn't panicked as one might've expected. Really, if you had asked any of Team RWBY or JNPR, the look on Koichi's face would've been far more at home on Josuke's or Okuyasu's visage than it was on the tiny little huntsman.

None were too small to admit that they might've expected Koichi to be in a panic as his apparent Stand attack failed. Instead, Koichi just continued to stare at Dove's back before the other huntsmen turned to face his junior with a wry grin.

"Jeez, I think you might actually be even more pathetic than Jauney-boy up there. At least that little wuss can protect himself and do something, anything, against Cardin. You got two free hits on me because your Stand managed to get right on top of me and you still can't… still can't do any damage to me." Dove's left eye twitched slightly as he stumbled in his words, a slight wince overcame his visage that had immediately been noticed by everyone. "S-So really, why are you… why are you even trying? I'm obviously just going to… to… put your Stand through the friggin', friggin' ringer until you run out of Aura. W-Why not just… just… fuck… what is that?" Dove turned his head side to side as if looking for something, a move that caused everyone to gasp in surprise.

As when he had turned his head to look for the source of whatever had been bothering him, it had exposed a series of the strange symbols that Josuke and his team had used to write on the side of Dove's head as, slowly but surely, they shook and rattled on his skin and grew larger and larger.

"Wait, those are the symbols Koichi has Echoes use to make noise. We used them against Tamami to distract him while we looked around for Pyrrha… why can't we hear anything coming from them?" Jaune asked, legitimately confused by what he had seen as a contradiction in how he'd previously understood Echoes powers to work.

"That would be half of how Echoes powers work." Josuke said with a large grin as people marveled as a second set of the kanji appeared on the opposite side of Dove's face, the young man now having a quite visibly pained expression on his features as his grip on Echoes had begun to loosen. "The simplest way of putting it is that Echoes' powers can work in both directions. What you saw him use against Tamaki and to distract him was him using Echoes' Stand Power to project sound outward.

"What you're seeing here is the flip side of that coin; using Echoes power to project sound inward. As far as Dove's ears and mind are concerned, he's being bombarded with sounds that are just as loud as if they had been set off right next to his head. His body will react with the same, visceral pain as if it was all real as well. It makes Koichi especially useful for disabling Grimm or opponent who might otherwise prove to be a bit of a rough fight, because in the end they can't fight Echoes' sounds… unless they're unusually strong willed. Which, I suspect, none of CRDL are." Josuke pointed down to Dove and in particular, to the symbols that had appeared slowly but surely on his body. "Right now, Dove's entire body is being subjected to the sounds those kanji vaguely represent as onomatopoeia; a gong, an explosion… that one looks like nails on chalkboards or some other screeching sounds, the last one… oh, I guess that's what one of your blimp engines might sound like-"

"AAAAAHHHH!" Finally, as the kanji continued to appear in rapid succession, Dove finally let go of Echoes and slapped his hands to his ears as he desperately tried to block out the horrific mix of sounds that assaulted his ear drums, the young huntsman having collapsed onto his knees as his eyes, bloodshot as the pain from the loud noises had begun to reverberate in his head. "WHERE ARE THESE NOISES COMING FROM? I CAN'T EVEN HEAR MYSELF SCREAM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME YOU SADISTIC BASTARD?!"

"If Koichi had acted out of panic, he would've lost. Echoes isn't strong or fast and neither is he; in a straight fight between himself and Dove, he would've lost. Heck, if he hadn't played Dove off of himself and hadn't played to Echoes' full strengths, he would've lost" Josuke said with a grin as he leaned back as yet more and more kanji appeared on Dove. "As it stands though, he made all right calls; he ran and he kept Echoes in Dove's face. None of Team CRDL have semblances and with the rules being what it was, Dove couldn't just shoot at him with his gun and, well, no offense Jaune but if these guys are at your level, they wouldn't be strong enough to threaten Echoes with much more than a few scratches."

"No offense taken, Josuke."

"Anyone else in this room would probably be too much for Koichi to handle. As it stands, team CRDL and you are the only people he can reasonably go up against in the room and have a reasonable shot at winning. It's the only way he's going to be able to get some live combat practice in that won't involve Okuyasu or I fighting very carefully with him… which just doesn't do him any good." Josuke grinned as he looked over to Koichi who watched on as Dove fell to the floor. "Koichi needed to go up against people of his own skill if he wants to grow, so I'm glad he got this opportunity. Though I suspect next fight won't be so easy; now people will know what to expect from him." Josuke shrugged as he leaned back. "Honestly, it would be good. Koichi's got the potential to be something great, even if he doesn't think he does. I'd like to see him get pushed a little bit by people who actually stands a chance against. Hopefully it'll make him a little more confident." Josuke then just smiled as he looked down at the arena. "As it stands, having him when a fight just through the sheer element of surprise is okay for now."

"Your Stands really are just trapdoor spiders, aren't they?" Weiss muttered with a slight shake of her head though she had sounded amused. "So long as they've got the element of surprise, they can take down foes who would otherwise beat them down but, without it, you're in a lot of trouble… unless you have a combat Stand…" She had muttered at the end as Josuke and Okuyasu just grinned sheepishly.

"Hey, even we can benefit from the element of surprise… we just don't lose as much once its gone, though." Okuyasu barked out a laugh as he said this, Josuke just nodded along in agreement before Glynda finally sighed.

"Mr. Hirose, that's enough, it's clear your Stand Power has crippled Dove's abilities to fight back against you. I'm calling this match." At that, whatever trance Koichi had seemed to have been in passed as the nervous look returned to his features.

"Oh, uh, r-right, sorry Professor Goodwitch!" Koichi immediately called Echoes back and, as soon as he had, the kanji on Dove's body immediately disappeared. The young man ceased his cries of pains as he blinked slightly, even the ringing in his ears had immediately ceased as the Stand's Power left his body.

"The winner of this spar is Hirose Koichi by means of disabling his opponent." With that, the screen that showed the two faded; Koichi had won without even having officially damaged Dove's Aura. "Now then, Mr. Bronzewing… you know that these Stands are in possession of odd and unusual powers. You've witnessed two Stand combats at this point and both of them, beyond simple strength and speed, also possessed abilities that allowed them to change the battlefield or the rules of engagement entirely. You should have been more careful when dealing with Mr. Hirose's Stand and not let its apparent lack of strength and speed lull you into a false sense of security. Am I being clear, Mr. Bronzewing?"

"Yes Professor…" Dove muttered under his breath, a bit of red on his cheeks as the teen glowered at the floor. Glynda arched an eyebrow at the boy's behavior but otherwise sighed before she turned to Koichi.

"Mr. Hirose, well done. Your opponent was stronger and faster than you, however you used what advantages and skills you do possess in order to disable them. In a live combat scenario with your team or during the tournament, that maneuver could very well secure you an opponent being knocked out of commission. You took considerations into your own safety by using your Stand's range and then allowed Bronze to fight it out without him knowing how its power worked. A good showing… though, I suspect that in your next spar, your opponents will be able to far more easily take to you, especially as now they will know your Stand's power." Koichi started to sweat slightly as Glynda said this, the blonde woman readjusted her glasses as she looked down at Koichi.

"Simply put Mr. Hirose, you won't be able to depend on the element of surprise all the time, so you'll need to prepare and have an actual plan of attack next time for someone who'll be fully prepared to face your Stand and its powers head on. Am I being clear?"

"Y-Yes Professor!" Koichi snapped slightly to attention at this, Glynda's gaze having unnerved him as Glynda just nodded her head satisfactorily.

"Very good. Now, please exit the arena so that the next spar may commence." Both young men nodded as they immediately departed while Glynda turned her attention back to her datapad. As Koichi walked away from the arena, his eyes were on the floor, gaze locked with the stone tiles as his mind raced. Prepare? Have an actual plan?

'With what?!' Koichi practically screamed in his head, the facade of determination and bravery from the spar having by this point totally melted away in the young man as he grasped at his head with one hand. 'The element of surprise is literally the only thing Echoes has going for it. Once you figure out how it works you can work to avoid it all together. I only won because I surprised Bronze with Echoes' powers… and that's literally it! Echoes can't move fast so these Four Kingdom Hunters will only get caught up by it if they decide to try and fight it directly and I'm certainly not faster than them so they'll catch me eventually.

'I could keep calling Echoes back to block hits for me, but it'd never be able to return a hit on someone who was sufficiently ready to dodge or otherwise avoid any of Echoes' moves. My Stand just isn't a combat Stand! I don't understand why they're having me fight these people… I… I just need to leave the fighting to Josuke and Okuyasu. Like always… don't any of them get that?' Koichi frowned slightly as he lowered his hand, a somewhat defeated expression on his face as he turned to look over at Dove.

Koichi had been surprised when, as he faced Dove, he saw the young man and huntsman glowering at him, a decidedly pissed off look on his face as he stared at the little man.

"Ya'll think you're such big shots huh? Come into the arena and make fools of the Four Kingdoms with your creepy, bullshit Stands?" Dove muttered under his breath as he put his sword away, a decidedly determined look to his gaze as he nodded back to the arena. "Let's see how well you do next time now that everyone knows what to expect… who knows, maybe we'll even be the ones to pull a surprise on you all." Koichi swallowed nervously as Dove walked over to his locker which Koichi had taken as an opportunity to sneak away from the embittered huntsman and try to get away. He hadn't taken the time to notice as Dove watched him walk off, nor the thoughtful look on his face as he pulled out his scroll.

The only thing Koichi paid mind to was getting back to the arena seats with his friends. Well… not the only thing. Koichi scratched the side of his head as his thoughts returned back to the mysterious girl whose eyes he had met back on the arena floor. It was… it was bizarre. He had two conflicting sets of memories; on the one hand, she had been with Cinder's team from the beginning and, seeing as Cinder's teammates had made such a conspicuous effort to converse with Team RWBY, it seemed natural that they'd know all their names. Yet here Koichi stood, as clueless as to the girl's name as he was… well, a lot of details about her, actually.

It would've been less weird if it weren't for the fact that he knew literally all the rest of their names. Even if Cinder herself hadn't shown up to socialize often, Mercury and Emerald talked about her often enough and her name was one he and the others easily recalled thanks to these interactions. Mercury, Emerald, Cinder and… blank. Nothing there for a name. It had been even creepier when she had just disappeared into thin air, when she had just out and out vanished. No one else seemed perturbed or even noticed the fact either; she was there, he saw her, Glynda asked him what was wrong and when he pointed out what should've been there no one really acted like anything was amiss…

Was Koichi going crazy?

It was something he wouldn't ordinarily consider but… well, this past week and few days hadn't been easy for him. Koichi yawned slightly as he rubbed at his eyes, having had trouble sleeping the past several nights. There was no denying that Koichi had been stressed as all Hell these past several days, and it could all be tied back to that eery feeling of being watched, of eyes having been on him during his stay here at Beacon. It had started off, at first, as a very general feeling, one that just felt like the hairs on the back of his neck as they stood up on end. Soon enough though those feelings escalated, as did other signs.

There had been the incident with Toshikazu where he hadn't been the one to make the cracking sound that had helped sell his half-dead state to Surface. After that, he could've sworn that his journal entries had been opened and read even when he had put them away. The corners of the pages bent back a bit and the journal placed askew from what Koichi, fastidious and tidy from a lifetime of living with pretty much just his mom and sister, had very purposefully placed it. Then there were footsteps that he had heard every now and then. On top of all this, the feeling itself had gone from hairs on the back of his neck standing to feeling like someone was constantly looking over his shoulder, glowering at him… glaring at him, watching his every move.

It scared Koichi and had done so deeply. What was worse about the entire thing was that he had no idea what to do: there was literally nothing actually happening! Just gut feelings and things slightly amiss that could've been easily explained by him being forgetful! Koichi would've already felt bad enough that he would've gone to Josuke in the first place to help him deal with this, but to ask Josuke to deal with some phantom problem that didn't actually exist and was probably just in Koichi's head?

Koichi knew he was useless to his friends and teammates. He had long since accepted this fact. The only good he ever did for them was scouting things out and occasionally providing the odd distraction. They on the other hand did everything for him; they protected him, they guided him, they encouraged him, they tried their best to lift him out of his own doldrums and encourage him to keep moving forward. They always had faith in him, no matter how few times or how poorly Koichi actually repaid that faith. No matter how many times he needed saving he needed them to protect him from the Grimm or some other threat, they were right on top of it… and what did Okuyasu always say in return?

"Hey, no worries Koichi, we're teammates! We'll always have each other's backs."

It was classic Okuyasu; he hadn't thought anything of protecting Koichi. Okuyasu was his teammate and, if Koichi had been honest, the brother he felt he never had. Same thing for Josuke who, on top of being a great teammate and friend, was an amazing leader by Koichi's reckoning. So it killed Koichi a little bit inside every time he couldn't' have their backs. Whenever he just had to depend on them. If Koichi went to them with a problem that may not have even been real… it would've just been the fu-... the underlying sentiment of their friendship exposed for everyone to see.

Koichi himself was dead weight, and Okuyasu and Josuke would've been better off without him.

The young Hirose groaned as he scratched at his head. It wasn't as if these were new problems he had considered; heck, it'd be an issue for as long as he'd been put on Josuke's team. However, ever since this stuff started up, Koichi had only felt worse and worse about the situation as it seemed like no matter what he tried or what he did, he couldn't fix this situation on his own and would have to depend on Josuke to help him.

Just as Koichi had this thought, just as the feeling crossed his mind as a memory, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and felt the eyes on him. Whoever was watching him was here…

And that scared Koichi. Every other time, every single other time, he only felt the eyes on him when he was with the others. That's why he had sought more and more often to have moments like this alone where he could have some peace of mind, where he wouldn't feel the presence haunting him. It was the few times since this whole thing had begun where Koichi could feel like he wasn't being watched.

Now however, it was that much worse. At least before he was with Josuke and Okuyasu, Team RWBY and Team JNPR. He could feel safe with them, could feel assured that they wouldn't let anything happen. As it stood now, Koichi was alone with no one to keep anything from happening. Koichi, tired, stressed and terrified did the only thing he could think to do.

He ran.

He immediately took off in a sprint as he turned a corner, offering a small apology as he bumped into some maintenance man who had been busy mopping a hallway as he sprinted for dear life. As he did, he could swear he heard it, somewhere a little ways behind him; footsteps that followed his movements, that tailed him no matter how quickly he ran. Eventually, Koichi's mind flew through possibilities and ideas of how he could possibly get away; everyone was in class right now, there wouldn't be anyone aside from maintenance who could help him, and what good would they be? Koichi shook his head as he slapped a hand to his forehead; he'd have to save himself on this one.

"Echoes!" Koichi muttered as softly as he could while he ran as his Stand materialized at his side. Koichi's eyes scanned the hallway in front of him as he looked for some break in the hallway, any break in the hallway, that he could use to his advantage. Gears turned and his mind whirred with thought as his blue eyes momentarily shined with glee as a four-way intersection in the hallways opened up some distance in front of him. "Echoes, quick, put some of my footsteps down the hallways to the left! Make it nice and loud and get yourself a bit away and hidden so they don't spot you!" Koichi hurriedly uttered as his Stand just nodded, before Echoes immediately flew out in front of Koichi and without having missed a beat.

Koichi, in the short amount of time he had to consider all this, had hatched a plan; rather than send Echoes straight ahead in the hall and leave it to a fifty/fifty chance of his pursuer picking the right hall he'd go down if they figured out Echoes' sounds were fake, Koichi would send Echoes down one of the side halls and then keep going straight ahead himself. That way, either they'd follow Echoes sounds or they'd figure that Koichi, in his rush, would've just opted for the opposite-most hall he'd sent Echoes. Or at least, that's what Koichi had hoped would happen as he ran forward past the four-way intersection. Koichi had settled for a support column that had stood on the edge of the hallway against a wall, as Koichi squeezed his teeny, tiny little body behind it with all the haste he could muster.

He heard them approach, slowly but surely. The footsteps that had followed him all this way from shortly after he had started to sprint. Koichi held his breath and placed his hands over his mouth, sweat poured from his face as he suffocated any attempt for his body to make a sound. He tightened his gut and locked his legs together so that his shaking wouldn't alert whoever it was that had followed him. For a moment, Koichi's eyes flew into a panic as the footsteps had started in his direction.

 **CLICK-CLACK-CLICK-CLACK-CLICK-CLACK-CLICK~**

They stopped when a vague facsimile of Koichi's own hurried footsteps had reverberated from down the hall where he had sent Echoes. For a moment, Koichi feared that the person wouldn't buy it; his footsteps had come on too suddenly, had only started to be heard from the hallway shortly after they arrived. They wouldn't buy it; Echoes had placed the sound effects too late for them to have fooled the person. Indeed, Koichi's fears were soon realized when the footsteps hadn't gone off to follow the sounds Echoes had made, Koichi slamming his eyes shut as he begged the Brother Above to just save him, please.

That's when a miracle, as far as Koichi had been concerned, happened; rather than continue in his own direction or continue after Echoes, the footsteps had quickly turned and stalked down the opposite hallway from the one Echoes had flown down. Koichi held in, forcibly, a jump for joy and a celebratory 'wahoo' as this happened. His stupid, half-baked, last minute little plan had worked! He'd bought himself some time! As the footsteps had gotten further and further away until Koichi hadn't been able to hear them anymore, Koichi's mood only lifted and improved. This was great! This was fantastic! Now all he had to do with this time he'd managed to buy was… was…

What exactly could Koichi do, really? As Koichi realized this, his good mood slowly evaporated as he put a hand to his cheek. Really, he was just right back to where he was before this little chase had occurred; he still couldn't be sure if this was all in his head or not, even if he offered up to the others that he'd heard footsteps, it could've very easily just been in his very tired, very stressed head. Hell, he hadn't even seen who it was that had supposedly chased him; the only thing he'd have been able to offer Okuyasu or Josuke was 'I think they had some pretty light footsteps, so maybe they were a girl?'

Then again, Ren's footsteps were pretty light too. Most huntsmen were trained to have light footsteps so they could sneak up on the Grimm…

Koichi sighed as he shook his head and stepped away from the supporting beam. Koichi still had nothing. No way of protecting himself, no way of keeping himself safe, no way of even keeping whoever it might've been who was looking at him and chasing him away. He was stuck, plain and simple. What could he even offer to Josuke and the others that wouldn't sound like pathetic whining…

Koichi just sighed as he started to walk back to the arena. From now on, he'd just have to stick close to Josuke and the others. Until he actually saw something, he couldn't actually do anything. If he was going to get this feelings now whenever he was alone, he'd prefer to have them with the others around so that they could protect him…

Yeah, so they could protect him. Not so that he could actually do anything about it or protect them.

Koichi ran a hand through his grey hair again as the thought practically assaulted him, a sad frown on his face.

"I really don't think this day could get any worse…"

"Well now, you really shouldn't go sayin' that kind of stuff out loud Hirose, you'd be surprised what kind of nasty surprises tempting fate can bring."

At that, Koichi felt himself being pulled by the collar of his uniform and pushed up against a nearby wall. Blue eyes widened as he cast his gaze about, only to find the four forms of Team CRDL in front of him, a handful of grins on their faces as the four had effectively surrounded him.

"C-C-Cardin? And the rest of you? What are you all doing here?! Class is still in session!" Koichi had panickedly called to them as he saw the looks they had given him, as Cardin just shook his head a bit.

"Now now Hirose, that's the pot calling the kettle black isn't it? I mean, here we find you running about the school all on your lonesome. You're playing hooky too, aren't ya? Can't exactly call us out for it if you're just as guilty." Cardin grinned slightly as his lackeys chuckled. "You know Hirose, you don't know how glad we are that we've found you; we figured this would be hard. You see, we've been trying to think of a way to get back at your friend Okuyasu for having pulled that shit on me with his Stand not too long ago and a way to knock old hair boy off his pedestal ever since he brought down Pyrrha. You see, we couldn't exactly think of a way to do anything about it…"

'Because you four are lame as Hell and can only give Jaune and I trouble; Josuke and Okuyasu would kick your asses if you tried to get them.' Distantly, somewhere deep in Koichi's psyche, the thought had rumbled deep down, even as Koichi himself seemed utterly terrified.

"Then what do you know, you go ahead and pull off the hat trick by embarrassing Dove in the arena today. Pretty low blow; winning' the fight without even ticking down his Aura any. That was just emasculating." Cardin just grinned nice and wide as he looked down at the young boy. "That's when we realized we had a nice, juicy little target who, now that we know what's in his bag of tricks, can't fight back as easy. The biggest problem we thought we'd had was separating you from your flock of protective mother geese, but you went ahead and solved that one for us, didn't ya Hirose?" Cardin just grinned slightly as he leaned down to look Koichi right in the eyes.

"How about we go for a little walk Hirose? We can talk about how exactly you're going to help us… work out our differences with Okuyasu and hair boy. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

"Y-You guys can't actually hurt me! J-Josuke would find out, and-"

"Woah, woah there Hirose, never said anything about hurtin' ya. Unlike Jauney-boy, you really wouldn't be able to handle it. A little more soft-skinned than he was… and that's really sayin' somethin'." Cardin said with a chuckle. It had been the truth; for all the bluster he was putting up, his intention here wasn't to hurt Koichi. Cardin disliked the faunus, some might've even called him racist, and he did like to display his dominance, for which some soft-skinned folk might've called him a bully, but he was neither an idiot nor was he about to act in such a way that'd guarantee him an ass-whooping.

No, Cardin just wanted to score a few points on Okuyasu and Josuke, earn him back some rep that he'd lost thanks to Jaune, his Team, Team RBWY and now Okuyasu and Koichi. For that, he needed some… personal details. Humiliating Koichi by having forced him to hand them over after what he had done to Dove would've just been icing on the cake. Besides, it was true; Jauney-boy as weak as he was could've handled Cardin's brand of bullying. As much of a bully as Cardin was, he wasn't stupid enough or short-sighted enough to get himself hung up by the school by actually injuring another student.

Outside of combat practice that was.

"We just want to talk. See if you can teach us a few things about Okuyasu and Josuke that might be… interesting for us to know, if you catch my drift." Cardin cheekily crossed his arms as he grinned down at Koichi, who just swallowed nervously as he looked at the four young men.

"I-I-I'll tell Josuke! Y-You guys won't be able to keep this up for long! H-H-He'll-"

"Oooh, you hear that guys, he'll tell on us." Cardin laughed alongside the rest of his team as he shook his head. "Man, and here I thought Jaune was lame. Least blondy had the balls to deal with us himself without crying to his teammates for help. What kind of huntsman are you that your first thought is how you'll go crying to your team leader to protect you from some bullies? What, are you just the tag-along that no one had the heart to say didn't belong in a place like this, Hirose? Are you really that much of a coward." Cardin roughly shoved Koichi so that his back was forced back up against the wall, blue eyes wide in panic as he swallowed a rough knot in his throat.

"I-I-I-I'm not... I'm not… I'm…" Koichi frowned as he glanced down to the side while Cardin just barked out another laugh.

"Yeah, you know what you are, Hirose… that's why you're going to tell us what we want. Then you're not going to say a word to your friends… at least, not until we actually get to have our fun with them afterward. Then you can let them know how much of a spineless coward you were when you sold them out. I think that'll just about pay us back for you and Okuyasu having trashed us like that, right boys?" The rest of team CRDL nodded in agreement, wide and entertained grins on their faces as they all glowered at Koichi. "So come on, short stuff, let's go have a walk. You can tell us all sorts of things, I'm sure. You've lived with these guys long enough and ridden their coattails hard enough that you're sure to know some… intimate details." With that, Cardin and the others closed in around Koichi, whose eyes only darted around desperately, looking for a sign of his salvation.

"... AH! JOSUKE, OKUYASU, OVER HERE!" Koichi screamed, which had caused Team CRDL to just roll their eyes dismissively.

"Come on pint-size, you really think that old as Hell trick is going to work? Gonna take a lot more than that to get out of-"

"OI, ASSHOLES, LET GO, OF, KOICHI, BEFORE I, SCRAPE YOU AWAY WITH THE HAND!"

"Koichi! Are you okay?!"

Immediately, Teams' CRDL's tune changed and panic overwhelmed them as they turned to face the voices of Josuke and Okuyasu, freaked out smiles on their faces as they waved their hands submissively.

"O-O-Oh hey! J-Josuke, O-Okuyasu! Funny running into you guys here! We just found Koichi loitering in the halls and we were gonna… bring him back… to…" Immediately, the expressions on the Team's faces dropped as they saw Echoes just hanging up on the wall, a series of differently colored kanji planted on the wall as they reverberated and sent out the sounds of Josuke's and Okuyasu's voices. Echoes just screeched a bit, seemingly taunting the team of Four Kingdom huntsmen, before it promptly disappeared. As Team CRDL turned to glare at Koichi, they had been further surprised when they saw that Koichi had booked it down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Dammit! The little bastard tricked us! How did we fall for that one?!" Cardin growled between his teeth as he looked at the rest of his team. "Well don't just stand there like a bunch of idiots, let's get him!" Team CRDL immediately booked it after Koichi, who had gotten a good deal of distance away from them off of his little trick with Echoes. Because of the way Team CRDL had positioned themselves in the hall, actually running back to the arena had been impossible for Koichi and, in his desperate mind, would've been exceedingly obvious for them to tail him. No, he needed to lose them somewhere in the halls where they wouldn't expect where he'd go. With that, he needed Echoes again.

Thankfully, he felt the familiar presence of his Stand as it returned to him from its distraction, as Koichi quickly slid down a hall. They had been too close to the four-way intersection for him to use it again and thus Koichi soon found that with CRDL just barely out of his sight, he had to make a snap decision as it concerns a break in the hall. The left turn would've returned him to the arena, where the previous problems still stood, while a turn to the right would've gotten him outside of the building and onto the school's campus.

For a moment, Koichi's thoughts had turned to just making a break for the arena. Even if CRDL was faster than him, even if they might catch him, he might've been able to use Echoes to body block them long enough for him to get to the arena. Then he could get to Josuke and Okuyasu and… and…

"Echoes! Go down the hall to the left and copy the sounds of my footsteps, same as before!" Koichi had said as silently as he could as Echoes just burst forth from him and did so. Koichi, on the other hand, had quickly made the right turn and sprinted off as fast as he could, having hoped that he could get himself a good distance away from Team CRDL before they hit the intersection themselves. From there, he just had to hope that Echoes' trick would work.

Eventually, CRDL had caught up to the intersection and looked down both hallways for any sign of Koichi. As the three lesser members of the team heard Koichi's footsteps ring down the hall to the left they had prepared to resume their chase.

"You numskulls, think for a minute!" Cardin immediately caught them all before they could have sprinted off, as the team leader glared at the three of them. "Hirose's already gotten us once, Hell, twice if you count Dove, with his Stand's tricks. It's pretty friggin' obvious that he'd try it again! No way he'd be stupid enough to just make a break for the arena, we'd catch him easy! Let's go get him this way, before he-"

"Cardin, I see him though!" Russel had declared with a dramatic point, as Cardin just blinked in disbelief.

"What?" Sure enough as Cardin turned his gaze down the hall, he could see it too: Koichi had run full gallop down the hall and managed a great deal of distance, the sounds of his footsteps perfectly matched up to the sound, before he turned a corner back towards Glynda's class.

"But why? Doesn't that idiot know we're just gonna catch up?" Sky asked derisively before Cardin shoved them slightly.

"Not if we just sit around here gabbing! Let's go get him!" With that, Team CRDL sprinted off after Koichi, unaware that the young man they had seen would have rapidly disappeared not soon after having vanished from sight, as would his footsteps as Echoes departed.

The hallways had, for all intents and purposes, been empty after Team CRDL left. There wasn't a sound nor a sight. No footsteps, no breathing, no splash of color. From one end to the other, the hallway was desolate.

Yet it was a few moments after Team CRDL had left that the hallway had 'felt' empty.

* * *

Koichi gasped for breath as his short little legs had sprinted out of the building and onto Beacon's campus, the statue of the hunters nearby as he slowly but surely came to a stop, his skin red from the exertion and sweat having poured down his face and gotten into his eyes as he quickly reared back up straight and placed his hands behind his head. Frontier Huntsmen were trained to have a lot of stamina for marching around in the woods, seeing as how they hadn't had Aura. Yet even in that respect, Koichi was behind the curve. He wasn't horribly out of shape but he had never been particularly strong or suited for the long marches himself…

Koichi frowned as his sweat stung his eyes. The only reason he'd gotten away from Cardin and the others had been because of his trick. They had fallen for it, thank the Brothers, and now he had some time to just regather his thoughts and think of what to do.

Koichi barely held in derisive snort at that thought as the sweat continued to sting his eyes. What was even the point of that? Koichi knew what he was going to do. It was what he always did when he was confronted with a problem; he'd run off and find Okuyasu and Josuke and get them to fix things. It was just the course of things; Koichi got into trouble somehow, whether it be because of the Grimm or because of some exercise he couldn't perform or because his Stand wasn't up to snuff or, now, because he was being bullied by other huntsmen of all things and… and he'd just beg Okuyasu and Josuke for help.

And they'd always give it, acting as if it was nothing.

Koichi had only ever done one thing for them, and that had been when he had first hatched Echoes when he had first met them all the way back when. When he had alerted Okuyasu to the Grimm behind him with his Stand's ability… just making a loud noise to get his attention. Something a dog could've done with enough proper training. That's all he'd ever really done for them, in his mind. Everything else had been done with them, or they had done for them. He'd never been able to really stand as equals with them. Never been able to pay them back for all the kind things they'd done for him…

And yet they were never sour about it. They never complained and they never acted aggrieved by the fact that Koichi was so aggressively worthless. They said that they knew he'd have their backs and that, one day, he'd be ready to show them up. Koichi just bit his lip as he shook his head, the stinging from the sweat having forced him to cry a bit…

"How the Hell am I ever going to be able to pay them back… how am I ever going to have their backs if I can't solve any of my own problems... "

Koichi's problems weren't like Jaune's. Jaune's problem was that he had potential but hadn't realized it yet. Koichi had seen that, plain as day, during their run in with Toshikazu. Even in the interim when he wasn't as strong or skilled as his team, he was still a good leader in his own right. Perhaps not as great as Josuke, but he was still reliable and able to think under pressure.

Koichi? Koichi's Stand was an egg. It was a Stand that had reflected Koichi's potential; little to nothing. When it had hatched into Echoes, its growth had been… pathetic and minor. Out of all the Stands in Morioh, Echoes only stood out in how utterly unremarkable it was. He knew it, Josuke and Okuyasu knew it and even Jotaro knew it, his mom and sister knew it… but they were all just too good to him.

Koichi hated that he couldn't be there for them. He hated that he was so weak… and he hated that he could do nothing, either for himself or for them. There was only one thing that Koichi could be grateful for, one thing that Koichi could count as a success of his and that was that he hadn't yet dragged Josuke and Okuyasu down. However, if this stress continued to get to him, if Cardin and the others had continued to hound him at every turn, if he couldn't find a way to make use of his Stand like Glynda had suggested, rightfully, he needed to… then how much longer could he keep that up?

The Lock had been a minor Stand, situational at best and something that wasn't too dangerous. Left alone against someone like Tamami, Koichi maybe could've handled himself.

Surface, however? Surface had been another matter entirely… and a matter that Koichi absolutely knew that, if he had been alone, he would've been killed. In his gut, Koichi knew that there would be more Stands like Surface. More enemies who would be more dangerous. That was the name of the game now as things had slowly come to a head here in Vale. How was he going to help keep Okuyasu and Josuke safe if he couldn't even handle a handful of bullies or some phantom presence that, as far as he could be concerned, was just all in his head?

The Frontier knew what it wanted from Stands and Stand Users… and it had so many great heroes and Stands who had come out from The Frontier in order to save it. Kujo Jotaro's Star Platinum, Joseph Joestar's Hermit Purple, Caesar Zeppeli's Soft & Wet, Jonathan Joestar's Tusk, William Zeppeli's Ball Breaker. Hell, he'd spent an entire year on a team with what he viewed as to be the next great generation of Stand Users who'd help drive the Frontier forward; Josuke's Crazy Diamond and Okuyasu's The Hand.

What was Echoes compared to these Stands? What was Echoes even compared to a Stand like Surface? A noise maker. A scout. Echoes didn't belong and, really, neither did he. He was just here because Josuke and Okuyasu had wanted him to be. Because as far as they were concerned, he was their teammate and that was that.

Koichi just couldn't see it in the same way. Couldn't see past the bigger picture, of the general expectations he failed to meet and the abysmal ones he had set for himself.

The blue eyed boy just sighed as he sat down on the edge of the fountain, his head rested in his hands as he just stopped to think. As he rattled his mind for some way to deal with Cardin and his Team without dragging himself to Josuke for help. As he tried to rationalize or otherwise force away thoughts of the eyes that he had always felt on him. He needed to do this himself, he needed to become someone dependable…

Not because Josuke or Okuyasu asked it of him, but because Koichi, more than anything, wanted it of himself. That was the worst of it for him… that was what ate at him every second those eyes were on him or that he failed to live up to the expectations of being on a team of people as great as his friends. That, by his own esteem, he wasn't dependable. That people couldn't expect him to help them. That he was just that kid with the weird Stand.

As Koichi stewed in these thoughts, he heard a set of footsteps that seemed to approach him. His blue eyes widened in panic for a moment as he turned his head up, only to relax, if only slightly.

"Oh, hello… I, er, guess I was kind of rude earlier. Did you… want an apology, or…"

Koichi fell silent soon afterward; a struggle no one had seen and that had gone on for only a few seconds. Koichi himself had barely known what was happening as the figure had reached for him and forced a cloth to his mouth, though his last thoughts, desperate and fleeting had been to do something… to leave something… anything…

In a matter of moments, there was little to no sign of a scuffle around the fountain and, for all intents and purposes, Hirose Koichi had disappeared. Dragged off by an unknown assailant with none of Beacon the wiser at that moment.

 **-To Be Continued- Echoes (Act 2** )

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Hirose Koichi**

 **Stand Name: [Echoes]**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: E**

 **Range: B (50 Meters)**

 **Lasting Power: B**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: A**

 **Sound Maker: [Echoes] can write anything on any surface or person. If it is an onomatopoeia, typically in Katakana, a sound related to the onomatopoeia in question is produced. If it is a sentence written in Kanji, the words will influence their state of mind if written on a person or be played out loud if written on a surface. In the former case, the sound and words are said to not really be heard but to be as if they came from inside the person. The volume of the sounds vary, but will increase the longer the sound is active and reverberates to a person more strongly if the sound is written directly on them.**

 **The effect can be broken with enough willpower.**

 **Also Known As: If it could make music, it would be the greatest set of headphones ever created.**

 **Also Known As: Imperfect Cell**

* * *

 **Koichi in Diamond is Unbreakable always had a character arc related to his self worth and how he didn't view himself as a worthwhile or dependable person. Hell, the first time we're ever introduced to the kid, he tells us that we won't really need to remember his name because he's so damn unimportant. The value he has for his own personality and how he might prefer to act is so small that he behaves perfectly well and within the expectations anyone might have of him, which runs against the more free spirited and decidedly more sarcastic personality we see as Koichi's arc runs through Echoes Act 3.**

 **When I was placing him into this universe, I realized that I had pretty much made these problems ten times worse for Koichi. At least in Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi's understanding of what a Stand represents is a lot more limited and his time between forms is a lot shorter. Even then, Koichi is pretty down on himself, often calling Echoes worthless, and thus questioning his own worth, whenever the Stand just can't measure up.**

 **Now that those issues and multiply it by ten. Koichi is taught his entire life that a Stand represents your true soul, the true essence of who you are? What's Koichi's true soul represented by, then? A fucking egg and a noise maker. Now don't get me wrong, I love Echoes, I think all three forms are really versatile and, when brought together, make for one Hell of a versatile Stand. However, place yourself in the shoes of a 15 year old who would've grown up on stories of St** **ands like Tusk, Ball Breaker, Hermit Purple, Star Platinum and the rest of the Stardust Crusaders, as well as living with contemporary Stands like Crazy Diamond, The Hand, Bad Company (rip) and others that don't technically exist but also do, just not to you.**

 **And your Stand started off as a fucking egg… and you only got that egg through years of determined meditation and exercise. Then you only got Act 1 because hey, you wanted to tell some guy that there was a Grimm behind him.**

 **Koichi's got a straight up complex in this universe man, I have inadvertently not been kind to him. But hey, that's what this arc's for.**

 **Till next time, friends. Hope those of you who have school are doing alright.**

 **Oh also, thanks for 250 Reviews guys! I really appreciate all your support and your criticisms and I hope I can continue to entertain ya'll. Ciao!**


	19. Echoes (Act 2)

Beacon Academy, Meanwhile

The very moment sparring class had ended, everyone had known something was wrong. It had been a cascading effect, one that had passed down from Josuke to Okuyasu and then eventually flowed into Teams RWBY and JNPR. Josuke and Okuyasu had never appeared concerned too too often during the lighter, less hectic moments of their lives; honestly the two were, in Sun's words, pretty chill. The only time they had ever seemed to be troubled, now or in the past, was when they had felt that something was definitely wrong in the order of things.

Once Team RWBY and JNPR had seen the looks on the two's face, they'd known that something like that had occurred.

It had been easy enough to pass up Koichi's slow return after his spar against Dove as having been the result of nerves, Okuyasu having bawdily joked that the guy had probably run off to take a nervous pee as the joke gained quite the varying reactions from the group of, mostly, girls. When class had ended, they had all packed up their things and got ready to move onto the next… it had been there that Josuke had taken heavy notice of the fact that Koichi had yet to return. Yet still, they tried to play it off. Tried to play it at least a little cool. Even as worried as he was, Josuke hadn't been ready to ring alarm bells over the fact that Koichi had, for once, not been continually by either his or Okuyasu's side. Hell, at first he had joked that it was a healthy development, some independence for the otherwise nervous kid, as he picked up his friend and comrade's things for the next class.

However, when the next class had ended and Koichi had still been nowhere to be found, that was when Josuke's attempt at a less serious demeanor had practically dropped all together. When the bell had run and the silver haired young man was nowhere to be seen, Josuke had bit his bottom lip, summoned up Okuyasu, and had immediately declared that he was going off to see Ozpin, Ironwood and Jotaro.

Something was wrong. Koichi had only missed classes once this entire semester; when Toshikazu had made the scene. This wasn't right.

RWBY and JNPR had promised to help support him depending on what he found out from either Ozpin, Ironwood or Jotaro. The group of eight hunters had hoped, however dimly, that this had all been a misunderstanding; that Koichi would either show up to them and explain why the little devil had worried them so much for no reason or that Ozpin would quickly find Koichi somewhere in the school. They had seen Team CRDL wander off, so there was some whisper that maybe they had bullied Koichi and that they'd find the five of them together somewhere, in which case few members of Teams RWBY and JNPR doubted that Josuke would deliver a prompt and ready beatdown.

Any hope or consideration for the idea that Koichi would show up or that Ozpin would bring this to a quick resolution by having located him with Team CRDL were dashed however when, as Josuke returned, Koichi had yet to return to his other friends. Even worse was the grim look on Josuke's face, a mix of fear and frustration as the pompadoured team leader bit his bottom lip.

Though if Josuke appeared frustrated, Okuyasu seemed livid, a barely concealed rage boiling just beneath the surface as he clenched and relaxed his fists.

"Ozpin checked the cameras around the entire school and asked the staff… people have said they spotted Koichi in this place or that place but follow ups by the staff or through cameras have gotten them nothing." Josuke clenched his own fist as he spoke, the worry evident on everyone's face as blue eyes turned to look at them. "Looking over some of the footage, it seems like nothing's showed up in places where people would be expected to show up in a lot of the footage. It's been tampered with somehow."

"I can't believe this…" Ruby gasped, horrified as she placed her hands to her mouth. "D-Does that mean-"

"They think some fucking bastard's taken him during one of these lulls. Problem is, whatever piece of shit's done this messed with so many fucking cameras that nobody has any idea where to start looking." Eight pairs of eyes widened in slight surprise and worry as Okuyasu barked out these words, the intensity in his start easily dwarfed anything they had seen prior. Even Okuyasu throwing his advice at Weiss, while frustrated, wasn't angry or hateful. However, it was clear to see that Okuyasu had barely restrained his temper this entire time as his hand reflexively clenched and relaxed much in the same manner as The Hand. "They took him right from under our fucking noses. This is some bullshit!"

Worry had turned to shock as they watched Okuyasu turn around and, with one solid kick, sent a trash can flying several yards down the hallway, the contents of which scattered about as Okuyasu just glared around. "Fucking cowards wouldn't have dared to try and do it while we would've been around to have his back, they were probably pissing themselves thinking that they'd have to get him while contending with any of the ten of us. No, they just snatched him up on his way from the fucking spar!" Okuyasu clenched his fist as he ground his teeth together. The mess he had made had quickly set itself back up as Crazy Diamond fixed the trash can, as Josuke just grimmly stared on ahead.

"Okuyasu… I know you must be furious right now, but you have to calm down. It won't do anyone any good if you're this angry right now. Especially Koichi." Okuyasu had been a good enough friend to offer her some well-intended advice in a bad spot and, having already gone through this once before with Blake and been in a similar spot of fury to Okuyasu at one point, Weiss had thought she could finally return the favor. Okuyasu had at first snapped his head over to the group of Four Kingdom hunters, which had caused Weiss to think that he had been about ready to bite her head off.

However as Okuyasu looked out over the rest of his friends, he released a long breath; he was still very, very, VERY angry, but as he ran a hand through his hair he just growled.

"I know, I fucking know. I'm even worse at thinking things through when I'm pissed… but… some motherfucker took Koichi. Took our teammate. Took one of my best friends." Okuyasu tensed up as he clenched his fists again. "When I get my hands on him…"

"You'll break his legs and send him to Ozpin and Ironwood a full-body cast. We hear you Okuyasu." Nora smiled genuinely as she pat her similarly minded friend on the shoulder as she tried to help him calm down. In truth, if this had happened to Ren, there was no guarantee that Nora would be any better of mentally than Okuyasu. However, both he and Koichi were her friends, and she wanted them to be able to help him. That meant starting this on a good, even-keeled foot. Okuyasu merely nodded as, once again, he combed a hand through his hair, while Yang just turned her attention to Josuke.

"So, what's the situation with the guys in charge, Josuke?" No JoJo, no sarcasm, no bad jokes. This wasn't the time and Josuke nodded appreciatively as he looked to them.

"Okuyasu and I have already said we're going to help look for Koichi. Word is already going to be sent through the sound system about this to try and get everyone from the student body on down to have their eyes and ears open. Ozpin and Ironwood are going to work on getting the camera system fixed to see if there's anything left to salvage, while Jotaro's already looking around some spots in Vale with some guidance from Ozpin and Ironwood's men in town. Officially, we're not allowed to enlist any of the students here in Vale to help. If someone's already been kidnapped, they don't want to give the appearance of having risked other students in this search…" Blake just narrowed her gaze a bit as her amber eyes focused in on Josuke.

"Unofficially though?" Josuke just scoffed a bit as Blake asked.

"What do you think? Ozpin mentioned how they'd be too busy to enforce this and asked Okuyasu and I to just follow orders. We have our deal so I'm not about to exclude you guys, and we would appreciate your help…"

"Josuke, you don't even have to ask; Koichi's our friend too, we'd be more than happy to help." Jaune said with a firm, determined nod as he spoke, one swiftly followed by the rest of the Four Kingdom hunters.

"Anyone else starting to get a little sick of Ozpin playing this so coyly?" Ren muttered as he tiredly shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, to which most everyone nodded.

"He does have superiors to answer to. Plausible deniability is the only way he's able to keep his job with everything going on. Still, it'd be nice if we didn't have to always work around that." Pyrrha muttered as she crossed her arms as Ruby gave a firm nod.

"Sounds like we've got a plan; just in case anything comes up, it'd be best if the rest of us armed up. Josuke, Okuyasu, we'll meet you guys in the dining hall. This would go faster if we split up and scoured the school but given this is someone who just picked Koichi off, I don't think splitting up is a good idea. From there we'll start asking the student body anything they know; hopefully when the announcement is made, that'll start jogging some people's memories." Everyone nodded with Ruby's plan, simple yet effective as always as, for the moment, they all went their separate ways.

* * *

The City of Vale, Meanwhile

Once was a coincidence; you could forgive someone slipping into your defenses and making a fool of you and pass it off as having been a one off occurrence. The… former patriarch of the Nijimura family had proven this well enough in The Frontier. People could slip into your defenses at any point in time and it wouldn't suggest any grander problem.

Twice was the beginning of a pattern however, and in this particular case, that pattern had been worrying.

Jotaro frowned as he tipped his hat down, the Frontier huntsmen chewed on his lip slightly as he moved throughout the city of Vale. Ozpin and Ironwood had been upfront about sources around the city who might've seen something should Koichi have been taken there. The attitude of the two Headmasters hadn't surprised Jotaro; they had both been one part apologetic and one part apoplectic. Toshikazu Hazamada had been an embarrassment, a slip of Beacon's security that had managed to get in past their radar without them having noticed. However, his Stand and general demeanor had been thought of as the reasons why it had been so easy for him and, momentarily, thoughts of his infiltration had been passed off.

Now, however, Koichi had been kidnapped right from Beacon's campus. Worse yet, it had been done during broad daylight with none of Beacon's cameras having caught the act. However this had been done, it had been done with a tight watch and a great deal of work. Someone had been inserted into Beacon Academy and quite deeply, yet with such grace that no one had noticed them or had felt anyone out of place.

To say that all three adults had been worried about what that could mean about the safety and security of students at the Academy, especially considering the threats that they were faced with, would be the understatement of the century. That this failing had caused such worry and frustration with Josuke and Okuyasu had been understandable and even more of a thorn in the trio's mind.

Beacon was supposed to have been a safe place. The teens who attended the school couldn't have been blamed if something had happened to them right on campus. After all, they had expected that their more experienced counterparts, the more senior hunters, would've been able to ensure their safety. Thus, any attempt on behalf of Josuke to have apologized for his failings had been immediately brushed off by Jotaro, Ozpin and Ironwood.

The failing had been entirely theirs, and the three would have been damned if they did nothing about it. As it stood, Ozpin was combing through Beacon's systems with his staff and spies in order to see if they could dig up anything, while Ironwood turned to interrogating their already captured prisoners to see if they could force anything out, especially now.

Jotaro cut a corner into an alley as he sought to shorten the time it would have taken for him to arrive at one of Ozpin's contact's hideouts. As he did, he suddenly stopped… something hadn't been right.

"Well now, isn't it our lucky day?"

Jotaro soon found himself surrounded on both ends; in front of him, two White Fang Goons stepped out, weapons held in hand and masks on, while behind him another two stepped out, minor Stands having already formed behind them as they cracked their knuckles. Jotaro's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked across the four, relatively young, faunus. A sigh escaped his lips as he tugged his hat down to cover his eyes.

"You four clearly don't know what you're getting into, and frankly, you've caught me in a bad mood. Get out of here, before-"

"Oh, we know exactly what we're getting into, Kujo Jotaro." Jotaro paused slightly as the faunus in front of him so flagrantly spoke his name. "Gotta say, no one expected that you'd actually leave Beacon Academy or that you'd do so by yourself. What a stroke of luck that we'd find you here, in our neck of the woods…"

"If you know who I am, then you know what's going to happen to you if you don't get the Hell out of my way…" Jotaro muttered as he raised his head, the faunus flinching as they caught his gaze. "So I'll say it again. Get out of here. Or else."

The faunus, having overcome their momentary terror, scoffed as they slowly approached Jotaro. "Please, we've heard your Stand is hot shit, but there's four of us and only one of you. Two of us got them Stands too, and two of us can beat ya to death. We've got you right where-"

" **[Star Platinum: The World]**!"

 **THUU** UUuuumm….

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

" **ORA ORA ORA ORAAA**!"

"One second has passed."

" **OOOORAAAAA!** "

"Two seconds have passed."

" **RAAAAA! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAAAAA**!"

"Three seconds have passed. Time moves forward."

… thuuUU **UUUM!**

… tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK!**

The thugs hadn't even had a second to regret their life choices… well, most of them hadn't at any rate. Of the two thugs that had blocked Jotaro's path forward from the front, one had been flung forward into a nearby light post, the force having been strong enough to have bent the metal and caused the bulb to fall out, striking him on the head. Whether the copious amounts of blood came from the broken glass or from whatever had given him his numerous bruises across his face, it was hard to say. The other thug hadn't been much better off, instead having just barely avoided being flung through the open window of a storefront and instead impacted the brickwork nearby, cracking the masonry as he slid down the wall, face swollen beyond recognition.

Of the two Stand Users, one of their Stand had almost immediately been covered in impact divots, a condition that had soon been reflected onto its Stand Users as bones immediately broke or were outright shattered before Stand and Stand User had been flung back several dozen feet. The last had found his broken hand underneath the fine, Mistrali shoe of one Kujo Jotaro, while his Stand had its head ground pressured against a nearby wall by the very same man's Stand; Star Platinum: The World. Of all four, only this one hadn't been immediately knocked unconscious.

"W-W-What the Hell was that? I didn't even see anything! What the fuck kind of demon are you?!"

"I see, so they didn't actually tell you what I'm capable of. Suppose it makes sense; thugs and cowards like you only feel strong and in control when you can prey on a foe you think is weaker than you. You're only brave when you're afforded the safety to be." Jotaro dug the heel of his shoe into the man's broken hand, which had caused him to cry out in pain. "As I said, I was hardly in the mood to deal with you all right now… but now that I have your attention, I suppose it'd be a good time to start asking some questions.

"What do you know about a kidnapping of a Beacon Student? Where would they take someone like that?"

"W-What? I have no idea what you're talking about ma-aaAAAAAAH!" Star Platinum had slammed the head of the man's Stand into the wall, another huge, bleeding gash having appeared on his face as a result.

"You'll find that my Stand is a lot more brutal than I am. I'm being kind and allowing you an opportunity to actually fess up to anything you might know." Jotaro muttered as he looked down at the young faunus.

"I-I'm serious! Look, ever since this Stand business started no one's been told anything about what everyone's doing! It's all been real hush hush! Hell, I don't even know these guys' names! It's all just code names and assumed identities now! Hell, the only one anyone knows for absolute certain is Roman Torchwick, and that's only cause that fucking human is so famous that no one could possibly mistake him for anyone else now!"

Jotaro frowned; this had been rather consistent with what testimony they had gotten from the other prisoners so far. Though they had never outright said as much, it seemed as though there were hard limits to their knowledge that neither Ozpin or Ironwood could quite pierce. However, if what this thug had said was true, it seemed like the prisoners they did have were still keeping things from them. Perhaps that was as good a sign as any that these thugs might know more than they had let on.

"I'll take your word for it for now… however, you're still coming with me."

" **ORA**!" Before the faunus could react Star Platinum had slammed his Stand's head into the wall hard enough to put a crater into it, which had promptly knocked out the thug before he could have even uttered two syllables. As Jotaro had Star Platinum gather up the White Fang thugs, he lowered his cap over his eyes.

" **Yare yare daze** … not exactly what I was hoping I'd find, but it's going to have to be good enough for now." Jotaro muttered as he looked back towards Beacon Academy. "I'll just have to hope that Ozpin and Ironwood can find out something… and if not them, that Josuke and the others will be able to put something together…" Jotaro shook his head slightly as he said this.

"If any of us could pull something out of their ass and find Koichi with it, it would be Josuke after all. More like the old man than anyone likes to admit in that regard…"

* * *

Beacon Academy, Meanwhile

Nothing.

They had turned up absolutely nothing in the whole hour that they had spent combing the school up and down. They had spoken to dozens, if not hundreds, of students now and had gotten updates from every member of the staff who had been in the know or might've had some kind of insight but still, they had found absolutely nothing that could've lead them to Koichi.

It hadn't been as if there was no information, though. Goodness knows, that would've made things simpler. There had been an abundance of information; a lot of people claimed to have seen him running through the campus at various points in time, though these claims had not been backed up either by a thorough search on behalf of Teams RWBY, JOJO or JNPR nor had the cameras seen anything. The latter of which having been especially pointless as much of Beacon's staff was in a bit of a panic over how the cameras around the school had been tampered with.

The rumors weren't ill-intentioned either, which had arguably made the entire ordeal worse in some ways. If this was people trying to mess with them, people trying to send them off the wrong way, they could've gotten pissed or, worse, suspicious and proceeded to pump these people for what they might've actually known or why they would have done such a thing in the first place. Yet, it was all with the best intention; everyone they had spoken to had wished Josuke and Okuyasu well in finding Koichi and many more had offered to help in their own ways. Hell, Team CFVY had offered up about as much as they could, and even then, it had turned up flat.

As the three teams, minus Koichi, had stopped for a moment to think things through, it had all looked rather hopeless. Koichi hadn't been seen by anyone whose information could be followed through on and, worse yet, most people couldn't even offer up bad information. Most everyone had been in class around the time most had assumed Koichi had been taken, which left them with few and fewer sources and, once you cut out the ones who went nowhere, none.

"We'll have to think of something else. It doesn't look like asking around is going to get us anywhere anytime fast." Ruby had said with some consternation as the young woman paced around, a clearly worried expression on her face. It had been shared by most everyone, though Josuke and Okuyasu had worn a far more severe version of it upon their own visages. Everyone was worried about Koichi, everyone wanted something, anything, to come forward and give them some kind of sign, some kind of path forward.

Yet as the minutes passed into hours, it seemed more and more likely that their trail was never even hot to begin with. That they'd never find him.

This, of course, had left Josuke and Okuyasu in a particularly sour mood, though all ten teens could hardly have been said to be feeling all too kind and gentle at the moment.

"Yo, Higashikata, Nijimura, you two have a second or are ya'll too busy moping?"

So perhaps it hadn't been the best time for Team CRDL to show up, the three members behind Cardin looking somewhat nervous or otherwise frightened, as Cardin Winchester stepped forward. Josuke and Okuyasu had turned their gazes to meet Cardin's, Josuke's expression had been even while Okuyasu's had been annoyed. Though their reactions were absolutely positive when compared to Teams RBWY and JNPR, who had taken notice of Team CRDL's arrival with a great deal of suspicion and annoyance.

"What do you want Cardin? No one here's really in the mood right now. We're kind of busy." Jaune muttered as his blue eyes kept careful watch of his past bully, the leader of Team CRDL snorted somewhat derisively as he looked at the ten as they sat.

"Yeah, I could tell." Cardin Winchester crossed his arms slightly as he felt the gazes of his fellow Four Kingdom hunters bore into him, while Josuke just continued to look at him impassively. "Look, I may or may not have information for you guys on where Hirose is." At this, almost everyone perked up, though Cardin quickly raised a finger. "May or may not. I can't say for certain… and I can only part with what I might know if I get one thing from Josuke and Okuyasu."

"Name it." Teams RWBY and JNPR had been stunned with how quickly Josuke had responded, and even Cardin seemed surprised.

"Y-You seem awfully ready there Higashikata-"

"We're not exactly swimming in a lot of leads right now Cardin. I'm not about to be picky about who I might get a break from." Josuke had uttered simply as he stood up from his seat. "So hurry up and name your price, I don't have all day."

For a moment, it seemed as though a rather dark thought crossed Cardin Winchester's mind. A small smile formed on his lips as he looked on; this could've been his opportunity. This could've been his chance. All he had to do was have Okuyasu and Josuke bend to his will and, well, he could at least have faith that the latter would hold onto his end of the bargain if, or when, the information they got from him would be put to use…

In the end, Cardin just sighed as he shook his head. As much as a dick as even he could admit to being, this wasn't quite the time or place for something like that.

"Right. What I want is a promise that you all will leave me and my boys alone, no matter what you end up hearing from us. Got it?" Josuke narrowed his eyes slightly as Cardin spoke. Okuyasu had seemed ready to interject, yet a hand from the pompadoured teen had quickly silenced his best friend and teammate.

"Alright Cardin. I promise, no matter what you happen to say, we won't do anything to you. Right everyone?" RWBY and JNPR nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly. While they wouldn't agree to just drop everything under normal circumstances, Koichi's life had potentially been in danger. Now wasn't the time to quibble with Cardin over conditions. They'd follow through with Josuke, if only to see to it that their friend would be safe.

Cardin, satisfied, crossed his arms back over his chest as he looked between all of them. "So, here's the deal; Dove called us from the locker room after Koichi had left. He figured we could all intercept him while he made his way back to the arena for a little… chat. What he did to Dove was pretty embarrassing after all and after Okuyasu's little stunt, we were already a bit sore. We wanted a bit of… bonding time with the little guy."

"So you bastards went out to go bully him? You pieces of shit, I should-"

"Okuyasu!" The scarred teen flinched as Josuke snapped at him, the pompadoured teen just shaking his head as he looked back to Cardin, who seemed quite pleased with Josuke having stepped in. "I'm guessing you found him then. Is that why you wanted guarantees? Did you have something to do with this?"

"Not exactly." Cardin placed his hands in his pockets as he took on a thoughtful expression. "We actually didn't find him on his way to the arena at first; we actually followed some noises around and found him a good few halls away from where he should've been, red faced and agitated over something." Cardin scowled slightly as he looked at all of them. "Now, I ain't gonna lie, I did try to get Hirose to come with us so that we could pump him for any useful information on how to get you all. Okuyasu's stunt cost me a lot of respect here at Beacon and once Dove's spar got around, it wouldn't do my team any better. Figured I'd have an easy opportunity to score a few points on you all if we managed to get the inside scoop from Hirose."

"... I'm not going to sit here and say that you shouldn't have been pissed with what Okuyasu did. It was out of line, even if it was funny." Okuyasu bit back a slight curse as Josuke spoke, the scarred teen sheepishly scratched at the back of his head as Josuke narrowed his gaze. "But that should've been business you brought against Okuyasu and myself. You shouldn't have harassed Koichi, especially because he only beat Dove fair and square."

"Oh, right, I'm going to walk up to the jackass with The Hand and manage to get some respect back around here by getting my ass handed to me. I'll admit Higashikata, I think pretty highly of myself, but I know where I stand in the grand scheme of things here in Beacon. I wasn't going to walk up and just let Okuyasu kick my ass after he embarrassed me like that." Cardin combed a hand through his hair as he spoke, a slight blush of embarrassment and frustration on his cheeks as he did.

"So you went after Koichi instead? Man, you just can't help bullying people who can't fight back, can you Cardin?" Jaune bit back a scowl as he spoke as the leader of Team CRDL just shrugged.

"What can I say Jauney-boy? I've gotta earn my points around here when I can. Survival of the fittest or whatever the Hell Peach calls it." Cardin's casual disregard for his own behavior had earned no small amount of ire from Teams RWBY and JNPR, though Josuke had pushed on before any could have spoken up again.

"The point, Cardin?"

"Right. So, like I said, found him, tried to get him to come with us but in the end Hirose gave us the slip with his Stand." Cardin scowled a bit as he bit his cheek. "Here's where the story gets complicated; we saw and heard him running down one hall and made to follow him… but by the time we actually should've caught up with him, he was gone."

"So you think he got kidnapped there?" Josuke asked, his brow arched, as Cardin just shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. We didn't hear anything; no struggle, no noise, no nothing. Now, Hirose comes off as a weakling to me, so it wouldn't have been hard to kidnap him but even he should've put up some kind of struggle, some kind of effort. There was just no sign of him, it was as if he disappeared into thin air." Cardin seemed legitimately confused by this, as Blake just blinked slightly.

"Josuke, the staff did say that they saw something similar happen across several cameras at once around the time Cardin said this would've happened. Koichi appears running and then just disappears without a trace. Hell, we've even followed up on those places and nothing came up." Josuke nodded with Blake's assessment, as Ren just frowned.

"Almost as if he was never in those places to begin with…" Ren's magenta eyes narrowed as everyone nodded along.

"Some kind of illusion; something to distract everyone while the actual event took place and to make following up on it even harder." Weiss had spoken in a slightly hushed tone, while Cardin nodded.

"That's what I figured too. I didn't think Koichi had the power to make images of himself but with how closely you guys keep your Stand's powers secret, I figured anything was possible. So my team and I kept looking for him for a while, figured we might stumble upon him somewhere along the way. When we ran around the edge of the building, we thought we struck gold; we spotted him out a window, sitting around the statue fountain on the campus."

"I'm guessing by the 'you thought' that you didn't end up finding him there." Yang followed up, her arms crossed underneath her chest as Cardin bit his lip slightly.

"Yes and no." Everyone blinked in confusion as Cardin moved to clarify. "When we arrived, Hirose was nowhere to be seen. Gone again, just like last time… however, we did find something there. Footprints, some sign that there had been more than two people there. A lot of them had been haphazardly dusted over and it seemed like there was some kind of trail that led over to the airbus station on that lead over to Vale, but something had definitely been there and someone had made a rushed attempt to try to cover their tracks.

"We haven't seen anyone really point it out as an area of interest and it seems like you all have been a bit slow on the uptake so… after some time to weigh our options considering what we'd have to tell you, we figured that we should step forward."

"Why exactly did you bother to tell us about how you came across Koichi in the first place? Could've kept that secret and just not told us." As Okuyasu spoke, Cardin just rolled his eyes slightly.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't ask how we knew all this information in the first place. Figured I'd get it all out in the open rather than have you guys try and interrogate me. No point in wasting everyone's time with that." Cardin scoffed as he spoke, which had caused no small amount of ire in Okuyasu before Josuke stepped forward.

"There is a better question; if you dislike us so much Cardin, why bother coming forward in the first place? With no guarantee of a reward at that." Cardin snarled slightly at the question, but otherwise stood his ground.

"I get that my image gives off that I'm a jackass Higashikata, and you know what, to an extent I'm all for that. You gotta be tough and seen as strong to get anywhere in a Hunter's Academy. The weak like Jaune can be liked but passed over as non-threats or otherwise ignored. I'm not about that sort of thing; I like to be seen and I like to be felt as a presence. That's why I do what I do, and screw what teams of losers might think about it." Teams RBWY and JNPR glared at Cardin, before the auburn haired young man moved on.

"Still, I am a huntsman and I do have standards. Just because you all are a bunch'a shitty foreigners who're trying to show up the Four Kingdoms doesn't mean you're not huntsmen. If I just sat on this information, it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth. That's all." Cardin crossed his arms over his chest as he spoke, as Josuke just stared back at him with an equal amount of intensity.

"... Alright Cardin. We'll check this out and see if you've given us anything worthwhile. If we end up finding Koichi off of this, you'll have my gratitude…" Josuke's eyes narrowed dangerously into an expression that startled even his friends as he pointed an accusatory finger at Team CRDL. "But… if I find out that you all just sent us on a wild goose chase or, worse yet, knew more than what you're letting on… I promise you, I'll break all of you… I'll break you all down to the last bones in your knuckles. Then I'll have Crazy Diamond fix you all up so that I can do it again. So if you know anything else, you'd best spit it out right now; am I being clear?" Cardin swallowed nervously as even his tough guy nature and posturing hadn't been able to stand up to such a severe threat.

"Y-Yeah, that's all we know Higashikata. Now can we get out of here? You all need to get your asses moving if you're going to find Hirose." After a slight pause Josuke nodded as he placed his hands into his pockets.

"Right. Come on everyone, let's go check out the fountain." With that Josuke just sauntered off, a slight run to his steps as he made his way to the fountain. The other teens hadn't spared Cardin so much as a look as they all bolted off after Josuke, having been just as anxious to chase what very well may have been the last lead available to them on campus. As the teams had finally made their way to the fountain, the search began. It soon became clear that Cardin had been as good as his word; immediately the ten teens had found the signs of a struggle that Cardin had mentioned, much to the surprise of a few members of Teams RWBY and JNPR.

"I have to admit, I wouldn't have thought Cardin of all people would've been the one to pull through." Ruby had said honestly as she helped the others comb through the area, as Nora just nodded.

"Yeah, the guy's a real jerk and I gladly would've broken his legs for Jaune last semester, but I guess he's being honest when he says that even he has standards." Jaune nodded, though he quickly followed up with a snort of derision.

"Considering he launched me into the Emerald Forest last semester, I wouldn't say his standards fall too much higher from another student being endangered…" Jaune did sigh, however, as he helped the others look. "But I guess he may have pulled through this one time."

"Unless he and his team were the ones who set this up. I wouldn't past them myself." Blake muttered, still quite sore over Cardin's other even less admirable character flaws concerning the faunus as she looked around. "Not that hard to kick around some dirt and make it look like something went down here… though I guess these shoe prints are small enough to be Koichi's." Blake scratched at the back of her head as her amber eyes turned up. "The rest of you guys find anything yet?"

"No, not a thing." Okuyasu muttered disdainfully as he kicked some dirt on the ground, a frustrated twist to his lips as he growled a bit. "These tracks don't even help us out that damn much. We already could've guessed that whatever bastard snatched Koichi up probably took him to Vale. We need something more solid if we're actually going to find him, right Josuke?" Okuyasu waited for a response from his leader and after having not received one for well over a minute, turned his head to face the pompadoured teen. "Josuke?"

Nine pairs of eyes turned to look over at Josuke, who just stood over the fountain and stared down into the water, a focused look in his eyes as he slowly bent over. With a quick snatch, Josuke retrieved something from the water and brought it up to his eyes.

A dark grin piece of fabric heavily torn at the edges. It looked to be the same fabric as the uniforms that Josuke and Okuyasu had worn, which meant…

"Great… even when he's being kidnapped, Koichi is still on top of things." The genuinely relieved smile on Josuke's face lifted everyone's spirits as the pompadoured team leader turned to face them, though his relief was soon replaced by raw determination as he placed the piece of cloth into his uniform's pocket. "Let's get to Vale. Once we're in the city proper I can use Crazy Diamond to fix this piece of Koichi's uniform. It won't be too dissimilar from how I tailed you on my first day here, Ruby." Everyone nodded in grim understanding as, immediately, they all bolted for the airbus station on the edge of the campus Academy itself.

All ten of them knew that time was of the essence. There'd be no stopping and there'd be no considerations. They'd find Koichi, and they'd save him. No matter what.

* * *

?, The City of Vale, Hours after Koichi's Capture

His mouth was dry.

That was the first thought that had run through Koichi's mind as he had slowly stirred to consciousness. His body had been incredibly sore, his muscles had been stiff and, if he focused, he could've sworn he felt a headache coming on. He groaned as he tried to move to hold his head or to stretch out his stiff limbs at all.

His eyes had snapped open when he realized he couldn't move at all, no matter what he tried. As blue eyes swiveled around, these had been the things that Koichi Hirose had noticed in order. First, he was tied, quite securely, to a wooden chair. Slightly fraying but otherwise strong rope had been used to secure his arms behind the back of the chair, his legs to the front two legs of the chair and the rest of his body right down onto it. He was immobilized for all intents and purposes and even if he got Echoes to work on the knots that had secured him, he knew it would take a lot of time for his relatively weak Stand to have gotten him out of this situation.

If he had even gotten out of the chair though, on some level, Koichi realized his trouble wouldn't have been over. As his eyes scanned his surroundings, he realized three things at once. For one, wherever he was it was very, very dark; some natural light still managed to sneak in and otherwise illuminate the room and, consequently, building around him but otherwise it was quite dark. Second was that wherever he was, it was industrial in make. Several giant machines surrounded him, thick drums with pipes leading into and out of them that had old, painted letters worn off from them. Distantly, he could hear water running through most of the pipework and through the drums… which had greatly concerned Koichi; judging by the looks of this place alone, it shouldn't have been running. All the machinery and metal seemed rusted and old, as if the entire place had been set to collapse in on itself at any moment.

Third and finally was probably obvious but nonetheless had spooked the young man quite a bit; he had absolutely no idea where he was or what he was doing here. Koichi closed his eyes as he tried to focus his thoughts, tried his best to remember what had happened before he had passed out and woken up here. The spar with Dove, the chase in the halls of Beacon, Team CRDL, the fountain and then… and then…

Koichi's eyes snapped open in realization.

"O-Oh no… I've been… I've been caught." Koichi wriggled around in the chair somewhat desperately as he tried to get himself out of it, his eyes snapping around the gigantic open area around him as he tried to make out some sign of movement or otherwise some semblance of a human's presence in the immediate area. "B-But who, how? I was on Beacon Academy's campus. There should've been cameras, there should've been people to stop anyone from taking me away… unless I'm still on campus? No, that couldn't be, someone would've found me by now if… if…

"How long has it been since I was snatched up?" Koichi whispered to himself as a sinking feeling hit his stomach, unsure of how exactly he was going to get out of this situation.

"A few hours, give or take." Koichi's gaze had snapped up as a voice echoed around the metallic machinery, cold and utterly uncaring as it had spoken to him.

"W-W-Who's there!? Where are you!?" Koichi screamed out desperately as his eyes dance around, a dark chuckle having echoed from somewhere amidst the machines and drums.

"Hehehehe… Kid, you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you talk like that. It's been years since I've heard that tone of voice; that utter desperation and fear that coats hurried words like sweet, sweet honey to my ears… it's been too long since I've been able to indulge myself like this. I'll really have to thank Torchwick for this… before I end up butchering him and that pretty little girl of his too. Eventually. Right now, I'm too grateful for his help. Put me into quite the good mood."

Koichi heard them before he saw the owner of the voice; heavy footsteps that echoed throughout the almost entirely empty room. Blue eyes snapped around to try and see the owner of these footsteps before he fully appeared but alas, it seemed as though the shadows and Koichi's own hysterical state had left him slightly unawares. Eventually, the figure had made itself known as it stepped out of the shadows and Koichi's eyes had gone as wide as dinner plates.

He stood nearly as tall as Josuke, Hell, perhaps as tall as Jotaro, with a wide, powerful frame and a square face that, alone, would have made him look strong and intimidating. His face was rough and ugly; a brow that had sat heavily on his purple eyes so that their natural state had been a slight, narrowed wince as he stared down at Koichi. A receding, grey hairline had given him an older look than perhaps he truly had been, but he did look quite old regardless. On his person he wore a Beacon Academy Staff uniform, not too dissimilar from the one that Toshikazu had worn while at Beacon. His skin was practically grey in tone, which had lent itself to the overall unhealthy and unsettling demeanor about this man.

Worse yet, Koichi could see his Stand, plain as day. It was small, incredibly small, and yet it smiled so viciously at him that Koichi couldn't help but feel intimidated. On this man's gargantuan, broad shoulders had hung a tiny little blue man with thick, blue lips and harsh green eyes. Its entire body had been stylized with eyes all over it and it had bared sharp fangs at Koichi as it stared at him, licking its lips. The Stand just grinned at him, hungry and malicious, as it wrapped its arms around its master's neck.

The man grinned darkly as he stared down at Koichi and slowly made his way over to him. "I have to say, Torchwick wasn't kidding when he said you'd be the easiest one of your lot to capture. Even putting aside their Stands, those two looked tough in their own right. All I had to do was get up close to you without you throwing a panic and I managed to reel you in quite nicely." The man chuckled as his rough, calloused hand suddenly reached out and snatched Koichi up by his lower jaw, the young boy wincing in pain at the pressure exerted on him as the man forcibly turned his face a few times to get a better look at him.

"W-W-Who are you?" Koichi meekly muttered as the man just grinned down at him.

"Hmmm… telling you wouldn't get me much. After all, foreign little shit like yourself wouldn't know my name or reputation. You wouldn't know exactly what you're in for..." The man, with an impressive strength, lifted Koichi up by his hold on him and lifted the chair right along with him as he brought Koichi's blue eyes to look into his purple ones. "Then again, I guess there's no harm in giving you the name of your executioner, brat. My name's Anjuro Katagiri… though, most people in this shithole of a city just call me Angelo. It works, I guess." Angelo chuckled darkly as bruises had begun to form on Koichi's face where Angelo had secured his hold of him. Before long, the giant of a man dropped Koichi and his chair back on the floor, as Koichi just stared up at him, clearly frightened.

"Y-Y-You mentioned Roman Torchwick, that must mean you're working for him, right?" Koichi swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked the giant up and down.

"What's that look for? Trying to find an ear or a tail I might be hidin', you little shit?" Angelo had frowned slightly as he spoke. All of a sudden, an enraged expression crossed his face as he kicked Koichi in the face, a move which had sent the young man and the chair he had been tied to flying as Angelo just glared angrily at him. "You think I'm one of those fucking animals? One of Roman Torchwick's little lap dogs or house cats?" Angelo had snarled a bit as he stalked on over to Koichi as he roughly grabbed him by the front of his uniform and forced him and the chair back up straight.

"Torchwick just happened to be the bastard who managed to bust me out of prison and offered me a little bit of work doing what I love doing best; roundin' up some arrogant little shits. What can I say, I'm a simple man and I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth… especially if it came with this sort of power." The Stand that hung off Angelo's shoulder laughed harshly as the two of them looked down on Koichi, whose head had slumped slightly from the blow it had taken.

"You… you won't get away with this. My team… they'll come sooner rather than later. When they do, they're gonna-"

"Oh, you mean with that scrap of your uniform you left behind?" Koichi's eyes snapped open as his head rose to meet Angelo's gaze, the serial murderer just grinned maliciously as he chuckled. "You're pretty arrogant if you thought I'd miss something like that. I've been at this for a lot longer than you have, brat. Longer than you've been alive in fact. I'm also a very patient man… if you thought that I didn't know exactly what you and your friends are capable of, well-" A well placed punch by Angelo into Koichi's gut had effectively knocked the wind out of him, a spray of blood forced from his mouth as Angelo chuckle, "-you bet wrong. I've been watching all of you for weeks now…"

"It… it was you I felt. You were the one…" Koichi muttered weakly as Angelo just smiled.

"Yep. Once again, gotta give credit to Torchwick; his cronies know their stuff. Got me into that school and kept me under wraps long enough for me to get a good picture of you and your little friends' capabilities. My patience will pay off here once they come too; had Torchwick reconnect this old place back to the water line. Suppose it doesn't make much of a difference to you, but this here's an old Water Treatment Plant. Was the main one that Vale used for the longest time before the place was eventually outdone by new facilities around the city. Once Josuke and Okuyasu get here with their Stands and those little shits follow them up, well… they'll be walking into the perfect little playground for my Stand, **[Aqua Necklace]**." Angelo reached down and grabbed Koichi by the front of his uniform's jack as he dragged him back up to face him.

"If you hadn't torn off a bit of your uniform yourself, I would've done it for you. It'll make it all too easy for Josuke and his Stand to track you down. The other Teams seem pretty impulsive too; they'll probably follow and thinking they're invincible little shits just cause they've dealt with a few pathetic Stands and Torchwick's house pets, they'll probably fail to tell anyone where they're going." Angelo chuckled as he stared Koichi in the eye.

"It'll make it all even better. I love putting arrogant folks in their place… it's the best sort of kill, in my opinion. When they think they have everything under control, that they're so above all the rest of us… when you bring them down from their pedestal, the look in their eyes, the betrayed, lost look, it just adds that special little layer to it all that makes it even more worthwhile." Angelo dropped Koichi back to the floor as he shook his head.

"Just a shame all the girls on the three teams have Aura, it'd make it a little too hard to wrangle them up. Little red hood especially looked like she'd have been a nice, snug fit. Would've loved to see the look in her sister's eyes before I ended up moving onto her." Angelo's grin twisted and turned as he looked over to Aqua Necklace "In the end, I'll settle with my Stand having my fun for me, I guess. One way or another, they're all gonna be slaughtered once they get here. In the meantime…" Angelo's gaze became hungry and distorted as he looked down at Koichi, who just stared up horrifically at the man.

"I guess I can entertain myself with you."

"Y-Y-Y-You can't! The Lock, Tamami, the information we got from his said that Torchwick wants us alive! If you kill us-" Koichi desperately tried to argue this man off, to keep him from killing him or his friends when they arrived. As Koichi tried his best to beg, Angelo just laughed hoarsely.

"You think I honestly give a shit kid? If Torchwick goes about asking what the Hell happened to any of you when we get around to chatting, I'll just tell him you all put up too much of a fight and I had to put you all down. He'll take it and leave it alone; after all, the bastard looked like he was going to piss himself just talking to me when we met." Angelo let out another raucous laugh as he knelt down so that his eyes were level with Koichi's, a made edge to his gaze as he barred his teeth. "Even if he didn't… well, I was going to kill him sooner or later. If Torchwick would want to make it sooner, well, I'd be more than happy to oblige.

"Especially if little miss ice cream bitch wants to step in. Though, I think I'll have the least fun with her; it isn't as much fun without the screaming, after all." With that, Angelo reached into his maintenance uniform and, to Koichi's horror, pulled out a large, carving knife as the deranged serial murderer twirled it about. "Now, seeing as how I won't be able to get my own hands dirty with your friends, I'm gonna go ahead and take my time with you. I'm gonna want you to scream nice and loud. So loud that they'll hear you a ways off.

"When we're done… well, just in case things end up going better than expected, I'm afraid I forgot to bring any prophylactics. Don't wanna go catchin' anything you kids might be spreading around these days." Koichi's face twisted into a horrified grimace as Angelo placed the knife just beneath his sternum, having pressed just hard enough to break Koichi's skin even through his uniform. "I'm gonna have to ask you to make a donation."

Koichi's mind raced; he wasn't sure what the worst part of all this was. That his friends were in such grave danger, that they were going to run into a trap set by this… this monster because he'd been caught, that he would brutalize them, and him, in ways that Koichi himself could have scarcely imagined or wanted to think of…

Or that the more scared Koichi got, the more horrified he became of Angelo's threats and behaviors, the more sick pleasure that Angelo seemed to take as he reached forward for the top-most buttons of Koichi's uniform.

 **SLAM!**

Both were startled as they heard the sound of giant, metal doors having been swung open, as blue and purple eyes swung to look some ways off in the building. However large Koichi might've thought the building was, it must've been even more massive if he couldn't see any light coming from such a large door; who knows how many walls it was behind.

"Koichi! We're here! We're going to save you!" Josuke's voice rang out nice and loud as Angelo just grimaced, having retracted his knife as he growled.

"Fuck, they're already here. I have to admit, they're a lot earlier than I thought they would be… Aqua Necklace!" With that, the little blue Stand jumped forth from Angelo's shoulder and splatted onto the side of one of the large, metal drums that had been connected to the pipework as, slowly but surely, Aqua Necklace forced itself between the tiny, tiny space afforded by the bolts holding the drum together to slip inside and go through the piping system of the building. Angelo turned his gaze back to Koichi, a disappointed expression on his face before he turned to walk away.

"We'll finish this later… actually, might be for the best now that I think of it." Koichi could see the horrifying grin that formed on Angelo's face as the giant of a man chanced a glance behind him to look at Koichi. "Once I'm done with them, I'm under no obligation to hurry. I'll have all the time in the world… we can have some serious fun then, little man." With that, Angelo stalked back into the shadows as his footsteps echoed away, slowly but surely, as Koichi sat in horrified, stunned silence. When he could no longer hear Angelo's footsteps, Koichi immediately turned his head as best he could to look towards the back of his chair.

"Echoes!" In a hurried whisper, Echoes had been summoned just behind Koichi's chair as the little green Stand floated behind him. "Get me out of this thing! Untie the ropes, heck, bite them, I don't care how just get me out of here now!" Echoes nodded as the Stand got to work as it used its tiny hands, at first, to try and untie the knots that had secured Koichi to the chair. Soon enough it became clear that the rope Angelo had brought had been solid, despite its coarse, frayed feel and soon enough, Echoes had just taken to biting and cutting into it with the metallic portions of its face, to little avail.

"Come on Echoes! We have to get out there! Josuke and the others are here and they don't know this guy has a Stand! Maybe I don't know what it does exactly, but it got in the pipes somehow! I have to tell them!" Koichi stared desperately back at his Stand as Echoes struggled with the ropes, the more time it took for Echoes to undo the bonds the more desperate Koichi became. "Come on! We need to get out there! We need to tell them! We need to help! We need… we need to…" Koichi bit his lip and lowered his head as it soon became clear that his Stand wouldn't have been able to get him out of here anytime soon, as Koichi just shook his head. "Dammit… tied to a chair by a psychopath and I can't even get myself out of that to save my life or my friends… if I got out of here, I might at least be able to distract him and his Stand, maybe turn his attention away but… not much more.

"I can't even give them that if I'm stuck here. Dammit. Just… dammit!" Koichi tried to his best to kick off the ground, the chair wobbled slightly as he did so. An idea popped into Koichi's mind as he slowly but surely rocked the chair back and forth, doing his best to slowly build up momentum. As soon as he thought he had enough, Koichi threw himself back and had Echoes place itself just behind the back legs of the chair. The motion and the force behind it tipped the chair over Echoes and sent it flying back as it hit the ground with a resounding thud.

"C'mon, please tell me something broke…" Koichi muttered as he tried to worm his way out of the ropes or feel around for some broken section of the chair. Despite his best effort, Koichi had felt as securely tied to this chair as he had before he knocked it over, which had only further frustrated the young man. "Come on! I have to be able to do something! They're trying to save me! I can't just sit this one out! I can't just sit here and be useless!" Koichi continued to struggle and writhe around as he pulled and fought against his bonds.

"I can't… I can't just depend on them to save me again. I can't do nothing while they're in danger. Not when I'm the reason they're in so much peril in the first place! I can't… I won't… dammit… just… dammit." Koichi round his teeth together as he allowed his head to drop against the cold, concrete floor while frustrated tears threatened to come out of the corners of his eyes. Some monster, as he sat there, had probably been stalking his friends around this place and was getting ready to murder them all horrifically, either by his own hand or with his Stand, and all Koichi could do was sit here.

Even efforts to force himself either onto his side or back straight up had proven useless; he was just stuck on his back now, left to wait out the result of the fight between his friends and this new Stand User, Angelo.

Slowly but surely Koichi cracked open his eyes, a defeated look to them as he realized just how much he had failed here, how much danger he had put his friends in and just how little he could have now done to stop Angelo and help his friends and comrades out. If left to his own devices, Koichi would've surely stewed and stewed until a sign, one way or another, would've told him how the battle had turned out and how his friends had done, if such a sign would have ever come.

Instead, as Koichi's eyes peered open to look out, they went with surprise and shock as Koichi flinched back, seemingly ready to scream out as a gut reaction. A slender finger and thumb quickly reached out to keep his lips shut, as another reached up to motion for Koichi to shush himself, to keep quiet. Koichi could scarcely believe it; he hadn't even heard this person coming at all! With no noise and only concrete floor to have walked across, surely whoever this was had to have made some kind of noise, some kind of sign that she had been here, even if she had snuck up while Koichi had struggled against the floor… right?

While those thoughts had ran through his mind and produced no small amount of discomfort, Koichi's eyes had taken in the girl's features, looking to see if he had recognized this sudden addition to the Water Treatment facility they had apparently been in. What Koichi had seen was a soft featured, light-skinned feminine face that had roughly faced his own, framed on both sides by two, black twin-tails that had been secured in place by a pair of white ribbons that had been tied up just a little ways above the young woman's ears. A pair of green eyes looked down into his blue and, even more odd for the situation they had found themselves in, Koichi could've swore he felt the gaze that looked back to his was… amused? Entertained in some way?

At that moment, Koichi had realized why this girl had seemed so familiar; she had been the one he spotted at the arena. The one that had seemed to utterly out of place and that his mind screamed as having been, in some way, wrong. He hadn't known her name yet now, here she was, right in front of him and as her fingers left his lips, having left him silent for the moment, he could confirm that she had, in fact, been real and not some figment of his stressed out imagination.

As the young woman saw the spark of recognition in Koichi's eyes, the same amused look that he had seen in her eyes had crossed her lips as the young woman grinned. With a slight wave and a bow she had, a little dramatically, greeted Koichi.

And, to silver haired boy's horror, swiftly produced a dagger.

 **-To Be Continued- Echoes (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: Shorter chapter here, mostly because it's acting as a bridge between the two halves and ramping us up towards the action. Answering question as to what more active elements in the plot are up to (otherwise known as why the fuck isn't Jotaro getting involved, a constant struggle) and raising the tensions as the big fallout next chapter approaches.**

 **So as most people have probably put two and two together, let me explain; there were several times in the outline where Yukako, whether in actual character or concept, outright didn't exist in the story. She existed in this weird nether or having been part of what drove an initial part of Koichi's development and being pretty much superfluous fluff to the plot of Diamond is Unbreakable. Like a lot of the villains who got turned into either allies or neutral parties, she just kind of existed and didn't contribute much. That her, Toshikazu and Tamami get included in Chase or Great Days as allies is kinda laughable too, as they pretty much contribute nothing to the overall story themselves except for when they were out and out antagonists.**

 **With Tamami and Toshikazu, keeping them out and out antagonists was an easy play to make. Yukako would've been more controversial to do, so there were just several times where I tried to outline the story so that she wouldn't need to fit because I really couldn't imagine including her in the story, for reasons that'll be elaborated on next paragraph. One such early draft was that Koichi would've come to Beacon with Act 2 already unlocked… but I ended up scrapping this version quick, as it pretty much undercut a lot of the flow to Koichi's development, never setting up a starting point, and made possible overtures towards people like Jaune feel a little hollow, considering that Koichi would've already been so far along his character arc that relating the two would seem too little too late.**

 **So including Yukako for that kick seemed like the only other option for a time. However, I never did like including Yukako because she always felt like unneeded baggage. Remember a few chapters ago how I talked about the character economy? Adding another character to my cast list who wouldn't have much of an arc and who didn't have much of a conflict native to herself other than 'can I get Koichi to fuck me already' didn't really appeal to me. Hell, as far as Koichi having a girlfriend was concerned, several options had small bits written out and tested to see how I liked the chemistry and to see if the conflicts and characters I had in mind for them played well with Koichi's own struggles. The primary candidate in this time of the draft was Penny, though I eventually had different ideas for our poor little robot girl.**

 **The second to last version of the final draft had Yukako in it again but I was still rather unhappy and pretty much felt like I was including her because I felt like I had to. It was also around this time that I finished drafting up the characterization and conflict of another character in the plot. Soon enough my mind started to make connections and, in the end, I liked what I was seeing and felt that it served all my purposes quite well.**

 **Also, kept wondering if I was going too far with Angelo the entire time, thinking I might've gotten a bit too harsh in some places. Then I went back and watched his episodes in DiU, and I figured I actually hadn't gone far enough. You know, it's funny; Josuke's adventures in Morioh begins and ends with a deranged serial killer, though Angelo and Yoshikage Kira were certainly different beasts.**

 **We'll discuss this further another time, for now, hope you all will have a good week and I'll see ya'll Saturday.**


	20. Echoes (Act 3)

Torchwick Safehouse, City of Vale, Three Weeks and Some Odd Days Before

"So that's… uhh… that's our, that's our offer there big guy. You go ahead and you use that Stand Power that you just got and we'll be sure to keep an eye out for you. Give you some payback for when you work with us. Considering your… expertise, we've got a specific job in mind for you."

It had only been a matter of hours beforehand when Neo, with the help of Miuller, had managed to get Anjuro Katagiri, or Angelo, out of prison. Momentarily calmed by the fact that his would-be "employers" had managed to get him out of his cell and back onto the streets of Vale, Angelo had decided to listen to what Roman Torchwick, a man he had viewed as beneath him, had to offer. In truth, it was plain to see who had the upperhand even early on in these discussions; despite the fact that Roman had his own Aura, Neo in plain sight and Cinder and her flunkies waiting in the wings, having been directly confronted with a killer of such morbid reputation as Angelo had shaken the orange haired criminal underlord.

Despite this apparent fear, Roman Torchwick had still done what he did best and put on a magnificent show to help convince a prospective partner to work with him. He had mentioned the extent of their plans and what sort of… fun Angelo could have expected to have in the time to come, as well as some of the side benefits. When the Test of The Arrow had come up, Angelo had been more than ready to take such a test if it meant gaining some sort of Stand Power.

In truth, almost everyone gathered there besides Cinder had silently hoped that the Test of The Arrow would kill Angelo. Of all gathered, only Cinder seemed hopeful that he'd pass and with flying colors. When the arrow flew and struck Angelo the results had been plain to see; blood that poured forth from the wound had coagulated and formed together before distilling into a plain watery color as Aqua Necklace had swiftly come to be.

Cinder had smiled; the arrow had guided them to this man and so it was natural that he would pass its test so easily and so quickly. Whitesnake, as ever, had lived up to his end of a bargain and supplied Cinder with yet another stream of Stand Users to create and use. Everyone else, meanwhile, had practically cussed under their breath, or in Neo's case in her head, as Angelo passed the test so simply and so easily. That curse had only amplified in worry when Angelo had been given a… test dummy to practice his Stand's abilities on, courtesy of Cinder Fall.

It would take days to scrub everything off the concrete floor of the safehouse.

So here stood Roman, dwarfed in height by Angelo as he had a pair of purple eyes gaze down at him menacingly, with Neo at his side with her umbrella blade at the ready should anything funny occur. Cinder, Emerald and Mercury had been off in the shadows, watching the undertakings carefully and unseen.

"You see, we got ourselves a handful of brats from the Frontier of all places. I'm sure you've heard of them, those… those televisions they got in the prison common area probably broadcasted that news a few times now." Roman said with a light chuckle, one that had immediately died on his throat when Angelo hadn't parroted it back to him. "Right… so, they're of interest to a business partner of mine who wants them, alive!" Roman specified very swiftly as Angelo just snarled in slight annoyance at Torchwick's tone.

"Right, right. So he wants them alive and… well, you are Vale's authority on kidnapping children and making sure no one finds them until it's too late, ahahaha… haha… haaaa…" Even Torchwick couldn't find it in himself to carry through with that rather poor excuse of a joke, though it seemed to cause a small smile to cross Angelo's lips.

"So, want me to snatch up some brats and then present them to you wrapped up in a pretty bow?" Angelo asked, a wide, manic grin having formed on his face as Roman just nodded slowly.

"Y-Yeah, they're at Beacon right now and we can sneak you in as a maintenance worker pretty easy at this point. The rest would be up to you though, you wouldn't have much backup going with you-"

"Please, do you think someone with my experience honestly needs the help?" Angelo asked, his teeth bared in a wide smile as he looked down at Torchwick who just casually held his cane in front of him defensively.

"W-Well, no. I'm just sayin', you know, in case you wanted it…" Angelo finally belted out a loud, boisterous laugh before he tilted his head down to look Roman in the eyes.

"You know what Torchwick, you aren't as much of a little shit as the guys in prison said you were. Actually got a bit of sense in that bowler hat wearing head of yours." Roman did his best to laugh off the insult; ordinarily Roman wouldn't have taken a jab like 'little shit' sitting down from anyone… but as he looked up at Angelo, Torchwick could instinctively feel, in his gut, that he just needed to let it go. "Alright Torchwick, for getting me out of the fucking prison and for getting me this… Stand Power, I'll get you your brats. Hell, who knows, maybe I'll go ahead and kill those huntresses that've been giving you so much trouble while I'm at it. I've been in prison for a little too long… hearing some girls scream and beg sounds right up my alley at this point." A sadistic grin just crossed Angelo's face as Torchwick, reluctantly, nodded.

"W-W-Well if you do manage to kill Team RWBY, I'd certainly be ready to offer you up even more of a reward there Angelo. Certainly would be a set of monkeys off my back." Torchwick smiled at the large man before he spun his cane around to direct him to a group of White Fang Goons. "Those guys over there'll take you to Miss Miuller, she'll be the one responsible for slipping you into Beacon Academy. Play nice alright, she's a very important ally and an employee of one of our friends. Should anything happen to her…" Roman tried his best to be careful as he attempted to keep Angelo reeled in, the giant, grey man just shrugged as he grinned back.

"No worries Torchwick. You and your lackeys have put me in a good mood. After that little shit over there, I feel pretty content. I'll behave." Angelo nodded over to bleeding, eviscerated corpse courtesy of Angelo and Aqua Necklace as the orange haired criminal overlord just nodded.

"Great, just, just great. I guess we'll see you… some other time then?" Roman offered with a slight wave. Angelo just nodded before he walked off to the White Fang Goons who all looked at him fearfully as they guided him away, each having been sure to keep Angelo in their sights as they did so. When Angelo's footsteps finally faded into the ether, Roman released a deep, heavy sigh as he stumbled backwards, Neo having slipped a chair in behind him before he could fall flat on his ass.

"Hoooooly shit… I thought he was going to fucking eat my face." Roman raised his gloved hands to palm him face before he ran them down the length of it with a shaken breath. "My God… I didn't think that he could've lived up to his reputation but… fuck me. Just… just fuck me."

Anjuro Katagiri was the sort of person nightmares were made of in human cities. The kind of man who could very easily have passed as a member of the Grimm with his monstrous behavior and attitude. In the Frontier, Legends had it that men and women like them had been the ones shaped more heavily by the Brother of Destruction and were, thus, closer to his creations than to those of the Brother of Creation. If it showed in anyone, it showed in Anjuro Katagiri, now known only as Angelo. For the people of The Four Kingdoms, Angelo was just a murderous psychopath, plain and simple.

Robbed and raped a woman at age 12, for which he spent several years in prison, and then proceeded to follow that up with the longest, most terrifying crime spree in all of Vale's history once he got out. Capped off with the rape and murder of three young boys; one had been a faunus, who had been dismembered in front of the other two and had his bits and pieces nailed to several walls, save for his tail. No, his tail had been used to strangle one of the other boys while Angelo had… had forced himself upon him. The last boy, the police had never even found all his pieces. Though few wanted to look into the fact that when Angelo had been caught at the scene of this crime that blood had filled his mouth… blood that had, decidedly, not been his.

He had been on death row when the arrow had picked up on him. He had been slated to be put to death in just mere days before Miuller and Neo had showed up to his prison and orchestrated his clean escape. No one would know that Angelo had gone missing unless someone tipped them off… and the only people who would know was them.

The ones who unleashed this monstrosity once again.

"Fantastic, isn't it?" Cinder's voice called out from the shadows as she, Emerald and Mercury stepped forth. Emerald had a bitter, angry look on her face while Mercury seemed distraught as he rubbed his chin in thought. Cinder, well, she just looked well chuffed. "He's not only lived up to his own reputation, but he's lived up to the potential the arrow has sensed in him. Whitesnake has once again delivered us a boon; if we find more Stands like his Aqua Necklace, then we shall have ourselves a force that can actually stand against these Frontier Huntsmen and the teams at Beacon Academy." Cinder nodded her head slowly, while Roman just turned towards her slowly.

"I… I guess. I mean, listen, we've done some shit already. Killed some people, ruined some lives, maimed and injured who knows how many others between all these robberies and all our little activities… but, this seems like a new low doesn't it. I mean, Angelo? Seriously?" Cinder just smiled softly as she shook her head.

"Come now Roman, Angelo might be a little more clever than he lets on, but he's still little more than an animal. With my power, I can easily put him down like a rabid dog if he gets out of line. Once he's no longer useful to us, we can crush him under our foot. He'll move our agenda forward and then, well, we can be rid of him. Doesn't that sound good to you, Roman? To have your problems taken care of so securely by such an… efficient soldier?" Cinder shrugged her shoulders lightly, as Torchwick bit his lip for a moment. Neo stared long and hard at the two of them, before Roman just sighed.

"... I guess. The arrow did pull through with this, I guess. Might not be so bad to have around to deal with these brats either." Roman scratched the back of his neck as he stood up, clearly agitated but, oddly, having bent to Cinder's will. Neopolitan frowned slightly at this but nodded along with her boss.

"If you ask me, this just shows how right our cause is." Emerald muttered under his breath as she shook her head, red eyes narrowed in anger as she looked towards Angelo's exit. "If humans really make bastards like him possible… then Cinder and The Queen are right to do what they do. Humanity really isn't any better than the Grimm if there are folks like Angelo around." Neopolitan seemed to roll her mixed colored eyes at this, though she bit her lip when she saw the looks Cinder and Roman gave her.

"Or, and you know this is just me throwing wild and crazy ideas out there, maybe we're not exactly that much better than our enemies with this one." Everyone turned their heads to Mercury as the silver haired teen spoke in his ever sarcastic tone, a slightly apathetic expression on his face as he shrugged. "I mean, maybe, just maybe, us hiring this guy on when we know what he's done doesn't exactly paint us in an all too superior light to the hunters? I mean, I dunno, seems like something we might want to think about for a moment, something to reflect on." Cinder, Emerald and Roman all narrowed their gaze towards Mercury. The words had been challenging and, if spoken by anyone else, might've been considered a betrayal.

However, Mercury's tone was quite clearly sarcastic and quippy, as always, so Emerald just rolled her eyes. "Whatever Merc, not the best time for joking about stuff like this." Emerald said with an annoyed grunt as she walked off, as Cinder just nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, now then, let's get going. We all have business of our own to attend to, after all." As Cinder, Roman and Emerald departed, Mercury just nodded as he laughed, mostly to himself.

"Yep. Just thought I'd throw out that joke to lighten the mood. Hahahaha…. Haha… hah, jeez."

Mercury Black was not a good person. This really shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone; after all, when you grew up as the son of an assassin who also happened to come home a little too drunk more often than not, your moral compass wasn't likely to end up well adjusted. Still, Mercury liked to think that he was at least aware of this, even if he was apathetic about it. Truth was, Mercury didn't care about much except saving his own skin and ensuring that he got out of most situations with his neck in tact. Hell, it's why he signed on with Salem's group when Cinder came knocking; Mercury knew a winner when he saw them… especially when he saw Salem herself.

Ye Gods. Call him a coward if you want, but he'd begger anyone, even people with the most upfront and righteous of moralities, to say no to Salem when forced to meet her face to face.

Point was, Mercury knew he wasn't a good guy and knew that he wasn't about to shift sides. He wasn't about to doom himself just because things might've gotten a little uncomfortable. After all, he knew the only thing that'd await him was a gruesome, grisly death.

Didn't mean he had to fool himself into anything when it came to Angelo though. Emerald might've had the 'true believer' schtick that she seemed to swing around heavily whenever Cinder was around and Roman Torchwick might've done his best to just buy more and more deeply into Cinder's stuff while Cinder… well, if it weren't for the fact that she had Aura Mercury wouldn't have been too sure if that woman had a soul at all.

He wasn't even going to get into the creep factor that was Whitesnake. Just thinkin' of the guy gave Mercury the shivers.

Point was, Mercury saw this situation for what it was; they'd essentially hired on a guy who made the Grimm look positively cuddly by comparison to further their own agenda. A guy they likely had very little real control over and who was probably going to cause havoc in the City of Vale once he got bored of working with them, especially now that he had a Stand like Aqua Necklace.

Mercury Black wasn't a good person. He was apathetic and a coward. Hell, their plan involving the Breach would essentially doom everyone in the city to a death via the Grimm. He wasn't in any position to talk about how much destruction he was about to help cause and he wasn't really inclined to bullshit himself or others about it. However, at least the Grimm were nice and quick about it. Even Mercury couldn't help but shudder for whatever fate the poor bastards or bitches who got caught by Angelo would get inflicted on them. Slow, painful, tortuous and all for Angelo's pleasure. It wasn't going to be good, that was for certain.

As Mercury slowly came back to his senses, he took notice that he wasn't alone in the room; Neopolitan had stuck around and eyed him curiously, a slight raise to her eyebrow as she silently evaluated him. Well, he supposed he should've been used to being surrounded by bloodthirsty, mentally unstable freaks at this point.

"Bet Angelo being on our side is going to help make you feel right at home, right ice cream?" Mercury commented casually as he combed a hand through his hair. To his surprise, Neo seemed to scoff at this before having flipped him the bird before, through the use of her semblance, she disappeared from sight and sound, having not left a trace of herself to follow. "Jeez, what's her problem?"

* * *

Back to The Present

'This is it, I'm going to die. I've seen too much and now she's going to kill me before I get a chance to spill my guts.'

He'd seen this girl, she hadn't been supposed to be there, there had been something wrong and now he was going to pay for it. That had been the narrative that Koichi's panicked mind had formed as he watched the strange, green eyed girl grin down at him with knife in hand. At this point, Koichi had shouted over Angelo enough that he had barely the energy to raise a fuss over this. After all, what was he going to do: distract Josuke and the others in a key moment in their fight with Angelo? So that they could come and see him cut up after this girl had her way with him?

This fatalistic line of thinking, this lack of hope, is what caused Koichi to scrunch his eyes closed as he waited for the inevitable flash of pain that was sure to come. Eventually, the knife did sing as it cut through the air and the sound of rope and cloth being cut wide open had been heard. However, the flash of pain, the spray of blood and the sound of flesh being torn open had not reached Koichi. In fact, the only thing Koichi had felt in the moment immediately after was a slight breeze on his torso.

As Koichi cracked open his eyes he saw an amused look on the girl's face, a thin smile and silent chuckle on her lips as she watched his reaction. Koichi had blinked a few times before his blue eyes had turned down to look at his chest. His bonds had been cut, expertly, and the only damage that had been done to his person had been that his shirt had been cut open as well. After a moment of stunned silence Koichi slowly worked against the bonds that had held him and without their central support had found they had gone slack.

A few more expert cuts from the girl that separated his legs from the legs of the chair and Koichi rolled out of it, patting himself over as he checked to see if he was actually alive or if this had all been a dream. The young man blinked several times as he looked up to the young woman, who just continued to grin at him.

"T-Thank you…"

Indeed; no matter what suspicions Koichi may have had as it concerned this girl, no matter how much he may have been afraid of her presence and no matter just how unsettled his mind had felt about her… Koichi was honestly grateful. As the fear of death somewhat lessened in him and had been replaced by relief, he had felt his gratitude pour out to this person who had, for all intents and purposes, sneaked in here with a serial killer in order to undo his bonds.

It could have been a trick of Koichi's eyes, however, as he thanked he could've swore he saw her smile dip a bit from its arrogant and amused twist to a slightly more restrained one as she bowed melodramatically at him.

"A-Anyway, it's nice to meet you, I guess… my name's Hirose Koichi, though if you've gone to Beacon you probably know that already." Koichi sheepishly scratched the back of his head, having felt silly for having stated the obvious, as the girl just looked amusedly at him. Koichi waited for a response from her and just as he seemed like he was about to get discouraged from her silence, the girl just grinned and rolled her eyes as she shook her head at him. She lifted her chin up slightly and tapped at her throat, which caused Koichi's own blue eyes to go a bit wide in realization.

"Oh, sorry about that. I-I didn't know… I mean, I guess it would've been obvious that I wouldn't know since I've never met you, but…" The girl just silently chuckled as the amused tilt to her grin returned as she lightly placed her hands on her hips. Now that he got a closer look at her, she was a pretty attractive girl; on top of her fair skin, facial features and hair, she had a physique that, though quite a bit shorter, looked about as appealing as Yang's.

However, having said that about her being shorter than Yang, or even Ruby and Weiss for that matter, Koichi couldn't help but notice that she was still taller than him. No surprise though; almost everyone was taller than him. Especially Josuke…

Koichi's eyes snapped open in realization as he smiled at her. "Josuke!" He kept his voice hushed, much to the girl's seeming gratitude, as he excitedly looked at her. "My friends, they're here at the front gate by the sounds of it! Now that you've gotten me free, we can go out there and…" As Koichi spoke he saw the grin on her face dip into a frown as she shook her head.

The girl pointed to her ear with one hand and, with the other, made a bunch of seemingly nonsense gestures that capped off with a bit of a jazz handshake. Almost like how a magician would cap off one of his tricks at the end of a set. For most people, the game of charades might've posed a bit of a challenge. Koichi, on top of having been a pretty sharp kid, had gotten quite familiar with the meaning of words, symbols, phrases and movements thanks to Echoes and its control over sound. As Koichi just stared at her for a moment, he lightly bumped his fist into his other hand.

"You made an illusion of sound, one that drew Angelo's attention?" Green eyes sparkled with some delight as the girl just nodded. "Alright so, how did you sneak in, how do we get out?" She frowned slightly as she grabbed at her chin, before she pointed up and towards the ceiling. "Oh right… do suppose you having Aura would make that kind of entrance pretty easy." In truth, that hadn't been her entrance; she'd just cloaked herself in an illusion and snuck in that way. However, while Team RWBY and Josuke had known about her physical illusions and her ability to make them from their battle at the underpass, they hadn't known about her ability to manipulate sound too… or at least, it wouldn't have been as eye-catching.

She'd have to keep her visual illusions under wraps, and so she fabricated a little white lie for the little man.

"So, I guess we've got to try sneaking out around him huh?" She nodded and, with that, quickly set her semblance into motion. With some focus, she had managed to cancel out the sounds she had made from being heard outside of her bubble of Aura; it had been a trick she'd found useful when having stalked Koichi around Beacon Academy several times now. As Koichi suddenly couldn't hear one thing from her, he realized the extent of her sound tricks. As he entered the bubble, a few things had made sense.

"Wow, the extent of your ability with sounds is amazing… if you were around, I wouldn't even hear you coming." Blue eyes blinked slightly as he turned a curious gaze over to Neo. "So wait… was that you that made the cracking sound when Surface nearly had Jaune break my neck?" A slight grin and a nod was what Koichi had gotten as Koichi's blue eyes just seemed stunned. "I wouldn't have been able to hear your footsteps so I wouldn't have known where you were so much of the time… have you really just been watching over me like this?"

She had paused for a moment to consider. She knew what Koichi had meant by that and, well, her aims hadn't been nearly so noble. She had wanted to make sure that the crazies like Toshikazu or Angelo hadn't killed one of Whitesnake's targets; she didn't want to see Roman get into any danger because of all this either from Whitesnake doing… whatever it was Whitesnake did or Cinder burning him alive and, in all honesty, had intended to quietly kidnap Koichi herself sometime when she had the opportunity. It just so happened that between Angelo, Koichi's Team, Teams RWBY and JNPR, she had found it impossible.

Still, hadn't stopped Neo from being able to… well, no need to be coy, stalk Koichi for most of the past three weeks at Beacon Academy. A task that, though it had started off pretty annoying, had become actually kind of amusing in its own right after a time. And Hell, her stalking him had ended up saving his life a couple times she supposed. So she just nodded; it was only kind of correct and he had given her waaay too much credit, but Neo supposed that he was still technically correct.

Neo had been immediately taken aback when a curious expression overcame Koichi's features. On the one hand, the lad had seemed slightly spooked, having just learned that someone had been stalking him this entire time without him having even been aware. Yet despite this, there was also a gratitude there as he did his best to smile through his more fearful emotions.

"I don't even know your name… heck, when I saw you I figured you were some kind of threat or figment of my imagination. Thank you. I know you must have had one-thousand better things to be doing but… well, thanks." Neopolitan just coughed into her fist as she waved Koichi off and turned around, hiding her face from him as she motioned for the boy to follow her. Koichi just nodded and fell in behind her, a more serious expression on his face as the two immediately got to sneaking through the water treatment plant. Koichi had, for the moment, left his grousing behind as it seemed as though safety was at hand; no one would pay dearly for his mistakes, they could all regroup and take down Angelo later and, best of all, he could clear some of the doubt in his mind over what had transpired these past three weeks.

It had been a strange turn of fortunes. Given that the past three weeks had been so stressful and heavy on Koichi's mind, the young man was more than willing to take it. As the short duo passed through the plant, they finally heard something.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT! WHEN I FIND YOU I'M GOING TO BREAK YOU IN HALF!"

From the area that Neo had extracted Koichi from, Angelo's voice had roared out, easily having echoed throughout the entire water treatment facility. Neo had mentally cursed; seemed as though her little distraction hadn't taken nearly as much of Angelo's time as she hoped it would. Not surprising; he was bloodthirsty, not stupid, so one of her simple illusions wouldn't have held long against him, especially if he went ahead and attacked them. Now was all about getting out of here as fast as possible with Koichi; his teammates would arrive sometime thanks to Angelo letting the scrap of cloth hang back at Beacon, a revelation that had frustrated Neo as she had hoped to just swing by, grab Koichi and leave with him in her grasp. Now thanks to that, she wouldn't have been able to hand Koichi over to Roman for use in some later ambush. The least she could do was ensure that Whitesnake and Cinder wouldn't be pissed by getting him back to safety. They could always try another-

"Hey, do you hear that?" Koichi whispered anxiously as his eyes darted around, Neopolitan snapped out of her stupor for a moment as her disguised eyes darted around. Indeed, so deep in her own frustrated thoughts she'd been that Neo hadn't heard as the metalwork of the various boilers and pipes began to shake and shutter. Neo's eyes slowly widened in horror, matching Koichi's own expression, as the pair immediately glanced over to a nearby pressure gauge.

On all of them as far as the pair could see, the PSI had begun to skyrocket hard and fast.

"Aaah! They're gonna blow!" Neo's thoughts had rang out much the same as the two immediately bolted for some form of cover or another. The effort had proven slightly unneeded as, shortly after they ducked for whatever cover they could grab before the pipes burst around them the rusted machinery and pipework of the old water treatment facility gave way in small spurts and bursts. Sure, some pipes did a full on burst and soon had water flooding out from them, but others just popped some rusty, old and hardly functional bolts, from which steam poured forth. If Angelo's plan had been to blow the water treatment facility to take them down, then the plan had failed quite miserably.

Koichi had been the first to get up and walk around, a relieved sigh released as he shook his head. "Holy cow, that was really close. I thought this place was gonna explode on us." Despite her own sense of slight relief, Neo didn't feel all too relieved… though she hadn't quite placed why she had. As Neo stood up, Koichi's ears perked up as he turned to face her… and Neo's green eyes went wide.

Koichi had heard her get up.

The threat of the explosion and the resulting cacophony of noise and destruction had disrupted her illusion. Worse yet, as memories of Aqua Necklace's capabilities poured into Neo's mind, she realized just what Angelo had been up to. She saw it before Koichi; after all, it had begun to form behind the young man while he had been turned to face Neo. A face had begun to form in the mist just behind him, fangs and dark eyes with twisted lips that had crept up into an uneasy smile. The breaking of her illusion had allowed for the two of them to make sounds capable of being heard by Angelo and Aqua Necklace, the little Stand had then used the network of pipes and the clouds of mist to quickly traverse the water treatment plant to find them. As the mist began to dive down towards Koichi, coagulating into a singular form of Aqua Necklace as it did so, Neo immediately sprung forth up to Koichi.

With a yelp of surprise Koichi had been knocked off his feet and stripped of his cut up uniform jacket all in one go as Neo ripped open as much of the cloth as she could to give it more surface area. Pouring as much Aura as she could into her arms the criminal assassin immediately fanned the cloth at the gathering mist, the speed and strength with which she had done so produced a small but nonetheless potent bit of wind that had begun to push Aqua Necklace's mist back. The Stand growled and immediately condensed down into a more solid water form as it immediately made for Neo.

With that, Neopolitan immediately closed Koichi's jacket around it. From what she had gathered from taking a look at it and having a feel for it, the material had been somewhat waterproof, appropriately enough. If you spent most of your time outdoors, your material had better be made up to snuff she supposed. With that, she immediately spun and slammed the enclosed Aqua Necklace into a nearby pipe, having felt the tiny Stand dissipate into full on water to avoid taking any brunt of the blow. That done, Neo swung around and opened the jacket, sending the puddle of water that had been Aqua Necklace flying out in some random direction.

Before Koichi could have even thought to thank Neo for her effort, the little, young woman immediately reached down and grabbed Koichi by his wrist as she pulled him up to his feet and the pair resumed their run. This… this was bad news. With Aqua Necklace capable of traversing the water treatment facility so quickly thanks to whatever Angelo had done to the drums, pipes and metalwork, her illusions on herself or Koichi would just buy them time; if he couldn't find them by sound then he'd just fly around this building looking for them with his Stand. Given how fast Aqua Necklace could move through water, that hadn't boded well, especially since unlike Neo and Koichi it wasn't constrained by the passageways of metal that limited their mobility.

So putting another layer of sound over them to block them out would just buy a little bit of time before the next time Aqua Necklace would be on top of them. If she had her umbrella or could go full-tilt with her visual illusions, then Neo knew she could've handled Angelo and Aqua Necklace, though not without difficulty. However, with Koichi here both of those options weren't exactly in her wheelhouse. If she could just get Koichi out of the building and somewhere else, then she could turn around and put her full fury on Angelo. Roman would believe her when she reported that Angelo had intended to go back on his deal and Cinder and the rest would just have to deal with it. Figuring she had a plan, Neo nodded to herself as she turned her head back to Koichi.

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, HE'S, GOING TO FIND US!"

"Well thanks to you little brat that's much easier!"

Under so many other circumstances if she'd been able to, Neo would've screamed her head off at Koichi for having so suddenly panicked. For having given them away so obviously when they weren't in any immediate danger. If she could talk, she would've screamed under so many other circumstances. After all, Angelo had heard that and she watched as Aqua Necklace immediately flew into motion as a cloud of steam.

This time, she wouldn't. Instead, Neo just tilted her head sideways in slight confusion as Koichi just sheepishly smiled. His mouth hadn't moved that entire time. Furthermore, Aqua Necklace had missed them entirely and gone off to some other section of the water treatment facility nearly forty meters away from the pair. At that moment, Neopolitan couldn't have been more confused, her mind not having quite yet put two and two together Neo's eyes had caught it when she glanced around; the telltale green glow of Echoes as it moved around the piping, slapping down those strange symbols that it had seemed to use for its Stand Power.

"I'm not going to be nearly as much help here… but I figured that I could maybe do something to help us along…" Koichi scratched at the back of his head, clearly down on his limited contribution.

Neo, on the other hand, could've picked up the little man and spun him around if she thought they had the time. Perfect; Neo wouldn't have to break her focus to go about placing illusions or sounds while Echoes could dart about and do that for them, buying them some minor bit of time as they made a break for the exit to the water treatment facility. The boy had probably just earned them those precious seconds they needed in order to get away. Still, as Neo thought about it, her expression dropped slowly. She wouldn't have called it concerned, goodness knows. She wasn't actually worried about Koichi himself in all this. Yet, she couldn't help but turn her thoughts to what would happen to Koichi, if Aqua Necklace got a hold of Echoes and did its work to Koichi through his Stand. Koichi would be torn apart as his Stand was torn to shreds and destroyed from the inside by Aqua Necklace…

It, it would've been bad news for Roman, having lost out on one of Whitesnake's targets.

Koichi's blue eyes met her green ones and, seeing her expression, he just obediently nodded. "If Echoes seems like it's going to be in danger, it'll call itself back. I promise I won't waste what you're doing here."

Smart boy. Neo nodded firmly, an amused grin tugging at her lips at Koichi's obsequence. The boy didn't have much confidence… most of the time, as that show during the spar with that brat from before had shown, but he did have a head for doing things quickly and making sure not to step on any toes. For Neo, who had to put up with Cinder, Mercury and Emerald going on and stepping on as many of Roman's toes as they damn well pleased, it was a welcome change of pace. That she was the benefactor of this behavior had just tickled her smugger tendencies as she grinned and turned her head back forward. It was nice to be the one in control of things, for once. Not that she ever thought poorly of Roman's orders or objectives, but hey, good to be the boss for once.

So the two ran as fast as they could, feeling enlivened by Angelo's screeches of rage as, time after time, he came across Echoes scrawlings rather than Neo or Koichi themselves. It had given them hope that they just might make, given them comfort that maybe they had something on Angelo after all. As they sprinted through the facility, something finally gave; a water line off to their side burst immediately and a gout of water splashed over the two of them, having soaked them to the bone.

Koichi and Neo froze, seemingly ready to Aqua Necklace to make its move and form off of any of the water than had just been poured all over them. Yet, within a minute, it seemed as though Aqua Necklace wasn't about to show up. Relieved that this had just been an accident, the two continued to sprint on for the entrance. Koichi, in particular, had a gravely relieved smile on his face as he watched Neo run.

'I can't believe this, we're going to make it! No one's going to get hurt because I got caught! Heck, I'm not going to get hurt because I got caught. I'll have to do something about this later… something, I dunno.' Koichi momentarily frowned at his own helplessness again, before he smiled forward towards the, to him, mystery girl. 'I'll definitely have to thank her for this once we're safe though. She's a lifesaver!'

Neo had peeked back to see Koichi smiling gratefully at her, the sight of which had caused her to immediately turn her green eyes back forward and bite her lip. If his friends were coming like Angelo had said, then she'd have to let him go. Simple as that; she couldn't fight ten hunters and expect to get away with Koichi, much less her own freedom. As assured as she was of her own combat prowess, Neo hadn't been a fool. So she'd let Koichi go… for now.

As the two passed through a practical passageway of pipes, both of their eyes widened in some glee as they saw a glimmer of light crack through a large, warehouse door some way away from them. It was still far, but it was far closer now than it had been before. It wouldn't take much longer and then they'd be free and out of Angelo's grasp. From there, they could sit back, wait for Josuke and the others to show up and watch while they all kicked Angelo's sorry ass.

So distracted both had been by the prospect of freedom that neither noticed as a large, meaty arm suddenly tore forth from the darkness and grabbed Koichi by the throat. Neo had been jerked by slightly by the sheer stop in momentum as Koichi practically swung forward on Angelo's hand, as the behemoth of a man swung the young boy around, ripping him from Neo's loosened grip and slammed him into a nearby boiler. The blow had left Koichi gasping for breath as he slid down it, his back arched in pain as his wide eyes stared up at the frowning man.

Neo tensed for a moment, before she just smiled dismissively at Angelo. Angelo may have been a big man, but he was just a Stand User. That meant jack shit to a physical Aura user like herself. Even without her umbrella and even without the full use of her semblance, she could go toe to toe with this asshole and easily come out on top. Especially since the idiot had engaged them without his Stand nearby to back him up. With that, Neo swung a tiny fist forward towards Angelo. The speed of her swing had easily bypassed any defense Angelo may have tried to put up as the punch connected, quite satisfactorily, with Angelo's gut.

"BLARGH!" A geyser of blood poured out of Angelo's mouth as the Aura-empowered blow connected, the blood having splattered all over Neo's face as the giant of a man had been sent flying back from the 4'10" young woman. Angelo had skid across the floor harshly, the back of his arms chaffed and scratched up by the concrete floor, as Neo just grinned maliciously at Angelo.

Neo was certainly not the crazy-ass bastard that Angelo was, but boy howdy did she love punching the shit out of people. That it was this piece of shit that she had just punched so much blood out of satisfied her all the more. Koichi, even unsettled by the sight of so much blood and the girl's apparent joy in inflicting to much harm on Angelo, couldn't help but smile nice and wide as he saw his tormentor knocked flat on his ass.

"You did it! You punched him once and he went down! That's some power!" Koichi remarked with a pumped fist while Neo just grinned and scratched at her nose slightly. Yes, compliment her more, she certainly deserved it. As she scratched as her nose, Neo's brow furrowed… the blood was awfully thick for something so fresh.

"Little bit early to be congratulating yourselves, you arrogant little shits…" Angelo muttered from his position on the floor as he slowly sat up, the man grinning a bloody smile at them as he tilted his head to the side. "Awful lot of blood for just one gut punch too, isn't it you little bitch?" Neo's eyes immediately went wide as Angelo taunted the two of them, however, she hadn't been fast enough of the draw.

From the literal liter of blood that had been spat onto Neo's face after her punch, Aqua Necklace rapidly formed forth. With a quick swivel and a slither, Aqua Necklace slurped its way into Neo's mouth and down her throat, which had brought forth no small amount of panic from Koichi nor any small amount of annoyance from Neo.

"That's right you little bitch, now I've got you right where I want you! Even if you've got physical Aura, it'll only be a matter of time before Aqua Necklace destroys you from the inside out!" With that, Angelo immediately bolted from his position on the floor as he ran towards Neo. "I think I'll get in on a little bit of this fun while Aqua Necklace tears your insides apart like wrapping paper, you arrogant little bi-"

Neo had reacted in a manner neither Angelo or Koichi had seen coming. She had immediately jammed her hand down her throat and, as Angelo approached, vomited out a lot of blood and bile onto the floor, which she immediately kicked out and away from herself despite the mess it would have made from her shoes. Aqua Necklace screeched as it was kicked away and before Angelo could think to respond, Neo moved in and slammed her fist into Angelo's face, knocking several teeth right out of his mouth and, by the sounds of it, lightly breaking his jaw as the giant of a man had been sent flying. Neo grinned victoriously as she pumped her fist slightly, the girl relieved to have pulled that idea flat out of her ass in time…

Before Neo sunk to a knee, vomiting out more blood and bile as she choked. She cringed at the sight of it as she realized what had happened; Aqua Necklace had gone to town on her insides in those few moments it had infiltrated her and while it had been forced out. Her Aura was fixing her up as she knelt there and had prevented lethal damage but still, if the pain had been anything to go by, the Stand had done a number of her while it had been in. So much so that she felt like if she tried to move her stomach might burst. In fact, as it filled with more blood from her internal wounds, it still did just that as she vomited out more blood and bile.

"Your quick thinking kept you from being slain by my Aqua Necklace… but in truth, all it did was by you some time." Angelo slowly but surely stood up, blood pouring from a busted lip and several shattered teeth as he glared over at Neo. "Once Aqua Necklace and I get over there, we're going to make sure you pay nice and long for what you'd done to my face you arrogant little bitch. Even if your Aura is healing you, it won't do so soon enough to keep you from-"

"ECHOES!"

 **KRACK-KOW!**

Angelo screamed out as, immediately, Echoes flew out from seemingly nowhere and punched him in the spot Neo had previously. Ordinarily, Echoes' punches wouldn't hurt at all, however, having struck where Neo had the nerves in Angelo's broken jaw and shattered teeth flared angrily as he backhanded the Stand away from him, which had sent Koichi flying into a metal drum as he banged painfully against it before sliding down onto the floor. Even having done that, his screams continued for a moment as the telltale kanji of Echoes' ability formed on the side of Angelo's face. Koichi smiled weakly from his spot on the ground, still stunned slightly from Angelo's surprise attack. Koichi turned his gaze over to Neo, giving her a small thumbs up as the disguised criminal just stared back at him, before she smiled back.

'This… this is good. Echoes' ability might not take Angelo down on its own, but it should buy her Aura time for her to recover. Time enough that she might be able to get back into the fight and-'

"You… arrogant little shit… do you really think fucking parlor tricks could stop me!" With that Angelo roared out as, suddenly, Echoes' kanji flew off from his face before they shriveled up in the air. Both Neo and Koichi gasped as they looked at Angelo, fear clear in Koichi's eyes and frustration in Neo's as Angelo glared the two of them down. "I'm going to enjoy this… I'm going to enjoy tearing you two apart piece by piece… though, I think I should keep the little brat alive. Let him watch while I fucking gut you and then fuck those guts before I move onto to his little friends. Seeing the look on his face while I do all that should be enough payback for the shit you all put me through!" Angelo roared as he steadied himself on his feet while Koichi stared on in horror.

His gaze leapt over to Neo, seeing her still knelt down on the ground and spitting out blood and bile. His gaze turned towards the front warehouse door, hoping beyond hope that Josuke and the others would burst through at any moment. Koichi looked on and on and on until he came to a single, simple realization.

No one was going to save him now. This was it.

'It's finally going to happen… my worthless self is finally going to get everyone I care about killed. Josuke and the others are going to walk through that door, and Angelo's going to ambush them with his Stand and kill them… and he'll force me to watch. Because I can't… I can't do anything to save them!' Koichi scrunched his eyes closed as tears threatened the corners of them as the little man slowly slid up the side of the metal drum to stand back on his feat. 'And… and this girl. I don't even know her name, I don't even know anything about her except that she's on Cinder's team… and she's here to try and save me too. She's going to die trying, and I can't help her at all! She's giving it everything she's got and I still can't help her at all! Everything I've done up to this point has been for nothing!' Koichi finally worked his way up to his feet as tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

'I'm so damned useless! I can't stand it anymore! I can't just watch them all die!'

In that moment, something inside Koichi shattered.

Neo cringed slightly as she held onto her gut, feeling her Aura slowly patch herself up. Koichi hadn't bought much time, but he bought a little. Maybe enough that he could get away while she distracted Angelo. So long as he lived, everything would be alright. She could keep Angelo busy and Koichi could get away…

For Roman to get him later. So that Roman wouldn't get torched for the death of one of the Frontier Kids. If her sacrifice ensured that Roman would live, then she'd be fine. That man had given her everything. It was time she paid him back a little in return. Neo's eyes turned along with her head as she got ready to do her best to somehow signal for Koichi to leave her be and make a break for it. That, however, was when she saw it… and what 'it' was, Neo hadn't been able to easily express at that moment.

Koichi's eyes had opened and instead of having found a pit of despair, grief and panic as she had expected… there was that determined edge to them that had been there in the arena. On top of that there had been a new strength of Will that she hadn't expected to see behind those blue eyes. What's more, a green Aura swirled and surrounded Koichi as he stared Angelo down, the serial killer having noticed the boy's sudden change in attitude as well. Neo blinked a couple times as her eyes narrowed. Was it her imagination or had Koichi's hair started to spike up?

"You bastard… I won't let you do this. Not to me. Not to the people I care about. Not to anyone who'd stand up for me!" Koichi's blue eyes shone in the dim light of the warehouse as he pointed towards Angelo, a fierce frown having tugged at the corners of his lips. "I'm not just going to sit by and watch as you butcher these people! People I care about and who, for whatever stupid reason, care about a worthless kid like me! I won't just take from everyone anymore and give nothing back! I'm going to stop you myself if I have to! I'll… I'll kill you before I let you do that to anyone I care about! I might not have the power, all I have might be my Echoes… but… but I'll throw it at you as many times as it takes if it means I'll stop you!"

Neo and Angelo both blinked in utter disbelief at the change in attitude that had come from Koichi. However, Neo had seen a similar shine to Koichi's attitude before; in the arena, when he had been focused on fighting Dove, his eyes had been similarly determined as he narrowed in on his opponent. He hadn't spoken however and his hair certainly hadn't pulled this trick before. In addition, Neo had known, on some level, that what Koichi had said he was going to do was impossible. No matter how many times he threw Echoes at Aqua Necklace, Neo had known deep down that the little man couldn't beat Angelo at his own game…

But there had been something about this declaration, this fierce will, that had reminded her. Of a silly little girl who had fiercely decided much the same thing about a man she had viewed as her father.

And in that moment, she believed Koichi could do it. Hell, she would've gladly believed anything he'd have thought to tell her.

"What arrogant bullshit." Angelo had muttered under his breath as he spat off to the side. "You've already seen it haven't you, you shit? I can just shrug off your Stand's ability, and we both know how weak it is. Just give it up already; you aren't getting out of this." As he spoke, Aqua Necklace slowly worked its way off the ground and onto Angelo's shoulders, as Koichi merely glared back at him.

"Maybe, but I still have to try! If I put all my focus into it, all my effort, then I can make an even louder sound!" Koichi clenched his fists as he spoke before he dramatically pointed towards Angelo.

"ECHOES!"

Angelo had decided to stand his ground and wait; Echoes was a Stand so weak that he could have grappled with it bare handed and come out on top. He decided he was going to have some fun with this arrogant little shit; really break him of this sudden change in attitude before he actually broke him in two. However, as everyone awaited the dramatic reveal of Echoes, nothing came. A few confused looks were exchanged as they all looked off to the side…

Whereupon Angelo promptly belted out a series of loud guffaws while Neo and Koichi stared in shocked horror. Where Echoes had previously been backhanded now lay an empty, brown shell that had been vaguely shaped like the tiny Stand. Dead for all the world to see. For Koichi, this wasn't some mere possibility that he'd pushed his Stand too hard and killed it…

"OH MY GOD, I'M DEAD!" Koichi grasped his head in both hands as Neo similarly panicked, the green and blue eyes of the pair just staring in shocked horror at the remains of the Stand.

'This can't be happening, not now, not when everything comes down to it… I'm… I'm going to die before everyone else. Before I could even do anything. Fuck, I wish there was just something that'd save us, that'd blow Angelo and his Stand far away!'

Yet, as the moments passed and somehow Koichi didn't immediately die along with his Stand, Neo and Koichi just paused. There had practically been a visible questionmark over Neo's head as she tilted her head to the side, while Koichi just lowered his hands, shocked and befuddled by the fact that he wasn't dead.

"Well, gotta admit kid, that gave me a bit of a laugh. Maybe I won't be so hard on-hahaha, you know, I couldn't even finish that sentence. I'm still gonna break your arms and legs and force you to watch your friends die. But you put me in a good mood, so take that for what it's worth." Angelo just grinned maliciously as he stepped forward, much to Koichi's and Neo's frustrated anger…

 **FYOOOOOOM!**

Before their expressions once again fell into confusion. As soon as Angelo had taken a step, a great gale of wind had blown up from the floor and up at him. The force of the great wind had been enough to immediately send Angelo and his Stand flying where they banged around on several pipes, metal drums and other metalworks of the water treatment facility. Neo and Koichi winced with each loud, echoing bang of Angelo's body against the metal before he finally hit the concrete floor, gasping in pain from the numerous blows done to his body.

"Wait but… what… how? Did you do that?" Koichi turned his gaze over to Neo who only shook her head slightly. After a moment however, Neo's green eyes went wide in surprise which, in turned, caused Koichi to turn his head to see what had shocked Neo so much.

Where upon his own blue eyes had gone wide in surprise.

"I… Is that… my Echoes?"

It had been easy to see why Koichi had been so shocked. Floating just a few feet away from the remnants of what all gathered had assumed to be Koichi's Echoes was a new thing entirely. Now far more humanoid than insect-lizard-skateboard, this new being was stacked in a heavy amount of armor that surrounded its head and shoulders. The letters 'S2' written on the back of the shoulder armor, it surrounded a rather large head that, while smaller than Echoes', now revealed more humanoid face. A robotic mouth had been put in place of the beak but new, stripped robotic eyes replaced the old metallic cylinders, all told looking much for like the eyes of The Hand. The humanoid body of the Stand had white hearts at the knee caps and a pair of nice, white shoes. A tail jutted out from behind the Stand, light on the top and dark on the bottom, that extended out into some odd gold circlet at the end. The Stand itself still, largely, maintained Echoes' old color scheme.

As Neo and Koichi stared at the Stand, they watched as it floated down and began to pick up kanji that had appeared on the floor where Angelo had stood, the sound effects for the gust of wind that had just blown Angelo away. Slowly but surely these little symbols were gathered into one ball and, with equal care, the ball was compounded into a golden kunai which the Stand then placed at the end of its tail.

"I-I see, it used its tail to make the kanji for my wish, for a gust of wind… and when Angelo stood on it, it made the sound real!" Neo could only blink in stunned silence at this revelation as she looked between the new Stand and Koichi. Slowly but surely confident grins stretched across both their faces as the two short persons watched the new Stand do a quick flourish, its hand jutted out as it posed. "Then… this must be it, my Stand;

" **[Echoes Act 2]**!"

Koichi stared, marveling at his Echoes before he looked down at his own two hands. "So… so does this mean I've grown? That I've changed?" Koichi just grinned, slight pricks of tears at the corners of his eyes as he shook his head. "Doesn't really feel like it…" Neo, on the other hand, couldn't quite help but stare as Koichi looked between himself and his Echoes. It was small, but it was certainly there. Something that had changed, something about the short young man that had grown. Something that, as she saw it, had Neo smiling slightly. The two were interrupted from their reverie as, suddenly, Angelo groaned quite loudly as he slowly pushed himself up off the floor. "Looks like it was a little too much to hope for that Act 2 would've beaten him then and there"

"Arrogant little shit…" The serial murdered glared hatefully at both Koichi and Neo as he stood back up to his feat, as Aqua Necklace copied its glare exactly. "You think that just cause you got off some lucky hits on me that you've got this fight all wrapped up huh? Well, don't forget where you are; you're still right where my Aqua Necklace is strongest!" With that, Angelo tossed his Stand ot a nearby system of pipes which Aqua Necklace easily squeezed itself into. Before long, the squeal of steam once again reached Neo and Koichi's ears as PSI gauges immediately spiked and pipes began to burst, gouts of steam and mist beginning to fill the immediate vicinity as Angelo just glared, a gleeful, murderous smile on his face as he looked down at the pair.

"You're still just an arrogant little brat, and I've taken more than my fair share of you to task in my life! I'll break you just the same! You can't win here!"

Koichi bit his lip slightly as he saw the mist and steam spread, knowing that Aqua Necklace was probably somewhere in there. As Koichi prepared another gust of wind to buy himself and Neo more time, Koichi felt a tug on his shirt sleeve. The young man turned his gaze over to Neo who had managed to force herself into a standing position, a gloriously smug grin on her face as her green eyes met Koichi's. She pointed to Act 2's tail, pointed to the ceiling and then, with a slight show of jazz hands, made a very easily discernable set of lip motions.

'Boom.'

Koichi could only grin.

"You're wrong." Angelo was startled when Koichi spoke up, speaking with the determined edge he had taken on rather than the frightened tone that the serial murderer had come to expect. "Your Aqua Necklace scared me before… it was stronger than Act 1, no doubt. But now… no, you'll never be able to defeat Act 2! Of that, I'm certain!" Slowly but surely, the kunai-like protrusion at the end of Act 2's tail began to shift and twist as the Stand slowly reshaped itself into a new ball. As Aqua Necklace finally formed out of the mist and began to approach, Act 2 had finished forming its new ball; the kanji for 'Tssssssss - Kaboom' splattered all across it.

Koichi frowned slightly as he thought of how to try and get this to the ceiling without having his Stand abandon either himself or the mystery girl, before Neo just rolled her eyes. With a quick flourish she plucked the word ball out of Act 2's hands, much to Koichi's immediate shock. The ball slowly began to glow red as the sound began to form out of it.

 **TSSSSSSSSSS!**

Angelo and Aqua Necklace flinched back, as the serial murderer just stared at the two. "Are you fucking out of your minds!" Angelo was no slow witted buffoon; having witnessed Act 2's ability first hand and having seen what Act 1 had been capable of in addition to Neo's none too subtle miming, he realized what was up. "If you two throw that bomb here, we're all gonna fucking die!"

"Well, good thing that's not the plan then." Koichi said with a determined gaze as Neo, with a quick spin, chucked the little ball of kanji up towards the ceiling. As it neared the top of its arc, the Aura-empowered throw ensured the little chunk of metal would reach up to the very ceiling, touching it ever so slightly.

 **KABOOOOOOM!**

Everyone ducked for cover as bits and pieces of the ceiling fell down into the room, though most of it had been blown outside of the radius of the building itself by the force of the explosion. Angelo, having recovered from the shockwave the explosion had sent out first, immediately turned his gaze to Koichi and Neo as he growled.

"Aqua Necklace, get those little shits!" His watery Stand obliged as, amid the mist and Steam, Aqua Necklace made to rush for the two diminutive fighters. However, as it flew towards them, something unexpected had happened; Aqua Necklace began to rise in the air, seemingly against its own will. The Stand's and Angelo's eyes went wide as they both felt a strong draft begin to blo through the building, one that slowly pulled a great deal of the mist and steam that had settled around the floor up into the new hole in the ceiling.

"Air heated by anything, especially hot water vapor, rises Angelo. I learned that from a book Josuke read back home in Morioh." Koichi stated firmly, followed by a short series of approving nods and smug grins from Neo as she stood to Koichi's side. "While this building was mostly sealed, it would've allowed the steam you had vented in through the various pipes and drums to settle low to the ground, making it easy for your Aqua Necklace to traverse through the open air when pipes wouldn't have sufficed. Now though, a hole's been popped in your little stone balloon, so all this hot air is going to take the one exit out!" Even as Koichi spoke, Angelo watched as his words came to pass; the steam and mist that had been vented into the water treatment facility by his and his Stand's manipulations of the pipes and drums vented right out through the hole in the roof, before flying out into the sky.

"You little shits…" Angelo growled under his breath as Aqua Necklace coagulated back into its watery form, the Stand having slopped onto the floor before it had quickly slid its way into a nearby puddle of water, from which it rapidly expanded. "It doesn't matter. You might've saved yourself from breathing in Aqua Necklace, but this place is still leaking enough water for him to be a threat to you two little shits! You won't win this! I'll fucking tear open your stomach and then fuck your little friend there while I where your guts for a condom!"

"Like I said Angelo, you can't beat my Act 2. I've seen its abilities and I've seen yours… it's impossible, you're going to lose. Especially once she recovers from your cheap shot." Neo nodded approvingly with Koichi's estimation, waging her hands around like a pendulum to a grandfather clock as she mouthed a 'tick tock' for Angelo, who had only continued to glare hatefully at the pair. "Still, even that doesn't really matter. As soon as we blew open the roof, your fate was sealed Angelo." Koichi declared firmly, as the serial murderer just scoffed.

"What makes you say that you arrogant prick?" The gray skinned man attempted to scowl maliciously at Koichi, yet the young man's confidence had shaken him still. As Koichi stared him down, a smug grin of his own quirked at his lips.

"Cause now anyone within earshot or eyesight of this building knows where we are."

Angelo's mind slowly processed Koichi's statement and, as he did, his purple eyes went wide with shock and horror.

"No… no no no no no NO NO!"

"Josuke and the others were already on their way… but now if I had to make my guess, I'd say that they'll be here even faster now that they don't need to follow the scrap of my uniform." Koichi scowled at Angelo as he pointed at him, a sharp sheen to his eyes.

"But we won't even need their help to take you down, Angelo!"

* * *

City of Vale Streets, A Few Minutes Beforehand

The people of Vale had been treated to numerous odd sights these past several weeks and, for longer than that, had thought they'd grown used to oddities and strangeness. After all, it had been part and parcel of hosting a Hunter's Academy so nearby. It seemed as though only the young with very odd or strange personalities would become Huntsmen and Huntresses, and those children would often find their way into Vale for one reason or another. So the city had long since thought itself used to strange sights.

Still, that hadn't stopped people from stopping what they had been doing to watch and stare as a group of ten hunters ran down the streets of the warehouse district, following a flying, glowing scrap of cloth as it worked its way around the various streets and alleys. Teams JOJO, RWBY and JNPR all kept their gazes locked on the scrap of cloth as they followed it to wherever Koichi had been taken, determined looks on all of their faces as they readied themselves for the brawl to come.

Though, as the danger ramped up, the threat to Koichi's life became more evident and as they could practically feel themselves having closed in on their target… some shadow of doubt had begun to creep in. Roman Torchwick was a criminal, Tamami was a scumbag scam artist who would've handed Weiss and Blake over to the Fang and Toshikazu was a horrible, horrible little gremlin who only cared about himself and enjoyed hurting people, but the threats to their lived hadn't felt quite so… apparent. After all, they were accomplished hunters, each capable of defending themselves, save for perhaps Jaune and even he had Aura.

Koichi had been the weakest of them all. This was readily apparent. So having the one most vulnerable of them be in so much danger… for him to potentially be… it worked at their minds until, finally, someone had to speak up.

"Josuke, Okuyasu. Once we find whoever took Koichi… what exactly are we gonna do to him if Koichi isn't right with him?" What if the scrap just leads us to where he generally is but he's hidden him somewhere?" At that, even as they had continued to run, Josuke and Okuyasu froze at the thought. Josuke had just continued to run straight ahead, while Okuyasu's fists clenched until his knuckles went white.

"We're… we're on a mission. If this person is a Stand User and they're associated with all this shit going on… we'll force him to talk. We'll take them down, make them give up Koichi… and then… and then we'll take them back to Ironwood and Ozpin for questioning." Okuyasu practically growled out between clenched teeth as he continued to run ahead, as Teams RWBY and JNPR looked at the scarred teen with some shock.

"Okuyasu… that's surprisingly restrained of you. Out of the two of you, I would've figured that you of all people would want to… well, no kind way to put it… kill this person." Weiss had commented offhandedly, though it had been a sentiment shared by the other Four Kingdom Hunters. Okuyasu's shoulders shook for a moment before, finally, the emotional scarred teen snapped his head back to the other Four Kingdom hunters.

While no one had been surprised by the pure rage that had been on Okuyasu's face, the fear that had also marred it, the sheer terror, had.

"OF COURSE I WANT TO KILL THIS BASTARD!" Okuyasu roared as his right hand clenched, the vague outline of The Hand forming just behind Okuyasu's arm as he raised his hand to his face. "There's a part of me that hopes that this piece of shit won't talk so that I can scrape them away with The Hand until there's nothing left of him but a fucking pair of shoes! This bastard, this fucking piece of shit, took Koichi, took one of my best friends and my teammate and they're doing who knows what to him! Of course I want to kill them, I want it so bad I can barely stand it, because if they've done anything to Koichi, if they've fucking touched a hair on his head while I was around to do something about it...!"

" _Okuyasu… you were always holding me back..._ "

"Okuyasu!"

The Four Kingdom teams flinched as Josuke spoke with such sudden authority, his tone of voice having seemingly snapped Okuyasu out of his rage as the scarred teen took slow, deliberate breaths to calm himself down. What's more, many of the Four Kingdom hunters were stunned by the look on Josuke's face. Though while far more in control of his emotions than Okuyasu, it was clear that there was something behind Josuke's eyes too. Some hate and anger that had been instilled by the actions of this kidnapper.

Josuke would do what he had to do because he was a huntsmen and he had his orders… but it was clear, even to Ruby, that Josuke would all too readily kill this guy too if he had to.

"We'll decide what we're going to do with this person after we find them and Koichi. For now, we just have to keep on running." Okuyasu just nodded slowly as the two Frontier huntsmen sped off, Teams RBWY and JNPR having slowed down slightly as they watched the two pick up their pace. With their physical Auras they'd have easily caught up, however, for many of them they had needed a moment to absorb what they had just seen.

"Do… Do you really think that Josuke and Okuyasu would kill someone?" Ruby muttered softly as she looked around at her fellow Four Kingdom hunters, who each had various, varying expressions on their face. "I mean… it doesn't' seem like them at all. I… I really couldn't even imagine it…"

"I know, right? I mean, Josuke and Okuyasu are normally such calm, cool guys… or at least, Okuyasu kind if he isn't calm." Jaune muttered as he stared off after the two, a befuddled look on his face as he tilted his head to the side. "I mean, could any of you imagine killing someone? Even if they had one of us?" The question hung in the air as the eight teens were faced with the moral conundrum… one that was all too real.

After all, for all they knew, Koichi was in real danger. Each of them may have had to answer this question far sooner than any had expected.

"... If it was for Ruby, I'd… I'd do it."

"Yang!"

"I'm serious! Besides dad and uncle Qrow, you're the only family I have left sis… and you're still my baby sis, even if you're the leader of the team." There was an edge to Yang's lilac eyes as she spoke, though there had also been a great deal of fear and uncertainty to. "If… if it came down to it, I'd take someone down if it meant saving your life. Totally…" Yang let out a shaky breath as she spoke, as Weiss looked back forward towards Josuke and Okuyasu.

"... They really do seem to hold each other in a high regard, as you do Ruby. Like they're family. In that sense… I guess I can not only understand Okuyasu's point of view… I can agree with it." Weiss' light blue eyes darted off to the side as she spoke. "If someone tried to kill Winter and it was in my power to stop them even through the most desperate means… I'd like to think I'd be as willing to take that step for her as Okuyasu and Josuke are for Koichi." Still, despite this, Weiss had seemed uncertain.

"... I've killed for less noble reasons than saving a friend, family member or partner." Blake admittedly somewhat tragically, a sharp frown crossed her lips as she looked down to the side. "If killing someone meant protecting any of that, I don't see why I should have hang ups now. I lost my right to be high and mighty over stuff like that a long time ago." As Blake spoke, there was certainty but a lot of sadness too, as regret seemed to pour out of her.

"... Yang… I appreciate what you mean but… we're huntresses and huntsmen. We're the good guys. The heroes. We shouldn't… we shouldn't kill the people we're trying to protect. It isn't right." Jaune had nodded along with Ruby as the fifteen year old spoke, the blond having had similar ideals of heroism himself. While Yang could smile softly as Ruby's slight naivety, there was a small part of her that feared for her sister. That feared she'd continue to have to look after her to ensure that her naivety wouldn't have been the end of her. Or else… or else she might lose her.

Pyrrha hadn't spoken up, instead having bit her lip as a serious of poisonous thoughts did battle in her mind. She had thought back to Mistral and the family she had abandoned to pursue her new life as she glanced at Jaune, before her green eyes dipped down and gleamed with self-loathing and disgust. A flighty young woman indeed…

However, before anyone could speak up to ask Pyrrha, everyone was left in stunned silence as one of them spoke up.

"Yeah, if anyone tried to kill any of you all, I'd kill them."

Everyone turned their gazes as they ran back to Nora, who just stared on straight ahead at the rest of them. There had been no bubbly demeanor when she had said it, no sign of a joke or Nora being Nora. Nora Valkyrie had just stated that if anyone tried to kill any of them, she'd have killed them… and she'd said it with absolutely no qualms at all.

"Nora, you couldn't possibly mean it… or, at least, you couldn't mean it so casually." Jaune muttered softly as Nora just looked at them all dead in the eyes.

"Look… I lost my family before I even had a chance to remember them. The only thing I remember is my father holding me as the Grimm swarmed in… I can't even remember how he saved me, but he did." Nora turned her gaze over to Ren as she looked sad and forlorn. "And then, a few years later, I had to watch as Ren, my eventual best friend ever, lost everything he ever cared about to the exact same Grimm that had taken everything from me.

"Then… then five great men and a dog came into our lives when we needed them most. Without asking for anything, the Stardust Crusaders helped Ren and I get to safety. They made sure we'd have a chance at a new life, and they taught us so many things about justice and trusting each other and just… just being friends…" Nora eyes watered slightly as she spoke and bit down on her lip. "They were some of the best people I ever knew. I treasured my memories of them for so long… they… they helped me find the sense of justice that made me want to become a huntress.

"And then three of them were murdered. Murdered by an evil that didn't give a rat's behind about them or what lives they may have lived. The people they were fighting were humans… people even worse than the Grimm." Nora shook her head. "All those times, I was too weak to do anything. I was too young to even so much as remember my family, Ren was the one who ended up saving me when it was his home that had been destroyed and… and I was too weak to go with the Stardust Crusaders and because of that… Kakyoin… Avdol… Iggy…

"Now I'm strong though. I'm a huntress now and I have the strength to make sure nothing like that ever happens again." Nora's eyes turned back to her friends, the six other hunters stunned by the sheer determination that shone in them. Determination… and something else. Something they couldn't entirely place their fingers on. With what they had been talking about and how certain Nora was of herself in this situation… well, it could only have been described as a Dark Will that shone in her eyes just behind that determination.

"So if I have to, I will destroy anyone who tries to kill any of my friends. Because… because after everything that I've already seen and lost, all the friends and family I've never seen again and after having made friends with all you guys… having gone through so much with you guys already… if anything happened to you guys, especially Ren… I… I dunno if I'd be able to going."

The six other hunters turned their gazes to Ren, looking for some kind of support or explanation about his 'best friend's' thoughts, her reasons. Instead of the surprise they might've hoped for, they watched as Ren just sighed a little, an understanding smile on his lips as he pat Nora on the shoulder while they all ran.

"Nora might be a little strong about this… but… I can't say I either disagree with or am inclined to go against her reasoning." For a moment, Ren's own magenta eyes narrowed as he remembered; a long, long time ago in a place that seemed so far away now in his memories. Kuroyuri. "I wouldn't let what happened to my family or my friends happen to anyone else either. I can't say that I'm quite as strong as Nora is on this, that my will matches hers… but, well, that's Nora for you. She's always been more ready to act than I've been." At that, Nora smiled back at Ren, having appreciated his understanding.

The other six couldn't help but wonder though, having seen Josuke, Okuyasu, Nora and Ren… few, even those who might've been willing, could scarcely imagine being able to be so ready for this. Even Blake, who had killed, couldn't fathom the determined looks behind the four's eyes as they spoke about this. To be so ready to kill for other people… for people so young and inexperienced and even Blake, it was a lot to take in all at once.

Yet, they couldn't begrudge any of the four for it, even Ruby. Evil hadn't been what shone in their eyes as they spoke of this. Hatred, yes, anger and frustration, certainly. But not evil. Her friends, their friends, weren't the sorts of people who'd kill for no reason or for selfish ones. That much she could be certain of.

Before the conversation could continue, all ten's thoughts and running had been interrupted by a huge explosion in the warehouse district, one that had blown a solid chunk of the roof off of the building. Ten pairs of eyes locked onto the building as they stared at it, stunned by the sudden occurrence…

And even more stunned when the scrap of cloth seemed to have been making a beeline for the building.

"You guys don't think-"

"It'd be awfully coincidental if it wasn't." Josuke interrupted Ruby with a firm nod of his head. "Come on! If something's going down then that might mean there's a struggle… if it's Koichi, then he'll need our help!" Josuke immediately broke off into a new sprint, having head straight dead on for the warehouse. Okuyasu, RWBY and JNPR all nodded in firm determination as they chased after him.

Their questions and doubts could be held for another time. For now, they had a friend to save. They wouldn't leave Koichi behind… they'd make sure of it.

 **-To Be Continued- Echoes (Act 4)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Anjuro Katagiri (Angelo)**

 **Stand Name: Aqua Necklace**

 **Destructive Power: C**

 **Speed: C**

 **Range: A (50 Meters or however long a source of water runs)**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: E**

 **Liquid Disguise: It may disguise itself as any kind of liquid, which means it has the same properties as a liquid, such as being capable to be frozen or evaporate, as well as mix itself with other liquids. It, however, favors consumable ones.**

 **Possession: Aqua Necklace is capable of possessing people from the inside to control them by easily forcing himself into the body through its victim's mouth. While inside, he has control over its victim and can even cause serious injuries, usually in the head.**

 **Also Known As: Really hard to make jokes about this one because, Ye Gods, it is a fucking scary-ass Stand when you really stop to think about what it can do.**

 **Also Known As: No seriously, if you're wanting jokes about this Stand, go elsewhere. Fucking Killer Queen is easier to make fun of than this Stand.**

* * *

 **Heeey guess who has two thumbs and underestimated how long this arc was gonna be? This guy!**

 **It's funny when I was originally outlining this arc and after I had finished with its numerous rewrites and revisions, I'd had suspected that it was pretty large and may be pretty packed, but I always kind of hoped that it'd still fit into just Three Acts so that it could be a pun with Koichi's own Echoes. However, that was really the only reason I had for wanting it to be Three Acts rather than Four. Now that it's guaranteed that there's to be a Fourth Act, there's nothing for me to do but roll up my sleeves, accept it and get ready to write it. Act 4 should be the last Act of the Echoes Arc, though I did think that about this chapter originally so hey, fingers crossed.**

 **Actually, this all works out; this way, the last chapter of the Arc should be the next one, which'll be the first update of May. After that I'll be taking a five day 'break' and only write up a RBA Chibi Short, which will coincide with my finals! So I'll be able to spend more time focusing on them as the school year draws to a close. This actually works out pretty nicely; you all get the climax to this particular Climax in the plot, we take a Chibi break before the next chapter and that chapter will begin the trough that'll precede the next rising action. Hell, it'll even work as a little milestone because now Echoes (Act 4) will be the 20th Chapter posted outside of the Prologue. It actually works out quite nicely.**

 **I was going to have more on Neo here and how I worked elements of Yukako into her, but there'll be more on Neo's characterization and history in particular next chapter so I'll save it for then.**

 **Also, here's a surprise; as of the release between the last chapter and this one we've hit another milestone; 250 Followers. Once again, thanks for ya'lls excitement and support and I hope I continue to impress.**

 **For now, hope you guys will have a good weekend and that your classes and finals will treat you well!**


	21. Echoes (Act 4)

"But we won't even need their help to take you down, Angelo!"

There were many different types of confidence; it was a fundamental fact that Neo had learned all too well across her many years.

There were the egotists, of course. Those were the people who were the most fun to put down. Folks like Cinder whose confidence came from the fact that they in no way could imagine any possible scenario in which they could lose. Couldn't imagine the possibility that there were people more clever, stronger or faster than them. Some of them had the stuff to back it up; the power of The Fall Maiden did make Cinder Fall a pretty terrible foe… but, from what Neo had seen now, having been at Beacon and all across Vale with all these hunters and Stand Users, Cinder was still sitting mostly on ego.

It would've been fun to watch it pop if not for the fact that they were allied with her.

Then there were those who just had a goodly amount of confidence. Neo liked to think she and Roman were in this camp. Yeah, the two of them could get a little too smug, a little too arrogant from time to time and they were punished for it. Hell, Crazy Diamond's punch and that blonde bimbo's little toss left her sore for hours after the confrontation under the overpass. Roman also had a bad habit of underestimating the damage the huntresses could do… which was why it took him so long to bring her into all of this. Still, it wasn't as if they thought they couldn't be beat. Gods above, Neo certainly knew more than a handful of people who could hand her ass back to her on a silver platter.

That's why Neo avoided those sorts of people.

Beyond that there were cowards who fluffed themselves up as brave whenever they thought they had the odds stacked in their favor. The Lock and Surface had been two such examples; little shits that only ever stuck their neck out once they thought they had an advantage thanks to their Stand powers. Hell, even Angelo was an example, in Neo's view. As horrible as his reputation was, as disgusting as his crimes were, Angelo only ever struck out at those who were weaker than him and definitely vulnerable. Women, children, men without Aura and the like. His list of victims had never included hunters and, once he was caught by them, he was quickly rounded up. The only reason he was going out of his way to get them now was because, well, he had an edge in terms of Aqua Necklace.

People like this were Neo's second favorite to take down a peg. Make them realize just how powerless they were. It was why she felt such a rush when she had thought she'd busted open Angelo's gut with her punch; not just for his reputation, but because of how much smug glee she had taken in the idea that she was going to make this living piece of human shit dropped onto the roadside of life realize how utterly fucking insignificant he was.

For the longest time, Neo really thought these three were it. In her entire life, from the time she was just a mute little girl with no strength of her own before meeting Roman to now, strong, powerful and utterly deadly that she was, she had assumed that tall tales of people with wills strong as iron were just that, tales. After all, growing up powerless in Vale introduced you to some uncomfortable things about people. Not to the degree that little sycophants like Emerald whined about when she was around Cinder to suck up to that overconfident bitch, but still, bad.

What she had seen here and now in Koichi had changed that. There had been something about Team RWBY when she'd confronted them, and Higashikata Josuke when he'd made the scene, that had… quirked her interest. It had been one of her first times really seeing a huntsman up close; for the longest time, Beacon just let things sit in Vale as far as crime was concerned. Hell, before RWBY Roman pretty much had free run over the city with only the ineffectual cops after him. It was how he'd secured so much Dust in the first place.

However, she'd quickly written it all off as heat of the moment sort of stuff, a trick of the eye that her mind had nearly psyched itself out with in her first round of combat with these people.

Now though, while the moment was indeed heated, looking at Hirose Koichi left her with no doubt that she knew what she was seeing. There was still an uneasy about the look in him, a remnant of the unsure nature that she knew was probably the boy's truer self, even if it did conceal beneath it this strength that he now projected. It wasn't with the confidence of a person who knew that they would win, no matter what, that he told Angelo that there was no way Aqua Necklace could beat Act 2...

It was with the belief of a person who knew this was what had to be. If Koichi didn't succeed here, if he didn't win, then he believed that she and his friends would die at Angelo's hands. In Koichi's mind, that had been an absolutely unacceptable scenario, something that he, under no circumstances, could allow. He thought that she had been here to save his life for the sake of it, the gullible little guy, and his friends were as important to him as Roman was to her. That much had been clear to her after weeks of watching them all interact with each other, another rather interesting realization Neo had made. So, Koichi had to win. In his mind, there was no other option. Failure meant the death of all those that he held as important… and, funnily enough, that included her, a girl who would've tried to kidnap him under other circumstances…

That thought shouldn't have been as charming as it currently felt to her. Then again, Neo never did claim to have been completely alright in the head herself.

"What… what bullshit." Angelo had muttered under his breath as a response, the serial killer's clear duress under the situation pleased Neo to no end as she, from Koichi's side, just just smugly smiled at the killer. Koichi hadn't even changed his pose, as he just stared Angelo down with that same look. "Do you even know who I am? I've been killing and hurting folks since before you were even a fucking twinkle in your daddy's eye, you arrogant brat." Angelo growled out from between his teeth as he took a slight step back, while Aqua Necklace jumped into a nearby pool of water that had grown out from one of the leaking pipes.

"So maybe you've stopped my Aqua Necklace from being able to take advantage of mist and steam in order to deal with you all, I'll grant you that… but Aqua Necklace has power over water in all states, and this treatment facility is still full of the stuff! Maybe the mist and steam will float away, but let's see you deal with several pounds of water blasting you in the face!"

With that, Aqua Necklace rushed up from its puddle and into one of the broken pipes that had faced Koichi and Neo. Neopolitan had tensed, ready to jump out of the way. Her having taken it slow to get over to Koichi after he had activated Act 2 had saved her a lot of pain and trouble, however with the throw she knew she was still far from one hundred percent okay if the pain in her gut was anything to go by. Moving quick here would hurt like Hell and probably put her recovery off a bit as she agitated her internal wounds, but she had seen it as the only viable way forward. That was, until Koichi had outstretched a hand in front of her.

"If you move too much, you'll aggravate your wounds… if you get better sooner, you'll be able to pound this guy into the concrete." Koichi turned his head to face her, his stern look replaced by a genuine smile as his more obsequent, earnest personality shined through. "You've done a lot to protect me here already. Let me do the same for you." Neo's green eyes blinked slightly as Koichi spoke, as they spotted Act 2 as it slowly but surely shifted the kunai at the end of its tail into the metal ball form. It would be bad if he failed; whatever Aqua Necklace was doing was likely to hurt. It had been clear that Angelo wouldn't play softball with them going forward and that he intended to take them down. If Koichi and his Stand couldn't pull through then just standing here would be a lot worse for her than the quick movements.

Despite this, Neopolitan just grinned, flipped her hair back and nodded. She leaned back comfortably against one of the nearby drums and just let her body rest itself, a move that had in no small way infuriated Angelo as he watched her do this… much to Neopolitan's supreme pleasure.

Koichi had this, she was certain of that.

The two finished almost as the exact same time; when Aqua Necklace had gone into the pipe, the water had ceased flowing out of it. Instead, a loud, gurgling sound came from deep within the pipe as a few bolts from deeper down within it had begun to burst with high streams of water pressure behind it. It was clear what Aqua Necklace's plan was; hold back the stream of water for a long time until the pressure built up and then, much like a firehouse, fire it all at once at the two of them and use the ensuing geyser of water to knock off their feet and senseless. Hopefully for long enough that Aqua Necklace would easily be able to slip inside one of them and finish them off.

Act 2, on the other hand, had finished reshaping its little kunai attachment into a metal ball with those kanji written all across it. Neo certainly couldn't read it but, once Koichi tapped the attachment, a small grin crossed her lips as she got a vague idea. After all, only so many things could be happening to that ball if it turned a bright, nearly incandescent red color and, without even being near or submerged in water, caused the still vapor-rich air around them to steam around it.

 **SIIIIIIIIZZLE~**

With that done, Act 2 began to spin in place, its tail following just slowly behind the rest of its body as it spun and spun and built up momentum. Angelo just watched with barely disguised disgust before, with a wave of his hand, he roared. Koichi, unsurprisingly, had not been far behind him.

" **[AQUA NECKLACE]!** "

" **[ACT 2]**!"

With near simultaneous precision, Aqua Necklace, or what could be assumed to be it, burst forth from the pipe in a geyser of highly pressurized water as it shot straight toward the diminutive duo. Act 2, meanwhile, had released the end of its tail and had sent the sizzling hot protrusion right towards the focused shot of water. When the two had met, the reaction had been almost instantaneous. Aqua Necklace screeched loudly and painfully as the water that it made it up was immediately vaporized under contract with Act 2's ability, Angelo having similarly cried out in pain as severe burns had begun to appear on parts of his body.

"W-WHAT? Your fucking Stand's power, it's strong enough to produce enough heat to vaporize not just the water surrounding my Aqua Necklace, but the water that makes it up too?!" For Angelo, this had been a rather sore turn of events. Aqua Necklace did have a physical connection to him; if the Stand did get hurt, that damage was going to be reflected on him. During his initial spar this had been proven true enough when, as he figured his watery Stand was immune to damage, he had allowed a White Fang Grunt to kick it around. The blow had not only sent Aqua Necklace flying, but himself as well.

He had been sure to pay back that little insult twice over when he had figured out exactly how Aqua Necklace worked.

He had found, however, that if he had filled Aqua Necklace up with enough extra water or surrounded it with it, then Aqua Necklace would be nearly impossible to damage. Even the little bitch's toss from earlier that he'd seen through Aqua Necklace hadn't been felt because, well, there was just so much water to absorb the energy of the various blows that he hadn't felt one iota of it. That here and now that this brat, this little shit, had a Stand Power that could produce this sort of energy?

Angelo suddenly realized how deep in the shit he actually was.

Before more damage could have been done, Aqua Necklace separated from its geyser and slid off onto the ground, a great deal of his Stand's surface having been dissolved despite the short contact with Koichi's Stand ability. Aqua Necklace had slithered off into another small puddle and quickly reformed itself but from Angelo's extremely pained point of view the damage had been done. Meanwhile, Act 2's little ball had connected with the pipe and bounced off of it, the red hot glow having diminished under the amount of water it had taken head on. Act 2 had immediately flown up, having moved faster than the original Echoes, and grabbed its tail extension out of the air before it reshaped it into its more kunai-like appearance.

Neo just gave a polite golf clap as she silently laughed at Angelo's misfortune, which had caused Koichi to sheepishly scratch the back of his head. Between this and the damn torrential wind that Act 2 had produced mere moments ago, Neo could already tell that Act 2 was a significant improvement to the original Echoes. While it didn't look much stronger physically than its original incarnation, Act 2's Stand Power had proven itself capable of more than making up for that weakness. That the Stand still seemed to maintain its range and, above that, had been even faster than the original Echoes and well, Neopolitan knew that this Stand was just out and out better.

It seemed that Angelo had also caught onto this fact as he and Aqua Necklace had stood nervously, and uncertainly, against Koichi and his Stand while Koichi, after having torn his attention from Neo, hard as she knew it was to do so of course, just glared back at him.

"Didn't I say it before this, Angelo? Didn't I tell you? You can't beat me now. You can't keep the two of us here any longer! Your Aqua Necklace can't win! And soon enough, my friends will be here and then you'll have nowhere to go!" Koichi had pointed dramatically at Angelo, a swing of his arm having accompanied the gesture as he grit his teeth slightly. "So just surrender right now and save yourself some more burns or broken bones! Because I promise, it's not going to get any better from here!"

Aww, offering him a chance to surrender? She wanted to see more carnage. This asshole deserved it after all. But, she rolled her eyes as she looked over at Koichi; she supposed it wouldn't be like the little guy to just keep on pouring on the punishment after he figured a fight was over. Especially considering what his friends would probably do to Angelo once they showed up.

Neopolitan crossed her fingers behind her back as she silently hoped Angelo would be an idiot and turn Koichi's very generous offer down. She wanted to watch the little guy kick his ass even more.

"You… you fucking, arrogant brat…" Neo did her best to hide her smile as she quietly pumped her fist while Aqua Necklace again moved into the pipes. "This place… this place is my domain…" Angelo had muttered as she tried to walk away from the pair. "I can have Aqua Necklace move around the pipes to get to you two while I hide… you… you can't beat me…" Yet, from his demeanor and the fact that after having been dealt blows by Neo and Act 2 that the serial murder couldn't move to well, it was clear that the pair had managed to do just that.

It hadn't meant that either one of them could get comfortable. Aqua Necklace was in the pipes again, which meant it could have come from anywhere. As Act 2 reshaped its kunai, the look on Koichi's face clear that he had decided to go ahead and finish it, Neo's ears had perked up. Water pressure had begun to build up just behind her and she could feel on the back of her neck a slight, misting spray of water begin to hit her.

Wow, going after the girl with the bleeding internal injuries because you can't kill the kid you kidnapped and, in fact, got your ass kicked by him. If Neo hadn't already expected such a fine display of cowardice from Angelo, she might've been surprised. Koichi had, apparently, heard much the same as her and turned his head to look back. His blue eyes darted up; he probably spotted Aqua Necklace.

Yet he hadn't panicked. Hadn't screamed. Hadn't even cried for her to wait while he rescued her. She could tell he knew better; after all, she had been the one to rescue him at first, after all. Instead, Koichi just grinned as he tossed over his jacket again, which Neo plucked out of the air with a smug grin.

Hmmm, a boy giving her his school uniform's jacket when the weather turned wet. She was pretty sure one of those awful daytime shows she liked to watch while she ate ice cream featured this more than once. Though this had not often been the circumstances which it happened. In fact, she was fairly certain serial murderers were never involved in those sorts of shows during scenes like this...

Honestly, for Neopolitan, that had made it even better.

So with a flourishing flair Neo turned and came face to face with Aqua Necklace as it pushed itself from between the screws of one of the nearby pipes, screeching loudly as it came for her. As its eyes met, Aqua Necklace seemed to realize it had fucked up and immediately tried to retreat. Tried having been the keyword; Neo had once again swooped up the Stand in Koichi's jacket and, immediately after, tied the outfit's various loose ends into a tight not to keep the Stand in the water-resistant material. Aqua Necklace thrashed about in its prison as the diminutive duo turned to face Angelo, the killer's purple eyes just stared fearfully at the two as he realized his last, best chance had just blown up right in his face.

Neo decided she'd have a little bit of fun; after all, it had been denied to her with Angelo's cheap shot. Neo immediately spun the jacket around in a fast moving loop, twirling it around as she swung it as she maliciously grinned over at Angelo. It had taken a second but, before long, Angelo himself had been lifted into the air by the influence and force of his own Stand before, with a scream that Neo just silently laughed at, he flew off in a not too dissimilar circling pattern, banging and bashing against the various pipes and drums of the water treatment facility as he did.

Koichi himself guffawed as he watched the display and as Act 2 seemingly finished its own little bit of work. Again, she couldn't read the kanji but as Koichi turned to give her a grin, she just grinned right back.

"Think you can throw him in a bit of an arc, see if Act 2 can hit a moving target?" Koichi asked as he sheepishly scratched his head, as Neo just stared at the boy with a great deal of surprise. She hadn't expected such a nasty little suggestion to come out of his mouth.

She liked it.

Neo just gave one of her patented smug grins as she casually shrugged in an attempt to hide how excited she felt by the prospect. Immediately after having finished its ability, Act 2 began to spin again, faster and faster as Koichi, this time, hadn't tapped the ball of metal to activate it. Neo, meanwhile, had begun to spin Koichi's jacket around like a sling, a smug grin on her face as she watched Angelo's trajectory change along with her spin. Koichi raised up his hands a bit as he lined up Act 2's shot, the diminutive pair having had matching grins on their face as Koichi turned one eye to glance over at Neo.

"Whenever you're ready." The silver haired young man said with a slight chortle, as Neo just nodded her head enthusiastically. With a bit of a flourish Neo chucked Aqua Necklace and Koichi's jacket in an arc up and away from the two of them, Angelo having copied the movements as he was sent flying. Koichi grimaced a bit as he saw that Angelo was about to hit a pipe, before a slight twitch of his lips signaled that an idea had popped into his head.

With a loud 'bang' Angelo cracked into the metal pipe, groaning as he slid down it. As he slid down, Act 2 released its ability and flung it just a foot or two underneath Angelo. Finally, Angelo had slid right off the metal pipe and as he fell his eyes went wide at the sight of Act 2's ability hurtling straight for him.

 **KRACKA-BOOM!**

The second Angelo had made contact with the metal sphere both him and the object were flung from each other with great force, Angelo having screamed in horrific pain as the front of his maintenance jacket had been blown open and a deep, purple bruise had been exposed on his chest. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head as he was sent flying away. Act 2's tail attachment had flown all the way back to the Stand who, with some difficulty, had managed to catch it as the little green Stand reshaped it back into its kunai attachment.

As Koichi watched all of this, the young man couldn't help but feel the grin that formed across his lips as a swell of pride formed in his chest. They'd… they'd done it. He'd done it. With this girl's help and with his own resolve… they beat Angelo. Koichi had finally done something himself. He'd been worth something. He'd helped save the people important to him.

Koichi was worth something to himself, at last.

The short young man practically jumped into the air as he turned back to Neo, before he paused his celebrations; the young man, in his jubilation, had almost moved to wrap the girl up in an excited hug but, having remembered her condition, had restrained himself.

Neo, on the other hand, had no such reservations. On too much of a high from having kicked the everloving shit out of Angelo and through that completely unnecessary but totally amazing display of Act 2's power, Neo wrapped her arms around the little guy and picked him up off his feet. She'd feel a little sore for this but, judging by the lack of a sharp, stinging pain, her Aura had pretty much entirely healed the worst of her internal wounds by now.

Not surprising, if Neo had to say so herself. She was one badass, little mute girl. Of course you couldn't keep her down for long.

The pair turned their gazes back to Angelo as, finally, the man crashed into something; the metal sliding door of the warehouse. He'd hit the thing with enough force that the ancient warehouse gate's rusted old hinges finally gave way and the giant gateway into the water treatment facility fell right along with Angelo.

"HOLY SHIT"

"W-WEISS, D-DID YOU JUST?!"

"OH MY GOD!"

Various voices had called out, loud enough to be heard even over the crashing gate. Koichi's blue eyes sparkled slightly as the voices reached his ears and Neo slowly let him back down onto the ground. Koichi had taken several steps forward towards the suddenly very bright opening of the warehouse, a wide smile stretched across his face as tears stung the corner of his eyes.

"Wow… I can't believe it! My friends! They made it! I shouldn't be surprised that they were looking for me, but… jeez." Koichi rubbed at his eyes a bit as he grinned. "I can't wait to tell them what happened… finally, finally I did something like this! That… that I'm finally ready to really be there for them! To pay them back." Koichi's grin was practically manic with happiness as he spoke and, for a moment, Neo couldn't help the smile that had formed across her face, though it had fallen away rather quickly.

She'd succeeded. She had helped keep Koichi alive long enough to see his friends. They were here now and given the condition she and Koichi had left Angelo in, she was sure they'd have been able to handle whatever the deranged serial murderer had left in him. She… she would leave now. Roman would be able to capture him another day. Roman would be safe from either Cinder or Whitesnake's wrath… and Hell, Angelo was dead meat to boot. Really, the only way this day could've gone better would've been if she had managed to get the last blow in on Angelo herself but, given her state, she had been more than willing to pass the buck along this time. Really, all told, this was one huge win. Everything that could've gone right did and everything that could've gone wrong had been safely avoided.

So it utterly mystified Neo that, as she slowly backed away from Koichi, silent under the effect of her illusion, that she hadn't been grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh man!. I can't wait to introduce you to everyone! I mean, you're on Cinder's team so I guess they must've met you before, but this'll be a big deal! You saved my life! I don't think you'll be able to stop Okuyasu from practically tossing you around. Josuke probably won't know how to thank you either… and, honestly, neither do I." Neo paused as Koichi had went on and on. The little man had sounded so excited, sounded so genuinely thrilled to have her meet the rest of his team. In truth, she hadn't before; anything they might've thought they'd know about her was all constructs of Miuller's Stand. That Koichi had managed to somehow avoid some of it had surprised her.

Well, one surprise among many, now.

He seemed to genuinely want it. She guessed she had, technically, kind of, sort of, under circumstances that weren't as noble as he thought, saved his life. Who wouldn't want to show off their savior to their friends?

Koichi grinned from ear to ear as he turned around to face Neo… only for that smile to drop when he saw that she had disappeared from sight. Blue eyes went wide as he looked about, a slight mania to his gaze as he tried to look around for her. She was silent, yeah, but maybe, hopefully he could catch sight of her. After everything that happened, she couldn't just up, disappear and fade back into the background of his life. He had to thank her for what she did. She… she had to know how much he appreciated that she stuck her neck out for him.

"So, you must be the asshole who kidnapped my teammate. Gotta say, you're a little more… beat up looking than I had been expecting." Josuke's voice had echoed into the warehouse from its entrance as Koichi glanced back behind him. Right. His friends were about to confront Angelo and, as much as he and the mystery girl had already clobbered him, he still had the element of surprise over the others. If Koichi didn't get out there, Aqua Necklace might pull out an unpleasant surprise on them.

He couldn't just stand there and look around for the mystery girl any longer.

With a hesitant step and a harsh swallow of the lump in his throat, Koichi dashed off for the opening of the warehouse. As he did so, Neo just watched from behind her bubbles of sight and sound, protected from anyone's hearing or vision as she watched Koichi run off. Her green eyes locked onto his back as she took a deep breath.

It was over. She could just go home now. Work was done for the day… Hell, technically she'd gone over her limit.

She should just leave now.

* * *

Outside the Warehouse, City of Vale, A Minute Before

Teams RWBY, JNPR AND JOJO ran for the warehouse, eyes locked on the still smoking roof as they honed in on it. Behind them the scrap of Koichi's uniform that Crazy Diamond had previously fixed floated gently behind them, having followed along with them. This was it, there was no doubt about it. If the roof having mysteriously blown open hadn't been enough of a sign then the fact that Koichi's chunk of uniform had followed them here had been. This is where Koichi had been taken. As they approached the warehouse entrance, everyone tensed, ready for a fight with whoever it had been who had stolen their friend away.

"Alright guys, we need to save Koichi but I don't want to see anyone unnecessarily sticking their necks out. We're going into unknown territory against someone with a Stand Power or semblance with an unknown ability. We'll need to be careful if we don't want to get caught with our guard down." Josuke had muttered, a determined expression across his face as the rest nodded. While Jaune and Ruby had been team leaders as well given the circumstances they had been more than willing to fade back and let Josuke take the lead on this one. It was his friend and teammate who'd been kidnapped and, out of all of them, Josuke was the resident strategist de jour when it came to potential enemy Stand Users. He'd have seen them through this affair safely.

"Indeed. Frankly, I've already been through more than enough warehouse ambushes for one lifetime, thank you." Blake muttered, a slight sarcastic lilt to her tone as her amber eyes focused in on the door. Weiss smirked slightly at this as the ten hunters approached the entrance to the warehouse, ready to strike at or react to any sign of trouble.

"Indeed. Hopefully this whole affair will go a lot more smoothly than the incident with Tama-"

As Weiss spoke, seemingly out of the blue, the warehouse door was flung off its rusted old hinged and sent flying towards the group of ten huntsmen and huntresses, the group of gathered students immediately jumped back and away, Josuke and Okuyasu dragged along by their friends with physical Aura, as the door had threatened to crush them all underneath it as it blew right open.

"HOLY SHIT!" Weiss, having been somewhat distracted with her banter with Blake, had reacted the most viscerally and her pale white skin had immediately flushed with embarrassment at that fact.

""W-WEISS, D-DID YOU JUST?!" Ruby Rose gawked at her friend and partner who, by this point, had clapped a hand over her mouth at the obscenity that had just slipped right past her lips. Before anyone else could express either their amusement or shock, Jaune had gasped out as he pointed towards the door.

"OH MY GOD!" Indeed, Jaune's reaction hadn't been inappropriate as the nine other sets of eyes keyed into what he had just noticed. Laid out on top of the busted down warehouse door, secured in a large dent that his body had formed quite well into, suggesting that he had been the thing that had busted down this door, was a grey behemoth of a man. His grey hair had been blown back by some significant force and his purple eyes had rolled slightly into the back of his head as his body was covered in burns and heavy bruises, visible through his blown open maintenance uniform… a Beacon Academy maintenance uniform.

Before long, almost everyone had put two and two together and slowly but surely their shock had faded away into determination once more. As the man shifted and groaned, he slowly stood up, having not noticed the other huntsmen and huntresses who had gathered to rescue Koichi.

"Gods be damned… that fucking arrogant little brat and that stupid little bitch… I swear to God, I'll fucking dine on their fucking faces before the day's over. I'll… I'll…" Angelo stumbled around slightly as he tried to force himself to his feet before, finally, he had succeeded. With several deep, gasping breaths he stood shakily, staring back into the warehouse he'd just been blown out of.

"So, you must be the asshole who kidnapped my teammate. Gotta say, you're a little more… beat up looking than I had been expecting." Angelo's purple eyes went wide with shock as he heard the voice cooly speak behind him. Angelo had turned his head very slowly and, as he finally turned his body with it, had been met with the gazes of ten other huntsmen and huntresses he'd grown quite familiar with after several weeks of having stalked them and Hirose Koichi. The remnant of Team JOJO, RWBY and JNPR all stood together in a very tense, defensive stance as they stared him down, the looks Josuke and Okuyasu had given him were particular hateful as they glared at him.

Blake's own amber eyes had narrowed slightly as she looked at Angelo, as if having thought deeply about something, before her cat-like eyes had gone wide with shock and horror.

"By the Gods… that's Anjuro Katagiri. Roman actually busted this guy out of jail… wait, HE'S BEEN OUT OF JAIL!?" The horror in Blake's tone had drawn a lot of attention to her, though Nora, Ren and Yang had each immediately snapped their heads towards Blake with a great deal more shock.

"Wait, that's Anjuro Katagiri!?" Having grown up in Vale ever since the Stardust Crusaders had left them there, Ren and Nora had been more than familiar with the horrific reputation of one Anjuro, or Angelo, after his numerous killing sprees. Yang, who liked to leave Patch to frequent Vale, had often heard stories of the deranged serial killer from her father as a word of warning to take care on the streets of Vale. Ruby, too young to know any better, Jaune, having grown up in the rural villages outside of The City of Vale, and Pyrrha, Weiss, Okuyasu and Josuke, having been foreigners themselves, hadn't been nearly as familiar with Angelo's reputation.

However, judging by just how freaked out their friends who did know his reputation looked, they could safely assume that it wasn't good news.

"You… you fucking bastard, what have you done with Koichi!" Yang Xiao Long was normally a very cool, very light-hearted person. Even in the heat of a fight, she was capable of keeping her head on her shoulders and just letting things go with the flow… up until someone damaged her hair or really pissed her off, of course. She considered herself a cool, witty, funny, sarcastic person.

However, faced with the prospect of one of her friends having been kidnapped by THE Angelo, she hadn't had much room for that kind of cool attitude. This fact alone had set Okuyasu and Josuke off, as they eached turned to glare at Angelo after having gathered the rest of their friend's reactions. Angelo watched all this carefully and, after a moment, a deranged smile came forward, blood thick on his teeth. Aqua Necklace was nearby and these brats hadn't had any clue as to what it did or how it worked. If he could bait them into coming forward, he could spring Aqua Necklace on them, then maybe he would still have some kind of chance. Maybe not for long as he got collapsed on but… well, if he just had one little distraction, maybe that'd be enough for him to get some distance.

"Why don't you go in there and ask him yourself… if you can even find the piece with his mouth attached." Angelo had given the most deranged, psychotic smile he could muster through all his pain as immediately ten pairs of eyes had gone wide with horror, Angelo having loved every second of each of their reactions. Ruby and Jaune had looked horrified beyond words, those who knew him seemed to be in despair at having been too late, Weiss and Pyrrha had just looked in disgusted awe that someone like him had been allowed to live for so long.

However, it had been Okuyasu and Josuke's reactions where he knew that he'd struck the jackpot.

The pure rage on both of their faces told him everything he had needed to know.

"YOU BASTARD! WE'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" With that, The Hand materialized just behind Okuyasu as the scarred teen prepared to charge right at Angelo and scrape him away, bit by bit. Angelo couldn't have asked for a better reaction; Okuyasu, being the upfront and brainless little shit that he was, would charge right at him with his Stand. He could 'feel' Aqua Necklace nearby and so, when Okuyasu had been in range, he'd have his Stand make the jump and try to force itself down the scarred teens throat. While everyone was distracted trying to save him while they watched him die, he'd-

"OKUYASU, DON'T GO IN!"

Once again, Angelo had been forced through an unpleasant surprise as Okuyasu stopped dead in his tracks, everyone's eyes wide as they heard the shout. Angelo looked over his shoulder and, sure enough, he and the other gathered hunters all saw the same thing; Hirose Koichi, standing by the warehouse door with Echoes Act 2 floating just behind him. The reactions were immediate;

"Koichi!"

"You're alive!"

"Are you okay, you look beat up!?"

"What the Hell is that thing behind you?!" The barrage of questions had been immediate, yet Koichi had ignored them all as he pointed to Angelo.

"Everyone, his Stand's name is Aqua Necklace and it's a water-based Stand! It's able to turn into mist and steam and other forms of water and it has some manner of control over all of it! If you let it get in you, it'll tear your insides apart!" Koichi's warning had come quite on time as Okuyasu immediately put some distance between himself and Angelo. The grey haired murderer glared hatefully at Koichi… before a demented grin crossed his face.

"Well you arrogant little shit… you should've taken your own word of advice about my Stand!" With that, Angelo had sent out the order for Aqua Necklace to lash out at Koichi. The young, silver haired boy's blue eyes just went wide with shock, as did his fellow hunters as they all immediately bounded forward.

"Koichi!"

"The Hand, quick, get him out of there!" Everyone had moved as fast as they could, Okuyasu summoned forth The Hand for it to scrape away the space between itself and Koichi, all with the hope that they'd be able to get Koichi before Angelo's Stand would. However, their efforts would prove in vain…

As the tied up remains of Koichi's jacket jumped out from behind some rubble before it uselessly fell onto the ground, where it then struggled and lashed around. The scene had stunned everyone involved, jaws slack and eyes wide as they stared at the display. Koichi, on the other hand, just sighed a breath of relief as he closed his eyes, a gentle smile on his face.

'Thank you. That's worked wonders… or, who knows, maybe you redid it while you were out of sight.' Koichi's gentle smile fell into a deep, harsh frown as Act 2 reshaped the end of its tail into another lump.

"This fight's over Angelo. You can't hold me here any longer… nor can you escape from what's coming to you. You've lost, so just give yourself up now… or else." Koichi muttered with narrowed, determined eyes, ones which had shocked the Four Kingdom hunters to see in the short little man… and ones that brought a slight grin to Josuke's and Okuyasu's face.

"No… I'm… I'm not going to be taken down by some fucking arrogant little brats!" Angelo slipped a hand into one of his trouser pockets and pulled out a knife as the man shakily stood his ground against Koichi. As the others had been about ready to move in to intercept the almost entirely beaten man on behalf of Koichi, the short, silver haired young man raised a hand to stop them.

"Guys… I have this." Said with such determination and confidence, it had been a shock to many of their systems. Who was this young man in front of them and what had he done with their friend and fellow hunter, Hirose Koichi? However, as the moment of shock passed Okuyasu and Josuke grinned at their teammates, the pompadoured team leader having given Koichi a thumbs up.

"Let 'em have it, Koichi." The blue eyed teens just nodded in understanding with each other as Act 2 finished its ability, much to Angelo's horror at this point. The serial murderer had tried to move himself away from Koichi however he had swiftly found that his legs, whenever he tried to move at more than a snail's pace had given out underneath him, which left him only able to watch as Act 2 lobbed the metal ball at him. As it arced through the air, the Four Kingdom Hunters turned their gazes to Okuyasu and Koichi, though Ren had just grinned as he read the kanji on the ball while everyone else had curious, ignorant looks to their eyes.

Okuyasu just arched a brow while Josuke grinned, both proud and slightly confused.

"Eh? It says… 'Ora' and 'Dora'?" Okuyasu muttered as the ball fell from the height of its arc and struck the ground just in front of Angelo.

Whereupon the ghostly images of four hands burst forth from the ball, followed up by the bodies of Crazy Diamond and Star Platinum, as they rushed forward towards Angelo.

 **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~!**

 **DOOORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA~!**

Act 2's make-shift Star Platinum and Crazy Diamond were pale imitations of the real deal, the Stand's admittedly powerful ability having only been able to go so far to replicate the sheer power that had often been behind the punch rushes of both Stands. However, as far as the deeply injured and hurting all over Angelo had been concerned, each punch from these ghostly Stands may as well have been sledgehammer's swung by the most powerful Aura-enhanced human in the world for how much they had hurt and pummeled his sore, aching body.

 **OOOORAAAAA!**

 **DOOORAAAAA!**

With one final swing of their phantom fists, Act 2's Crazy Diamond and Star Platinum had punched Angelo in the gut and face respectively, the force of their combined blows having sent the serial murderer flying away from everyone gathered and right into the wall of another nearby warehouse. Everyone flinched and looked away as concrete and other debris flew from the impact zone, covering their eyes to keep stray flakes of the stuff from having hit them. As everyone looked back over at where Angelo had landed and as the smoke and dust from the impact had cleared, several eyebrows were raised at the state Angelo had found himself in.

Halfway dug into the wall by the sheer force of the impact, gurgles and groans had been the only thing to come out of Angelo's mouth, besides blood, as he twitched in place. His eyes had completely rolled into the back of his head and, for all their movement around him, the eleven huntsmen and huntresses had found Angelo to be non-responsive. His right arm was bent at an odd angle, either from the beatdown or the repeated blows it had taken throughout the day, and his body was deeply bruised and bleeding quite profusely in spots. All told, Angelo had looked like a thoroughly broken human being, more bruises and cuts and blood than an actual man, as he twitched in his impression in the wall.

Still, few of the hunters had the sympathy for a thing like Angelo to feel sorry for the state he was in. In fact, for those in the know and those who had been aware enough to pick up on their signals, the man's thoroughly broken state, easily dwarfing whatever had been done to Tamami or Toshikazu, was a comfort to their safety. For those gathered, the day-long nightmare had been over: Angelo had been defeated and by, of all people, their usually so timid friend Hirose Koichi.

 **Anjuro "Angelo" Katagiri was returned to Beacon Academy to be interrogated by General James Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin soon after his capture. The City of Vale, embarrassed that it's own civil servants had failed to notice the escape of the noted, bloodthirsty serial murderer agreed to a transfer of custody of Angelo over to Ironwood. Rumor has it that Ironwood, upon finishing his interrogation of Angelo, had moved up his execution. Though this rumor has not be substantiated by anyone within the Atlesian Military or within the ranks of Beacon Academy, few have seen Angelo after his capture. Hirose Koichi was given some honors by The City of Vale, Ironwood and Ozpin for having brought Angelo back into custody.**

 **ANJURO "ANGELO" KATAGIRI - RETIRED!**

* * *

Josuke tucked Crazy Diamond away as he finished securing Angelo in bonds made from the stone wall that he had been nearly knocked clean through. Aqua Necklace, without the active focus of its Stand Master, had transformed back into a puddle of water which had, with the help of Weiss who provided an empty Dust canister, been packed away securely. Both Angelo's bonds and Aqua Necklace's holding had been done to ensure that, however beat up Angelo was, he wouldn't have been able to hurt them just in case he did return to consciousness. All this done, the ten other teens turned their gazes to Koichi who, with the fight over, had slowly returned to his more shy, earnest self… though, not without a little bit more obvious pride and confidence having stuck around.

"Guys… listen, I'm sorry." For one, his stutter was gone and when he had spoken, he had done so while looking them all in the eye. "I goofed up and got caught up in my own stuff… so much so that I ended up actually getting kidnapped by the enemy. If things hadn't worked out the way they did, all of you could've gotten hurt or worse, died. I never want something like that to happen. So… I'm just really-"

Koichi's apology had died on his lips as, immediately, the little guy had been swarmed by his ten other friends.

"Koichi, we aren't even remotely mad at you! We're all just so happy that you're alright!" Ruby had said with an earnest, relieved smile as she wrapped up Koichi in a hug, a gesture repeated by the other more touchy-feely members of the group such as Nora and Yang. When they had let him go, Okuyasu had immediately moved in to wrap Koichi's neck up in his arm.

"Yeah, are you kidding us? Apologizing because some psychopath tried to kidnap you and kill you? Koichi, we're just glad you're alright man… and that you kicked his ass to boot!" Okuyasu barked out a loud, impressive laugh as he did so, which had earned nods from many gathered who turned their attention to Act 2.

"Yeah seriously Koichi, what is this? It looks like Echoes but it's… really different." Jaune, having seen the original Echoes up close and personal, had been shocked by the sight of the 'new' Stand before him. Koichi just flushed slightly as he scratched his cheek.

"Well it's still Echoes but, well, it's just Echoes… Act 2." Several curious gazes lit up in the eyes of the various Four Kingdom Hunters, while Okuyasu and Josuke just grinned.

"Act 2? Not exactly an original name there Koichi." Yang joked as she rubbed the top of Koichi's hair, fussing his spikier hairdo as Koichi just coughed into his fist.

"I've never heard of an 'Act 2' of a Stand before, even when traveling with the Stardust Crusaders." Ren said as he nodded approvingly at the Stand, to which Josuke just smiled.

"You remember how I said a risk of unlocking your Stand was that, if it was strong and you were weak-willed, it had the potential to kill you right?" Everyone nodded along as Josuke reached over and rubbed the top of Koichi's head. "It's rare, but sometimes Stands which a great deal of developmental potential manage it all without overwhelming their Stand User by having it unlocked in Acts. It represents the growth of their Stand User as people and each Act is pretty significantly more powerful than the last." Josuke said with a great deal of pride as he looked down at Koichi, who could only smile happily as he saw his leader and best friend beam down at him. "Really proud of you Koichi. You did good work."

"No kidding. Took down Angelo all by yourself. No small feat right there." Blake commented somewhat dryly, though it was clear she was quite happy as well.

"Speaking of, I'm sure General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin will be happy to take Angelo back into custody." Weiss commented with a soft smile as the rest of the group nodded.

"Plus, I'm sure people will be glad that Koichi himself is safe. It's certainly a weight off my mind." Pyrrha offered with a kind nod of her head, to which the rest of the group nodded.

"Yeah! We need to get back to Beacon to celebrate the fact that Koichi's safe and that he's unlocked the next level of Echoes' Stand Power!" Okuyasu barked out with a great big old grin. All gathered, especially those who had witnessed Okuyasu's anger and frustration before, were greatly relieved to see the scarred teen return to his more happy-go-lucky self, a far and away more comfortable attitude for him to take amongst the group than the intense, almost scary Okuyasu they had been witnessed to while Koichi was in danger.

"Not a bad idea. Plus, the sooner we get back, the sooner Jotaro can be called back in from the city." Josuke nodded for everyone to come along as The Hand hefted up Angelo, Josuke himself having carried the liquid remains of Aqua Necklace. As they all had begun to walk off, Josuke noticed that the usual sounds of small footsteps falling in behind him, something he'd gotten quite used to over the past year, hadn't reached his ears. The pompadoured team leader turned his head and looked back to see Koichi, standing hesitantly several feet off from the rest of the group.

"Yo, Koichi, you coming?" Nora asked quizzically as she quirked her head to the side, Koichi having turned his gaze to meet the others' as he smiled slightly.

"You guys go on ahead, there's something I… wanna check out before I get going. I'll catch up to you all in a bit; you're just heading to the airbuses right?" The rest of the group nodded, Okuyasu and the other Four Kingdom Hunters turning their gazes over to Josuke to see his reaction. Josuke just looked at Koichi for a moment, a discerning look to his eyes, before he smiled and shrugged.

"Sounds fine to me Koichi. Just hurry along, alright? We were pretty worried before; it'd be a bit rude for you to disappear on us again after this." Despite the words, Josuke's teasing, joking tone was evident and raised everyone's spirits slightly. As Josuke turned to walk off and most of the others followed him Koichi had stayed behind. He waited for the others to get out of earshot and eyesight before he turned his gaze to look around at the warehouse.

"Hey… I don't know if you're still here or not but, you know… I wanted to thank you… and I wanted to apologize." Koichi placed a hand to his cheek as he tilted his head to the side. "I reacted pretty badly to you when I first noticed you… I feel like kind of a jerk for having done so, especially considering you saved me just now. The others might've put it all on me… but, well, if you didn't show up I'd probably be dead.

"So…" Koichi groaned to himself as he scratched the back of his head. "I dunno… you're technically stalking me and I think I should find that pretty scary and weird but… I dunno, it just makes me feel… odd." A slight quirk to his lip came shortly after. "Not necessarily in a bad way." Koichi just sighed as he looked around. "I guess I just wanted to say I hope I do see you around again… and that we can maybe talk on better terms. See you around… oh jeez." Koichi palmed his face slightly as he shook his head. "I don't even know your name still… kind of pathetic of me, really."

Koichi had felt a slight breeze blow from behind him as he spoke, which had slightly unsettled him as, up to that point, the wind had blown pretty consistently in his face… and in fact, still had. Koichi's blue eyes blinked as he heard something shuffle just underneath the back of his heel. A quick turn and a look down revealed something that hadn't been there before; a scrap of paper. After Koichi picked it up, a smile quirked onto his lips when he read it.

' _You don't need to thank me. Signed - Neopolitan.'_

"Neopolitan huh…" Koichi whispered as he tucked the little piece of paper away, a slightly wry smile on his face as he laid his cheek against his hand with a befuddled look to his eyes. "I know how I should feel about having a stalker but… man, this is a really complicated feeling." She had probably used her Aura to speed on by and drop off the note silently before she sped off. He figured he wouldn't have much luck catching her or talking to her again after this little note… nor had he felt the need. After all, he'd gotten something back. So, with a slight scratch of his head as Koichi wrestled with his various, varying emotions, he walked off to trail after his friends.

All the while, a slight presence watched him go before it, too, departed.

* * *

City of Vale Riverside Apartment Complex, A Half-Hour Later

She hadn't stayed invisible long. After all, even as strong as her Aura was, Neo had found it to be a pain in the ass to keep an illusion up for an extended period of time. Her disguises were different and far more simple than completely cloaking herself and others out of sight, and she could probably keep up a different appearance all day if she wanted to.

Not that she would want to; after all, looking in the mirror to find a face that wasn't yours staring back always had a bit of a jarring feel to it. Such was the case when Neo had, after a long-ass day by her reckoning, returned to her apartment in the city. Roman had long since arranged for this place for her, her home away from the daily grind of criminal activities and working with Cinder. It was another one of those gestures that the man had offered to her that she appreciated in the long, long, long line of things she really appreciated about Roman.

For most people, Neo's apartment was almost immediately jarring upon entry; having the building owned by Roman, even if through a variety of false names, and staffed by folks who owed him big time, there wasn't much worry about a star employee like Neo losing her 'safety deposit' for any reason whatsoever. So, she took full advantage of that and changed up her apartment quite stunningly… or disturbingly, depending on who you asked.

Much like Neo's own appearance, her apartment followed a color scheme not too dissimilar from her own. 'Ice cream' was probably the first thought that'd pop into your head upon entering her little slice of home. 'Crazy person' was probably another, which had been Mercury's and Emerald's gut reaction when they had first paid witness to Neo's possession or personal space. Honestly, Neo could only roll her eyes on response to that; while Neo knew that she wasn't 'normal' by any stretch of the imagination, Hell she was a criminal assassin who enjoyed her job, she liked to think she was relatively well adjusted.

That adjustment, she felt, was reflected in both her own appearance and in the appearance of her apartment. It wasn't just 'ice cream' that it was meant to scream, though Neo wasn't about to pretend that wasn't part of the appeal for the ice cream loving young woman. No, above even that, for Neo what it screamed was 'duality'.

Neo hadn't always been as she currently was; the badass, utterly kick-ass, black haired, green eyed… wait. Neo turned to look herself in the mirror before she blew a slight raspberry. She dropped the illusion and, soon enough, pink and brown hair with slight curls at the end had returned, as had her pink and brown eyes. With an approving nod, Neo removed the bands from her hair and let it fall about her shoulders as she sought to change out of her Academy Uniform and into something a little more comfortable. With how long a day it'd been and the sort of ill mood she found herself in, she needed to spoil herself with her time off.

Where was she? Oh, right, hadn't always been a badass. Not terribly long ago now, about ten… twelve years? What, she was eighteen now, Roman had found her when she was ten. Huh, only eight years? Felt longer. Anyway, eight years ago she'd been pretty pathetic, even in her own opinion. While she had her Aura unlocked by… less than ideal circumstances and had developed a semblance capable of keeping her safe, Neo wasn't strong. She wasn't tough, she wasn't brave, she wasn't even particularly dangerous even if she could turn invisible, sneak up behind you and stab you to death. It had been a rough time for a little girl growing up in a City like Vale on her own.

That's why she viewed it as such a sea change, such a Godsend that she'd come in contact with Roman Torchwick. For whatever reason had crossed his mind, for whatever he saw in that pathetic little girl, he'd decided to take Neo in and help shape her into what she was today. Admittedly, it was kind of sadistic; Roman had taken an otherwise innocent girl and turned her into a trained killer. However, considering Neo knew how that little girl had lived up to that point and compared it to now, she considered it a rather nice gift all told. Having never really remembered her folks, from what she'd been told young they'd died due to… something? A Grimm attack, she thought? It'd been so long since she thought about it that it kind of passed out of her mind.

Anyway, having not ever had any connection to her 'real' family, Roman's treatment of her, his respect, his outright kindness and his, for a criminal, generosity in taking her in had… well, it had greatly endeared him to her. More than that, it made them feel like family in her mind. A fucking messed up family to be sure, but still, family. It was why even as he sunk so much into all this bullshit with Cinder Fall that Neo stuck with him.

Thoughts of Cinder had made Neo's mind to to Angelo almost instinctively as she stuck out her tongue in disgust. As she popped open her freezer, Neo pulled out a tub of ice cream she had held onto for such special occasions; when her mood was especially rotten and just lounging around eating any old ice cream wouldn't do.

But yes, Roman had taken the old her and shaped her into the current her. Now, how had this screamed 'duality' to Neo? Simple; unlike someone like Cinder who, to Neo, came off as amazingly insecure and probably suffered from some childhood trauma shit that made her the incredible bitch she is today, Neo hadn't discounted her past self as 'not being her'. That had been Neo same as she was currently Neo. The thing was that both existed at the same time as part of a dual-nature; who she used to be and who she was now. There was no separating these two things nor was there mashing them together into the same person. If she tried, well, she imagined she would actually start to go a little crazy in the head like people suggested.

Keeping this dual nature, recognizing it, was Neo's personal little motto for how to live a balanced life in all things. The Cinder example above had been one way she thought it could go wrong; where you were so obsessed with erasing your past you wound yourself up into a nutter who single-mindedly pursues shit until, in Neo's honest opinion, you needed to just go out and get fucking laid. A snarky smirk crossed Neo's lips at the thought of telling such a thing to Cinder Fall's face. If it ever got to the point where the relationship fell out, she might. Sure, she'd probably burn to death for it, but just imagining the look on Cinder's face… heh, it would be priceless.

Then there was another example that came to mind; now, Neo loved her job. She was good at it, it helped Roman further his own goals, she enjoyed the sense of power and superiority it gave her over certain people and it helped keep a roof over her head. Really, Neo was living the dream compared to most people who worked a job they hated. Neo loved doing what she did and loved the fact that her surrogate father figure was helped out anytime she did a good job. It was a win-win-win-win as far as she had been concerned.

However, and this was important; she didn't make her job her life. That path lay madness in its own right. Making your work, especially if that work was as grim and ugly as the work she often did, your entire life would probably screw with your head. So, Neo worked out a little system with Roman; half of the day she spent awake was Roman's; he could order her to do whatever he needed her to do. Need her to kill someone? You got it boss. Protect a shipment? On it. Steal a different shipment. Yessir? Kidnap a cute little guy with blue eyes and silver hair…

Yeah, yeah she was on that.

Neo blinked as she realized a smile had crept onto her face. She quickly smashed it back into a frown as she popped more ice cream into her mouth. She wouldn't be able to justify enjoying her 'in-case of bad mood' treat if she suddenly got out of that bad mood.

Anyway, so she'd do whatever Roman needed her to do half the day and the other half, well, it was Neo's to spend however she wanted? Go for a relaxing walk? Sure, and if the weather was bad, she'd just bring her umbrella. Watch a shitty daytime soap opera? Absolutely, that crap was hysterical to watch. Gorge herself on ice cream knowing that Roman will probably have some work lined up that'll have her spending that energy sooner rather than later?

Well would you look at what she was doing right now?

This duality, this separation of her natures, is what kept her mostly sane, in her opinion. If she got too wrapped up in everything, she'd end up like Cinder Fall. Or, Gods forbid, if she ended up making her work her life, making it the all-encompassing aspect of her being considering what she did… well, she might end up like Angelo.

That had caused a disgusted shiver to go through her body. Neo wasn't all there in the head, she knew that. She killed and didn't feel remorse for it and did so for a man who had trained her to do just that, a man that instead of loathing for having done that she viewed as a father. To some degree Neo recognized that all of this was a bit out there, even if she wasn't bothered by it. This two-parts of her thought processes, this simultaneous recognition and acceptance, was key to her keeping some kind of balance, from being so far gone that she couldn't even see what she was doing anymore.

Angelo, sometime in his life, had gone off the deep end. At some point, killing people had become his entire life. When you became obsessed with something like that, you eventually just lost all trace of everything else. Hell, Neo might've been a killer, but she wasn't sadistic. She recognized that, on some level, what she did was wrong and so, even if she liked to mess with her opponents, she wouldn't out and out fucking torture them to death for her own pleasure. Proving her strength, proving she could beat them and easily, that was enough for Neo.

For Angelo, that wouldn't have even been close. Neo had seen the sort of things Angelo thought was 'enough' when it came to killing people. Even for someone as morally compromised as Neo, she couldn't' stomach any of that bullshit.

The point of it all was that people needed to have these different sides of them, needed to be more than just the one thing. Because if you let that one thing define you, well, you'd never really be able to change as a person, as she had from her younger self to her current self. The insane would stay insane, the uptight and up their own ass would never see just how far up their own ass they were and cowards would remain cowards.

Hell, it even made life exciting; not only could you surprise yourself but people could surprise you. A thief and a criminal underlord could be kinder to you than anyone else in your entire life, a group of would-be heroes could actually be pretty out of their gourd and a little kid who never seemed to believe in himself could find the guts to stand up to a bastard like Angelo…

That last thought had Neo pause in her ice cream eating as her mind wandered. At first, she hadn't much liked tailing after the huntsmen and huntresses that were part of Teams JOJO, RWBY and JNPR, especially Koichi. Neo hadn't taken the fact that they were against her side personally; it was just business. They were on one side of the conflict, she and Roman were on another. If you got too tied up in business, again, Cinder Fall.

But she hadn't found them great to watch and, considering Koichi had seemed like the most likely target to kidnap, he had just been a pain. He seemed like the sort of person she described; just a flat out coward, so utterly consumed by that aspect of himself that he'd never be able to move on. She resented seeing it a little bit and, at first, she hadn't known why.

As time went on though, and she came to understand the group a bit better, she had found the task to not be quite so bad. Hell, she'd even gotten a little interested in watching Koichi. Her resentment, her feelings of frustration when she watched him struggle, she'd come to realize were out of a sense of familiar contempt… one she had, slightly, had for who she used to be. It wasn't all that shocking really; both her old self and Koichi were pretty weak, both of them couldn't really defend themselves… and both resented how utterly unable to affect their own lives they had been. How much dead weight it made them. How helpless it made them feel…

Maybe it'd been around this time that her resentment of Koichi had slowly shifted into endearment. In a way, Koichi's accomplishments and growth had become a reflection of her own. Hell, in that light, it had even been easy to see the support Okuyasu and Josuke had offered so freely as being similar to the support that Roman had so long ago given, even if neither she nor Koichi had seemingly earned it.

She wouldn't say it made her like any of these huntsmen and huntresses… but it had been interesting. Watching him and then saving him from Surface, seeing as he helped that blond loser fight back against Surface, it had made all this even more apparent. There was something in Koichi, a potential, a strength of spirit that just barely shined through in the most desperate moments or in his times of focus. Maybe that had been what Roman had seen in her not so long ago. Koichi had the potential to change, to become something better than he was, same as her…

Yet, so different too.

" _You bastard… I won't let you do this. Not to me. Not to the people I care about. Not to anyone who'd stand up for me!_ "

He was pretty naive, in all honesty. If it had been better circumstances where his friends weren't on the way, she would've kidnapped him herself and brought him to Roman to use as bait for his friends. Yet despite this and despite how much she had freaked him out both at the arena and when she first appeared… he decided that she was worth protecting. That rather than abandon her, he had decided that she was worth laying his life down on the line for. Just because she had saved him. Just because she had stuck her neck out for him.

" _I'm not just going to sit by and watch as you butcher these people! People I care about and who, for whatever stupid reason, care about a worthless kid like me! I won't just take from everyone anymore and give nothing back!_ "

Determined, that was a word she wouldn't have thought to attach before today too. Sure, sometimes he might show some steel, but it usually faded soon enough. Yet, in that moment, no other word really applied nearly as much to him. He'd known what he had to do, what he needed to do and he was going to do it. Even if all he had on hand was a dinky little Stand of no discernable strength or power, well, it didn't matter. His friends were in danger… she was in danger. He was going to stand up for all of them, even if it meant his life. Loyal was probably another word that would go there.

" _So… so does this mean I've grown? That I've changed?_ "

Despite this, it hadn't washed away who he was before. It was a part of him, a new part of him, a new part of his identity, but it didn't wash away what had made him who he was before. Polite, obsequent, somewhat doubting… but endearing. Kind. Gentle.

" _I don't even know your name… heck, when I saw you I figured you were some kind of threat or figment of my imagination. Thank you. I know you must have had one-thousand better things to be doing but… well, thanks._ "

Despite his own successes and, indeed, a lot of them were his, whether they be using the original Echoes to give them a distraction or his Act 2's rather strong new ability, he'd never got full of himself. He realized that he hadn't done this on his own and that he'd have been dead without her… and he thanked her. Despite her own reasons, despite how utterly screwed up it was to be rescued by someone who was going to kidnap you, even if you didn't know it… he thanked her, and meant it. He'd understood her too and… and…

Neo sighed as she stood up from her seat and walked over to her mirror again. She shook her head slightly at what she saw; rosy cheeks and a smile stretched damn near the length of her face. She hadn't even needed to slide her hand underneath her oversized shirt to feel over her chest; she could hear her heart pounding in her ears as they, too, were red hot. She swore, sometimes she hated her overly pale complexion...

Welp, there went her special treat mood. With a roll of her eyes she walked back over to her fridge and placed the special ice cream back into the freezer, before she leaned up against the fridge and placed her cheek in her hand with a long sigh, half weary and half… something else. Well that plan for the day was shot. What now? Go for a walk? Turn on the tv and see if anything good or so shitty it was funny was on? Nah, neither of those really struck Neo's mood at the moment.

After a few moments of thought, a sly grin formed on Neo's lips. Well, Koichi had just unlocked a new, dangerous little ability. It would be good for them all if they had more information on it. She'd just tell Roman and Cinder that she decided to invest in a little overtime. They'd appreciate that…

Yes, stalking Koichi sounded like a very nice plan for today. With a smug grin she quickly got dressed and after flourishing her umbrella she disappeared from sight as she opened and closed the door.

It was going to be a good day after all, it seemed.

 **-To Be Continued- Out On The Town (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand User: Hirose Koichi**

 **Stand Name: Echoes Act 2**

 **Status: "Act" Stand**

 **Destructive Power: C**

 **Speed: D**

 **Range: B**

 **Lasting Power: B**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: A**

 **Sound Maker: Echoes' second form increases its sound abilities beyond its first form's capabilities. Echoes can write a sound effect on any surface. However, unlike Act 1, it is only able to shoot sound effects from its tail. When the sound effect is touched, an effect related to the sound is produced, either affecting the person who touched it or the object which the words are inscribed on.**

 **In addition, Echoes' tail can act as a surface/container for a sound itself which changes or otherwise produces the effect from the tail.**

 **Backward Compatibility: By shifting its form back to Act 1's, Echoes is still capable of using Act 1's range and abilities, but is limited to its level of physical strength and speed.**

 **Also Known As: Literally making some noise.**

 **Also Known As: Slightly Less Imperfect Cell**

* * *

 **Aura User: Neopolitan**

 **Semblance: Illusions**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: E**

 **Range: B**

 **Lasting Power: D - A (Depending on illusion created)**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: D**

 **Illusions: Neopolitan is capable of creating illusions of varying quality and lasting power with her semblance. On the simplest but most long lasting level, Neopolitan can create a surface of Aura just above her body that can change her physical appearance at any time, however it is limited to her using her own body structure and changes are usually kept to hair and eye color. In addition, she can completely shroud herself out of sight or create glass-like replicas of herself and others surrounding her in a sinch, though these illusions are far more fragile and slightly more exhausting to keep up for longer periods of time.**

 **In addition to visual illusions, Neo is capable of producing auditory illusions and hallucinations as well. The most common use of this has been to silence Neopolitan's own sounds and movements, which has made her an effective and deadly assassin with the ability to hide in plain sight and always attack from the element of surprise.**

 **Also Known As: Vanilla Ice Cream with a scoop of Chocolate Disco… sadly there's no Strawberry puns to be made here yet. The series isn't over yet though.**

 **Also Known As: My Little Assassin: Coup-de-Graces are Effective.**

* * *

 **So, first the simpler of the issues to be brought up here; yes, Josuke didn't do the DORARARA and fuse Angelo into the wall. It was appropriate in the source material because that was Josuke's moment, he had been the one with the most to bear in that conflict. That he was the one to end it was appropriate. This was Koichi's and Neo's moment and, at that time, Neo had passed the buck off onto Koichi; it was only appropriate for Koichi to finish it this time. Though I did slip in a reference with the two Stands Koichi makes the noises for being those involved in the canon Aqua Necklace fight, so hey, hope that softens the blow a bit.**

 **And now, Neopolitan. I'll be frank; any Neopolitan you've seen in any fanfiction you've ever read is an OC. We pretty much know jack shit about Neo's character apart from the fact that she's apparently a rather brutal little assassin and that she views/viewed Roman Torchwick as a father figure, and even the latter we only ever got out of interviews. Fact of the matter is, Neo's a bit of a blank slate and every fan comic that features her and every fanfiction that tries to delve into her character is essentially making an OC.**

 **That said we can take what we know and try our best to build a character out of it, and that's what most people end up doing if they focus on Neo to any significant degree. With Neo, I wanted to do to her what I was doing with a lot of RWBY characters; instill some JoJo aspects into her to make her pop a little more, make her fit a little more with this grander cast of heroes and villains. To that end I focused on specific visual and character elements and kind of built a series of quirks up around it; duality, in this case.**

 **As I finished her was around the same time that I struggled with Yukako and her place in the story for the second to last time. As I was facing these issues at the same time, it was easy for me to easily put them side by side and to start making connections.**

 **Now, my biggest problem with Yukako isn't her feelings for Koichi or the fact that she's a Yandere. Now, don't get me wrong, a little more setup and a little more depth would've been appreciated, but I don't dislike Yanderes on principle. Hell, one of my favorite characters in anime/manga period is Yuno "Fucking" Gasai. With a little bit of polish that I could've certainly provided, I could've gotten her there…**

 **My problem was twofold; the fact that she felt like an unnecessary add-on that I wouldn't know what to do with… and the fact that I never really bought into Koichi's feelings in the anime and manga. You'll remember how I said with Toshikazu and Tamami how I never really bought into the idea that they could become 'core' allies in the series after their defeats because they were total creeps. Again 'Oh yeah, you tried to murder my friend/sexual assault my mother and sister/wanted to rape a girl, but we'll totally hang out with you and have you around when Reimi passes on like you were important'. For me, Yukako was the Crown Gem of that awkwardness.**

' **Oh, you kidnapped me, held me against my will, made me piss my pants, practically starved me, humiliated me in the worst ways possible, terrified me in ways I couldn't have imagined before and then rounded that all off by trying to kill me… but you helped me get a good grade on an English Exam so feelings so complicated.'**

 **If I was going to have a Yukako-esque character in the plot for Koichi, I'd want her to already have some relevance in the plot, to have a bit more character and motivation of her own outside of Koichi and for her to be an interesting pair that I could work it so that there'd be some logic to both sides being interested.**

 **Like I said, Neopolitan happened to get done right around the time I was re-outlining Yukako's role in the plot. The result is what you see here; instead of Koichi falling for a stalker-turned-kidnapee-turned-possible murderer, he's getting complicated feelings about a stalker… but one who risked her neck to save his life. That would lend itself to some rather complicated, if not entirely unpleasant, feelings. It makes a bit more logical sense as well as, if you're into Yandere/stalker romances, being rather endearing and charming. Neo, likewise, has watched over Koichi for weeks related to business, only really stepped in to save Roman's neck… but hey, we all know Koichi. He's an endearing kid with a lot of potential, kind and understanding, the sort of person you'd like if you got to know him. Time just worked its magic, Neo's backstory in this story actually lends her some sympathy to Koichi as well as finding him kind of endearing and, well, this entire fight and what bit of Yukako I did put into Neo's character did the rest.**

 **Plus the idea of a truly invisible Yandere amused me to no end.**

 **Alright, this is first update of the month so on the 9th you all will be getting a RBA Chibi update. It'll work out well for me because, hey, I got finals coming up here so hey, all works out in the end.**

 **Also, gotta go out there and thank you all again; between this update and the previous one, Beacon is Unbreakable hit 50,000 hits! Again, usual standard qualifications about people hitting the first chapter over and over again to get to new chapters aside, I really appreciate the interest you all have shown and your continued visits to my little story. I'm honestly super grateful and I'm glad we're all still having so much fun with this silly little story of mine.**

 **Till next time in RBA Chibi!**


	22. Out On The Town (Act 1)

Ozpin's Office, Beacon Academy, Two Weeks Later

"You, ah… you called me up, Headmaster Ozpin?"

Josuke poked his head into the office of Beacon Academy's Headmaster, nervous and somewhat awkward as he had done his best to present himself. Gathered within were Ozpin, Glynda, Jotaro and Ironwood, all of whom had turned their heads to look at Josuke as he had entered the room. The pompadoured teen swallowed somewhat nervously as he hung half in and half out from the door; this gathering of the bigwigs of the school having given the young man the impression that he'd intruded on an important discussion.

When Ozpin had, instead of asking him to leave for a moment so that they could finish whatever they had been discussing, smiled and nodded his head Josuke had relaxed somewhat.

"Ah, Josuke, good to see you. Yes, we did call you here Josuke. There's a small matter that we need to address and, well, the sooner the better, considering it is the weekend for you and your fellow students." The grey haired headmaster said with a kind smile as he chuckled slightly. "I'm sure you have better things to be doing with your team and your friends than sitting around a dingy old office waiting on us, after all." With that, Josuke entered into said office with a courteous bow, a dip of his head having accompanied the gesture as he shook it.

"Oh, uh, no, don't be ridiculous Headmaster. I wouldn't think so little-"

"It's fine Josuke, I was merely joking. Please, do stop being so formal." Ozpin sounded more amused than annoyed as he had said this; over a month in his Academy and it seemed Josuke had still yet to loosen himself up in front of either himself or the other members of the faculty and Ironwood. Jotaro had said that Josuke considered himself a stickler for appropriate behavior in front of his betters in most cases, a condition deeply drilled into him by some stigma related to The Frontier that Jotaro had insisted was, for now, strictly need to know, yet Ozpin had found that even Jotaro had undersold it.

There was perhaps only one condition under which Josuke would ever speak to him out of turn or in a tone that suggested anything but respect and, well, Ozpin wasn't about to push that button. Speaking of…

"Part of what we're here to address Josuke is related to your punishment for these last two weeks; Glynda tells me that you've served out your detention quite admirably."

Josuke winced as he straightened up immediately, a grimace on his face as his mind immediately went to what Ozpin had meant. That… hadn't exactly been Josuke's proudest moment here at Beacon, he would readily admit…

* * *

Two Weeks Prior

 _It had been a time to celebrate at Beacon; despite the scare on campus, Hirose Koichi had been returned safe and sound to the Academy's grounds and, for all intents and purposes, seemed all the better for it. A bruise here and a cut there had been easily healed by Crazy Diamond, which had only left Koichi's growth as a person to be seen by the people who welcomed him back to campus. Jotaro had yet to return, stifled by business in town thanks to a few thugs that had tried to jump him, but the man had sent his best regards back to the team he had helped raise into these talented, courageous huntsmen and his most sincere thanks to the staff and students of Beacon._

 _His most sincere thanks had still sounded like typical, cold Jotaro but, for those that knew him, the change in tone and the appreciation were there underneath the cool, calm, collected surface._

 _As students came and went to congratulate the various teams for having collected Koichi, and to give their best regards to the little man for what had surely been a harrowing experience, eventually Teams JNPR, RWBY and JOJO had come across a group that most of them had not been looking forward to seeing again; Team CRDL._

 _For Teams RWBY and JNPR, their history with Cardin and his team was a lot to bear. The obvious racism, Cardin's bullying and his blackmail of Jaune having left deep scars in their relationship with him and his team. Despite his aid, their perceptions, their first impressions, had still be colored quite deeply by the Winchester and the lackeys he booted around._

 _Even members of Team JOJO, new as they were, had been reluctant to actually reach out and thank Cardin. Okuyasu's emotions still ran hot over the fact that Cardin and his team had essentially alienated Koichi in the first place, ensuring an easy capture for Angelo, while Koichi himself, confidence newly gained and a spinewly strengthened by his ordeal, had just stared the group down with a defiant look, one that had surprised Team CRDL quite a bit._

 _Perhaps, then, it wasn't surprising when Josuke had been the one to step forward, a measured but obviously grateful smile on his face as he nodded towards Cardin and his team._

" _Cardin… you might not like my team a lot, and you've certainly pulled some stunts that I won't be forgetting. Good doesn't wash away the bad… but neither does bad wash away the good." Josuke bowed his head slightly, a move that had surprised most gathered. "If it wasn't for your tip, we wouldn't have found the trail that led us to Koichi… and while it turns out my friend didn't need our help all that much," A grin sent back Koichi's way had caused the young man to blush and bow his head to his team leader, before Josuke continued on,_

" _-it doesn't mean that I'm not grateful that you helped give us some purpose, rather than just let us run around with our heads cut off. I think it would've been worse if we'd just had no idea what to do but wait rather than having something to do that might help." Josuke stood up straight once more and, with an easy smile, reached a hand out to the slightly taller young man. The staff and students of Beacon Academy were left in no small amount of surprise by this… and, for their part, had softened slightly on Team CRDL. Josuke had a point, after all… even if that point was wrapped up in a bunch of jerks like Cardin and his team._

" _So, listen, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Whatever you've done and whatever we've done, it really doesn't compared to having helped me get my teammate and friend back safe. That's a big deal in the Frontier… it means the world to me." Josuke's blue eyes lit up as he said this. "So what do you say? Fresh start?"_

 _Cardin seemed genuinely stunned by Josuke's offer and, for a moment, the large, muscular huntsmen looked down at Josuke's hand with a curious look. In time, however, Cardin scoffed as he reached a hand up to the back of his head, scratching it slightly as he glowered at Josuke._

" _Like I said Higashikata, I didn't do it because I felt bad about what I did to your team or because I like any of you. Like I said, you're all still a bunch of uppity foreigners as far as I'm concerned." Cardin said roughly, yet that hadn't translated into swiping away Josuke's procured hand. "I only did it because I'm a huntsman and I have my duty, and that's it. We don't want a fresh start… and come time for the next rounds of spars, we'll be looking to even the score up." Cardin said with a firm nod. Most had missed the subtext amidst Cardin's bravado, yet Josuke's had picked up on it; the sparring classes, official means for Cardin to 'get back' at Team JOJO and Koichi. It seemed as though Team CRDL wasn't going to try any of their crap on the little guy again._

 _For now, for Josuke, that would be enough._

" _Alright Cardin, suit yourself. Hope you have a good day at least then."_

 _That should've been the end of it. As Josuke turned with a friendly grin to join the rest of his friends, that should've been the end of this little meeting. A nice, heart-warming if slightly tense send off with Team CRDL. Cardin and his team showed that, whatever their warts as racists and bullies, they were still huntsmen who took their duties seriously and Josuke, grateful for their help in saving his friend, extended an olive branch. Taken or not, this should've been a nice, tidy, wrapped up end to this little episode._

 _If only for one thing. For one singular thing._

 _Cardin Winchester, alpha-male that he was, just had to have the last word._

 _And, to balance out all the feel-good crap, it had to be an insult._

" _Tch. Whatever. Let's just get out of here boys; if I have to spend another minute today looking at Higashikata's crappy boot hair I think I'm going to rip my eyes out of their sockets."_

 _A deadly quiet seemed to descend on the scene, and it took several moments for everyone to realize why._

 _For Teams RWBY and JNPR, the delay had been because they had been busy rolling their eyes at Cardin and his declarations; of course the Winchester would try to get in one last, snarky word to help prop up his ego. It hadn't been a surprise, but it had also been an annoyance. For the adults, the insult Cardin had thrown out had been a bit of a subconscious trigger and they had to think through. Jotaro had warned them, time and time again, to not insult Josuke's hair, to avoid making any statements about Josuke's hair that could even remotely be taken as an insult. They all had taken it seriously to the man's face but, behind closed doors, most had laughed it off as some kind of inside joke._

 _Surely it was ridiculous; Higashikata Josuke, perhaps one of the most respectful, best behaved young men any of these teachers had ever seen was some kind of bomb ready to go off if you insulted his hair? The idea was ridiculous on its face. Sure, maybe someone who took such obvious pride in his hair would get annoyed, maybe even hold it against you a bit, but the way Jotaro talked about it had made it seem like it was some kind of apocalyptic event._

 _What made them all notice the silence, what made them all suddenly weary, was the fact that Josuke hadn't said anything in return. No clever comment, no exasperated sigh, no words to brush off Cardin's rather tiny insult. It had been dead silence that came from Higashikata Josuke as Cardin and his team made to turn around and leave. When they looked to Josuke for his response, several pairs of eyes went wide at the sudden, thrashing, angry aura that seemed to surround Josuke, his eyes obscured by the very hair Cardin had insulted as his fists clenched._

 _They were even further shocked when they turned to Koichi and Okuyasu, only to find the two utterly and completely terrified, shocked expressions on their faces as they each took a few careful steps back from Josuke._

" _Oi…. Cardin…." Cardin had stopped in his tracks as Josuke called out to him, the bully having turned his head to face Josuke to get a good look at him... at which time, everyone saw the look on Josuke's face and immediate red flags had been raised._

 _Josuke had seemed angry, upset and frustrated when Koichi had been kidnapped._

 _The look on his face at that moment in time, right before their very eyes, could have only been described as pure, unadulterated rage._

" _WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY HAIR?!"_

* * *

Back to The Present

"Y-Yeah… listen, once again Headmaster, I really have to apologize. It really wasn't my proudest moment and honestly, I don't really want to do it but… well, I kind of can't help it." Josuke said with a small chuckle, one that had been almost immediately silenced by glowering looks from both Jotaro and Glynda. Ironwood, for his part, merely sipped from his own cup of coffee while Ozpin smiled good-naturedly.

"While your behavior isn't something Beacon condones, Josuke, you've served out your punishment in detention for it and so I won't hold it against you. It might be hard for people your age to believe, but everyone in this room was young once. I'm sure we all have our own embarrassing stories about tempers or fights we started that none of us are particularly proud of." Ironwood, noticeably, looked off in some other random direction as Ozpin knowingly glanced in his direction, while Glynda just huffed and readjusted her glasses. Jotaro, most noticeably, dropped the glower and nodded understandingly.

"As always Josuke, you've served out your punishment for your little outburst and so we're ready to put this behind us… just, seriously, try your best to not let this happen again…" Jotaro eventually just shook his head as he said this, readjusting his cap as he sighed in a very tired, very weary manner. " **Yare yare daze** , you know the song and dance by this point."

"Mr. Kujo, you really shouldn't say something like that in front of a student you wish to change the behavior of." Glynda had said with an aggravated huff as the capped huntsman just turned his gaze over to her.

"Goodwitch; I've known Josuke for almost nine years now and I've been key in instructing him in how to unlock his Stand for six of those years. In all the time I've known him, not once have I or anyone else been able to dissuade him from beating the tar out of anyone who insults his hair." Josuke just embarrassingly shuffled in place as Jotaro said this, before the older huntsmen turned his gaze back to the pompadoured teen. "In the end, Josuke always fixes whatever damage he causes and genuinely regrets his behavior… if that's all we can ask for, that's all we'll ask for. To try for more is to just waste time."

"Indeed, and Josuke has both fixed all damages, included those to Cardin Winchester's person, and served out his punishment. Let's just consider this a… learning experience." Ozpin had said with a slight grin, though Ironwood rolled his eyes a bit.

"Honestly if he were serving with Atlas, the only thing that'd save him from being kicked out for such a violent temper is his otherwise excellent performance as a team leader and huntsman. It's rare that Glynda and I find ourselves on the same side of the fence, but…" Ironwood shrugged as he drank from his cup of coffee. Josuke wilted a bit under Ironwood's assessment, however the young man hadn't seen anything strictly wrong with it.

"Well then, Josuke doesn't serve with Atlas; he served with The Frontier and from Mr. Kujo's assessment, it's clear that he otherwise serves with flying colors. He's also been an otherwise extraordinarily well-behaved guest of Beacon Academy and has lended his talents to serve the school above and beyond what might ordinarily be asked of a transfer huntsman; whether that be healing all of our students from their wounds or by bringing in dangerous Stand Users for us to question. Honestly, as far as character flaws for our fellow huntsmen and huntresses go, having a temper is pretty tame all things told… especially compared to some of our associates."

'Qrow…' Ironwood and Glynda almost immediately went to the same place as Ozpin spoke, while Jotaro just nodded in agreement and Josuke blinked in confusion, out of the loop as far as the adults in the room and their discussion was concerned.

In all honesty, Ozpin hadn't been terribly perturbed by Josuke's behavior. Had it been a surprise at the moment when, upon having his hair insulted, Josuke had turned Crazy Diamond on Cardin Winchester and pummeled him into a pile of broken bones and regret? Absolutely; Ozpin hadn't taken Jotaro's warning entirely seriously, after all. However, as Ozpin had often said to both Jotaro and Glynda, these were, in his eyes, still children. While Jotaro and Glynda both seemed to take offense to that remark, considering the destiny being thrust upon these kids, they both at least seemed to allow his opinion to stand without a great deal of protest.

Josuke was a young man, in his late teens, who aside from this one behavioral issue had acted extremely well as a huntsman. Yang Xiao Long had busted up The Club mere nights before Beacon's Initiation was to be held, Cardin Winchester, considering all the things he had said, done and threatened to do to various students at the school, had a rap sheet in his drawer miles long, Team RWBY and now even JNPR had flagrantly broken school rules multiple times and Ozpin himself was surrounded by individuals such as Qrow Branwen whose behavior outside of specifically having been a huntsmen was… less than stellar.

Yet Ozpin had approached each of these cases calmly, calm enough for some to think of it as outright dismissal. It hadn't been that Ozpin dismissed these flaws in other's characters; rather, the Beacon Headmaster preferred to think that he had faith in the better angels of people who had proven themselves ready, willing and full of the potential to become great hunters. It was why the incident at The Club had been brushed under the rug, why Cardin was still in his school when most other institutions would likely throw him out, why Qrow wasn't just one of his closest confidants but also one of his closest friends and even why Jaune Arc had been allowed to attend Beacon.

Josuke had messed up as part of what most people would consider a flaw. While he did appreciate Ironwood and Glynda's perspectives, he also wouldn't let this flaw eclipse the good that Josuke had done… and, judging by the specifics of Ironwood's statements, neither would James. Heck, despite his very serious attitude and the seemingly regimental nature of The Frontier, it seemed even Jotaro and the people he served were more than willing to overlook flaws in the characters of good men like Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi if they served the ideal of the hunter faithfully. While he and Jotaro may have obviously had their disagreements over viewing these future huntsmen as children, in this way the two did seem to be on the same page. It was a good thing to know, Ozpin had decided.

"So is that all you needed from me today Headmaster? Just letting me know that my punishment's concluded?" Ozpin had been shaken from his own thoughts by Josuke's voice as the young man spoke up. Ozpin turned his gaze over to the young, pompadoured man and an amused tilt formed on the headmaster's lips as he saw the sheepish expression that had crossed Josuke's features.

"Not quite Josuke. There's also that matter we discussed weeks ago when you started healing the various students and staff housed here in Beacon; your pay." With that, Ozpin reached into his desk and rifled around the drawers as Josuke just flushed red in embarrassment.

"Oh, Headmaster, like I said back then to Ms. Goodwitch, I really don't need any kind of payment for doing it. I'm just doing my job as a huntsman is all." Josuke has said in a hurried tone as the grey haired Beacon Headmaster just nodded.

"It's a commendable attitude Josuke, but I'm sure even in your homeland you're rewarded in some way for your service to The Frontier, correct?" Well, Josuke couldn't exactly say he was wrong. Part of the official perks of living in The Frontier was requests that could be made for various supplies and goods that the supply trains between Morioh and The Outskirts would trade for on your behalf. For Josuke, that usually meant hair products to keep his pompadour in good shape, while his mother, as another example, usually requested the snack cakes she loved so dearly. It was a means of 'paying back' the service of Morioh's Hunters and a good way of keeping morale in the city high even when The Grimm were a constant threat outside the walls.

"I mean, I guess, but still sir…"

"Josuke, the service you've done for my school is a grand one. Several of my students and students from all over Remnant will owe their continued work as huntsmen and huntresses to you and Crazy Diamond. You've gone well above and beyond anything that could've been expected of you and done so without request for compensation. My conscience wouldn't very well let me sit by while you went unrewarded, especially now that your detention is finally up." Josuke's protests died on his lips as Ozpin spoke and, finally, retrieved from his desk a Lien card.

"Here we are Josuke; as Headmaster of Beacon Academy I would like to sincerely thank you for services rendered now and in the future. Consider this your reward." Ozpin slid the card across the desk and, after a moment's hesitation Josuke turned his gaze over to Jotaro.

"The Frontier hasn't been able to properly give back to its huntsmen for all their service to Morioh, Josuke. That includes you and your team… especially you and your team with your record of service in the name of humankind's presence on the Unknown Continent." A rare smile formed on Jotaro's lips as he nodded his head down to the card. "Take it, you've earned it."

With that, Josuke reached his hand out and, gingerly, took the Lien Card into it, a small, grateful smile formed on his lips as he bowed deeply to the gathered adults in the room.

"Thank you all for this. I promise, I won't waste any this." At that, most of the adults in the room smiled, with Ozpin having rolled his eyes.

"Josuke, you're sixteen and it's your money. You can do whatever you want with it… most people would expect you to waste it." An amused tone rang out in Ozpin's words as Josuke just nodded, a wide grin on his face as he stood back up straight. Ozpin, after a moment, realized what Josuke had been waiting for and rolled his eyes slightly. "You're dismissed, Josuke. Well done… and hopefully the next time you're in my office, it won't have to be because of a detention first." Josuke just nodded vigorously before he quickly turned on his heels and made his way out of the office. Despite how dour some had been before the young man's arrival and as it concerned his detention, most of the adults in the room had felt rather… uplifted by the obvious excitement of the young man.

"Laying it on a bit thick there, aren't you Ozpin?" Ironwood suggested with a coy grin as his fellow Headmaster just chuckled.

"Considering that one of the people that Josuke had healed was our very own Fall Maiden, James, I actually think I undersold just how much good Josuke's done here at Beacon." A sip from his coffee had accompanied the statement as Jotaro turned his gaze back over to Beacon Academy's Headmaster.

"Speaking of, how is Fall Maiden Amber doing? Any progress in all this time?" Jotaro asked concisely and had been met by an equally concise nod from Ozpin.

"Indeed; she's much more responsive than she was either in her coma or when Josuke had first brought her out of it… though considering how unresponsive she was at both times, that's a low bar to clear." Ozpin took a long swig from his coffee mug as he smacked his lips together slightly. "She's speaking now and will address people who speak with her, but she usually only does so in short bursts; prolonged discussion seems to stress her out and will, eventually, lead her to withdraw back into her nearly catatonic state. To say nothing of how quickly she shuts down when you try to address what exactly happened to her that brought her to such a state.

"However, even in her most withdrawn moments she's now capable of getting up and walking around on her own and she seems to be taking aims to take care of herself rather than depend on any of the staff I've left to ensure she's taken care of while she's still recovering. Signs of independence that I'm taking as quite good, considering the state she's been in for months now." Ozpin stated with a firm nod as he took a long swig of his coffee. "All of which wouldn't have been possible if Crazy Diamond hadn't been around to fix what had physically ailed her and had kept her locked in that coma. He may not have been able to fix what ails her mentally or spiritually… but we're getting there."

"Is that why the amount you included in that Lien Card was so… extravagant, Ozpin?" Glynda asked carefully as she looked down the ridge of her glasses at Ozpin, who just smiled good-naturedly.

"Don't worry Glynda. While I made a big deal of saying that the thanks came from Beacon, all the money in that card comes from my own private accounts. Beacon hasn't paid a cent." Ozpin stated with a casual tone as Glynda just sighed wearily.

"That isn't the question I asked, Ozpin." Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose as she saw the small grin that formed on Ozpin's lips, the older Headmaster just shrugging his shoulders slightly as he lifted his cup of coffee to his lips.

"Strictly speaking, yes, that was why the amount on that card might be considered a bit high." As he took a sip, a slight chuckled echoed from behind the cup. "Though, I'm not going to lie, seeing the reactions later on will prove the amount on that card fully worthwhile, I think. RWBY, JNPR and JOJO have been serving their roles as hunters quite well. I think a little of a reward is hardly out of the question." Despite the sincerity of his words, the rest of the room just slightly shook their heads at Ozpin's tone.

" **Yare yare** … this is going to be a mess."

* * *

Dining Hall, Meanwhile

"Yo guys, what's up? Haven't seen you around town these past couple weekends. Been hitting the books or something?"

As Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias approached their friends in Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO they found a warm, if slightly impatient, reception at the table. The group of three teams readily made seats available for the two members of Team SSSN they were acquainted with as some gave curt nods while others sighed in slight annoyance.

"If only, then maybe I wouldn't have to spend so much time copying my notes in Port's class for these three here." Blake said with a slight huff as the rest of Team RWBY just shrugged.

"Hey, nose goes Blake. Don't worry, next semester you'll be in the clear." Yang said with a slight punch to Blake's shoulder, the black haired faunus just rolling her eyes slightly as Ruby turned her attention back to Sun and Neptune.

"We're actually waiting here for Josuke; he got called up to Ozpin's office early this morning, so we're waiting to see what's up."

"Ah right, his detention was supposed to be up yesterday wasn't it?" A series of confirming nods accompanied Neptune's statement as Nora groaned slightly.

"Okuyasu and Koichi here wouldn't do much over the weekend or after school while Josuke had to serve out his detention. 'Show of solidarity' these two called it… and after that they basically guilt tripped us into joining in!" Nora groaned as she placed her face into her hands and shook her head. "I missed out on so many trips to town for pancake ingredients because of it…"

"Nora, all we said was that we were going to stick around school to keep Josuke company after his detention let out, you all didn't have to join us." Koichi said in a slightly befuddled tone, the young man, in a move that would've previously been uncharacteristic for him, having not apologized in response to Nora's melodrama.

"Nora's just being a little overly dramatic." Ren commented idly, a betrayed look from Nora having gotten a slight chuckle out of the stoic young man as he shrugged.

"'Sides, Josuke's our friend too. Wouldn't have exactly felt right to leave someone behind while the rest of us went out to have fun." Jaune said with a firm nod, one matched by most of the rest of the table.

"Though I think he might've earned it for having gotten detention for such a ridiculous reason." Weiss rolled her eyes as she looked to Okuyasu and Koichi. "You guys could've actually told us you were being so serious about how bad Josuke took having his hair insulted."

"We did. Multiple times. You guys were just being thick and not listening to us." Everyone at the table flinched at Okuyasu's statement; once again he wasn't wrong and, once again, they all felt a little sheepish at having been called thick by Okuyasu of all people. The scarred teen just casually shrugged his shoulders as he placed his hands behind his head. "You guys just had to learn by seeing it, I guess. A shame too; we hadn't gotten into trouble yet up to that point."

"Seems a little silly though, honestly. I mean, I get pretty mad about my hair, but even I don't get that upset."

The entire table, aside from Sun, Neptune and Team JOJO, went dead silent as Yang Xiao Long said this, a series of disbelieving glances having been sent the blonde's way as Yang began to sweat under the sudden spotlight of attention.

"Yang, you absolutely pulverize anyone, Grimm, human or otherwise who does something to your hair you don't like into the dirt." Ruby had addressed her sister in an incredibly dry tone as Yang just flinched a bit.

"O-Okay but that's just strangers, I wouldn't-"

"The first time we fought I accidentally cut one of your bangs with the end of my sword. If it hadn't been for my skill and my semblance you would've probably beaten my head into my neck." Pyrrha remarked, equally dry, as Yang finally pounded the table.

"Okay okay! So I get super upset with anyone and everyone when it comes to my hair… but that's only if people actually cut it or ruin it! I don't get upset if people insult it! So there, it's not as bad!" The lilac eyed teen insisted dramatically as Blake just rolled her amber eyes.

"Yeah, you only get violent about your hair when people so much as pluck out a single strand. You're the epitome of patience and restraint when it comes to your hair, Yang." Yang nodded firmly in agreement with Blake as the cat faunus spoke before, after a moment's thought, Yang's expression dropped into an annoyed frown.

"... You know, your deadpan can make it a bit hard to figure out when you're being sarcastic Blakey. Not cool, partner."

"Why Yang, I'm not being sarcastic at all. I meant every word I said. Can't you tell?" Blake's usual deadpan once again rang out across the table as she spoke, which had earned no small amount of chuckles from Sun as a very cat-like grin formed on Blake's lips in response. Finally, Yang just sighed and rolled her eyes as she looked back forward.

"Anyway, it's whatever; Josuke's our friend and we wouldn't leave one of our own to suffer through two weeks of detention… I just kinda wish something exciting had happened in the meantime. Been really quiet these past couple weeks."

"Oh yes, Gods forbid that we have a bit of quiet after the Stand Users we had to deal with these past several weeks." Weiss declared with a huff as she shook her head at Yang and, for once, most of the table of would-be heroes probably agreed more with Weiss than with Yang. Indeed, for all of the teams gathered save for the members of SSSN represented, the Stand Users they'd been faced with were an exhausting bunch, though more so emotionally than physically… though the challenge they presented in that regard couldn't have been entirely discounted.

The Lock, Surface and Aqua Necklace had brought all manner of concerns and worries to the teenage group of huntsmen and huntresses. The Lock had emotionally and physically challenged Blake and Weiss and threatened Team RWBY with yet another issue concerning Blake's past as a member of The White Fang. Surface had very nearly maimed both Koichi and Jaune and would've proceeded to do horrific things to Pyrrha had she not been able to handle herself against it. Then there was Aqua Necklace; owned by a psychopath whose very memory had shaken those who knew of Angelo and his acts and whose kidnapping of Koichi had rocked the group to the core.

It hadn't been an easy few weeks when those Stands and their masters, one after the other, hit them. Even for Ruby Rose, these weeks of quiet had been rather welcoming as a way to wind down after all that. Especially considering that even before those three Stands her own team and her sister had to deal with Bruno Bucciarati's Sticky Fingers. Idly, Ruby looked over to Yang and noticed her sister idly shifting her left shoulder. Her silver eyes narrowed a bit but she hadn't spoken up. Ruby understood a few things about her sister, something that came with the territory of being family. She suspected that her sister's boredom and frustration with the lack of Stands having showed up was less Yang Xiao Long wanting a fight and more Yang Xiao Long, having been caught out by one Stand User, having wanted to prove that she could learn from her mistake and show that she still had it in her to kick serious butt.

Regardless, Yang shrugged as she leaned back in her seat. "I guess. I dunno, maybe it's this mid-semester slump that's starting to hit hard; the big dance isn't for another few weeks and then our big first mission… well, first official mission-" Everyone had rolled their eyes slightly; at this point with what all the gathered teens had done, they might as well have said that they'd been on several missions as huntsmen and huntresses as it was, "-not long after that, I guess I'm just getting a little antsy. You can only keep hitting those dummies in the training halls so long before you end up getting bored and wanting to do literally anything else to pass the time."

"Well then, guess it's a good thing that I'm officially free as a bird then, isn't it?"

"Josuke!"

WIth Okuyasu's loud declaration the entire table turned to face where the scarred teen had shouted and, lo and behold, Higashikata Josuke walked up to the table with a light smile on his face as he waved to his gathered friends.

"Yo JoJo, took you long enough. Ozpin keep you in that office long?" Yang asked with a wide grin set across her face as Josuke immediately frowned.

"Please stop calling me JoJo."

"No go, JoJo." A series of chuckles erupted from Okuyasu that had rang out counter to the series of groans made by the rest of the table. Yang just continued to grin cheekily while Josuke, as he took his seat, just rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You see it's funny, because it kind of rhymes." Okuyasu pointed out with a wide grin, as Koichi just shook his head.

"Yes, we know Okuyasu. It wasn't funny to anyone but you two." Koichi had stated flatly, which had caused Yang and Okuyasu to grin.

"Hey, just means we're the only ones at this table with a sense of humor." The blonde haired brawler just casually shrugged her shoulders, followed up by a nod of agreement from Okuyasu, as Josuke just loudly sighed in irritation.

"Anyway! No, Ozpin didn't keep me up there for long. I had just heard that there had been some kind of talk going on inside so I waited for a bit. After a while I knocked to see what was going on and he seemed ready for me. Just trying to be polite was all…"

"Then you got into a hurry and decided you'd interrupt anyway, eh?" A slightly cheeky grin from Sun earned a light blush of embarrassment from Josuke who just coughed into his fist.

"A-Anyway, Ozpin told me that my punishment was up and that I'd served it out pretty well." At that, Neptune leaned forward on the table, a curious look having crossed the face of the blue haired young man.

"Speaking of Josuke, I've been wanting to ask ever since I saw that vid on my Scroll-"

"Oh Brothers above, it's actually gotten around?" Josuke asked, aghast, as he placed his face in his hands to hide his thoroughly red cheeks, as those gathered around him just lightly pat the embarrassed young man on the shoulders for support.

"Yeah. Anyway, I wanted to ask… what the heck was up with that anyway? I mean, I'm a guy who can appreciate taking care of your looks and being proud of them… I mean, look at me." Neptune leaned back in his chair, posed slightly and smiled, a glint of white light having reflected off his pearly white teeth as everyone at the table nodded appreciatively, few more enthusiastically than Weiss herself. "But man, you were scary dude." After a moment Josuke just sighed as he lifted his face out of his hands to look at Neptune.

"Like I've said, whenever someone insults my hair I really just can't help myself. I get angry, I blow up and I just gotta beat the crap out of whoever did it, no matter who they are. It isn't anything personal it's just… well, it's just part of who I am." Josuke shrugged slightly at the explanation.

"Coming from someone who has been friends with Yang for a while now, I get that much myself." Blake commented idly as she looked over at Neptune. "I think what Neptune's asking isn't why you punched out Cardin that badly but why you get so angry in the first place. Why is someone insulting your hair such a trigger for you?"

"Yeah. I mean, your hair's cool looking and all-" Josuke couldn't help but beam with a little pride as Yang said this, while the lilac eyed girl just rolled her eyes and punched Josuke in the shoulder to bring the pompadoured teen back down to Remnant, "-and I'm all for messin' with people who mess with my hair, but just an insult?"

Okuyasu and Koichi looked on at the table curiously; they had been friends with these guys for a while and, at this point, they were as good as comrades considering all the Stands and Stand Users they'd fought together by now. Hell, they'd helped as best they could to save Koichi when he'd been kidnapped which put them about as well into Okuyasu's good books as they could get as far as the scarred teen was concerned. Still, both were curious as to whether Josuke would actually go out of his way to share this little story. While it wasn't Josuke's most personal story, not by a long shot and they doubted anyone at this table besides those already in the know, the two of them, would hear it for a long, long time, the story of why Josuke was so protective of his hair, up to and including insults, was still a bit of a big deal to their leader.

"Well… uh… hmmm… it's a bit of a long story. A pretty boring one too, if we're being honest." Josuke remarked as he rested his chin in the palm of one of his hands, a slightly flustered expression on his face as his blue eyes glanced away from the table and out one of the grand windows of the dining hall. "It's not really that big a thing."

"Oh, now we've got to hear this." Sun said with a wide grin as he leaned forward on the table, an excited look in his eyes that, for the most part, was replicated by most people at the table. "Come on man, tell us, please?"

"Yeah Josuke, you can't just start off like that and then leave us hanging! We gotta know now!" Nora exclaimed with a bright shine to her turquoise eyes. Josuke looked across the rest of the table, hoping to find that at least Blake and Weiss would've been disinterested. Yet, to his displeasure, it seemed he'd somehow even managed to inadvertently peak their interests as they watched him carefully. With all eyes on him, even Okuyasu and Koichi's, Josuke finally sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Alright… I warned you guys, it's a boring story." Josuke said dryly as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "So it's like this; twelve years ago, I nearly died. For some reason, my Stand had been awakened prematurely and, at such a young age, Crazy Diamond was pretty much killing me. I wasn't old enough to have the will or strength to be able to control it and so I had already started to spiral into a deep fever that was threatening to just snuff me out. There were some folks who were looking into it to try and save my life, but it wasn't going to get done quickly and I was spiraling slowly but surely." Josuke bit his lip slightly as he obfuscated a few details. While the broad stroke of this story was one he was willing to tell to these people he considered his friends, the specifics… would've revealed too much.

Jotaro's mom having fallen similarly ill would've hinted at some kind of connection. Considering Nora and Ren already knew the story of The Stardust Crusaders and thus knew the only remaining, living Joestar family members aside from himself, he could count on them putting two and two together once they realized that he and Holly Kujo-Joestar had fallen ill similarly at the exact same time. It… wasn't something he was ready to share. Not yet anyway.

"Well, while most people were willing to sit around and be patient and hope for the best… my mom wasn't one of those people." Josuke scratched the back of his head slightly as he said this, a slightly wistful smile on his face.

"I bet she was upset. I could only imagine how Summer Rose would feel if either Ruby or I were in that situation. " Yang remarked slightly as she leaned against the table.

"Hah, yeah, upset's a word. Absolutely beyond pissed off and angry is another." Josuke said with a smile. "My mom couldn't stand the thought of sitting around and doing nothing but waiting for me to either die or get better, and she raged when that seemed to be the only thing most people were willing to do. So my mom did what she did most times she thought the folks around her were just sitting on their asses; she took matters into her own hands." A series of small smiles formed across the table.

"Seems a bit dangerous… but you did say that everyone in your city is a hunter, so I'm guessing…" Weiss began slowly, to which Josuke nodded.

"Yeah, she was a huntress… and a pretty badass one too. Honestly, in a fight between Crazy Diamond and her Stand I'd be hard pressed to say who would win… pretty sure hers would though. Then again that might be years of spars where she and her Stand would kick me around talking more than anything recent." Josuke said with a slight joke as the rest of the table gawked slightly.

"What? Seriously? Your mom's Stand can beat up yours? Dude, Crazy Diamond's pretty tough, I find that kind of hard to believe." Jaune remarked idly as Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi just shrugged.

"As Josuke's mom's fond of saying; her Stand's power is more unbreakable than any diamond." Okuyasu remarked dryly, to which Josuke just nodded.

"Yeah, no kidding…" Josuke rubbed at his jaw as a few memories played across his mind. "Anyway, point is that my mom and her Stand were and are still considered a pretty serious duo and, well, when she decided she was going to get me treated, there wasn't a lot anyone in Morioh at the time could do to stop her… given that my grandfather was one of the wall guards at the time, she didn't exactly have trouble either. Even if he wasn't willing to break orders directly, my grandfather did have a tendency to spoil my mom a little bit… and I don't think he wanted to just wait and see if I'd die or if I'd live either.

"So the plan was that if no one in Morioh could treat me and if we didn't have the medicine on hand to lower my fever to try and see if it could help me live through this crap, then maybe the Outskirts would. It was a desperate plan, but at that point my mom was pretty well beyond desperate. It was an early winter and snow had pretty much blanketed most of The Frontier and frozen the water in between The Outskirts and the mainland, so my mom hoped that The Grimm would be slow to catch her amidst all the snow while she walked across the frozen water to get to The Outskirts.

"Well… as you might imagine, not everything went to plan. Despite having snuck out in the dead of night and doing her best to follow recent scouting reports as to where clusters of Grimm were, you can't go to many places on the Unknown Continent and not run into Grimm if you spend enough time there. That's what ended up happening; a huge pack of Beowolves ended up finding my mom while she was traversing the wilderness and although she and her Stand were able to dispatch them, they drew in the attention of others." Everyone had leaned in further and further, the image of a Stand the likes of Crazy Diamond, The Hand or Sticky Fingers fighting hordes of Grimm while Josuke's mother protected a little him having played in their minds. Ruby Rose, at that very moment, seemed star struck by the idea, her silver eyes having shimmered as she leaned in more and more.

"And?! What happened next!?" Ruby asked excitedly, in a tone that had echoed the sentiment of a few others at the table. Josuke seemed a bit surprised by Ruby's excitement, but carried on nonetheless.

"Well… eventually my mother just got exhausted. Between running with me on her back to free up her Stand to fight and the sheer number of them, the Grimm started to wear her down. The Outskirts weren't a safe haven at that moment either; with the water frozen, the Grimm were able to pursue my mother across the ocean and to the islands. Any actual settlements were still too far away for my mother to get too while being so doggedly pursued. I… don't really remember much of what had happened. I was pretty feverish the entire time and I kept passing in and out of consciousness while all this was going on. I do remember this part though, and I remember it vividly.

"It seemed like the end; my mom had cradled me in her arms and just kept telling me that she loved me; one of The Grimm had gotten her leg and she couldn't run anymore. Even with her Stand fending off as many of them as it could, it was pretty obvious we were caught. Just when it seemed like her Stand was about to fall however, someone came. It… wasn't a Frontier Hunter. They had weapon, first off, and one that was pretty obviously powered by Dust. Plus they didn't wear the uniform that had been common for so many years by then. What they did have was a light beard and… well." Josuke reached up and motioned his hands across his hair, as several pairs of eyes widened at the table.

"He had a pompadour just like this one. It was the thing that stood out most to me in my fevered state. The guy just brandished his weapon at the Grimm, not even batting an eye at either my mother or her Stand. He said that i'd die if I stayed out in the cold like that for much longer and that she needed to get going. My mother seemed hesitant at first but… well, eventually she just bundled me up, thanked this guy and made a break for it as best she could on that leg of hers. I watched this guy kind of fade back into the distance as he stood his ground. Eventually, my mother's Stand faded out once she got outside of its range. From there, I just remember the sounds of gunfire and of Grimm howling out in pain.

"We did make it to a settlement where my mother got her leg treated and some doctors on the island managed to get my fever down, at least a little bit. Enough that I wouldn't have died then and there. After a few weeks of being treated there, Crazy Diamond subsided back into the sea of my soul and I made a full recovery. My mom and I asked around the village about the guy but apparently he wasn't actually from the island; he was part of a group of hunters that The Outskirts had hired out to watch over the island. Apparently the freezing of the water between the islands and the mainland has become a regular thing and the Grimm have taken the opportunity every winter to cross over and try to assault the villages. So they hired him and a few other hunters out to just kill any Grimm that made the crossing. He must've just spotted my mom and I being chased and jumped in to help us.

"We never saw him again and no one we talked to before going back to Morioh knew who he came with or where they were, so… well, the only people who really remembered him then and there was my mom and I." With that, Josuke pointed up to his pompadour, prim and trimmed, and nodded with a firm resolve. "So after that I grew my hair out and asked my mom to start importing hair product from The Outskirts so I could style my hair like that man's, as my way of showing my appreciation for saving my life. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have survived either my fever or that night in the wilderness, so I'll always style my hair like this to remember him by… and I consider any insult to my hair an insult to his memory.

"That's why, even if I know I shouldn't, even if it's someone I know doesn't mean ill, I won't let anyone insult my hair and get away with it no matter what. I just can't help myself." With his resolve spent on that statement, Josuke suddenly went a bit red in the face from embarrassment. While that had sounded pretty cool in his head when he said it, he realized after just how cheesy it might've sounded to anyone listening in.

"That… is SO COOL!" Ruby practically jumped up onto the table as Josuke finished his tale, her silver eyes sparkled with excitement and glee as she looked up to Josuke. "You got saved by a huntsman and now you style yourself after them forever and always! It's just like out of a story! Heck, it's just like with my hood and my mom! And speaking of moms, your mom sounds so cool! Running across the wilderness in the middle of a snowstorm to get her dying son help while fighting off Grimm! OH MY GOD! She sounds like she'd be the second, definitely second, coolest mom ever! Oh I want to meet her soooo bad! I want to see another totally awesome huntress, Josuke, you've got to introduce me sometime!"

Josuke flinched back slightly at Ruby's enthusiasm for his story and, as he cast his eyes about, he found very little condescension coming from his friends. Yang seemed positively enthralled by his story as well, the lilac eyed girl having casually twirled her fingers around in her hair in thought as she nodded a bit. Jaune, similar to Ruby, had stars in his eyes as he listened to this tale of heroism, sacrifice and survival against all odds and Nora, well, she wasn't far behind either Ruby or Jaune in terms of excitement. Everyone else's reactions were more low-key, ranging from Sun Wukong who just vigorously nodded his head along with a wide, excited grin, down to Neptune and Ren, the latter just smiled fondly, if sadly, as a few memories played across his eyes while the former tried to hold back any reaction he had to keep his cool demeanor.

"That's… a very nice tale, Josuke. It's also quite noble of you to do such a thing for a man you respect… even if it does lead you to doing terribly uncouth things to others who might insult your hair." Weiss commented dryly, before she grinned. "And while I don't share Ruby's enthusiasm for her, I will admit, your mother does sound quite kind. Willing to drop everything, including her own safety, to try and save your life… she sounds like a good mother." There was some distant distaste in Weiss' tone, though it was clear it hadn't been directed at Josuke's own mother. Rather, it seemed that a thought had crossed Weiss' own mind, though only she would know that it was a thought of home.

"She does." Ren agreed as he took a bit of a breath, Nora's hand having instinctively reached out to squeeze his in response to the tone in his voice. Blake and Pyrrha just listened casually, obviously intrigued but little to say, while Okuyasu and Koichi had heard this story before.

"Err… thanks guys, I appreciate it." Josuke scratched at the back of his head sheepishly as all this praise went to this mom. "Anyway, that's the story. Like I said, it wasn't that exciting-"

"Think you might be wrong about that one there JoJo." Yang stuck her tongue out slightly as she teased the taller young man, Josuke rolling his blue eyes at Yang's response before he moved along.

"-and I figured that, after these past couple weeks of me being stuck in detention that we'd all rather talk about our plans for the weekend. Especially because of this right here." Josuke reached into one of his uniform pockets and pulled out the Lien card that Ozpin had given him earlier. Whenever everyone had merely tilted their head to the side in slight confusion, having figured that was more of Josuke's Beacon-sponsored allowance, the pompadoured teen clarified. "Ozpin and the others had been talking about me getting some kind of reward for helping to heal the students who get hurt or seriously injured here at Beacon for a while. I tried to tell them I didn't need it but-"

"But they gave it to you anyway! Score, good money for doing good deeds." Nora chimed in with a wide grin as Josuke just smiled.

"I guess. Anyway, considering all the stress we've been through for most of this semester I figured that I'd spend this with you guys, make a day out of going out on the town and enjoying ourselves. My way of paying you guys back for having been such great hosts and, well, for being so welcoming to myself and my team."

"Awww, Josuke, you don't have to do something like that to pay us back for being friends with you, that's a reward in and of itself." Ruby chimed in, though Blake coughed into her fist.

"But if you'd like to buy a book or two, I certainly wouldn't turn it down." Okuyasu, Yang, Nora and Sun barked out several laughs at that, while others seemed a bit scandalized.

"Yeah man, after these past couple weeks, a day out sounds like just what we need." Okuyasu said with a wide grin as he leaned in closer to the table. "So, how much is on that thing anyway?"

"You know, I don't know. Ozpin didn't tell me." Josuke commented idly as he wagged the Lien card around. As if on cue, Weiss gingerly reached out her hand as she pulled out a Scroll.

"I can check to see how much is on the card Josuke. There's a program on my Scroll for it." WIth an appreciative nod handed the card over to Weiss. With a few taps her Scroll produced a light from its screen that went out in a thin, horizontal line. With a quick swipe Weiss started up the program and awaited the results…

Weiss' eyes proceeded to go as wide as dinner plates as she blinked in confusion. She brought the screen up closer to her face, as if having attempted to get a better look, before she swiped the Lien card again. When the Scroll gave her the exact same result, Weiss' jaw went a bit slack.

"Soooo… how much money's on the card, Weiss-cream?" Yang asked curiously as she tried to peek around at the screen of Weiss' scroll as the Schnee Dust Company Heiress just opened and closed her mouth a few times.

"Errr…. 50,000 Lien."

"..."

"Uh… what was that Weiss?"

"I said it was 50,000 Lien."

"Oh… that's… that's what I thought you said."

The entire table went silent as the amount had passed through everyone's ears, deadpan expressions on the face of every teen at that table as they stared down at Weiss' Scroll.

"That's… like, 50,000 bottles of Pumpkin Pete Brand Cola. That's… that's a lot of money." Josuke commented in an oddly monotone manner, which had drawn more than its fair share of nods from everyone at the table. For a moment, everything had been absolutely still and absolutely quiet. No one had dared to interrupt this delicate balance, not even people who had surrounded the table previously.

Then, in one moment, it all came crashing down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Weiss, Ren, Pyrrha, Neptune, Blake and Koichi had remained at least somewhat calm. Weiss and Pyrrha were rich in their own ways and thus hadn't been surprised by the sheer amount… or, better to say, they were surprised it was on this card given to Josuke, but they'd seen and handled the amount themselves before. Neptune had wanted to keep up his cool demeanor while Koichi and Blake had just seemed shell-shocked into an utterly deadpan state still.

Everyone else at the table had immediately stood up and started to scream their heads off as they looked down at Weiss' Scroll.

"OH MY GOD, IT'S LIKE SOME KIND OF DREAM OR FANTASY, EXCEPT IT'S REAL LIFE!" Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs as her silver eyes shined in the light of the Scroll.

"THERE ISN'T ANOTHER FEELING LIKE THIS IN THE WORLD!" Okuyasu had barked out immediately after as Yang seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating.

"JOJO, CHECK THE CARD ONE MORE TIME!" Yang had practically given Josuke whiplash with the sheer force she had shaken him with, as the pompadoured teen complied and swiped the card again rather than fight back against his nickname.

"I-It's true, 50,000 Lien, on this card!" Josuke remarked, utterly blown away, as everyone else just continued to laugh and holler in joy.

"Holy crap, this is amazing! With this kind of money you could buy a suit with a totally sexy silhouette or, Hell, better yet, you could go on some kind of out-of-country trip over the weekend and see some more of the world!" Yang's lilac eyes glinted as she recounted her own immediately thought of possibilities before her sister jumped on Josuke's back.

"Or you could buy your own weapon and outfit it with the latest materials and upgrades! Or or you could go to the nearest bakery and buys years worth of cookies to stuff under your bed and eat whenever you want!" Ruby's eyes twinkled with possibilities before Jaune Arc and Sun Wukong jumped in.

"Think of all the cool stuff you could get, you'd never have to worry about money for the rest of your time here man!" The two blonds had spoken in near unison, both having grown up in relatively auspicious circumstances, as the two blonds laughed and wrapped an arm around each others shoulders in celebration.

"You could buy enough fireworks to light up the entire Vale night sky for the entire week! Or you could go to the nearest Remnant House of Pancakes and just gorge yourself there as long as you want!" Nora licked her lips at the thought as she cupped her cheeks with her hands, her head spinning with all the various possibilities.

"NO! Guys! Josuke just made a whole bunch of money all at once! What he really needs to do is to set it aside and put it away for savings!" Okuyasu had jumped forward as he said this, a nearly dead-serious tone to his voice as he shouted at all of his friends. Everyone just stopped and stared at Okuyasu for a moment, as if having to take a moment in order to register what the scarred teen had said… before all those who had been laughing so much before, up to and including Okuyasu, had begun to laugh hysterically again.

"Man, talk about a boring life, am I right?" Okuyasu just laughed along as Yang pointed this out, the lilac eyed teen practically busting a gut along with everyone else as the celebration went on.

"Yang! That's something completely sensible and responsible, and it's coming from Okuyasu of all people! Don't discourage that kind of solid behavior!" Weiss had screamed out, stuck between being incensed at Yang's response to such an idea and being weirdly proud and confused that it had come from the scarred teen out of all of them. "If Josuke didn't do something like that with the money, it'd be completely irresponsible!"

"Irresponsible, sure, you can call him that if he spends his money any other way. Spendthrift, loose, whatever. Call him what you what, cause you can't call him broke!" Yang just cackled and laughed along with everyone else as she slapped a hand against Josuke's shoulders, the teen having just stared at the Lien card the entire time with his wide, plate-like blue eyes. "So Josuke, what are you going to do with all this money? Any of our suggestions or do you have some wild and crazy ideas cooking up in that head of yours?" Yang asked with a wide, toothy grin as she shook Josuke by the shoulder.

"... I… I don't know."

The laughter ceased as Josuke said this, especially as the tone he said it with suggested honest to goodness bewilderment as everyone just looked over at him.

"What?"

"Like I said, I don't know." Josuke remarked quite honestly as he scratched his cheek, staring in awe at the little card in his hands. "I mean… I always knew money like this existed. There's ruins of grand manors and estates scattered throughout The Frontier that I've regularly helped to scout out. I've seen treasure and old artifacts the likes of which were probably priceless in their time… but we traded it all away for simple stuff. Food, minor goods or, in the most extreme luxury cases, hair product like what I got. I… always figured I'd live like that. Just a simple huntsman, never really getting a lot of money and never living too well…

"I… I never really dreamt of what it'd be like to have this kind of money right in my hands. Never really fantasized about having a lot. I just always figured I'd have my uniform, maybe some medals after I served for a while and a few trinkets I'd pick up here and there. This… this isn't just the most money I've ever had in my life. This is more money than I'd ever dreamed I would have." Josuke reached a hand up and combed it through his hair slightly, being very careful to not disturb his pompadour, as he looked down at the little card.

"I… I really don't know how to spend this." Josuke swallowed nervously as he said this. The reaction had caused most gathered around the table to smile lightly. For as wise beyond his years as Josuke could seem sometime and as experienced a huntsman and leader as he was, there were still times like these to remind them that he really was a kid just like most of them and, in some ways, even more of a kid than him. For those older than him, it was a welcome reprieve from Josuke seeming like he was the senior and they were the juniors.

Yang Xiao Long, on the other hand, just grinned as she wrapped an arm around Josuke's shoulders.

"Oh JoJo, today will definitely be a good day for you… an especially good day, I should say. Because today you're going to learn exactly how utterly lucky you are that you're a good friend of Professor Xiao Long." Yang nodded her head sagely as she said this, which caused no small amount of snerks or derisive grins from forming across the table.

"Excuse me, Professor Xiao Long? When did you get that degree there, Yang?" Blake asked in a sarcastic manner as Yang quickly shushed the black haired faunus.

"Shhh! Class is in session Miss Belladonna, no speaking out of turn." Amber eyes rolled in response before Yang turned her attention back to Josuke. "JoJo, we're going to have our day out like you said. We're going to enjoy ourselves and we're going to relax after weeks of fighting Stand Users and weeks of you being in detention… but, before we do that, first and foremost, you're going to attend my class.

"Because today, Professor Yang Xiao Long, Master of Economics, is going to teach you how to shop."

 **-To Be Continued- Out On The Town (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Be honest, how many of you forgot that offered reward that Glynda brought up at the end of Okuyasu's spar with Nora? Setup, pay off. Good stuff.**

 **So as stated before, this is the start of a nice little trough before we move into the next big climax of the series. While the fight scenes and actions climaxes of the series thus far have been no strangers to advancing characterization and exploring our cast more deeply, it's hard to get certain types of interactions when you need to build arc around a definitive, hard conflict that the readers expect build up to on its own. Let me put it like this; Josuke telling his new friends the story behind his protective nature as it concerns his pompadour would've probably felt a bit off if it had occurred in most of the earlier arcs and, even before then, would've felt off because it's a personal story Josuke would've been sharing with relative strangers. This is what this particular trough is going to aim at; these teenage characters kind of unwinding after some serious business these past few arcs, bullshitting with each other and making steps towards advancing themselves and their relationships in ways that might've seemed a bit of an odd fit in the heavily, rapidly climactic arcs that preceded this trough.**

 **Also, yes, Josuke finally did the hair thing. The amount of time it's taken to get to this point was purposeful; I want to show restraint in this. When you get a character who has that one thing they like to do and that the fandom latches on to, there's a tendency in fanfiction to make that characteristic or action much more defining than it either was or probably should be. Yang Xiao Long likes puns but that doesn't mean every other line of dialogue for her should be a pun (or a cat-based pun, Bumblebee Shippers). And yeah, Josuke gets upset about his hair and it is funny and awesome but if you use it too often it cheapens it and also turns it from an occasional quirk that doesn't otherwise detract from Josuke as a kind, compassionate character into a serious, hard flaw that makes Josuke seem like a violent sociopath. In all of Diamond is Unbreakable, Josuke actually only pulls this five times; The Bullies, Jotaro, the guy with the knife, Angelo and Rohan Kishibe. Now, it happens a lot sooner in canon most likely because Araki wants to set this up in our knowledge, which is why he does it three times in the beginning; insulting Josuke's hair can drive him to acts he otherwise wouldn't commit and allows him to perform feats that might otherwise be considered outside his skill range (attacking the bullies on one hand and out-speeding Star Platinum on the other) so that when he uses it in the future (Angelo and Rohan) it doesn't feel like it's come out of left field.**

 **In this series, most people coming into this fic already know that Josuke has a hair trigger temper about his hair (and yes I did do that on purpose) so I have to change it up; using it sparingly and drawing out how long before it's used to manage expectations and to keep the gag from feeling stale and to keep it from feeling intrusive. For those who don't, it's seriously hinted at that you don't insult Josuke's hair and this is the first pay off; why don't you insult Josuke's hair as Jotaro and others have warned? Cause he'll beat the everloving shit out of you.**

 **Anyway, that's about all I got to say for this time around. It's been four months since I've uploaded the prologue of this story to and I gotta say, I'm surprised I've kept up this pace for so long considering past performances. Part of that's just been my own worth ethic and my enjoyment of writing this series, but certainly a large part also goes to you guys with your encouragement and your own response to this story having helped to drive me on. Really appreciate it once again and I hope we have another solid month of content together.**

 **Hope you all had a good weekend, see you in five days!**


	23. Out On The Town (Act 2)

The City of Vale, Merchant District, A Half Hour Later

"Hey Ruby, you seem a bit down. Something the matter?"

"Oh it's nothing Jaune just… well, I tried to find someone to bring along with us but, well, I couldn't."

Half hour after they'd discovered the 50,000 Lien on Josuke card and the gang had all gathered up to go out and have a day on the city. Sun and Neptune had tagged along, both eager in their own ways to see this huge sum of money get spent, even in small pieces, while everyone else had just been along because, hey, a day out with friends. Ruby had spent the most time out of anyone getting ready, though this had less to do with changing into her 'going out' clothes like the others and more to do with the fact that she had spent a good amount of time having combed through Beacon's Campus looking for another addition to their little trip.

"Who do you mean, Ruby?"

"Oh, you wouldn't have met her yet Jaune. It's Penny, a friend of mine." As Ruby said this the other three members of Team RWBY had grimaced just a wee bit. They wouldn't say anything, as it would have been A. rude to talk about someone behind their back and, B., a bad idea to bad mouth someone that Ruby obviously considered a friend… but on some level, all three girls knew that the trip probably would've been some order of magnitude more awkward with Penny around. The girl was nice but very, very weird.

Of course, what Ruby hadn't said was that, despite her best hopes, she had expected that this would be the case. Having discovered that her friend was actually a secret robot, and thus infinitely cooler, Ruby had expected that Atlas would do its best to keep Penny under close watch and under wraps. The red headed automaton had all but admitted this herself when the two had met up in Vale all those weeks ago. Ruby had expected for her search to have turned up empty, she expected that she wouldn't have been able to find Penny and, all above that, she pretty much knew that there was no way she'd have been allowed to come with them…

But still, Penny was her friend, and she deserved to know that even despite all that, she was thinking of her. Besides, it'd have been great to introduce Penny to Josuke. No matter how awkward Penny was, Ruby had no doubt in her mind that she would've made amazing friends with Josuke. Because, hey, Ruby herself was hardly a social butterfly either and look how well the two of them had panned out as friends! The thought had tickled her to no end… which had made the inability to find her and bring her along all the more disappointing to the young, silver eyed woman.

Having noticed this, Yang quickly moved over to her younger sister and pat her on the shoulder. "Ruby, I understand. Penny's your friend and you wish she was here. I totally get how you're feeling little sis… but right now, it's time to turn that frown upside down!" With a strong flourish, Yang Xiao Long motioned to the opening doors of the airbus that the gang of students had taken down to the city of Vale, a wide grin on her face as she was the first out of the vehicle. "Because today, ladies and gentlemen, JoJo got himself 50,000 Lien and I, Yang Xiao Long, Master of Economics and money-handler extraordinaire, am going to make sure he knows how to spend every last cent before the day is through."

"He'll be lucky to have any of it left by the time we're through…" Weiss muttered under his breath as she took a few careful steps off the vehicle, as Yang just gasped melodramatically.

"Weiss! How could you! I'll have you know that I taught Ruby everything she knows about shopping and she turned out excellently!" With that, Ruby Rose smiled a bit as she nodded.

"Yang's right; even with just dad's allowance I always have enough to get my upgrades for Crescent Rose and some extra sweets whenever I want them. Yang's pretty good like that." Blake and Weiss blinked in slight disbelief, though Blake less so; she had noticed that, despite how meagre the two girls' allowances from home were, that they had managed it quite evenly. It didn't seem like they were ever overly stretched and, indeed, Ruby always had that little bit of money leftover to get her sweets. All without losing out on the essentials. Part of that was the fact that Beacon took care of a lot of their needs, sure, but it still spoke to both sisters' capabilities.

"That… is actually surprising." Weiss admitted as she shot a wary look over to Yang who just grinned widely and nodded vigorously.

"Yeah, you heard her, and now I'm going to impart my sage wisdom onto JoJo here. Alright JoJo are you ready for your most intense lessons since you arrived here at Beacon Academy? I'll warn you, my course isn't for the faint of heart!" Yang intoned somewhat dramatically as her lilac eyes narrowed seriously, while Josuke just gave her a somewhat dirty glare as he frowned.

"Will you stop calling me JoJo?"

"No no." Yang chuckled with a wide, toothy grin as Josuke just sighed.

"Then I guess I'm as ready as I'm ever going to get under the circumstances."

"Perfect!" Yang pumped her fist slightly, much to Josuke's annoyance, as the blonde haired girl laughed. "Alright alright alright, more seriously, it is time for your first lesson in shopping like a responsible citizen of Remnant… or, I dunno, semi-responsible… I guess you'll be fine." A cheeky grin stretched across Yang's face as the rest of the group intermittently chuckled or rolled their eyes at the lilac eyed girl's antics. "Alright then, first and most important lesson for learning how to spend your money in the Four Kingdoms is to start very, very small."

Josuke blinked slightly as he tilted his head to the side.

"But, I've already been buying soda and treats and stuff like that, isn't that small enough?" Yang rolled her eyes.

"JoJo, you have 50,000 Lien. That isn't small in comparison to that amount, that's microscopic. No, you need to start small based on the amount you have… and, if Ozpin keeps paying you for fixing people, you amount you'll continue to get. For Ruby, that means sweets here and there and for me, well, that's hair product. You need to start small if you're going to appreciate how much money you actually have; if you just spend it all in one huge sum, then you really aren't going to understand just what you have is worth. I mean really, does 50,000 bottles of Pumpkin Pete's Cola even sound like a real thing to you?"

"I guess she has a good point." Okuyasu chimed in as he scratched his chin while his fellow, joke-loving hunter just nodded.

"Yeah, I do. If you start small, you'll get a feel for what you actually have and it'll make you appreciate it in the future." Yang intoned, quite wisely, as the rest of the group just blinked at her.

"Wow Yang, did you get this from your dad or something?" Nora asked, incredibly curious, as Yang blew a slight raspberry.

"I wish." Before anyone could pressure her to elaborate, Yang moved on. "Alright JoJo, so tell me; what's something very small that you've always wanted. Something that others might not have spared a second thought for but you think 'yeah, that sounds like something I want'... and not hair product since you've been getting that for free forever… not that I'm jealous." Yang mentioned off-handedly. Josuke took her intent the right way and smiled a bit as he tapped his chin.

"Oh I've got to hear this." Neptune mentioned with a bit of a grin as he and the others leaned in, while Josuke just blushed a bit.

"Well… there are these things that I've always kind of wanted thanks to Jotaro…"

* * *

"Man I never really took Josuke to be the kind of guy who'd like earrings."

It had been a surprise, to be certain. When Josuke had said that he wanted to go and get his ears pierced, most of the group had been quite shocked. Not that any of them hadn't seen guys with their ears pierced in one form or another, they had, but they hadn't quite expected it out of the straight-laced huntsman they'd come to know. Yang, of course, had been all over it and immediately pushed Josuke to follow through on his desires and get his ears pierced. Now they all sat outside the shop, waiting for Josuke to come out with his new bling.

"Jotaro's always had those gold studs as far back as I can remember, though apparently he only got them himself during the journey of The Stardust Crusaders. We don't really do jewlery up in The Frontier… kind of a waste of requests and resources. Jotaro's really the only guy in the entire city that has them, so it makes him stand out. I'm not really surprise Josuke's always noticed." Koichi spoke slowly as he scratched at the back of his head, while the others turned to look at him and Okuyasu.

"Then why don't you two get your ears pierced too? I'm sure Josuke would be more than willing to pony up the cash to do so." Sun had said with a curious tilt to his head, as Koichi and Okuyasu shrugged.

"Eh, piercings aren't really my thing. I don't think any would really go well with my manly face and my tough guy scars. They're perfect for baby-face though." Okuyasu let out a bark of laughter as he said this. "What I'm confused about is why only Weiss really had any piercings among you all. I'd figure a lot more of you would have it." Okuyasu tilted his head to the side as several reactions met his question.

"My hair really doesn't let me show off my ears too much, so pierced ears really wouldn't go well with my look." Yang said bluntly as she shrugged, a flip of her hair accompanying the gesture as she chuckled a bit. "Besides, wouldn't want anyone distracted from the main attraction." She said as she ran a finger through her hair to emphasize it.

"Pretty much the same for me. Nora here just doesn't like the idea."

"Too much of a bother." Nora confirmed Ren's statement as everyone generally nodded along with her.

"Yeah, it's a pretty big bother… though for me it's less that and more the possible pain of getting them." Jaune admitted as Okuyasu and Koichi just blinked.

"What's the bother of getting them?" Koichi asked, as Pyrrha just grimaced slightly.

"Well, when you have your Aura unlocked it has a… natural tendency to try to close up any and all wounds you have on you. When you're awake you can generally keep this focused away as part of saving energy, but when you're asleep it's pretty much automatic. So every night when you'd take your piercings out, the holes in your ears would just close right up again." Ruby nodded, a slightly sickly expression on her face as she shook her head.

"I tried getting piercings once because I thought it'd make me look more adult to Yang's friends when they'd come around… I only lasted a week because of that." Ruby lowered her head and shook it, much to Yang's amusement, while Blake just shrugged.

"I mean, which set of ears would I even get pierced in the first place?" A slight smirk formed on her lips as a few laughs rang out, all the while Okuyasu just blinked in realization.

"Wait, then if that's the case, what about you Weiss? Do you just sleep with your piercings in or something?" Okuyasu asked, curious, as Weiss just rolled her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous Okuyasu, no one sleeps with their earrings in, it can be dangerous. I take them out same as everyone… I just have to re-pierce my ears myself every morning so that I can put them in." Weiss stated nonchalantly as she crossed her arms, as Okuyasu just blinked.

"So you keep stabbing yourselves in the ears every morning to have some jewelry hanging out from them?" Weiss sighed irritably as she expected Okuyasu to follow this up with some smart remark about how ridiculous the idea had been to him. "... That's actually pretty fuckin' intense. Holy shit Weiss, that's hardcore." There was a clear mix of teasing and actual awe in his voice as Okuyasu barked out several laughs, to which Weiss just shook her head.

"Okuyasu, seriously, watch your mouth in front of young women. It's very inappropriate." Despite having said this, there was an obvious bit of pride in Weiss' voice from the compliment as the white haired girl reached a hand up to scratch at the tip of her nose.

"Better watch yourself there Weiss, you're not going to educate him on being prim and proper like you if your ego's showing." Yang said with a bit of a guffaw as Weiss immediately straightened out and huffed. "But yeah, this is great; not something he'll buy every time, but it's a perfect small start." Yang said with an approving nod as everyone looked at the shop.

"I'm just surprised that we haven't heard him screaming. I've always heard that getting pierced was really painful. Or at least that's what my mom always said." Jaune said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head as Nora just giggled a bit.

"Jaune, I think your mom may have had other reasons for telling you that than being informative." Nora said with a slight chuckle while Jaune just looked at her quizzically.

"Besides, compared to some of the other hits I've taken, this really isn't that painful at all."

Everyone turned to the front and grinned when they saw Josuke; red ears were the first sign that he'd gotten through with his little mini-operation, but the dark purple studs that had been fitted into his earlobes had been a close second. Combined with the generally dark color of his hair, the equally purple uniform he wore and his bright eyes, the purple studs actually looked quite good on the young man.

"Dang JoJo, I was expecting a good look with some studs but I wasn't expecting a whole… stud to walk out! Eh? Eh?!"

"Oh! I get it! Stud, like his earrings and a good looking guy! That's clever Yang!"

"Okuyasu I swear if you don't stop positively reinforcing her puns I will throttle you!" Weiss growled out as she rubbed her temples as the other members of the group of friends had gotten through groaning at Yang's pun.

"Yeah Yang, stop being such a negative influence on Oku!" Nora shouted at the lilac eyed girl who just rolled her eyes at the group.

"I swear Okuyasu, geniuses like us are never appreciated in our own time."

"It's a sad, sad thing Yang." Okuyasu shook his head slowly as everyone else just got done groaning in actual, honest to goodness physical pain. Eventually, Josuke just looked out at the rest of the group and brought up his Lien card.

"So I figured while we're here I'd ask; anyone want a piercing themselves?" Everyone blinked a bit at this, as Yang just shook her head.

"JoJo, Jobro, this is your money and your time to learn how to live it up in the Four Kingdoms." Josuke's sour look at both nicknames softened a bit once Yang's tone got through. "You really don't need to go offering' it around like that."

"Well, I also said that I wanted to put this money to use on my friends, so I really don't care if I end up using the money that way." Josuke shrugged slightly as Yang grinned, a faux-weary sigh having escaped her lips as she shrugged.

"Well looks like we'll skip to Step Four right now, spoiling your close circle of friends because they want your money. Which is fine by me; this is one of my favorite parts." Josuke grinned a bit as Yang spoke up. "But I'll pass, not really interested; doesn't match my style." Slowly but surely similar sentiments passed through the rest of the group as each were offered the chance in kind by Josuke. Finally, the opportunity slipped past Neptune and landed on Sun who, after a moment's thought, just shrugged.

"You know what, sure, why the Heck not. You only live once and if you're offering Josuke, I'm game." Sun grinned a cocksure grin as he stepped forward and took Josuke's Lien card, the pompadoured teen just nodding as he leaned back against a nearby wall and watched him go in. "After all, you don't have Aura and you didn't scream at all, so getting your ears pierced can't be that bad."

* * *

"I IMMEDIATELY REGRET ALL MY LIFE CHOICES LEADING UP TO THIS MOMENT!"

Barely concealed chuckles and laughter echoed from in front of the piercing shop as the group of teenage huntsmen and huntresses listened to Sun Wukong's howls of pains, none having wanted to openly laugh at the boy's misery while he had been going through his harrowing ordeal. Though this had been increasingly hard for all of them as Sun's pained declarations grew more and more amusing as the process went on.

"You know kid, I can stop here, you'll have a little bit of bleeding but your Aura…"

"NO! We're over halfway done! Let's just get it over with, it'll be done sooner that way!" Sun called out as a chuckle very nearly escaped Koichi's lips as the gang waited for Sun to finish. A minute or so later and the cries of pains finally died down into slight whimpers as Sun Wukong, his tail twitching and convulsing in pain as he walked out, stepped into view with thoroughly red ears. In contrast to Josuke's simple studs, Sun had gone with some very small hoops that dangled by his earlobes.

"Oh man, oh jeez, this hurts so much, oh man I regret eveeeeee…. Oh! Hey Blake!" Noticing that he had stepped out into his friend's field of vision after having gotten through enough of the pain, Sun had immediately done his best to strike a slight pose against the wall of the building, a cocksure grin on his face, marred by the winces of pain that twitched across his features, as he looked straight at the black haired faunus. "So, how do I look? Good, right?"

"Man Sun… lookin' real cool right now." Blake snorted slightly as she held a hand up to her face, Sun nonetheless going strong despite the laughs, and even somewhat encouraged by them, as he pumped his fist.

"Heh… nailed it… but man, jeez, this really does hurt." Sun whined again as he delicately reached his hands up towards his ears, a slight wince as his fingertips barely touched them as Josuke approached. "I mean seriously, I knew this would hurt once I dropped my Aura, but I didn't imagine it'd be this bad. It feels like it's going to last forev-oh hey the pain's gone."

Josuke slowly lowered his hands from Sun's ears, revealing no redness and indeed no sign of irritation whatsoever as Sun's earrings hung from his lobes. Josuke grinned slightly as he reached a hand up to scratch the back of his head. "Had Crazy Diamond fix up some of the minor damage and close up your earlobes around the earrings. Should be less of a hassle than waiting for your body and Aura to do it on its own." Josuke said with a slight grin as Sun nodded.

"Man Josuke, you really don't know what you're missing out on not being able to have Crazy Diamond fix you up. It's friggin' awesome." The several members of the group who had, by now, known the touch of Crazy Diamond's healing nodded in immediate agreement with Sun's sentiment.

"Though I must say Josuke, you did show admirable restraint as a non-Aura user in getting your ears pierced. Even if it isn't as painful as people say… or as painful as Sun would make it seem," The red haired Spartan warrior glanced at Sun, who just coughed awkwardly into his fist, "-it's still quite impressive that you didn't moan or complain at all. In fact, I don't think I've heard one complaint from you this entire time."

"Well it's something you get used to when you don't have Aura and you can't fix yourself. You just kind of build up a tolerance to pain. Heck Pyrrha, you saw how bad you got me during our spar and trust me, I've had way worse." Josuke had intended this remark to be joking and calming, something to help everyone kind of laugh and move on from the subject of physical pain which, on some level, was a bit of a downer topic for Josuke.

Whenever everyone had gone somewhat quiet at this, however, Josuke realized he ma have slipped up somewhere along the way.

"Josuke… I mean, Pyrrha wounds weren't the worst but they still caused you to bleed out quite a lot. They looked pretty painful too… I mean, you had to get a lot of stitches and were down for a while. How much worse have you gotten, exactly?" Ren asked quizzically as he looked over to Okuyasu and Koichi for some kind of confirmation.

At the very, VERY uncomfortable look on both young men's faces, light bulbs immediately went up over a lot of heads.

"Josuke…"

"I mean, come on, it isn't much of a surprise right?" Josuke tried to sound light-hearted and joking as the topic of conversation took this turn. "I mean, I can't fix myself and even if Crazy Diamond is the one doing the fighting for me, I still get slowed down if I get hurt. So it's not that big of a surprise right?" Josuke chuckled a bit as he sheepishly scratched his cheek. "I mean, I just told you guys not even an hour ago that I almost died from a Stand-induced fever, so it's… not really a big thing for me anymore."

What Josuke hadn't confirmed had spoken more volumes than what he'd said. Josuke had nearly died in the line of duty as a huntsmen, most realized.

"This… wouldn't have been the time where Koichi unlocked Echoes, was it?" Jaune asked, curious, as Josuke just turned to look at him quizzically.

"Oh? How do you know about…" As Jaune pointed to Koichi, Josuke just nodded understandingly. "Oh cool, Koichi told you? Well yeah, that was one… was the one time." The hesitation told everyone that had been a neat little lie. "I took a few bad shots in that big old brawl and was pretty much down for the count. If Koichi hadn't warned Okuyasu, then he might've gotten overwhelmed too. So we both pretty much owe Koichi our lives."

"... Thanks Josuke." No 'but I didn't do much'. No 'but you're overstating it'. Just 'thanks'. Josuke grinned over at Koichi as the young man said this, proud that his friend had truly grown so much as a person during his time here in Vale. The shy boy he knew, while still certainly there, had slowly broken out of his shell. He was proud as both Koichi's friend and as his team leader.

"Like I said, it really isn't a big deal. It's something you kind of get used to being a huntsman in The Frontier."

"... Boy if that isn't a depressing thought." Neptune said with a slight shudder as everyone nodded in agreement.

"... But, like JoJo said, it isn't a big deal to him anymore so we should stop making it such a big deal." Yang had noticed the clear discomfort everyone's downward turn in mood had caused Josuke and, in her own way, immediately moved to head it off. "Today's about living it up and living it good, and I've still got some wisdom to impart on my dear student here. No time for stories." An appreciative smile had been sent from Josuke to Yang, despite her use of that hated nickname, as Yang just gave a quick wink and a nod.

"Now then, on to Step Two of Professor Yang Xiao Long's Economics Class! It's a good step and one that a lot of people overlook… and Ruby's least favorite." Yang grinned slightly as she turned to face Josuke. "Wardrobe!"

"... Wardrobe?" Josuke asked, curious, as Yang just nodded.

"Yep. Good as it is to have clothes you're comfortable with, you really probably should have more than one outfit there JoJo… especially if that outfit's just your normal, everyday uniform" Yang and the others nodded and, indeed, Josuke just agreed to some degree. He'd seen Team RWBY switch between handful in the short time he'd seen them and Team JNPR, well, they seemed pretty casual now compared to their uniforms. But…

"What about Sun and Neptune?"

"Hey man, if you've got one good look, you stick with it." Sun said with a wide grin as he winked, much to the mixed amusement of most in the group.

"I have other outfits, you just haven't seen 'em yet." Neptune said with a slightly wry smile as he dusted off his shoulder.

"I guess it might be a little weird to have only one change of clothes." Koichi muttered slightly as he scratched his cheek, while Okuyasu just scoffed.

"Hey if you look good in it, you feel good in it and you like it, why would you need anything else?" Okuyasu asked with a slightly derisive snort as everyone, especially Weiss, just shook their heads.

"Anyway, it's also big because it lets you express yourself a little more. Your uniform looks good JoJo, I'll readily admit that, but it doesn't really stand out and scream 'you' compared to everyone else's. Something with a bit more of a unique touch would be perfect, don't you think?" Yang asked as Josuke just frowned and scratched his chin. Honestly, he did like his uniform, and he did look good in it, but there were other reasons…

Still, Yang hadn't been wrong so far… then again, she'd only given one lesson so far. Well, one lesson and a lesson they skipped ahead to…

Wait, why the Hell was he even entertaining this crazy class nonsense?

'Oh right, I'm hanging out with my friends and trying to have a good time. Yang's also trying to help me figure out what the actual Hell I'm going to do with all this money.' A sigh escaped Josuke's lips as the thought passed through his head, the pompadoured teen just nodding along as he waved down the street.

"Alright, lead the way Yang."

"Nuh uh! That's Professor Yang Xiao Long to you, JoJo." Yang poked the pompadoured teen in the chest for emphasis as Josuke just looked down at her.

"How about this; I'll call you professor if you stop calling me JoJo."

…

"Welp, let's get to the tailor's then JoJo." Josuke just shook his head, defeated, as the group moved on from the piercing parlor and on down to their next stop.

* * *

"Would've figured with all that money Yang would've dragged him to some designer's shop rather than to some tailor in the city. It'd be a lot more stylish, I'd assume." Weiss mentioned off-handedly as she dusted off her own dress, the rest of the group nodding along.

"Yeah, the stuff usually ends up looking pretty good." Neptune had readily agreed with Weiss, while Ruby just shrugged.

"Well, growing up our family usually didn't have a lot of money, so Yang and I pretty much just got into the habit of going to small tailors like this one back on Patch. The stuff they make is usually a lot better looking than just a shirt and a pair of jeans and it's usually less expensive."

"Hey, don't diss shirts and jeans. They can look really good if you wear 'em right." Sun said as he dusted off his dress shirt's shoulders and struck a slight pose, much to the amusement of most others.

"And I wear jeans too Ruby…" Jaune said with a slightly deflated expression, as the silver eyed girl immediately waved her hands defensively.

"I-I don't mean anything by it! You guys look great! I mean, I totally only mean that platonically too, I don't mean you guys look handsome, but I don't mean you guys looks ugly, Oh Gods, I mean-"

"Ruby, calm down, they get what you mean." Blake said with a slight roll of her eyes. "Sun here is just trying' to get a rise out of you. Jaune… well, you might've hurt Jaune a little bit, but I'd say he gets the idea." A nod of confirmation from the Arc helped to calm Ruby down as the gang of students hanged out in front of the tailor's. It was actually a pretty nice shop for having been so little; while Vale was no stranger to big chain stores, there were shops like From Dust Till Dawn and Tukson's Book Trade that were run by only one or two people, effectively having made them like Mom and Pop shops.

Despite that, thanks to the sheer amount of commerce that flowed through Vale as a coastal city and the hub for trade between Atlas and Vacuo, even small shops like these could wind up relatively affluent and upscale while still being easy on the pockets of Beacon Academy Students. The tailor in question here not only had clothes that had been made by the family who ran it out, but various other trinkets and accessories that young huntsmen, huntresses and just youths in general might have found appealing. For these reasons it had quickly become a favorite of Yang's and had been the shop she had in mind for her lesson.

"Nice of Yang to help Josuke pick out some clothes though." Pyrrha mentioned offhandedly as the red haired young woman smiled slightly, as Ren just shrugged.

'It makes sense; I have to assume that you three have only ever worn your uniforms before, so you might not have the best idea of what'd look good." Ren mentioned off-handedly to Koichi and Okuyasu who both just immediately nodded… though Okuyasu was far more reluctant.

"I still say the uniform looks great." The scarred teen muttered somewhat grumpily, much to the amusement of the others.

"But yeah, fashion is another thing that isn't big in The Frontier. Why have nice clothes when what time you spend in Morioh's more than likely gonna be spent just resting in between assignments and being with your close friends and family? Not exactly a thriving nightlife where we come from." Koichi muttered slightly as he scratched the back of his head.

As the teens outside shot the shit and discussed a few small things, Yang Xiao Long had quickly ran about the store. It'd been a bit of a surprise when she found the selection limited thanks to Josuke's height; Yang had just kind of gotten used to most guys she knew being so incredibly tall at this point. Heck, Ren was the shortest guy she knew and even he was taller than her.

Still, didn't mean that the shop didn't, once again, come through.

"Alright, this should look good, I think. I dunno, usually I went shopping like this with Ruby, so this'll be the first time that I'll have gone clothes shopping with for a guy. Ah well, new experience I guess." Yang said with a bit of interest as she pulled off some pretty nifty checkered sweater off of a nearby rack.

"Yeah…" Josuke muttered slightly as he looked over a few clothes, not really being sure what he should've been looking for. Honestly, having Yang's help was appreciated as Josuke had been fairly certain he'd have just stumbled around looking for… well, just about anything, really. "So you helped Ruby figure out how to spend her money but that your dad didn't teach you how?"

At that, Yang immediately snorted derisively as she nodded her head.

"Yeah, no, dad didn't. Dad was… well, dad was dad but there was… it's complicated." Yang hadn't wanted to get into her dad's… emotional state for a lot of her youth, especially after her mom left and Summer Rose died. It'd only been somewhat recently, within maybe the past ten years, that Taiyang had completely recovered. Before that, well… "It was actually my uncle, Qrow Branwen. He's a huntsmen too, a really good one from what I hear.

"Now don't get me wrong, Qrow's not exactly what I'd call responsible either. He wasn't around too often, or at least, not often enough where it wouldn't have fallen on me to take care of Ruby, but still he was around enough I guess. Taught me a little bit about being careful with money too; the guy's learned how to manage his well enough. Heck, he'd need to with his habits." A wistful grin passed Yang's lips as memories years that had long since passed on flew through her mind. For Josuke, there'd been an obvious question, an obvious omission, but considering his own rather… sordid history when it came to parents, he didn't press.

"So it fell on you to take care of your sister huh? Well it seems like you did a good job; Ruby's a pretty great person." Josuke said offhandedly as he picked off a dark pair of slacks from a nearby rack. An appraising look, followed by an approving nod, had been sent his way by Yang as she took the slacks into the stack of clothes in her arms. After that, she smiled appreciatively at Josuke.

"Aw, well thanks there JoJo. Still, I can't take all the credit; part of that is Ruby just being a pretty amazing person. I really didn't have to do much to ensure she turned out the way she did. Besides, I wasn't exactly amazing at being a responsible big sis when I was little." Josuke couldn't help the curious look that came over his features as Yang said this, though the lilac eyed girl just grinned. "What? You're surprised that a little Yang Xiao Long ended up being a bit irresponsible and not someone you might want to keep small children around? Come on JoJo, even now I'm not exactly the spitting image of a put together, responsible person." At that, Josuke just shrugged his shoulders a bit.

"I dunno. You seem like you have everything put together. Even with all your horrible puns and calling me JoJo, the only thing I've really seen you do that was reckless was try to fight Sticky Fingers without knowing what it did… and you did that because it was a threat to your team." Josuke looked around a few racks as he said all this. "I mean, yeah, all kids are kind of irresponsible, but if you turned out like this then you couldn't have been too bad."

"... Thanks JoJo. I can say the same for you." A swift snort of derision came from Josuke's lips as Yang said this, a curious look crossing her lilac eyes as Josuke shook his head.

"It's… it's nothing. Thanks for the sentiment Yang." Josuke turned away from Yang to look at a few different accessories, to which Yang just shrugged as she looked through some collared shirts. She bit her lip slight as she thought about the conversation so far… Josuke was a friend and, while she hadn't been ready to share everything, it wouldn't have hurt to put something out there in response to that look in his eyes.

"Well, I wasn't exactly as great as your sentiment would suggest either. In fact, nearly screwed up big time and for a pretty shitty reason." Josuke turned his eyes back over his shoulder to look at Yang as she just sighed. "Let's… let's just say that I kind of had a bit of an episode like your mom's. Except instead of having a good reason for dragging Ruby out somewhere dangerous, I had a pretty stupid one… Heck, I can't even really remember why I dragged her out in the first place…"

A lie, and a poorly disguised one at that if Josuke's look was any indication. Her dad had been absolutely destroyed by the death of Summer Rose and was basically a broken man, a state he'd be in for years to come. Yang had wanted to go out and find her mom to help fix her home… but she hadn't wanted to leave Ruby alone with just dad. Not at that time, and not for a long time after. Dad was… dad was just so broken, and Qrow wasn't around often enough to make sure things stuck together.

But, as that day proved, he was there when it counted.

She had expected that Josuke might follow up, might try to press for more information.

"Well, I'm sure you thought you had a good reason at the time. Besides, we all make mistakes when we're little… all of us have our little regrets." With that Josuke just shrugged and went back to looking at clothes, a slight tilt to his head.

A relieved sigh escaped Yang's lips when he hadn't. Grateful, Yang quickly pulled out one last bit of clothing from one of the racks before she turned on her heels and pressed them into Josuke's arms.

"Alright JoJo, go ahead and get yourself changed. This'll be a brand new you, you'll see." WIth that, Yang shoved the pompadoured teen off towards the changing rooms, a wide, expectant grin on her face as she turned on her heels and and made for the entrance to the store. After a moment, as Josuke had begun to walk away towards the changing room, he was stopped. "Oh, one more thing JoJo." With an irritated sigh, Josuke turned back to see Yang with a small smile on her face as she reached a hand up to comb through her hair.

"To put the more depressing crap behind us, I really did like your story. Not just your mom's part, but the part at the end too. I can appreciate taking care of your hair to remind you of someone." The blonde bombshell just gave an approving nod as Josuke blinked a bit in surprise. After a moment, Josuke just smiled and gave a quick nod as the two turned back to get back to it. Josuke immediately entered the changing room and, after a moment's hesitation, let out a long sigh as he began to strip out of his uniform.

The mirrors in the changing room had given Josuke a lot of perspective as he slowly changed out his usual attire for the new one that Yang had helped pick out for him. He'd seen a lot of things in the mirror that he hadn't seen before due to where they'd been placed on his body, and some things that he was all too familiar with; there was a lot of scars that covered his body, for example. Not unusual for a huntsmen to be certain, but ever since Josuke had come of age and Crazy Diamond's abilities had become apparent, it'd become more of a rarity to see any horrifically scarred huntsmen and huntresses running around Morioh. The only ones who really did carry around any scars anymore were guys like and gals like Okuyasu, who just to keep them for one reason or another.

Josuke never had that luxury of fixing himself, so wounds would eventually just scar over as they were treated, leaving Josuke a living record of his own career as a huntsman, even for as short of a time as he'd been one at this point. Yet, it wasn't the scars that Josuke dwelt on when he noticed them in the mirrors. These were things he could be proud of; momentos, living memories, of his time serving Morioh as a huntsman. Of doing his best to live up to his grandfather's image, to living up to the stranger's kindness and selfless acts when he was a child. These were things he could hold pride in, things that he wouldn't ever give a second, disgusted glance to for as long as he lived.

It's as he turned slightly as he shimmied the slacks up his legs that Josuke noticed, reflected back in one of the mirrors, his back. It wasn't an angle he often saw, as his own home only ever had the one mirror to look into. However, thanks to the positioning of the mirrors around him, he could see the reflection of his back plain as day right in front of him.

More specifically, he could see the backside of his right shoulder, close to where his neck met his torso.

He could see it.

It wasn't a normal birthmark. Almost anyone who saw it could tell that on first glance, even if they hadn't already known what it was. It was too perfect, too well portioned; a five point, purple star that sat perfectly on his shoulder blade. No fuss, no muss and the only time it looked distorted had been when he specifically stretched out the skin in some regard. It was an absolutely perfect star that had sat right there for anyone to see.

Josuke reached his right hand up to his shoulder and gently brushed against the birthmark. He hadn't seen it in a long, long time. He remembered when he was little; his mother had gotten two small hand mirrors and positioned them so he could see his birthmark, the sign that he was his father's son. There hadn't been any doubt of course; as soon as he had been born, it was right there for anyone and everyone to see. There was no denying his lineage… and considering that Jotaro was only 12 at the time, there wasn't exactly a lot of room for wrong guesses as to who his father had been.

But he'd been excited to see it as a boy. He'd never seen it before then and he was always curious; he'd heard about the legendary Joestars, his mother and grandfather had raised him on the stories of Jonathan and Joseph. They enraptured him and the idea that he was related, that he was of their blood… well, it made his little mind spin.

A soft smile crossed his lips as he brushed pressed his hand against the birthmark. It was a sign of everything that Josuke was. He was a descendant of Jonathan Joestar, one of The Founders and One of Two Brothers, and George Joestar II, who sacrificed his life to keep a horde of Grimm from busting down a section of Morioh's Wall, was his grandfather. Holy Kujo-Joestar was his sister, and Jotaro his nephew… and, as Jolyne was fond of saying, he was her Grunkle Josuke.

He was a Joestar… and he was his son.

That last thought made Josuke frown as his hand dipped down from his shoulder, a sad look to his eyes. This birthmark was also a constant reminder. A constant weight on his back that left his mind with no room to doubt the truth.

That under no circumstances was he ever, EVER, going to be any of those things. He was just… just Higashikata Josuke. Which was fine, really. He was proud to be a Higashikata; his grandfather had done the name proud itself and his mother was one of the strongest huntresses he'd ever known. He couldn't be happier to be their grandson and son, couldn't be happier to have such a loving family… people who would put up with a terrible son like him. A son who brought them nothing but grief from the rest of Morioh. He had been nothing but trouble for his mother and grandfather. Because of what he was. Because of what he represented.

Still… even if he was proud of his family, even if he was so grateful that they put up with a rotten kid like him, he couldn't help but but let his mind drift. Every time his mother talked about his father, the look of love in her eyes, the longing, the pride she held when she declared that he was every bit a Joestar as any who'd ever lived. The way she said he'd make his father, grandfather and great-grandfather proud… he couldn't help that feeling of longing.

For a family that could have also been his.

"Great… what the Hell am I getting so worked up for, seeing this stupid thing…" Josuke muttered to himself as he quickly through on the collared shirt Yang had included in the pile of clothes, swiftly covering up the old birthmark. Finally, Josuke slipped on the checkered sweater over it and, after slipping the collar through the hole in the sweater, took a good look at himself in the mirror…

Before he promptly facepalmed.

"Oh my God… I look like a giant waffle…"

* * *

"Errr, wow Josuke, that's… that's some look Yang picked out for you."

From the waist down, Josuke's look had seemed fine enough. The dark pair of slacks he wore hadn't been all that different from his uniform's, save for the fact that his uniform's tended to billow out towards the end and over his boots. He'd tucked these slacks into his boots this time and though it did look a little bit off, it still pulled the look together with the dark leather of the boots. Even the belt looked good, all things told.

It was when the outfit got above the waist that most of the lookers on suddenly found themselves at a loss for words. The collar looked good, it really did, but then there was the sweater… the checkered pattern would've looked fine on its own. Hell, even the color would've looked fine on its own. But then when you combined the two, well…

"You look like a giant waffle, Josuke."

"Oh thank the Gods someone finally said it."

Josuke just sighed as he lightly brushed a hand against his pompadour, a weary nod of agreement accompanying this statement as Josuke looked out over his friends.

"It's heresy if you ask me; looking like a pancake, sure, I'd find that acceptable, but a waffle? For shame, Josuke." Nora shook her head at this, as Ren just rolled his eyes.

"Nora, I doubt Josuke would want to look like a pancake either."

"Why would he not?"

As this little mini-not argument broke out between the two long-time friends, Yang just shook her head.

"Oh wow, I'm so, so sorry JoJo. Like I said, kind of my first time shopping for a dude. I didn't mean to make this look so much worse than your uniform." Yang scratched at the back of her head as she grimaced. "Alright look, we'll go back in and put these away and… I'll try again, I mean, I'm bound to get it right sooner or later, right?" Yang said with a bit of a chuckle as Josuke just sighed.

"Yang, I appreciate it but… listen, I really do like my uniform. Not just because it's comfortable and not just because I think I look good in it," He did, most everyone could agree on that point, "-but… I dunno, I'm also really proud of it. It signifies that I'm a Hunter of The Frontier, like my mother and grandfather… wearing it makes me feel proud of my accomplishments. It's a bit of a comfort thing, I know, but…" Yang frowned slightly as she crossed her arms and looked up at the pompadoured teen. She could get that; Ruby had an attachment to her cloak and hoods thanks to Summer Rose and no outfit that Yang ever picked out for her could go without matching that thing, otherwise the outfit itself had to go.

It'd still be good for Josuke to toss things up, she thought, but… this was his first time buying stuff, so sticking with what he knew and what he felt proud to wear wouldn't have been too big a thing. What mattered was giving it some individual style, something that'd scream 'Higashikata Josuke' to anyone who saw it. Something…

A lightbulb practically appeared over Yang's head as she walked up. "Alright JoJo, you go ahead and get back into the changing room and put your uniform back on. I'm gonna go grab a few things." Despite his hesitation, Josuke did comply and do just that. Just as he had been about halfway through changing again, a knock on the door had warned him of a small… bundle of metal being slipped under the changing room door.

"Mix and match some of these with your uniform, see which ones you like. You look up to Jotaro right? It's why you liked the idea of the studs." Josuke blushed a bit; while he did think they looked cool on their own, that certainly had been one reason he liked the studs. "Well… Jotaro still wears a uniform, but he does rock it like it's his own with a few… accessories. So let's try that and see how it looks." A few footsteps told Josuke that Yang had left and, after a moment, the young pompadoured man knelt down to pick through the pile of metal at his feet…

At which point, a bright smile lit up his face.

* * *

"Alright, so… how do I look now, you guys?"

Everyone turned back to the entrance of the store and, immediately, grins sprouted across the small crowd of Beacon students and transfers. Josuke had slipped back into his uniform and struck a slight pose in front of them, though if it was through any conscious effort it was hard to say. Right hand positioned just above his hip as he leaned up against the doorframe with his left shoulder, his left arm hanging somewhat loose at his side.

What had been the least different was his sleeves, and even then it sported a distinct change in style. Gold bands had been placed around both of Josuke's wrists, fluffing out the ends of his sleeves to that they flared slightly around his hands. It gave the sleeves a bit of pop and added just a bit of style to the end of his uniform suit. That, however, had been the least of it. What jumped out next; chest, and a lot of it. Josuke's broad, muscular chest had been largely exposed, showing off a light yellow undershirt with two zippers, one on each side of his chest.

His uniform's top most parts had been secured open with the biggest eye-catchers of all on the 'new' outfit; pins and buttons. Securing the two flaps of Josuke's uniform jacket were two very large, very distinctive pins. One, a peace sign, secured the right side of his uniform flap to his chest while the other, a heart with a hand in it, secured the left. Both had been a shimmering gold and stood out against both the dark colors of his uniform generally and the fine, white highlights that had been hidden underneath the buttoned uniform. His collar, which would have hung loose under normal circumstances where he'd leave his uniform unbuttoned, had been secured and closed up close to his neck by several other pins.

On the right side of his collar were a pair of golden hearts, these without the hand imprint, that shined a bit in the light of the sun. On his left, oddly enough was an anchor. An odd pick but one that had definitely stood out nonetheless. All in all, it opened up his uniform and gave a bit more color to it, with the inner white of the uniform's interior exposed and the yellow of his undershirt, added on top of the gold of the new pins, buttons and bracelets. Josuke stood there, somewhat awkwardly, as he eventually scratched the back of his head sheepishly. While he definitely liked how he looked, he was still a teen and had still been worried about what his friends would say.

"Showin' off a bit of chest there are we Josuke? Gotta say, I approve." Sun Wukong had broken the ice almost immediately as he nodded approvingly at Josuke's new look.

"Prefer brass and bronze myself but… well, gold is a good look on you, Josuke." Pyrrha said with a light-hearted grin as she nodded along. Everyone seemed to have some variation on this compliment or the other, all the while Yang just gave a toothy grin.

"You took a while there JoJo, didn't think it'd take you so long to get some pins in. Have trouble deciding there champ?" Josuke blushed slightly at this as he attempted to laugh it off.

"Y-Yeah, that's it. You put so many in that I just had trouble picking out which ones were my favorite is all, Yang."

'They must never know that I spent five minutes posing in front of the mirror. I will take that secret to my damned grave if I have to.' Josuke just laughed as this thought rang out, before he eventually pulled his Lien card back out.

"Anyway, I already paid for this so… well, seeing as how you all already have wardrobes you're all already so proud of." Josuke just grinned at the Four Kingdoms members of the circle of friends before he extended the card out to Koichi and Okuyasu. "How about-"

"Hell yeah!" Okuyasu hadn't even waited for Josuke to finish as he snapped up the card and immediately ran into the store. Koichi, at least, had the audacity to look a little bit sheepish before he swiftly followed Okuyasu in. Everyone had a good laugh as Josuke quickly took his two teammates place in waiting for them, fielding questions here and there about his pins and why he picked them, most which boiled down to 'I thought they looked really cool'.

* * *

"So, how fast do you think you could sew these into the sleeves? I'd like to see how they look in my uniform before I have them sewn into all of them."

"Honey, I'm the fastest thread and needle on this continent, bar none. I can get something like this done for your sleeves in two shakes of a Beowolf's tail, no problem."

"Awesome! Let's get it on then, I can't wait to see how this looks!"

Okuyasu had been on one side of the store with the seamstress running the shop, excited and energetic as he passed off his uniform top to her and they went towards the back of the store to get some stitching done. Inspired by Josuke's own design choices, it seemed as though Okuyasu had been ready to go two steps beyond in his usual way as far as glitzing out his uniform was concerned. Koichi, on the other hand, had been a little more conservative as per usual. He had picked out some gold bracelets that would match Josuke and Okuyasu's, to kind of put a team theme together to the uniform, and had even found two little pins, golden squares, that he could prick into the collar of his uniform on both sides. He intended to keep the collar closed of course, but still, a little bit of flair wouldn't hurt.

What he had been nervous about, what he was slightly unnerved by, was the prospect facing before him; unlike Okuyasu and Josuke who seemed more than content to just stick with their uniforms and deck them out, Koichi had actually passed through several racks of clothes, looking for something that he'd like to wear. Something casual that would feel pretty good and that he could just wear around outside of class or a fight situation. He liked his uniform, don't get him wrong, and before he wouldn't have dreamed of changing out of it…

But after everything he'd gone through, after the growth he'd felt like he'd had, he didn't know. He just… just felt like it was a little too stuffy to wear all the time.

To that end, he hadn't been looking for anything stylish or cool. He just wanted something comfortable that he could wear when class was up, something kind of like the other's casual clothes… except not quite as stylish, he guessed.

Actually, that last part was where Koichi had hit a roadblock; like Josuke, he had absolutely no idea what actually was considered stylish or good looking. His absolute lack of a fashion sense hadn't stopped him from getting to some rows of sweatshirts and sweatpants which, all told, looked like they'd be pretty comfortable to just wear around but… well, it was funny to say this, but Koichi's ego, hell who knew he even had an ego at this point, hadn't wanted to walk around looking bad.

Heck, he'd felt the embarrassment coming off Josuke when he'd walked out in that sweater and he could certainly sympathize with one of his two best friends. He hadn't wanted to stumble into a situation like that. After a moment Koichi just sighed and scratched at the back of his slightly spiked hair, a befuddled expression on his face as he looked up and down the racks of clothes.

"I should probably go back out and get someone's help… jeez, this is a lot more-..."

Koichi's eyes went a bit wide as he realized that, despite having continued to talk, he'd gone completely silent. Almost as soon as he had recognized that, Koichi felt something prick at the back of his neck slightly. Somewhat shaken by the sudden sensation, Koichi snapped his head around to look behind him and found… no one there. He blinked a few times before, with a slightly knowing look, he turned back around.

At this point, Koichi hadn't been surprised; a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants had been pulled off the rack and placed out prominently.

"Neopolitan…" And just like that, sound had come back, a slightly wistful look on Koichi's face as he shook his head. It'd been like this the past couple weeks, ever since Angelo had been defeated and since he'd last 'seen' Neopolitan in person. There would be times where something would come up, some inconvenience or some otherwise little bothersome thing and, as he'd go to deal with it the sound would die out around him, he'd feel something distract him and, by the time he had gotten through with the distraction and realized there was no sound, the issue would be taken care of and the sound would be back.

The first time something like this happened had actually been kind of hilarious in hindsight; he'd been so inadvertently spooked by it that he'd jumped in place in front of the vending machine a snack he'd try to buy had gotten stuck in and fell flat on his ass. By the time he got back up, he'd found the front of the vending machine's glass somewhat cracked, the item down in the bin, and a note with some laughter written on it left behind.

Koichi still had complicated feelings about having a stalker… it really wasn't something he should've just been letting go on like this. After all, even in The Frontier it was usually considered a bit of a creepy thing to just stalk someone. These were social norms that Neopolitan had been breaking off and on for the past couple weeks. Though, thankfully, it had seemed like she had at least respected his personal space and hadn't done anything too unforward…

He thought. You could never know with someone with the ability to make herself completely silent.

Yet, despite this and despite the fact that, even at this very moment, with his friends outside that Neopolitan had found a way to still stalk him… he didn't know. It should've been weird but after what they went through with Angelo… it felt kind of…

"Complicated." Koichi said again as he rubbed the back of his neck and picked the clothes off of the rack. He would've preferred to not be stalked, on the other hand, he knew she wasn't a threat. Hell, she'd saved his life. Hell, she'd been more a help than anything and the little notes she sometimes left behind were genuinely funny and amusing. He'd almost gotten caught 'passing notes' in so many classes at this point that after a while he thought he might end up being labeled as some kind of delinquent.

It wasn't even that he wanted her to stop being around. That wasn't why he wanted her to stop stalking her. In all honesty, he… kind of just wanted to see her.

And that was the weirdest thing of all to him; wanting to see your stalker face to face. That wasn't a normal thing. Yet, here he was.

After having contemplated these thoughts Koichi walked out from the changing room and took a look at himself in a full length mirror. It was a green sweatshirt with a rounded triangle patch on his right breasts with a green fist, similar to the one in Josuke's heart, implanted dead on in the center. A pair of blue lines ran down the lengths of the arms of the sweatshirt that, all told, did look pretty nice. The sweatpants were much to talk about, just a very dark grey pair of sweatpants, but they had definitely been very comfortable. To Koichi, he looked good and he felt really good and comfy. He looked at himself for a few moments as a small grin came to his face; he liked this. But…

"Do I look good?" Koichi hazarded the question as he looked in the mirror for a bit. The sound of a rack jostling to his right had quickly drawn Koichi's eyes from the mirror, though he'd immediately realized his mistake when he saw nothing was there. Despite how fast he'd turned his gaze back to the mirror, he only found himself looking back… and saw, through the reflection, a bit of paper sticking out of the hood of the sweatshirt. Koichi sighed a bit as he reached back and pulled out the paper and, despite himself, actually smiled a bit.

' _You look cute._ '

"... Hey, Neopolitan… will I ever get the chance to actually see you again?" Koichi asked, somewhat out of the blue (or would have appeared to if you had watched him) as he looked around the section of the store he'd been in. Dead silence, as per usual. Eventually Koichi just sighed and shook his head, a little bit down by the continued failure to get an answer to that particular question out of Neopolitan.

"Yo Koichi! Get out here if you're ready!" Koichi had been snapped out of his stupor as Okuyasu shouted after him, the tiny young man just nodded as he pulled off a few similar sweatshirts and sweatpants of the racks to run to the front of the shop. As he left, one of the racks leaned over slightly, as if some invisible weight had been placed on them, as a light sigh could be heard.

It was probably for the best that Neo had been invisible at that moment. If anyone had been around to see just how red her face was thanks to the… show she'd gotten from Koichi she'd have had to kill them to hide the evidence.

* * *

"Alright, I think I look pretty awesome. What do you guys think, do I look good or what?"

Or what, would have probably been most everyone's reactions to seeing what Okuyasu had done with his uniform.

Waist down, the only notable thing that Okuyasu had added to his uniform was a second belt similar to his original, though this one had been larger and hung off his waist at an angle. It was pretty stylish and, unsurprisingly, had been similar to how Jotaro had worn a pair of belts. It had been when they got above the waist that several disbelieving eyebrows had been raised. Gawdy was a word to describe it, a little too much might've been a phrase uttered and 'holy shit, too much dude' was what had been on Neptune's mind.

Aside from the bracelets that had been added, pretty much a perfect match for Josuke's, Okuyasu had a huge, golden Atlesian Dollar sign just pinned right to the dead center of his chest. He had apparently followed this up with a set of Dollar and Mistrali Yen pins that had been placed on either side of his closed collar, the Yen on the right half of his collar and the Dollar on the left half of his collar. All of this alone would've been quite the eyecatcher but, to top it all of, Okuyasu had some old kanji and a word stitched into the shoulders of his uniform. On the right shoulder was the kanji in question which no one outside of Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi would've actually been able to read and on the left arm Okuyasu had the word 'BILLION' stitched in so that it ran down the length of his arm. On top of all of this the simple buttons that had previously secured Okuyasu's uniform closed had been replaced with golden pins in the shapes of bars that now ran along the edge of his uniform's flap.

It was garrish. It was too much. It was a lot of gold and a lot of money signs. It…

"... It's a perfect match for you, Okuyasu…" Weiss muttered in disbelief as she shook her head, utterly blown away that someone could actually walk out of a store looking like that. Not just looking like that but looking so fuc… friggin' pleased with himself. Honestly, no small part of Weiss had been a little jealous at just how happy Okuyasu looked with his appearance and how proudly he wore it. She'd never wear such a thing herself, but the look of pride he'd taken in it had made her a little envious.

"I know right? I wanted to look a bit more like my Stand and to have a bit of my own style. Now I look friggin' awesome." Okuyasu barked out several laughs as he stuck his hands in his pockets, a wide grin on his face as he looked out at his friends. Of everyone, only Josuke and Yang had managed to hold onto even a little bit of their composure, as the two just nodded and smiled.

"Mmmhmmm, yeah, that's great Okuyasu." They had both nearly said in unison as the scarred teen just took it full on as a compliment and walked forward out of the store. Koichi had followed him out, his uniform and his knew accessories for it in a bag slung over his arm, as everyone kind of blinked in surprise at the departure Koichi had taken from the rest of his friends. The silver haired boy scratched the back of his head sheepishly upon having seen all these looks as he just chuckled awkwardly.

"Well, uh, I wanted something a little more comfortable than my uniform and I thought that this would look good so…" Koichi muttered slightly as he blushed a bit. To the Four Kingdom hunters, Koichi's little outfit had looked just fine on him and wouldn't have caused them to bat an eye under most other circumstances. However, they turned to look over at Josuke and Okuyasu, curious to see the two young men's' reactions.

Okuyasu and Josuke, unsurprisingly, had just grinned at Koichi as Okuyasu reached a hand forward and ground it slightly into Koichi's hair.

"Oh-hoho, looks like Koichi's trying to strike out on his own and really change up his appearance. What's up buddy, looking to get the eye of a girl with your new look?" Koichi's immediate blush had been all Okuyasu needed to crank up the teasing as he leaned back to look over at Josuke. "Can you believe it? Koichi droppin' the uniform just so that he can get some Four Kingdom girls to notice him? How about that Josuke?"

"Well we suspected this kid had no dignity, but this just confirms it."

What previously would have been some sputtered and embarrassed remarks quickly turned into a light punch into Okuyasu's gut from Koichi, which prompted more laughter from the scarred teen. "Why you jerk… growin' up so fast, eh Josuke. Brings a tear to a vet's eye." Okuyasu said with a wide, cheerful smile, as everyone just kind of grinned while watching the scene. After that, Josuke turned to Yang and thoroughly pleased, shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright Professor Xiao Long, what's the next step?" Yang's grin beamed in response to this as she clapped her hands together.

"Step Three is a simple step, my dear JoJo; if you have loads of excess money… enjoy yourself!"

* * *

A Few Hours Later

"Jeez, whew, that's certainly a way to blow through some money."

Indeed; the next several hours after that had been the group of teens just going out and enjoying themselves for the day. Step Three and Step Four had been fused together and so the group of hunters and huntresses had just gone from favorite store to favorite store checking things out. Part of it had been to give Josuke and his team a more in-depth look at The City of Vale, while the other part had been convincing Josuke to… er, 'invest' some money in his friends.

A couple thousand Lien had been spent all told between the earrings, the clothes and the activities, but Josuke would've readily said that it had all been worth it to have partook in all this with his friends.

"Yeah, seriously, and Josuke's nowhere even close to being tapped out. Gonna be living the high life for a while, I bet." Nora had said excitedly as she stretched her arms up over her head.

"Yeah, but I think for today that's gonna be it for Neptune and I." Sun said as he rolled out his neck a bit. "Not for nothing, this was fun, but we've got our own team to spend the weekend with, and it'd be irresponsible of me, as leader, to just leave them hanging. Plus I gotta show off my new earrings." Sun said with a laugh as Neptune nodded in agreement.

"I guess we'll see you party people later though! Catch ya'll later!" Neptune had said as he and Sun quickly departed.

"Pfft, whatever, party's still going on strong here. You guys can go ahead and head back to Beacon if that's what you want. Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO are gonna be going strong." Yang had said with a boisterous laugh, though one that hadn't been answered by much of anyone in Team JNPR.

"Actually Yang, we're probably gonna drop here too. We've got some homework we're needing to do; middle of the semester and all." Jaune had answered casually as he looked back over to Pyrrha. "Plus I was thinking Pyrrha and I could take some time to just train a bit, catch up after a long day kind of goofing' off." For most everyone, they expected the tournament fighter to immediately jump on it; Jaune had meant nothing by it, of course, but it would've been no surprise for Pyrrha to have still jumped at the chance to spend as much time with Jaune as she could.

"Oh, right. Sure Jaune." Her tepid response had almost immediately shocked Teams RWBY and JOJO, while Jaune just seemed a little distraught. Ren and Nora hadn't seemed surprised either and, more than that, seemed a little bit curious as they watched as Pyrrha turned around. "Let's get going then."

"Right." Jaune nodded as he followed behind Pyrrha. Ruby blinked as she looked over at Ren and Nora, a curious glint to her silver eyes.

"Are… Pyrrha and Jaune fighting?"

"Did Jaune say something stupid?" Blake had asked what she felt was the more likely response, given that Pyrrha would almost certainly not keep to a fight long with Jaune. Teams RWBY and JOJO had been further surprised when both Nora and Ren just shook their heads.

"No, or at least, they don't have any reason to be fighting. Jaune's also avoided any pitfalls concerning Pyrrha's feelings for him. It just… kind of started to happen sometime after the incident with Toshikazu. Pyrrha's been feeling more and more distant from Jaune as time goes on… it's not effecting the team dynamic but it's becoming more and more noticeable. Even Jaune seems to be getting concerned." Ren muttered as he scratched at his chin, Nora nodding along with him.

"Worst part is that Pyrrha isn't being too open with what's bugging her… not that it's a surprise, but it makes trying to get to the heart of all this really, really, REALLY hard." Nora shook her head slightly at this, the bubbly bomber clearly deflated as Teams RWBY and JOJO just looked concerned.

"Do you guys need some help or something?" Josuke asked, curious and ready to lend assistance, as Ren just smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks, and I'm sure the same offer'd be given by the rest of you," And, indeed, everyone seemed ready to jump in, ", but for now, we'll see where it goes ourselves. If it gets more serious, we'll reach out. For now, we really don't want to push Pyrrha too hard. We don't want to scare her off like we scared Jaune off before." The pair just nodded as, after a moment, they turned to walk off and follow Jaune and Pyrrha. The moment momentarily deadened, Koichi readjusted his bag as he shook his head.

"I feel a bit partied out too." Though Koichi had opened up considerably since his time with Angelo, the young man had still held onto his more shy demeanor most of the time. With a soft grin he nodded to Josuke and Okuyasu. "I'll see you guys back at Beacon. Have fun, alright?" With that, Koichi had quickly jogged off. No one had taken notice of the fact that, every so often, his eyes would dart around his surroundings. Nor would they notice the invisible, silent figure who quickly followed on after him.

"Man, Koichi really had just started to grow into his own here. That'll make all this shit worth it by itself." Okuyasu grinned as he stuffed his hands in his pockets all the while Josuke just nodded in firm agreement. It hadn't been a surprised that Koichi had been tired… what had been a surprise was that he had been willing to not only speak up about it but then act in his own interest rather than follow Josuke and Okuyasu around. To the two of them, that had been a major change.

"Yeah… his folks'll probably barely be able to recognize him when he gets back." A cheerful glint reached Josuke's blue eyes as he turned back to Team RWBY. "So does all this change the plans, or are we still gonna head around?"

"Are you kidding, party's not stoppin' just yet." Yang said with a firm nod as she flashed her pearly whites.

"Not much to do back at Beacon, so yeah, I'm totally up for more." Ruby quickly followed up as she and her sister looked over to Weiss and Blake. Though Blake had looked a tired, the amber eyed faunus just smiled at her partner and team leader as she nodded.

"Ah, peer pressure, the ultimate tool. I guess I have no choice but to come." Despite her words, Blake's sarcastic tone had given her own willingness away. Weiss just looked over the rest of the group and, with an exhausted sigh, just glared at her teammates.

"... We're doing the homework Jaune brought up tomorrow. No ifs, ands or buts about it, got it?" The rest of Team RWBY just nodded, Yang and Ruby somewhat distantly, as Weiss just shook her head. Despite this, a small grin was on her face as she looked back up. "If we are going to keep going, we're stopping somewhere nice to eat. All this running around has me feeling peckish."

"I hear that!" Okuyasu barked out a laugh as the group continued on, eyes looking about to try to find a nearby restaurant for them to eat at. "I'm so hungry I could probably eat a horse!"

"Yeah, no kidding, feeling it myself… got any places in mind?" Josuke asked curiously as the four members of Team RWBY just tapped their chins a bit.

"You know, I have heard of this new restaurant that's supposed to be rather trendy. If you guys are open to it, I can lead the way." Weiss had mentioned off-handedly and, seeing no objections, had quickly guided her friends to where she had heard the restaurant to be located.

The building they eventually found was actually a rather simple affair; built near one of the Merchant District's parks, likely for a bit of ambience, it had been a simple little shop stuffed between two slightly larger, more grand department stores. Despite this, just as the group of huntsmen and huntresses arrived they saw a party of people depart the little restaurant, clearly quite pleased as they made their way down the street.

"Seems like a nice little shop." Blake mentioned off-handedly as they approached, a little sign near the door that had listed off some specials and prices having caught their attention.

"Menu looks Mistrali, if I had to guess." Josuke had mentioned off-handedly as he and the others moved to open the door. They had been surprised when just as Josuke had been ready to grab the handle, the door itself had opened up. Having expected someone to meet them face to face, the group were instead quite surprised to have to look down to meet their greeter's eyes.

She had been a rather pretty young woman with dark brown hair and a rather fair, coastal Mistrali complexion. She smiled gently, looking a bit sickly, as she nodded her head. What had surprised the group of huntresses and huntsmen the most was the fact that the young woman had been sat in a wheelchair.

"Welcome to Trattoria Trussardi, the restaurant of choice for those who want only the finest Mistrali cuisine in all of Remnant. Antonio shall be with you shortly if you all would like to take your seats."

 **-To Be Continued- Out On The Town (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: Interesting note for this episode; Sun Wukong and Neptune. Sun's pretty easy for me to write; pretty open guy, shows off a lot of personality and generally is pretty easy going. There isn't a lot of guardedness to consider about his character so mainly the only thing you have to keep an eye on is word choice and whether or not you're making him seem… well, too try-hard. Neptune is the opposite; at the beginning of the series he's an extremely guarded character, more concerned about appearing cool than being genuine (Fuck, guy turns down a date with the Heiress to one of the richest families in Remnant because he doesn't want to reveal he can't dance) so it's pretty limiting with what I feel like I can get away with writing for his character so that it'll still feel like him. Nothing spectacular, I know, just an interesting note.**

 **A lot of this chapter is setting up some of our future conflicts between characters and just having these guys interact and shoot the shit. Also updating some appearances; you don't know how trippy it's been imagining Josuke, Oku and Koichi outside of their normal appearances this entire time. For me, dialogue is a lot of fun to write too, so this was a pretty enjoyable chapter to crank out, a lot of fun.**

 **Not much more to say other than that so I hope you all have had a good week and I'll see ya'll in five days.**


	24. Out On The Town (Act 3)

Trattoria Trussardi, That Afternoon, The City of Vale

"Ren message us back yet?"

"Not yet… oh, there he is! He's asking what sort of stuff we saw on the menu."

After having been let inside the Trattoria Trussardi by the young woman that the girls had come to know as 'Virgina', the six teens had asked to please be patient while they waited for the chef to come and set their table. It had seemed as though that, ordinarily, the Trattoria Trussardi had equipped itself to handle two groups of three, as those had been the tables set. Virgina had said that if they would give the chef a moment that he'd set up their table for them.

At which moment the group of six huntsmen and huntresses stepped in and set the table up.

Charmed by the group's rather kind demeanor, Virgina had taken to setting up their table with gusto, even as once again the group of six teens helped the sickly looking woman here and there. After some time when the group expected Virgina to hand out menus, the young woman just smiled, said that Antonio would be out shortly, and then wheeled herself into the backroom.

At which point in time the group of teens, armed with only the most basic knowledge of Mistrali cuisine, messaged Ren for some advice on what to order.

"Aren't you two descended from Mistrali folk? You should know something at least." Weiss said neutrally as she folded her hands a bit as Ruby and Yang, after some consternation about having been given no official menu, decided to go based on what the board outside the restaurant had offered for drinks.

"Trust us Weiss, it's been so long since anyone in The Frontier has made Mistrali eats more complex than a ramen bowl that anything else might as well be a lost art." Okuyasu said flatly as he leaned back in his chair. "What about you guys? You all are free to eat anything from Mistral you want, what do you all usually get?"

"... Ramen bowls…" The four teenaged girls admitted pathetically all at once, as Okuyasu just burst out laughing. Josuke, on the other hand, just shrugged as he looked around.

"Well then I guess this gets to be an experience for all of us." At that, Ruby's scroll pinged a new message as she looked it over, at which point the silver eyed girl just raised an eyebrow.

"Ren says he isn't familiar with what's on the menu. Says that where he grew up it was pretty isolated from anything having to do with the coastal cultures in Mistral. He says he'll ask Pyrrha though, see what she thinks." At that everybody nodded as Blake leaned back a bit in her chair.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. Mistral's such a crazy diverse kingdom that it seems like it'd be stepping from one country to another anytime you moved out a few miles. Heck, back before the Vytal Accords set out the common language, hundreds of languages were spoken throughout Mistral. In some of the more isolated places, the old tongues are still the only thing spoken. It gets pretty crazy in that kingdom… and that was before people from Vacuo started moving all over the place after their kingdom became a desert. So I guess Mistral would be even more insanely diverse now."

"Quite astute, signora. You must be a well-read young woman indeed."

Everyone jumped a bit as a voice suddenly joined in on their conversation as they snapped their heads back towards the kitchen area where Virgina had disappeared to. In her stead, standing just outside the kitchen, was a young man, looking to be in either his early to mid twenties with brown hair, blue eyes and a rather fair complexion. Ruby and Yang had to hold back mild chuckles upon seeing him; the guy looked exactly how a stereotypical chef would look. A big old white, cylindrical hat, a double-breasted jacket, also white. In fact, his entire uniform was white, save for a red tie and a handful of gold ts scattered throughout his uniform, including one imprinted on a badge-like pin that held his hat together.

Despite their surprise, it was easy to tell that the man's town was gentle and this had been immediately reinforced by the man's kind demeanor as he smiled softly at the gathering of huntsmen and huntresses.

"I see that you all took it upon yourselves to set up your own seating arrangements. It isn't often that my customers go out of their own way like that, so i must thank you all for your kindness, Virgina was especially surprised." With a gentle tilt of his head Antonio Trussardi, or the man they presumed to be him, stepped forward and offered a bow. "Allow me to introduce myself; I am Antonio Trussardi, and I shall be your chef for this afternoon." As he lifted his head up, Antonio offered a small wink to the table. "Though please, feel free to call me Tonio if it would please you, signores and signoras."

The man's accent was thick, which had come as a small bit of a surprise to Team RWBY especially. While some who spoke the common dialect still held accents, like Ren, these were usually in cases where they were isolated or otherwise inoculated against it, in tight-knit communities where the old languages still held sway. To hear a man who spoke the common tongue so fluently speak with such a thick accent had been a surprise.

"Well thank you Tonio. I'm Josuke, this is Okuyasu, and these four here are Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang."

"So, are you really from Mistral, or is that accent you got there just put on to make this place feel more authentic?" Okuyasu had asked directly, which had caused nearly everyone at the table to go red from embarrassment.

"Okuyasu, bro, you don't go asking that kind of stuff to people you've barely even met!" Even Yang, free-spirited and blunt as she could be, had been taken off-guard by Okuyasu's brand of forwardness. Yet before the table could admonish him too strongly, Tonio… laughed? Yes, he laughed, and not in a mocking manner either. In fact, if they hadn't known any better, they'd say the man sounded absolutely charmed.

"Well sir, yes, I'm from Mistral and no, the accent isn't put on. My upbringing was… unique, to say the least." Tonio said with a small chuckle as he flourished. "But I can promise you this; if you doubt the authenticity of my nativity to Mistral, then I shall reassure you through my cooking. You'll find it to be the best cuisine from the Kingdom you've had in your life, signore." Tonio said with no arrogance and the utmost sincerity.

"Probably going to be pretty easy, Oku and I've never had any Mistrali cuisine before." At that, Tonio did seem a bit surprised as he turned his gaze over to Josuke, his blue eyes blinked a few times in confusion as he looked the two young men up and down.

"Pardon me signore, but are you sure? Your accents most definitely place both of you fine young sirs from Mistral. I couldn't imagine…" Suddenly, a flash of realization hit as Tonio's eyes glimmered. "Oh! You two must be some of the young gentlemen from The Frontier!" Tonio leaned forward as he took a closer look. "I should've known; I'd heard about the odd uniforms of the Frontier Huntsmen, it just took me a moment to realize I had such guests in my own little restaurant."

"Woah-ho, you guys hear that, you're apparently famous!" Ruby remarked with wide eyes as she nodded. "Figures that heroism like surviving the Unknown Continent gets recognized!"

"Either that or The Frontier is considered such an oddity that most people would want to spread rumors and hearsay about anyone who came from there." Blake remarked immediately afterward, which had brought down Josuke, Ruby and Okuyasu's mood somewhat as Tonio gave a quick nod of affirmation.

"The young signora here is right; I'd heard about you the Frontier Huntsmen as a bit of a curiosity around the city. There's a lot of rumor and speculation concerning the timing, especially as the criminal element of the city's suddenly started to explode in recent months." Tonio shrugs his shoulders as he smiled gently at Josuke and Okuyasu. "But seeing you two now and hearing how kind you were in the presence of my dear Virgina, I hardly take stock in that hearsay.

"If anything, this will make today's meal all the more special." Tonio placed a hand to his chest as the chef's gaze turned to a nearby window. "Cooking is my passion and I've dedicated my life to being as great at my craft as I can be. The idea that my meal, my restaurant, shall serve two young men who've never so much as tasted Mistrali cuisine before is something of a dream come true for a man like myself." Tonio smiled gently, one that easily spread amongst the table before him. Everyone mood had been lifted by the honest, sincere nature of the man.

"Well then, Mr. Trussardi, if you'll give us our menus then we'll be more than happy to partake in some of this cooking of yours." Weiss offered with a smile and a nod of her own as she gestured her hand forward. She, and the rest of the table, had been met with a surprise when Tonio's expression took a slight turn.

"Menu? Signora, we don't have a menu here."

"... What? You don't have a menu?" Yang seemed honestly perturbed as she tilted her head to the side, as Tonio just smiled.

"Indeed; at my restaurant, I serve my food based on the customers." This cryptic little sentence hadn't cleared up a single thing for anyone at the table as Okuyasu just leaned forward.

"Alright then, just show us this menu thing is so we can order our food." Okuyasu said flatly and in a tone that, while few at the table had thought immediately necessary, had reflected their growing uncertainty with their chef.

"No signore, you don't understand; I make a customer's food based upon a few signs I look for when I look them over, not through a menu." At that, Okuyasu had nearly stood up out of his seat before Ruby quickly reached out and a put a hand on the scarred teens shoulder.

"Okuyasu, it's okay, just hold on!" At that, the young team leader just looked at Tonio quizzically as she motioned her hands forward in a bit of a defensive, plaintive gesture. "Tonio, sir, I don't mean to be rude but that seems a bit weird. How can you know what the customer will like or what they'll want just by looking at them?" For a moment, Tonio just stared down at Ruby with a look that had slightly unsettled the table; a deep focus as he peered down at the young woman. Just a moment before it would've gotten too uncomfortable, Tonio spoke.

"You had diarrhea last night, didn't you signora?"

"... Excuse me?"

Everyone was outright flabbergasted and Ruby herself seemed utterly stunned, her face as red as her namesake as Tonio carefully reached forward and cradled both of her hands in his as he looked at her palms.

"Yes, your intestinal walls are inflamed and quite a bit. It's the result of a rather poor diet by the looks of it… if I had to guess, one too many late night sweet sessions finally got the better of your poor digestive system. Am I right, signora?"

Everyone stared at Tonio for a moment before curious eyes shifted over towards Ruby, whose face had stayed quite thoroughly red the entire time. Eventually Ruby reached up to her hood, pulled it up over her head and hid her face from everyone as she just nodded a couple times.

"H-Hey! How the heck do you know something like that about my sister you creep, when would you-" Yang had been cut off as Tonio gently reached out and stretched out her left hand, the shock of the sudden move having put Yang off her guard.

"You're carrying a lot of stress in your left shoulder as of late it seems. The muscles are going stiff and it's causing some chronic pain and a lack of flexibility. Not exactly a great thing for someone in such a physical line of work." Lilac eyes just blinked in disbelief as Yang's entire body relaxed, the blonde's jaw going agape. Eventually, Yang just nodded in affirmation before Tonio turned his gaze over to Blake. "And no offense to you signora, but I don't even need to look at your hands to see that you're suffering from a lack of sleep. The puffiness of your eyes and the bag underneath them tell me that." However, with that, Tonio did reach forward and take Blake's right hand in his, at this point the table far too shocked by the man's maelstrom of predictions to fight him off.

"It looks like you only got four hours last night, and barely more any of the previous nights." Blake's teammates all immediately looked over at the black haired faunus, even Ruby who had peaked out from under her hood to look at Blake's face. The young cat faunus just nodded dumbly.

"That's… that's exactly right." Blake had spoken in utter disbelief as Tonio turned his attention over to Okuyasu."

"Signore, your hands please?"

"Oh, uh… okay?" Okuyasu, thoroughly surprised by Tonio's skills at this point, offered up his hands to the chef as he studied them.

"Hmmm, well, it looks like you've got a pair of cavities in your mouth there signore. One on your top left incisor and one on one of your lower right molars. Nothing too serious besides that though." Tonio said with a slight smile as Okuyasu just seemed beyond flabbergasted.

"T-That's right! That's one-hundred percent right! How the Hell did you know?"

"Yeah, how did you piece all this stuff together without even checking us over?!" Ruby asked from underneath her hood, still blushing, as Tonio just chuckled.

"Signores and signoras, I can tell everything about your health just by looking at your hands. It's how I design my meals for my customers; by knowing what ails you, I can design meals around your body's needs so that it's both healthy and delicious." Tonio spoke in a soft tone as everyone at the table marveled at him. Josuke, of all of them, seemed slightly put off by this odd little talent and, for a moment, flinched as Tonio turned to him. "Your hands, signore?"

There was a moment's hesitation on Josuke's part before, eventually, his stomach grumbled out loud enough for the table to hear. With a bit of red dusting his cheeks, Josuke offered up his hands to Tonio. The chef took both of them in his and looked them over, a thoughtful expression on his face as he nodded a few times. Eventually the chef gave the pompadoured teen a warm, kindly smile.

"My, my, I must say, you've taken rather excellent care of yourself signore. Honestly, I don't see any major health issues in your hands at all. A few bruises here, some old fractures there and a little bit of pain from some old injuries, but otherwise you're in fine health." Tonio let go of Josuke's hands, the blue eyed chef bowing his head slightly to Josuke before he stood straight up. "I'll be sure to cook something a little light, just to ease some of that for you, signore." Josuke stared back, a little perplexed, before he just nodded slowly.

"Well now, at least someone at this table besides me has a mind towards their health." Weiss said with a slightly arrogant tone as she quickly offered her hands up to Tonio. "Honestly, you all really should take a page from Josuke and my book when it comes to properly taking care of yourselves. It's very important after all." As Tonio looked over Weiss' hands, he nodded.

"Indeed, you're in rather good health yourself signora." At that, Weiss beamed as she prepared to gloat a little more to her teammates and friends. "You have a little bit of athlete's foot on your right foot, but that should be easy to take care of."

The entire room went dead silent as five pairs of eyes drilled into Weiss' head. The white haired young woman's face, slowly but surely, went as red as a tomato as she stared back at Tonio, her eyes narrowed slightly. Before anyone could speak up, Ruby Rose had broken the silence.

"Wait, so is that what that smell is in our dorm?"

And just like that, the damn broke. Both Yang and Okuyasu immediately belted out long, loud laughter as the latter pounded the table with his hands, barely able to breath as he cackled away. Blake had hid her mouth behind her hand, soft giggles emanating from behind it while Josuke just looked away for a moment, having done his best to spare Weiss any further embarrassment.

"Hahahahaha! Oh how the mighty have fallen! Talkin' about us taking bad care of ourselves when you're runnin' around with foot fungus Weiss!" Okuyasu howled with laughter as he slapped a hand to his forehead, Yang having done her best to lean over and support herself on Blake's shoulder as she practically started crying from laughter.

"Okuyasu, I do not have foot fungus!" Weiss screamed back, her face going from red with embarassment to red with rage before she turned back to Tonio. "The dear chef here has just…made a small error with his reading is all. Nothing to be ashamed of." Despite how proud her tone of voice was, Weiss' eyes had a pleading edge to them as she kept her back to as many of her friends as she could. Tonio just looked down at her for a moment before a gentle, understanding smile crossed his lips.

" **Ho capito**!" Tonio chimed with a slight nod as he reached over to a nearby table and picked up a pitcher of water. "Now then, while I get your antipasto ready for you all, here's a glass of water. I'll bring your beverages for you to enjoy before the antipasto. Considering the size of your party, do pardon me if it takes a little while to put everything together, signores and signoras." Tonio bowed his head gregariously as he spoke, as the table just kind of waved off his concerns, more interested in his little trick from before than the, reasonable, wait time they'd have for their food.

With that, Tonio departed after having served them all a glass of water and left the six teens to their own devices. While various instincts had been at play at the table, from wanting to further tease Weiss over her foot fungus to Ruby wanting to burrow further into her hood, one overrode all others as Yang, with a slight frown, turned to her friend and partner.

"So… been having some late nights, partner?" Blake flinched slightly as Yang spoke up, having hoped against hope that Ruby or Weiss' embarrassment would've proved more delectable targets for her blonde partner. Sadly, it seemed that Yang's more caring nature won out this round.

"Y-Yeah… been up a bit late doing some research into White Fang movements and keeping an eye on Torchwick's activity around the city, trying to figure out if we could find any leads." Blake admitted, a bit sheepishly, as she ran a finger around the rim of her glass.

"Eh? Blake, you know that if we hear anything from Ozpin, Ironwood or Jotaro that you all would be among the first to know. You really don't have to exhaust yourself doing that kind of research yourself." Josuke offered sympathetically as he leaned his head into his hand, the rest of the table having nodded in agreement with the pompadoured teen as Blake just shrugged.

"I know, I know… but, well, it's like Yang said earlier in the dining hall." Blake had attempted to redirect the conversation a bit as she jabbed a thumb over to her lilac eyed partner. "These past couple weeks have just been really quiet… I've just been concerned that maybe they've got something big planned that they're staying on the downlow for. I know that you guys would tell us first thing if you heard anything at all, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to do a little extra research myself. Something to make me feel… useful, you know?" Blake shrugged her shoulders as her amber eyes trailed off to the side.

"Still, to deprive yourself of so much sleep? I mean, now that Tonio's pointed it out, I can definitely see it." Ruby slipped out from underneath her hood as she spoke and, indeed, everyone now had their attention clearly fixed on Blake's puffy eyes and the bags underneath them. Ruby, in fact, frowned a bit as she looked down to the side. "Blake, if you were really tired and didn't want to stay out, you could have-"

"NO!" Everyone had been rather shocked at Blake's strong reaction, the black haired faunus herself seemed somewhat sheepish because of it as she leaned back in her seat. "I-I mean… it's okay Ruby. I'm not going to let a little sleep deprivation keep me from being with my team and my friends." Blake smiled genuinely as she looked at everyone at the table. "Look, I promise, I'll get an early night tonight. Cross my heart and everything. So can we drop it, please?" Everyone at the table just stared for a moment before, eventually, everyone had relented. Though members of Team RWBY had appeared bothered by her previous statements, they hadn't wanted to push too hard if Blake was indeed willing to go ahead and get an early night tonight.

"Alright partner, just tell us if you're getting this tired in the future. I mean, we know we're awesome, but we wouldn't want to keep you from getting a-"

"Cat nap, yes, you're very clever Yang." At that Yang immediately deflated as she sent a light glare over to her partner, who just smiled with a cat-like mischievousness over at the blonde.

"You're no fun when you haven't had your sleep." Yang pouted slightly as her pun had been so thoroughly disarmed, as Blake just chuckled a little.

"Pretty sure I would've gotten ahead of that terrible pun even if I had gotten all of my sleep there Yang." Blake said with a grin as Okuyasu just shook his head slightly.

"Man Blake, cut Yang some slack. Just cause you don't like her brand of humor, doesn't mean-"

"That I have to be catty. Yes. Hilarious Okuyasu!" Blake groaned as she shook her head and placed her face in her palms. "You see Yang, you've made two of you now. How are we supposed to cope."

"... I was just going to say that it doesn't mean you have to be so short with her." Blake's amber eyes went wide with a bit of horror as she looked up at Yang and Okuyasu, who just grinned like crazy people at her.

"... One of us, one of us!" The pair chanted slightly as Blake just grimaced and shook her head. Maybe the puns were infectious…

"Just drink your water you two." Weiss, already way past done with all these puns, just shook her head irritably, along with the rest of the table, as Okuyasu and Yang just shrugged. Okuyasu immediately reached down to wet his lips with his glass of water… at which point the scarred teen practically froze.

"What's wrong Okuyasu?" Ruby asked from underneath her hood, slightly concerned at the boy's surprised expression.

"Y-You guys… this water… it's… I dunno. It's amazing." Okuyasu just stared dead on at the glass of water in his hands, his expression utterly blown away. "It's the most delicious water I've ever had in my entire life."

"Okay, easy there Okuyasu." Weiss said with a sigh as she picked up her own glass. "You have water in The Frontier, you can't go pulling that card and claiming ignorance for something as simple as a glass of clean water. There's no way this is 'that' good." The white haired heiress sighed as she tipped the glass up to her lips, at which point her light blue eyes went wide as plates as she pulled the glass from her lips and stared at it in amazement. "Holy… he's right! This water, it's amazing! Is it some kind of mineral water?"

One by one everyone at the table had their own drink of the water while Okuyasu practically swung back the entire rest of his glass in one gulp.

"Holy cow!"

"It's amazing!"

"I've never thought water could taste this good!"

"I don't even know where to begin to describe it. Rich as my family is I've never had water like this before!" Weiss was just stunned as she brought a hand up to her cheek, staring at the glass of water. "I mean, it's like… it's like…"

"It's like elegance poured directly into our glasses!" Four pairs of stunned eyes turned over to Okuyasu as the scarred teen held out his empty glass, his expression excited and thoroughly pleased as he smiled at the empty glass. "Like, the kind of water a Mantlean Princess would drink up in the mountains after a long day of strumming beautiful pieces of music on her harp! I mean, it's just soooo soothing! Like the first wonderful glass of water a weary traveler trekking for three days through the dry deserts of Vacuo would drink!"

"Yeah you're right Okuyasu, it is that good." Josuke just nodded in agreement as he turned to look at the rest of the table who, much to his own surprise, just stared gawking at Okuyasu, eyes bugged out in surprise as jaws hanged open. "What are you all staring at Okuyasu for?"

"I mean… he's right but…" Yang muttered as Ruby's hood slipped right off her head.

"Who are you and what've you done with Okuyasu?!" Ruby asked pointedly as she looked over at the scarred teen.

"What? What are you guys talking about?" Okuyasu asked, curious, as Weiss just shook her head.

"Okuyasu, that was probably one of the singularly most beautiful things anyone has ever said about a glass of water… and it came from you! That shouldn't be possible!"

"Honestly, you'd be surprised." Josuke remarked as he took another drink of his own water. "Okuyasu can be… weirdly verbose at the most random times. It kind of has a charm to it because you never know when to expect it… though, mostly it seems to be with really, really, really good food."

"Then why hasn't he ever said any stuff like this about the Beacon Academy… oh… oooh… let's not tell them, that might hurt their feelings." Ruby said with a soft sigh as everyone at the table nodded their heads. Soon enough, Blake tipped her glass of water up all the way, finishing it in one, last drink as she smiled giddily. The energy just seemed to build up in her before, finally-

"It's SO GOOD!" Blake went red in the fact as the rest of the table turned to her, looks of jovial surprise on their faces as Blake just chuckled a bit. "I'm… wow I'm so sorry, that just came out of nowhere. This water is just that good." Blake remarked with a slight grin as she set her glass on the table.

"Yeah, no kidding, this is some delicious water. Makes me look forward to whatever food Tonio's going to be carting out." Josuke remarked as he took another sip of his drink. The sip had disguised another noise for a moment so that, at first blush, everyone had missed it.

The second time Blake had sniffled however, no one had missed it as they turned to see Blake Belladonna, former terrorist and ordinarily stoic individual, shedding actual tears.

"O-Oh jeez, what the heck? This… this is actually kind of embarrassing. I'm crying because this water's so good?" Blake let out a good-natured chuckle as she reached out for a napkin to dab her eyes with, to which Yang could only snort giddily at her partner's behavior.

"Man Blake, these are some new sides of you I never thought I'd see. Didn't think you'd get all weepy over a glass of water." The lilac eyed bombshell just chuckled under her breath as Blake shrugged and continued to dab at her eyes. As Blake continued to cry the chuckles and laughter died down as people just watched the odd display continue.

When Blake's tears hadn't subsided and in fact had sped up considerably, everyone had started to panic.

"Blake, what's wrong with you, stop crying!" Yang shouted as she watched her partner just continue to cry and cry as Blake vigorously shook her heads.

"I'm trying! But they just keep coming! It's like a flood at this point!" Blake exclaimed, utterly horrified, as her eyes just continued to let loose tears. It hadn't taken long before Josuke had noticed something peculiar and, by the time he had, everyone else at the table had taken notice too.

"Shit! It's not just that! Your eyes are actually starting to shrivel up! Blake!" Indeed, Josuke hadn't been wrong; while the flow of water from Blake's eyes had slowed considerably, it hadn't been an improvement and instead had foreshadowed something all together horrific to the group of teens. Slowly but surely, similar in look to a water bed that had been punctured, Blake's amber eyes slowly began to deflate and squish in on themselves, the ordinarily bright and wet texture of a person's eyes dimming and drying out as her eyes slowly sunk into the back of her head. Ruby Rose seemed ready to wretch as the backs of Blake's eye sockets slowly came into view as her wilting, withering eyes flattened out. Despite all this, Blake continued to scream and cry out and water still flowed freely.

At that, a golden hue began to surround Josuke as he prepared to summon forth Crazy Diamond. This had been enough, he wasn't just going to-

" **Momento** , please, do not panic signores and signoras!" At that, everyone immediately turned their gazes on Tonio whom had walked out of the kitchen armed with a platter full of six different beverages, his expression serious as he looked on at the group.

"You bastard! What the Hell did you put in our friend's drink to cause this, you piece of shit?!" Okuyasu barked out as he stood up from his own spot on the table, a gesture rapidly followed up by the rest of Team RWBY and Josuke.

"Please, calm down! Her eyes are merely flooding out her eyes. The water comes from the last glacier in all of Vacuo that's been steadily melting these past several hundred years. It's water is possessed of rejuvenative properties that rids the eyes of any dirt that might have seeped in and relieves insomnia and sleep deprivation. Her eyes shall recover in a matter of moments. The reason none of this happened to you all when you began to drink the water was because you all had actually gotten a proper, healthy amount of sleep last night." The Mistrali chef had spoken in a calming, relaxed tone to the group of teens who all, to a point, seemed ready to pounce on him.

"You guys…" Blake muttered from her spot on the table, which had drawn everyone's attention back to the amber eyed faunus. The incredibly bright, light, amber eyed faunus who rocked an equally brilliant smile as she stared back at her friends. This last part had immediately disarmed her friends as Blake continued. "I feel incredible! I honestly feel like I've gotten ten hours of sleep last night." Blake intoned with a bright smile as everyone slowly but surely relaxed, curious expressions across everyone's faces as they stared at her.

"I mean… are you sure Blake? That didn't look like it was particularly… you know, normal?" Ruby asked pointedly as Blake shook her head.

"Ruby, it's fine, I just got a little worked up was all while the water did its work, I'm perfectly okay now." As if to show this, Blake blinked a few times and, true enough, her eyes were back to their normal state, free of any puffiness and with the bags underneath them seemingly erased.

"I mean, Blake, I've never even seen you cry… like, at all before." Yang asked, conspiratorially, as Blake just flinched a bit. The black haired faunus glanced over to Weiss for a moment where, upon having noticed this gesture, the white haired Schnee Heiress snuck a hand up to her lips in a 'shushing' motion as she just winked at Blake. A smile crept onto Blake's lips at this, before the black haired faunus tapped her chin.

"I mean, it has been a while… when I ran away from Adam I did get a bit misty-eyed, but that was more sentiment working me over than real sadness…" Blake popped her fist into her hand as she nodded. "Ah yeah, the first time I ever read Ninjas of Love it had me sobbing."

"... Filth…" Ruby stared a hole into Blake's head as she muttered this accusation, while the amber eyed faunus just shook her head.

"Ruby, you can't just write off literature as 'filth'. It's actually a very touching, very sincere book. When I was thirteen it really moved me." Blake returned to her seat with a sigh as she relaxed from her ordeal. "Now seriously guys, I'm alright." Everyone still seemed the slightest bit on edge as Blake spoke but, after a moment and seeing that Tonio still had that friendly look about him, they all returned to their seats. With that, Tonio quickly got to setting out their drinks; for Weiss, Josuke, Okuyasu and Blake, he set about a few steaming cups of cappuccino, still steaming quite hot. A non-alcoholic cocktail had been set out in front of Yang and a cup of nice, cold cup of milk had been set out for Ruby.

Everyone except Blake had been cautious of the beverages while Blake had just immediately taken one sip of her cappuccino and smiled

"Probably the best cup of coffee I've ever had. Thank you Tonio." Blake offered to the Mistrali chef, who just bowed his head.

" **Grazie** , signora." After that, and after having waited to see if Blake was suddenly going to start the water show again, the others took to their own beverages. While everyone had been pleased, it had hardly been the same kick to the tastebuds that the water had been. Still, each were quite satisfied and calmed by their respective beverages. "I'll be out with your antipasto in a moment. Such a large party just requires a bit more time on my part. Please, pardon me." With that Tonio departed, leaving everyone to their drinks and conversation.

"So Blakey, just because that water helped rinse out your eyes or whatever doesn't mean you get to go skipping out on getting a full night's sleep tonight." Yang teased, somewhat seriously, as she took another sip out of her cocktail, which had caused Blake to blink in some confusion.

"Huh?" Amber eyes blinked a few times before Blake snapped up in realization. "Oh! Right! Of course! I mean, I wouldn't back out of a little promise like that! Of course I'll, I'll get my sleep tonight." Yang's lilac eyes narrowed slightly at Blake's reaction, the black haired faunus coughing into her fist as she sought to redirect the conversation elsewhere. "So, what about your shoulder there Yang? I would've figured Crazy Diamond's fix would've gotten it back in tip top condition. What happened?" Lilac eyes narrowed at the obviousness of Blake's misdirection but, looking across the table, it seemed the topic of conversation had definitely caught Josuke's attention.

"It doesn't happen often but it was in the heat of a moment before battle…" The blue eyed teen muttered under his breath as he scratched his chin. "If I messed something up I could try again and get it right." Yang sighed a bit as she shook her head.

"Ignore my partner JoJo, she's just trying to change the topic." Yang grinned as she took a sip from her cocktail. "Crazy Diamond fixed me up good. Hell, fixed me up better than good even. This… I guess I'm just carrying some stress in it lately because of all this… nothing I've been doing, I guess." Yang mentioned off-handedly as Ruby just frowned.

"Yang, I know these past two weeks have been quiet, but-"

"Eh… it's not even these past two weeks that I mean in particular." Yang groused a bit as she leaned back in her seat, her cocktail mostly forgotten. "Look… I like to think I'm a good fighter, that it's something that I really have a knack for. Something I take a lot of pride in, you know? Then out of nowhere that asshole Bucciarati shows up and I almost get my head zippered off. That… that wouldn't have exactly been a proud moment if JoJo hadn't stepped in." The other, obvious implications of what might've happened had been left unsaid.

"At least when Pyrrha kicks me around the sparring ring, another chance for me to prove I still have what it takes to be a huntress is just around the corner. I can show that I've still got the stuff and that I can learn from my losses ot her, even if I don't make much progress. Sticky Fingers on the other hand… well, not only did I just rush in and nearly get offed for it, I… I really haven't had much of a chance to prove that I can fight against Stand Users. My partner nearly gets caught up by one, Pyrrha, Jaune and Koichi are nearly killed by another… Hell, two others if you count Angelo." Yang rolled her left shoulder in irritation as she ran a hand through her blonde locks.

"You guys can depend on me because I'm a good fighter… if I can't use what I'm good at to prove that you can rely on me then, well, I guess I get agitated…" Yang winced as a wrong roll of her shoulder pulled at the stiff muscles. "It's been annoying to just have to let this sit." Everyone at the table set their drinks aside as they let what Yang had said sink in. A few hadn't quite known what to say about it, though Blake's gaze drifted down and to the side as she thought over her partner's words very carefully.

"I get what you're saying… but you have to know that you'll get your chance eventually." Everyone perked up as Josuke spoke, the pompadoured teen taking a drink from his cappuccino. "If you really do have it, you'll get your chance. Stand Users are attracted to other Stand Users, and you'll so no shortage of them around us if this situation keeps building up like it has been. I know it seems a bit cliche-"

"But have patience?" Yang grinned a bit as she rolled her eyes. "It is a bit cliche JoJo, and I getcha, but… well, my patience can wear pretty thin pretty quick." Yang shrugged as she reached forward and drank the last of her cocktail.

"Well, then I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that your patience is about to be rewarded, signora." Tonio's return was marked by a few smells hitting the nostrils of the assembled huntsmen and huntresses; not only fresh brewed cups of coffee to replace those already emptied, but also of fresh vegetables and various, cooked meats. As Tonio set out the various dishes, mouths had been sent watering. The various dishes ranged from small platters of cut up meats and cheeses to light salads and, as far as anyone was concerned, they all looked delicious despite the relatively light portions.

For Okuyasu and Josuke a plate of various cured meats covered in a light mozzarella cheese, a caesar salad with Tonio's custom dressing set before Weiss and Ruby, smoked salmon with a side of goat's milk cheddar in front of Blake, the sight of which had nearly caused Blake to immediately dive into her plate then and there. Yang's own salad had been a plate of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes garnished with lettuce, two pieces of toast and lightly glazed in Tonio's unique dressing.

"You're a saint of a man, Tonio." Blake had chimed in almost immediately as she stabbed her fork into one of the chunks of salmon and cheddar, bringing it up to her lips to take an immediate bite out of. The swooning expression on her face soon had everyone following her lead and the moment the food hit their tongues, any worries about the suspect nature of Tonio's food they may have all previously had were washed away in that wave of taste.

It was absolutely delicious. The meats were smoked to perfection, the vegetables crunched satisfactorily with freshness or were quite juicy against their tongues. The cheese garnishes added just a hint more flavor to add to their various dishes and the dressing for the salads had a tang of a fishy taste that hadn't overpowered the various other ingredients. The group of teens had never had food that had tasted so good before and it showed as they all lightly moaned as the sensation hit their tongues.

Yang in particular seemed greatly pleased as she plopped in bites of cheese and tomato into her mouth, the blonde practically laughing each time the taste hit her tongue.

"Holy crap! Tonio, I didn't think this kind of taste would be possible!" The lilac eyed girl exclaimed as she reached a hand up for her cheek, a practically delirious look to her eyes as she stared down at her plate. "The combination of the cheese and the tomatoes… it's… it's… jeez, I can't even describe it!" Yang just shook her head slightly as a grin formed across her lips, her eyes flashing red as she popped in a few more bites of her salad.

"Holy cow! When I eventually find my mom I have to thank her for having me! This is just… this is just… just… SO GOOD!" While the cry hadn't been nearly as out of character for Yang as it had been for Blake, several interested eyebrows rose up around the table as they watched Yang eat, Tonio just smiling as he watched Yang go at it.

"Thank you, signora. It's good to know that my cooking has met and exceeded any expectations." As Tonio spoke, his kindly demeanor slowly slipped away as a far more serious expression crossed his lips. One that everyone but Yang and Blake had noticed. "Although, I would suggest you take off your jacket."

"... What?" Yang asked, utterly perplexed, as her eyes returned to their normal lilac coloring. At first, Yang hadn't known what to say… but then, at that moment, she felt something. Her neck felt like it had suddenly been set ablaze and her shoulder was… itchy. Very, very itchy. "Now that you mention it… jeez, did it get hot in here all of a sudden or is that just me." A weak chuckle escaped Yang's lips at her own joke as she stood up and removed her jacket, leaving her in just her top as she set her jacket on the back of her seat. Soon after, Yang reached her fingers up and started to scratch at her shoulder, an irritated grimace crossing her face as she did so.

"Fu… frig." Yang quickly corrected herself, lilac eyes glancing over at Ruby. "My shoulder… it's just itching like crazy all of a sudden… and no matter how much I scratch it it just won't stop itching." Yang growled slightly as she lowered her Aura around her shoulder and empowered her fingers. Ordinarily she wouldn't do such a thing, as this kind of stuff was so dangerous… but the itch… the itch was just so bad she couldn't stand it! Yang's fingers, left smooth from her Aura but strong as steel, continued to scrape and scratch away at her shoulder though she felt no relief even with the readjustments to her Aura.

To the horror of the rest of the table, Yang's efforts did bear some fruit; the blonde bombshell tore away at the skin of her shoulder and revealed pink, fleshy muscle underneath, her fingers coated in layers of dry, decaying…

"Skin?! Why am I scratching off so much skin!" Despite her own horror, Yang continued to dig at her shoulder, more and more of these dead cells flying off of her as everyone at the table grimaced and went a bit green in the face at the sight.

"The calcium, vitamins and minerals in the salad are stimulating your thyroid gland in your throat. It controls your metabolism, you see. This is improving your blood flow and is causing the bad cells in your shoulder to peel off as dead skin… I would advise that you not stop until all the bad cells have been removed." Tonio had barely even need bother to relay these instructions as, even as he spoke, Yang's scratching picked up pace.

To the horror of the entire table, even Yang's shoulder muscle seemed to peel away under her effort, more and more of her body torn away under her own efforts and flying around the table as she scratched and tore into her shoulder. A deep pit had begun to form as more and more of her body was torn off, more and more muscle dug away as Yang's Aura empowered fingers dug in deep and hard, scratching and tearing away. Little specks of what the table could have only assumed to have been blood had been seen here and there and, as Yang continued to dig and dig, stomachs had been sent for a hard, harsh turn as everyone at the table spied white bone beginning to peek out from underneath the surface of all the dead skin and muscle Yang had torn away.

"YANG! PLEASE, STOP!" Tears flowed freely from Ruby's eyes as she watched this happen to her sister, as the wads of dead skin and muscle slowly came together. "Everything you've torn away is getting as big as your head now! If you don't stop, there won't be anything left! Yang, please!" Ruby implored her sister as Yang just continued, her eyes wide and still in shock as she continued to scream while she scratched and tore away at her shoulder.

"No… Ruby… you don't understand…" Just then when it seemed like it was the end, when it seemed like Yang had been just about ready to break her very own shoulder bones with her fevered tearing and scratching… she stopped. Not only did she stop but, when she pulled her hand away, instead of a miserable, bleeding wound that exposed her shoulder bones that most expected, Yang's shoulder was… perfectly fine?

"W-What?" Ruby asked, sniffling slightly as she wiped away tears while Yang immediately set about stretching.

"Ruby, I'm fine! My shoulder feels so stupidly light now it's incredible! It's like… like my entire joint got replaced with a friggin' balloon or something!" The blonde fighter immediately turned on her heels so she could show her back to her friends and, indeed, even from this angle Yang's shoulder looked fine. Yang reached up and back and, with a flourish, linked her two arms vertically, pulling them together as Yang stretched. "I mean, look at this! I haven't felt this flexible since JoJo over there fixed me! I feel fantastic!"

With that, Tonio just smiled as he placed Yang's… bits onto his empty platter. "Very good, signora. I'm happy to hear it. Now, if you all will excuse me, I must go ahead and see to it that the pasta is boiling properly. Enjoy your drinks in the meantime." Tonio just gave a slight bow before he turned to leave, Yang's grin remaining as she looked after him.

"I don't know how, but that guy fixed my stiff shoulder with just some friggin' food. Gotta be some kind of genius." Blake nodded in slight agreement, though slightly wary now herself, as she plopped another piece of smoked tuna into her mouth. Okuyasu also seemed pretty ambivalent, the scarred teen seeming fine after Yang and Blake had made their own full recoveries.

"... You three honestly don't see anything weird about any of that?" Weiss asked, pretty well put off as she pointed towards the kitchen. "He just fed you food that had you tearing away at your shoulder! And you, your eyes SUNK IN! From a glass of water!" Weiss seemed very stressed about all of this, a sentiment that the pompadoured teen leader shared as Ruby just glanced off to the side.

"Well… it is odd but… Tonio doesn't seem like a bad guy. Yang and Blake said they're fine too, so, it's not like anything bad has happened, right?" Ruby asked with a shrug as she sat back down as Yang, Okuyasu and Blake nodded in ready agreement.

"Yeah seriously Weiss-cream, we're fine. I mean, I've lost a lot more skin in a hot bath before, it's normal." Weiss sputtered in amazement as Yang and the others joined Ruby back in their seats. Before long, both the white haired heiress and Josuke took their seats once more, clearly disgruntled as they looked back out towards the kitchen.

"Weiss, have a little faith. Considering the things I've gone through, I think I'd be able to pick up on something suspicious if I felt it." Blake had tried to do her best to reassure Weiss. The gesture, coming from her new friend, might've worked…

"You don't exactly present the picture of impartiality with salmon stuffed in your mouth Blake." The black haired faunus at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed as she quickly swallowed the last of her salmon platter, a slight red tint to her cheeks as she looked off to the side.

"I'd still say I don't think it's suspicious even if the good chef hadn't given me fish… the most delicious fish I've ever had, I'll add." Blake swallowed nervously as she stared back out at the kitchen while Okuyasu just shrugged.

"Besides, I think it's pretty interesting." The scarred teen said as he ate the last of his and Josuke's meat platter, the rest of the table looking over at him. "I mean, the way I figured it, you guys and your physical Aura pretty much patched up anything and everything. It's weird to hear that you all still have health issues." Okuyasu tilted his head slightly as he spoke while Yang just shrugged.

"I mean, we still have doctors and everything so it shouldn't be too surprising right? Physical Aura's more like a bandaid and a shield; it keeps you from getting hurt in the first place and numbs any pain you might feel or heals up some minor hits here and there that might get through. Doesn't do quite as much for major damage or chronic issues as JoJo's Crazy D." Yang explained as she took another sip from her refreshed cocktail. "If we just kep letting ourselves go or not take proper care of ourselves, it can cause issues… Ruby." Yang turned her gaze to her little sister, who just laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head.

"Hey, I just… get cravings is all! I can't get to sleep if I don't satisfy them." Yang shook her head as she clicked her tongue at her younger sister, the silver eyed girl just sighing as she shook her head. "Isn't it embarrassing enough that Tonio just said it out loud for everyone to hear? Do I really need to be shamed over my late night eating habits."

"Hey it's not anywhere near as embarrassing as Weiss' foot fungus, so I'd say you're still open for it." Okuyasu said with a bark of laughter as Weiss choked a bit on her cappuccino, turning a very angry glare over to the scarred teen.

"I. Do NOT. Have foot fungus, Okuyasu." Weiss growled out from between her teeth as she glared at him. "But, yes, Yang's right. Aura can help shield us and can even paper over superficial damage, but stuff like her arm being torn off was better suited to Crazy Diamond…" A curious gaze came over Weiss as she looked over to Josuke. "Speaking of, Josuke, Crazy Diamond can fix anything right?"

"With limits." Josuke said, nonchalantly, as he took a drink of his cappuccino. "I already told you about how The Hand prevents that, but there are a few others." He said with a light shrug.

"Would cavities be among those?" Weiss asked, curious, as Josuke just shook his head. "Then why not fix Okuyasu's teeth? Seems like a bit of a cruel thing to just leave sit, even if it was his own fault."

"Because I asked him not to." Team RWBY's eyes went slightly wide as they all snapped their gazes over to Okuyasu, the scarred teen taking a drink from his coffee cup as he shrugged. "Like Weiss said, it's my own fault that I got them. I didn't take good care of myself, forgot to brush and so I got these cavities. If Josuke just fixed them then I'd keep messin' up like that because… well, I'm not smart enough to just learn from my mistakes by making them and then having them waved away. A little pain here and there will remind me to not mess up like that again."

It made a certain amount of sense, they all supposed. It sounded like a suitably Okuyasu-ish sentiment with an Okuyasu-ish solution. Even Josuke didn't seem to have particularly liked it, even if he had accepted Okuyasu's conclusion. Still.

"Okay, we need to talk about this Oku." Yang finally said as the scarred teen raised an eyebrow.

"About what?"

"About this weird… complex, I guess is the right word, you seem to have." Blake commented idly as Weiss nodded.

"Jaune does something similar in constantly putting himself down ,but we can understand that; he's not a terribly confident guy and keeps getting in his own way. I wish he showed that similar level of confidence whenever he thought about asking me out, but that seems to be the one place he has an overabundance of confidence." Weiss muttered, annoyed, as everyone at the table nodded in agreement. "But you? You casually put yourself down without a second thought, yet you don't even seem to break a sweat over it."

"Yeah, for all your put downs Okuyasu, you're still weirdly confident and sure of yourself." Ruby commented as she leaned forward. "It's just… weird. How do you even get to a spot like that?"

"Oh, I was brought up bein' taught that there was nothin' worse you could do to yourself or others than lie for the sake of it. You don't do anything by foolin' yourself or the people around you, so you just gotta be upfront about everything." The scarred teen said all this as if it was nothing, which had caused Weiss to click her tongue.

"To the point where you're insulting yourself and saying you're too stupid to learn your lesson without suffering for it? Is that how Jotaro taught you?" The thought itself seemed appalling and even more so because it seemed weird, even from their limited interactions with Jotaro in class, for the man to have passed down this sort of lesson.

"Oh no, Jotaro's never said one word like that to me." With that, Okuyasu finished off his cup of cappuccino as he set it aside. "I learned this from my brother, Keicho." The entire table went silent as surprised eyes drilled into Okuyasu. Even Josuke seemed a bit surprised as he set his cup of cappuccino aside.

"You… never mentioned you had a brother before, Okuyasu." Yang commented idly as the scarred huntsman shrugged.

"I don't bring him up too often. Not much of a point really." The way he had said this, and the slight deflation of Okuyasu's expression, had said a lot about 'why', even as the scarred teen seemed to roll with it. "But yeah, I picked all that up from my brother. He was only a couple years older than I was, so we were pretty close as far as siblings go." Yang and Ruby smiled slightly at that as Okuyasu scratched the back of his head, his brow thoroughly furrowed as he ground his teeth a bit.

"... Okuyasu, if you don't want to talk about this, we can just move on. It's fine." Blake mentioned off-handedly as she leaned back in her seat while Okuyasu just shook his head.

"Nah, it's not that. Baby face over here shared his… his big personal story." Okuyasu nearly stumbled and corrected himself, much to Josuke's silent appreciation. "And you all have shared a lot about your own situations… well, half of you anyway." Okuyasu pointed over to Weiss and Blake as he crossed his arms. "It's not that talking about this is uncomfortable… it just involved stuff that we shouldn't talk too much about, I don't think." At that the four huntresses all raised an eyebrow as they leaned forward slightly. Finally, it seemed Okuyasu had settled on a way to tell this story as he leaned back in his seat.

"Alright so… yeah, my brother and I were always close. We got even closer when… well. Crap." Okuyasu bit his lip for a moment before he shook his head. "You see… not everyone in The Frontier is on the same page." The seeming diversion caused a few eyebrows to raise, but no one interrupted as Okuyasu continued. "There are folks who're fine with throwing everything all of us have ever built if it means getting something they want, or something they think is more important than everyone they've ever known and loved and everything those people cared about…

"My dad was one of those kinds of people. When my mom died, my dad was ready to do absolutely anything to have her back… and work with anyone." Everyone watched as Okuyasu's expression, rather than shifting into a hurt look, twisted into a dark, angry frown. "The rat bastard… he lied to everyone. He lied to his own team, he lied to his students, he lied to everyone who could've possibly helped him… he lied to my brother and I too." Okuyasu's knuckles went slightly white as he tightened them into a fist. "He betrayed everyone and because of him… the people that the Stardust Crusaders went after were able to get all the arrows they'd ever need. It's his fault any of this is happening in the first place."

That… that had stunned all of Team RWBY. Okuyasu had been personally related to the root of all this? His own father had betrayed not just his homeland but all of Remnant? Yang, of all of them, recovered first and imagined her own father… imagined if he'd do such a thing, in his broken and depressed state, to get Summer Rose back.

She didn't like that she couldn't immediately answer that question with a no.

"He fucking kept lying right up until the end. He fed our enemies information on where Jotaro and the others would be heading and they suffered through everything they did because of him. My dad… my dad deserves to die." For everyone at that table, save for perhaps Josuke, that declaration had been absolutely mind-blowing. "After everything he did, The Frontier would've been well within their right to throw him into the sea and let the Grimm have him. The thing about crimes… is that when you keep doing stuff like that somehow, sometime, somewhere, it's going to come back and get you. Even a dumb bastard like me can figure that out.

"It didn't matter though… because in the end as Jotaro and the others would've figured it out, right before my brother and I… my dad became a monster."

"Okuyasu…" Ruby sniffled slightly as she looked at the scarred teen, a huge swath of sympathetic looks passing across the table as they all looked at him. Even Weiss, Hell, especially Weiss, was sympathetic to Okuyasu's story.

"Did he… hurt your brother and you? Did he force you both to stay quiet till the end? Is that what happened?" Weiss asked as Okuyasu just turned a curious gaze over to her, the hurt behind her light blue eyes evident. This story, for Weiss, had struck home and struck home hard. To think that even after everything he did, all the crimes he would've committed, that such a father could do something so terrible to his own children… Weiss knew all too well what that particular sting felt like.

"Oh. Weiss, no, I don't mean like that. I mean like a literal monster."

"... What?"

"Yeah, a literal monster. Like with black skin and white bones popping out and everything."

"It's true, I've seen it myself." Josuke commented idly as… a weirdly guilty look passed the pompadoured teen's face at that very moment.

"My father had let our enemies do whatever they wanted with him as part of the bargain and… no one knows how, but when they died, something in him triggered. It… changed him. Made him something less than human." Okuyasu shook his head as he stared down at the table. "I hate my father. I hate the things he did and I hate the countless betrayals he committed. But no one deserves that fate. No one deserves to be kept alive forever, not even human enough to know what they're doing or what they've lost." While everyone's shock had been apparent, they slowly accepted that this was another bit of Frontier weirdness.

"When everything was said and done… my brother was the one who took care of me from then on. We had people look after us, but he was the one who basically raised me from that point on." Okuyasu smiled a bit as he leaned back in his chair. "My brother promised me that he'd never end up like my dad and that he'd make damn sure I wouldn't either. He said he'd never lie to me and that if I ever lied to anyone, he'd kick my ass up and down Morioh's various streets. No matter how little the lie may have been, my brother always told the truth and, after a while, so did I… he said he never wanted to make me believe something that wasn't true and that he didn't want me to fool myself either. That knowing the truth, even if it was something bad like how stupid I was, was better than just making something up… better than lying to the people you care about or say you care about.

"In the end… I kept believing that. That the truth is better than a comfortable lie, especially if the lie is only going to hold the people you care about back. It's… it's my way of remembering my big bro." Okuyasu smiled as he looked up. "My big bro could be an asshole sometime, but he cared… in his own way. He wanted me to be the best person I could be… and knew that the truth was the only way someone with my thick head would ever improve."

"... Your brother sounds like he was a good man. A bit abrasive by the way you tell it, but a good man." It had been somewhat of a surprise to the table that Weiss hadn't tut-tutted Okuyasu's language, but the small smile that she had on her lips had eased that away. Thought for Weiss flew over to Winter, her own older sister. Winter could be very hard and very harsh. She would tell Weiss things that Weiss hadn't wanted to hear sometime… things that made her doubt herself.

However, Weiss knew that out of all of her family, that her sister was the only one who loved her. Unlike her father whose constant criticisms were meant to berate her into being a 'better daughter' to help him show off and her younger brother whose needle-like insults and prodding had been meant to weaken her resolve, Winter… she loved Weiss and meant good with every word and action of hers. It was the comfort she always took; Winter was the only family who would look out for her.

If this man, Keicho, had been even half the older sibling Winter was… then Weiss could easily see Okuyasu's admiration for him. And, if she were to be honest…

"It's a noble idea too. That being forthright and truthful with your own limitations is the best way for you to improve who you are and to be the best person you can. That kind of drive towards being better… it was admirable of your brother to take that path, after everything your father did." Okuyasu grinned as he nodded, the mood at the table slowly but surely easing back into its more casual demeanor.

"Thanks Weiss. You know, I have to imagine it'd be easy for you to follow the advice yourself. You'd be able to improve yourself in no time." Weiss actually smiled at that; a surprisingly nice thing for Okuyasu to have said all of a-

"After all, you only need to wash your feet a bit better to get rid of that foot fungus you got!"

"I DO NOT HAVE FOOT FUNGUS OKUYASU!"

"My, my, sounds like we're having quite the exciting time out here." Everyone turned to face Tonio and immediately Blake, Yang and Okuyasu's mouth went watering at the sight of his platter. Not only were beverages scattered about to refresh the group, but also six plates of pasta had been carefully balanced out amidst the tray. "I'd hate to interupt, but your primo piatto is best eaten hot… well, for most of you anyway." With that, Tonio set about scattering the plates amidst their respective owners and even Weiss and Josuke couldn't help but feel their hunger at the sights of their plates.

Blake had been served a spaghetti carbonara, with a scattering of whitebait amidst the plate and black truffles carefully sliced, diced and sprinkled on top. For Weiss a light balsamic, tomato-basil pasta, with chunks of rich, white chicken mixed in with the meal. Josuke had set before him a fiorentino ravioli, stuffed with mild mozzarella and topped off with the slightest amount of ground red pepper. Ruby's had been simpler, bucatini with marinara and quality ricotta, but obvious care had been taken with the dish. 'So as to try and not upset her stomach before the main course', so said Tonio. Yang's, by comparison, had far more kick; cavatelli with andouille, peppers, and tomatoes. The spicy heat practically emanated from the plate of pasta.

"Finally, for you signore, we have a favorite of mine; the harlot's spaghetti!"

An oddity for pasta; while the marinara and coloring seemed right and even the inclusion of some olives and other vegetables like sliced red pepper and cherry tomatoes, there was a definitively garlic aroma coming from the plate of pasta. What made all this odd was the fact that some cheese had been included into the dish, unusual for a garlic-based pasta.

After the rest of the table, save for Weiss and Josuke, finished giggling at the name of the pasta, Okuyasu leaned in to take a closer look. "So wait, this is red pepper right?"

"That's right, signore. The harlot's spaghetti uses a pasta sauce whose recipe stands as one of the oldest in all of Mistral, a recipe born out of my own hometown." A wistful, nostalgic smile crossed Tonio's lips as he looked down at the plate of pasta. "It's why it's a favorite of mine."

"Oh well… I really don't do so good with spicy food. I mean, I can't even eat the curry rice we sometimes get a hold of up in Morioh. It just doesn't sit well with my tongue." Despite himself, Tonio's previous delicious food and water enticed Okuyasu into at least having tried to eat the pasta. Yet as soon as his tongue so much as touched the spaghetti, he recoiled in pain. "Ah, shit, yeah, can't eat this." Okuyasu immediately reached for a glass of water and downed it incredibly quickly

"Oi, Okuyasu. If you can't eat spicy foods, then just don't." Everyone turned to look at Josuke and even Weiss seemed slightly stunned by the look that the pompadoured teen had given Tonio. Even more surprising had been the look Tonio had returned as he stared down at the young man. Before long, the Mistrali chef was all smiles again as he waved his hands.

"Oh, then don't worry signore. If you can't eat the pasta then I won't charge for it. My apologies. I'm sorry to say that the secondo piatto, the main dish, will take almost as long to make… and that I'll be putting a bit of a rush on the little signoras' dish." Ruby perked up as Tonio nodded to her before he turned to walk back to his kitchen. "However, I will say that my spaghetti is made so that even people who do not like spicy things can eat it, signore."

"Even if I don't like spicy things?" Okuyasu echoed, curious, as he attempted to eat the spaghetti again only to once more flinch in pain. "Jeez… I totally admit that Tonio is a talented chef and everything, I mean, definitely a genius… but this was a miss." Okuyasu grumbled, sounding oddly disappointed, as he took another drink of water.

"No… maybe you're lucky to not eat it Okuyasu." Josuke spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to him. No one had eaten much of their pasta yet on account of the slightly weird atmosphere at the table and now, even more so, as Josuke leaned forward conspiratorially. "I seriously don't like this you guys. I know you guys are fine with it… and Blake's only fine with it because she's enraptured with these fish dishes." Blake didn't even have the audacity to appear insulted as she had a bit of her pasta peeking out from between her lips.

"Come on Josuke, it really isn't that weird…" Yang offered up lamely as she took a bite of out her own pasta. "Like we said-"

"Yang what you and Blake said was ridiculous. It really is that weird, right Ruby?" The black and red haired team leader just shrugged again.

"Like I said, Tonio seems nice enough…"

"Yeah Josuke, you and Weiss are just being paranoid." Okuyasu, once again, attempted to lick the spaghetti, only to end up flinching away again.

"Look! I don't have any proof but with all the weird stuff happening, Blake's eyes and Yang's shoulder… I dunno, I think Tonio might be a Stand User." Everyone at the table flinched slightly as Josuke lobbed out this accusation, while Okuyasu just leaned in with a serious look on his face.

"You think so?" That serious look had been immediately demolished when, with another lick, Okuyasu flinched away from the pasta. "Agh! It's too spicy!"

"If it's too spicy then just stop licking it Okuyasu!" Weiss shouted as she slapped a hand to her forehead, getting a little bit irritated with the little repeating performance.

"Y-Yeah I know! I know it's too spicy! I know I won't like it… but… you know… I just… just want to keep licking this pasta sauce." Without another word and absolutely drenched in sweat from the spice of the food in front of him, Okuyasu plopped the spaghetti into his mouth, much to the amazement of the rest of the table.

"Okuyasu! Why are you eating it?!" Josuke asked, frustrated, as Okuyasu just shook his head.

"I know! I shouldn't be able to eat something this spicy… but…" At that, Okuyasu began to practically attack the spaghetti, eating fork fulls of it all at once. "Once I tasted it, I couldn't help myself! I just had to eat it! I was sucked in by the spiciness!"

"Okuyasu, stop eating it!" Blake, by this point, had even become a bit freaked out by the display in front of her a Okuyasu, even with Yang and Ruby attempting to hold him back, just kept attacking the plate in front of him.

"My stomach, it's opening up! It's as if the more I eat, the more I want to eat! IT'S SO GOOD!" Okuyasu declared with a delirious grin as he stood straight up, practically throwing Yang and Ruby off of him, as the rest of the table gawked.

"OKUYASU, YOU IDIOT!" Josuke and Weiss declared all at once. Suddenly, with little to no warning, Okuyasu's mouth practically exploded in a small shower of blood as his top left incisor shot out of his mouth like a rocket and firmly embedded itself into the table in front of everyone. "W-W-What? That's… that's my cavity! My rotten tooth just shot out!" With that Okuyasu's face contorted in pain as he slid his chair back, his hands reaching up for his jaw the bones in it popped and unhinged, forcing his lower jaw to extend out and away from his mouth. The sight of Okuyasu's face being so horribly contorted and in such pain had caused no small amount of discomfort for the rest of the table.

"Okuyasu!" Ruby called out, horrified, as light tears pricked at the corners of Okuyasu's eye.

"Shit, that's right… I had another cavity in my lower jaw…" The table practically heard the pressure build up in Okuyasu's jaw before, after a brief moment's hesitation, one of his molars rocketed out of his mouth in a geyser of blood as well, all eyes staring in shocked silence as the tooth hit the ceiling and lodged itself in there, nice and firm. That's when the next bit of horror started; Okuyasu screamed and screamed as he held onto his jaw, blood pouring out of gums and tears flowing freely from his eyes as the young man writhed in pain. Before everyone's eyes, a new molar and incisor began to grow in to replace the ones that had been fired out of Okuyasu's mouth, the teeth tearing through his gums at lightning fast speed as Okuyasu wailed and cried out in pain. The speed was utterly impossible on his own, but the fact that Okuyasu had grown replacement teeth out of nowhere had been what really sealed the audacity of the moment, especially for Ruby who had only a few years ago lost the last of her baby teeth.

In one moment, Okuyasu closed his mouth, his pained moans still heard from behind his lips. The next, he opened his mouth… into the brightest, most brilliant smile any of those gathered had ever seen. No blood, no excess saliva, no nothing as Okuyasu beamed a pearly white smile to all gathered.

"... Okay JoJo, maybe you and Weiss have a point." Yang finally relented as Josuke just sent a disbelieving glare her way.

"You think?!" Josuke practically shouted as he turned his glare down at the plate of pasta. "Alright, I don't know what this guy's plotting, but I know how I'm going to figure it out." Everyone at the table seemed ready for action, ready to figure out what exactly was going on. Josuke gave a dramatic pose, a stern expression on his face, as he summoned forth Crazy Diamond. "I'M GOING TO PUNCH THIS SPAGHETTI!"

"... Wait what?!"

" **DORA**!" True to Josuke's word, Crazy Diamond immediately sent one of its fists careening into the plate of spaghetti, shattering the dish and practically punching a hole through the table as its telltale yellow glow surrounded the table, the plate and the food on top of it.

"OKAY JOJO, FOR WHAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY DOING THAT WAS WAY TOO COOL!" Yang declared as the plate of pasta was slowly but surely 'fixed'. The hole in the table was quickly filled back in, the plate put back together and the pasta reverted back to its original ingredients. What the six teens saw once the process was done was chilling; little radish looking things with arms had secured themselves around the various plates of pasta, fangs filled their little mouths as they glared hatefully at everyone on the table. Soon enough these little Stands flew off from the spaghetti and back into the kitchen of the restaurant.

"T-That was a Stand!" Blake declared, almost shocked into disbelief, as Josuke nodded.

"Just as I thought. These health effects of his food weren't anything more than the work of his Stand. I don't know what Antonio Trussardi has planned, but we won't just let it sit." Everyone nodded as they got up from out of their seats and prepared to storm off towards Tonio's kitchen. The girls may have been without their weapons thanks to this having supposed to have been a casual day out, however, armed with even just their physical Aura and with The Hand and Crazy Diamond at the ready, they knew they'd have the upperhand over one Stand User. However, just as they were about to, Ruby suddenly collapsed down onto her knees, her arms wrapped around her midsection as her face went pale.

"RUBY!" Yang cried out, utterly distraught, as she placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders.

"I… I don't know… I just… feel like something hit my stomach all of a sudden. I feel like I'm going to die…" Without even a moment's hesitation, Yang's eyes flared red as she ground her teeth together.

"TRUSSARDI, I'M COMING TO KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!" With that, Yang bolted for the kitchen as, in a hurry, the non-incapacitated members of Team RWBY, Josuke and Okuyasu immediately followed after her, not wanting to see Yang run into another trap. As the group of five teens made it to the main kitchen, they saw scattered around various stoves and ovens a variety of meats being prepared; likely their own dishes. Only one dish had seemingly been all the way finished and set aside; a plate of lamb meat dressed in what looked to be applesauce.

"Where is that fucking bastard, I'm going to… shit… I fucking ran in without a plan…" Yang growled to herself as the others caught up, the blonde fighter doing her best to rein herself in as her eyes reverted back to lilac.

"It's okay Yang, it's Ruby. If she were any of our sister's we'd have reacted the same way." Blake pat Yang on the shoulder as her partner nodded stiffly, Josuke just raising his hand for everyone to follow him, slowly and carefully. Soon enough, the sounds of bones being gnawed on and a fork hitting a plate repeatedly drew the gang of teens into a back room… and what they saw there just caused them all to blanch slightly.

A little, cute puppy in a cage was eating a dish not at all dissimilar to the one they had seen prepared and laid out, Tonio standing over the puppy with… a crazed look in his eyes. At a nearby table, Virgina was calmly eating a plate of food herself, a more peaceful expression on her face even as she seemed to brace herself for something inevitable. Tonio had been whispering something to the dog… though what he had been saying at the moment was immediately overshadowed by what happened next.

The dog had stopped eating the lamb, had shaken a couple times… and then, without warning, the dog's innards had exploded out of its mouth.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Weiss hadnd't even bothered to close her mouth as the expletive flew from her lips, the rest of the group in just as much shock as she had been as the dog's intestines just boiled out of its mouth along with a gushing waterfall of blood. Even Blake, who hadn't particularly liked dogs one bit, seemed utterly horrified at the scene laid out before her.

Virgina had immediately turned in her seat, a surprised look on her face as she stared back at the teens in horror. "Oh no! You all weren't supposed to be back here, you weren't…" Her words died on her lips as, without warning, black lumps and viscous, black fluid began to force their way out of Virgina's mouth, blood pooling out of her eyes as the woman's face was contorted in a horrific show of pain. All at once, Tonio turned to face the gathering of huntsmen and huntresses, a hateful glare in his eyes as he brandished a knife.

"What are you all doing back here… YOU SAW DIDN'T YOU?" With that, Tonio through his chopping knife with all the skill of a professional knife juggler as the improvised weapon embedded itself in the wooden support around the door, just inches away from Josuke's own face. Virgina and the puppy's conditions continued to take horrific turns for the worse as, soon enough, it looked as though Virgina's entire face had split open, a huge, convulsing mass of black tar and lumpy flesh bursting forth as the dog's guts exploded out from its torso. "YOU CAME IN HERE TO SPY ON ME, DIDN'T YOU?! YOU ALL WILL PAY FOR THIS, PREPARE YOURSELVES!"

"YOU'RE SPOUTING THAT KIND OF BULLSHIT WHEN YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS SHIT TO PEOPLE?! THAT'S OUR LINE YOU ASSHOLE!" Okuyasu roared back as Auras flared to life around all five huntsmen and huntresses. "What the fuck are you doing to people with your cooking you rotten bastard?!" Before the situation could heat up even more, before anything could happen, the five hunters had been distracted by a new sound… eating.

They all turned to look over their shoulder and, to their horror, Ruby had rushed into the kitchen and began tearing away at the main dish laid out on the tray.

"RUBY?! WHY ARE YOU EATING?!" Yang screamed out in horror as she looked back at her younger sister who had just continued to tear away at the plate of food.

"I-I-I don't know! My tummy hurts so bad but I have to eat this! Everytime I take a bite out of any of this food, anytime I feel the taste hit my tongue, I can't help but feel so happy! I… I NEVER THOUGHT SOMETHING LIKE THIS COULD EXIST IN THE WORLD! SOMETHING MORE DELICIOUS THAN COOKIES!"

"Ruby!" Everyone had immediately turned on their heels and away from Tonio as they ran back to try to stop Ruby from continuing to eat, but to no avail.

"It just makes me so happy! So happy I feel like I'll never be able to stop! IT'S SO GOOD!" Ruby declared, tears streaming down from her silver eyes as she reared back and declared this to the heavens. Whereupon her corset burst open, along with her stomach, as her entrails spilled out from the open cavity of her torso and blood shot out of her mouth. "M-M-My guts?" Everyone was spellbound, unable to look away as the fifteen year old girl's guts spilled out right in front of her eyes, blood splattering across the floor in heavy heaps as, all at once, a geyser of blood and gore sprang forth from Ruby's mouth like a fountain.

"RUBY, OH MY GOD, RUBY!" Tears poured out from Yang's red eyes as she screamed out after her sister, fury and sorrow overtaking her all at once as she watched the horrific display go on in front of her. With that, Yang's eyes went wide in rage, her teeth under threat of shattering as she ground them together, as she and the others turned to face Tonio with hatred burning in their eyes. "YOU BASTARD, I'LL KILL YOU!"

"I'LL MAKE YOU ALL PAY FOR THIS!" The five teens had been ready for a brawl, ready for a fight to break loose as they sought to get back at Tonio for whatever he had done to Ruby, for whatever he planned to do to the rest of Vale…

When they had been presented with not a weapon in Tonio's hand but a brick of medicinal soap… well, to say that they were surprised would've been a massive understatement. "Wash your hands with soap right now!"

"... Huh?!"

"It's unforgivable! To enter a chef's kitchen without his permission is a horrific crime! The kitchen must stay clean!" With that, Tonio shoved the bar of medicinal soap into Yang's hands, the blonde's still red eyes blinking in disbelief.

"You're… you're telling us to wash our hands?" She asked, utterly baffled, before the enraged look returned to her features. "Fuck that! After what you did to my sister, I won't-"

"Yang!"

"Ruby?!"

The entire group turned to see that Ruby Rose had made… a complete and total recovery. Even her corset had somehow stitched itself back together as the young girl bat her stomach lightly, a bright grin on her face.

"My stomach feels a lot better! I feel really full too, which is what makes it even crazier; normally this much food would just be killing me right now!" With that, Ruby Rose stood straight up, threw her arms into the air, and jumped in a bit of celebration.

"MY DIARRHEA TUMMY'S ALL BETTER!"

As Ruby Rose said this, the puppy barked happily from its cage and Virgina wheeled out in her wheelchair, no sign of any of the harm that had befallen her save for a bit of black gunk she wiped away with a washcloth. After a moment, Ruby realized what she had just declared to everyone in the room and, in one fell swoop, quickly pulled up her hood to cover her blushing face.

Everyone else had only one reaction.

"WHAT?!"

* * *

"Holy crap, so you unlocked your Stand on your own?"

After everything had been cleared up in the backroom, Tonio had been more than understanding of the group's reactions to the… effects of his Stand and its power. Despite their desire to beat him into a pile of tar, Tonio had seemingly taken more offense to the fact that they had come into his kitchen without having washed their hands than he had to the threat of bodily harm. Between the five of them, Ruby having been excused because she hadn't sullied his kitchen, they had managed to quickly clean up Tonio's kitchen as compensation which, though it had led to them missing out on their own main courses, easily allowed them to finish up the meal for that day with dessert.

"Indeed I did. I spent many years traveling around Mistral, my goodness, all of Remnant improving my ability to cook. It was my passion and… well, along the way, I managed to somehow surface Pearl Jam." The little radish-like Stands formed on Tonio's shoulders as he sat besides Virgina and spun his tale for the youngsters, Josuke and Okuyasu seeming greatly impressed.

"That's… pretty rare. Even Avdol, who was considered some kind of prodigy for unlocking his Stand through his own personal meditations outside of The Frontier, hadn't pulled off what you described. To unlock your Stand just through sheer passion… that's a feat in and of itself." Josuke remarked as he bit into a cannoli offered to him by Tonio. Ruby had a little cookie baked for her, Yang's sweet tooth had been settled with some gelato, something also handed out to Blake, while Weiss and Okuyasu got to enjoy some flan.

All in all, they were all pretty satisfied with their desserts.

"Thank you, signore. In truth, I was quite happy once I pieced together how Pearl Jam worked… you see, part of the reason why I did all of this was that I hoped that I could find a way to help Virgina here through my cooking." Tonio reached out a hand to grasp Virgina's as the young woman smiled lovingly at Tonio. "You see… she has a tumor in her head. I hoped that through my cooking and then through my Stand I could heal her… but it hasn't happened yet. My skills yet require more refinement and I require yet fresher ingredients. I can manage her condition, keep it from getting worse, but I'm afraid it's still beyond my power to actually rid my darling of her condition." Virgina lightly pat at Tonio's hand, sympathetic looks earned from all gathered, as Ruby perked up.

"Hey, Josuke! Why don't you have Crazy Diamond just fix Virgina up! That'd be a great way to finish repaying him for threatening to beat him up!" Ruby turned her excited gaze over to Josuke, ready to see the pompadoured team leader break out his Stand and get to working more miracle. Tonio and Virgina each perked up, the idea that another Stand User could exist who could fix her condition having brought some manner of hope to the pair.

Yet, as everyone at the table turned to look, what they saw wasn't the ready and eager young man, ready to do his job as a huntsman, but a hesitant teen, eyes slightly downcast as Okuyasu frowned. When Josuke saw the look on Tonio's and Virgina's faces, he frowned slightly.

"Josuke…"

"It's alright Okuyasu, I should at least give it a shot right." With a steadying breath Josuke pushed himself up out of his seat and walked on over to Virgina. "Stay still, alright? Won't hurt a bit." Virgina just nodded as she closed her eyes. A golden Aura surrounded Josuke as the young man reached his hands forward and placed them on either side of the young Mistrali woman's head. After a few moments of this, Josuke removed his hands and looked over to Tonio for confirmation. For a brief, wonderful moment hope flared in Tonio's eyes as he reached his hands forward to take his beloved's and scanned them over, looking for the signs.

"... Signore, I'm afraid it didn't work. The tumor is still there."

"... What?"

The little bit of hope that Tonio had worked up passed as he sighed and placed Virgina's hands on the table, the sight having caused Josuke to frown deeply as he scratched at the back of his head.

"I'm sorry… I didn't want to bring it up because… Crazy Diamond doesn't seem to be able to fix stuff like this. I didn't want to give you false hope." The four members of Team RWBY had been absolutely blown away. The very idea of Crazy Diamond not being able to fix something not destroyed by something like The Hand had been absolutely mind-boggling. Yes, they knew that non-physical things like the soul, Aura and the mind were beyond its realm but, well, they'd assumed that anything physical…

"How can Crazy Diamond not fix a tumor?" Blake asked, immediately having regretted the way she said her question. The slightly demanding edge to her question, the need to know, seemed to cause Josuke to frown further as he sighed.

"Crazy Diamond works by either putting things back together or breaking things down into lower or… I guess previous forms of themselves. It can do a lot of things with them; Hell, I can even bounce literal energy off of my Stand and force it to return to its source. But… Crazy Diamond can't change 'what' a thing is. I can make a lump of coal a diamond, but I can't change carbon into iron." Josuke looked down at VIrgina. "The cells in her head are working as they think they should be. They aren't 'broken', they don't need to be 'fixed'... they're working as they're intended. Metastasizing, growing, killing nearby cells. I can fix the damage they cause but… well… I can't change them back into normal cells because this is what they are now."

"How can you be so sure about this?" Weiss asked, deeply curious, as Okuyasu just frowned and shook his head.

"Because… because this is the reason why he can't Fix my dad, no matter how many times he might've tried."

"It's also why I can't make a corpse back into a living thing. There's something fundamentally different between being dead and being alive, centering around Aura and the Soul. Because I can't do anything with the latter to and because I can't change the fundamental nature of being dead… I can't bring the dead back to life."

Dead silence. The way Josuke spoke about all this, the way Okuyasu had spoken… it was clear this wasn't a one time thing. A mistake or misstep that had cost Josuke only once or twice. This was a failure of his Stand that had frustrated him time and time again in his life… and it'd just happened yet again, when he hadn't been the one to try and face up to it.

"Josuke…" Yang began, slightly dumbfounded, before Josuke turned back, a slightly sad grin on his face.

"Having patience sucks. It's cliched and terrible advice. Waiting for the opportunity to do what you know you're supposed to do, to prove that you can… well, I hate it too." Josuke shrugged as he walked back over to his seat. "But it's advice that's gotten me through stuff like this. Another chance to change someone's life, to save them, is always just around the corner. Just got to wait for it and act on it when I have that chance. Otherwise, I really did fail every other time." Yang's lilac eyes blinked a few times before they lit up in realization, a slight grin crossing her lips as she nodded.

"... Signore." Josuke looked over to Tonio and Virgina and had been genuinely surprised when he was met with two, friendly grins. "You may not have fixed her… but you did try. You had no reason to, but you did try to fix my beloved. That is an act of kindness I don't think you should be overlooking here. It's not often that a perfect stranger who thinks you tried to kill him and his friends drops his own guard and tries to save someone you care about." Tonio bows his head, a gesture followed by Virgina.

"For what it's worth, we'll always have a table open for you and your friends."

Despite everything that happened, despite the hectic nature of the encounter with Tonio Trussardi… it was heartening for the group of hunters. To have met a Stand User they could rely on, that they could count on as a good person. To be thanked, even if Josuke hadn't felt like he deserved it. To have a new friend to add to their list.

"Well thank you Tonio… next time I hope I actually get to eat your entire meal. What I did get was delicious." Josuke said with a grin as he offered up his cup of cappuccino. By then, everyone had finished their desserts and, after having paid for the food himself, Josuke yawned. "You know, I know we wanted to keep going after this but-"

"No way."

"Out of the question."

"I'm fuckin' beat."

"Yeah seriously I need to sleep."

"Noooo thank you."

"I agree." Josuke smiled along with his friends as they all seemed to have been thoroughly worn down by the experience at Tonio's. "Next time I think we'll be ready for Tonio's but for now, I'm just ready to head back to Beacon." With that, everyone stood up out of their seat ready to mozy on out of the restaurant. As everyone got ready to leave, Weiss paused and tapped her chin.

"You all go on ahead, I think I'll give our good chef a tip for having been so understanding of our… earlier outburst." Everyone looked to the other and shrugged as they waved Weiss off, exciting the store as Weiss just stood there and waited for them all to step outside. Once they were out of sight, Weiss immediately tugged off her right boot and peeled off the sock she had underneath, at which point a giddy smile formed across Weiss' lips as she hopped in place.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Weiss quickly pulled out her Lien card and swiped it into a nearby reader for Tonio as she slipped her sock and boot back on. "The flan was really good, thank you so much!" Tonio just smiled and escorted Weiss outside where she rejoined the rest of her friends.

"Thank you all for coming to the Trattoria Trussardi. I hope you all have a wonderful evening and please, be mindful of your healths. **Grazie**!"

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Stand Master: Antonio 'Tonio' Trussardi**

 **Stand Name: [Pearl Jam]**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: C**

 **Range: B**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: E**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Healing via Ingestion: Pearl Jam has the ability to cure ailments through the ingestion of a specific dish. The limits of this ability are unknown though it can heal incurable illnesses provided the right ingredients are involved.**

 **After Tonio diagnoticizes a specific ailment through palm reading, he prepares a high-class dish and in the process infuses Pearl Jam in it. It is ambiguous whether Pearl Jam influences the eater's perception of the dish or not. However anyone who has tasted a dish of his acknowledged that it was delicious.**

 **Once inside the body, Pearl Jam uses the nutrient contained in the meal and the curative properties of the ingredients to cure whatever ailment is targeted by triggering physiological processes such as tear excretion or tooth growth of unnatural intensity or speed, or forcibly ejecting whatever organ is ill while replacing them such as opening up one's belly for a short while in order to eject intestines. The customer's body then comes back to normal as if nothing had happened, but with the ailment now completely cured. It is notable that a specific dish is compatible with a specific ailment, meaning the eater may be served a dish he is unwilling to eat and inversely an incompatible eater won't be cured.**

 **There is some implication that the quality of the food and ingredients also affects how quickly and how strong the healing ability of his Stand is.**

* * *

 **So the Josuke thing; in canon, there's no reason to suspect that Josuke wouldn't try to fix either Okuyasu's dad or Virgina if given the chance, so the only thing we can assume is that there's some canonical reason why Josuke can't fix them. From what we see in the series, Josuke doesn't seem to be able to create new things himself, thus why he can't fix the damage The Hand causes. He just fixes what's available to him. This even works going into cases like Angelo or Mysterioso. He isn't necessarily changing them into new things, but he's encapsulating them/fusing them with things in the immediate environment. This is basically me trying to reason out a semi-good limitation to Josuke's fixing ability based on what we see in canon.**

 **Secondly, yes, Tonio himself might not be seen so much as the star of this chapter. Because the written word lacks the visual element, a lot about what made Tonio's chapters and episode work is lost. I had to make up for it with dialogue, so there was a lot more talking between the characters. I used this opportunity as a chance to both pay off earlier set ups and to help set up future character arcs. Those of you with keen eyes might see the seeds I'm setting. For others, well, you'll see what I'm angling at.**

 **Finally, yeah, Keicho and the Nijimura family have a slightly different background in this universe than they do in the canon one, owing to the fact that they're brought up in Morioh, know about Dio and are far more personally intimate with the details of all this shit. The town also sees them as far more sympathetic figures. This is why, in this timeline, Okuyasu's father ends up kind of becoming more of the villain in their scenario, whereas Keicho is looked upon with some sympathy… up to a point. He's still an asshole.**

 **These past few chapters have been rather relaxing to write, and the Dance Arc looks to mostly continue that trend. A nice little trough before we kick into high gear. See you all in five days and have a wonderful week.**


	25. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 1)

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, The Week of The Dance

"Gotta say, Mercury is a bit of a wimp. Went into that fight seeming primed and ready to go and then he backed out as soon as Pyrrha started to show her stuff. Maybe figured he couldn't do nearly as well against Pyrrha as Josuke a bit too late, but still, what a pansy." Okuyasu commented dryly as he took a bite out of some of the dining hall food. "You know, now that we've had Tonio's, this food doesn't seem nearly as great."

"Sadly, I think Okuyasu's right… not on the Mercury part though. Tonio may have spoiled our palettes…" Weiss readily agreed as she took her own bite.

"Really? You don't think it was really friggin' cowardly of him to just drop out of a fight he challenged Pyrrha too?" The scarred teen asked as he leaned forward against the table. Weiss blinked a couple times before she looked off to the side.

"Well, now I didn't say that… but it's a rude thing to say out in the open Okuyasu." The Nijimura just cackled a bit as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Who the Hell cares if it's rude to say if it's true." The rest of the table had been with Weiss on uncomfortably looking from side to side; no one had really disagreed with Okuyasu's assessment, Mercury's behavior had been… oddly cowardly for such a seemingly confident guy. However, everyone had agreed with Weiss about it having been rude to say out loud..

The past couple weeks had been almost as peaceful as those that had come before them. Repeated trips to the City of Vale to hang out and shop or to eat at Tonio's had been indulged, this time involving the entire group, as the circle of friends just decided to use this down time to quietly rest and relax, especially with the big dance coming up. Team RWBY in particular had valued the downtime, as they had been the team selected, out of all the others, to help organize the dance. Weiss and Yang had been excited about it, though for completely different reasons, while Ruby herself had seemed a bit put off by the idea of organizing such a huge social event.

Blake… well, Blake stood out amongst Team RWBY, and not because her attitude had been so diametrically opposed to their aims or because she'd avoided the various relaxing activities the team took part in. For all intents and purposes, Blake had done her absolute best to be with her friends and Team, to be a part of their lives…

It had just become readily apparent to anyone paying even the most remote bit of attention that Blake was doing that on top of working around the clock, not just on schoolwork but also on researching things about Torchwick, the Stand Users and The White Fang. It was practically an around the clock affair for Blake. She'd wake up after what little bit of sleep she'd actually have managed to get, immediately set about researching on her Scroll while everyone else got ready, go to class, talk with everyone during meals, use the little break times in between spots to do more research, hang out with everyone and then spend most of the night that the others spent sleeping doing more of her research… no matter how many times Team RWBY had tried to get her to calm down and get some sleep.

It had become increasingly hard to deal with because, on the one hand, Blake was absolutely ruining her health; even repeated visits to Tonio had stopped having as much of an effect because she was just running her body ragged. It was clear that this was having an effect on her physically… but it was hard to bring up because, well…

"I dunno, maybe Okuyasu has a point. After all, Oku here's grown up under that philosophy and I'd say he's turned out pretty alright." Blake offered with a tired nod as she plopped a little bit of food into her mouth, the scarred teen grinning widely as he waved a hand towards Blake.

"There ya go, Blake agrees with me, and she's the smart one out of us… except maybe Josuke." Blake shook her head slightly as she cocked an eyebrow over Okuyasu's way.

"I take back all the nice things I just said Okuyasu." The scarred teen, and much of the rest of the table, couldn't help but grin, even as worried as many of them were. Blake hadn't merely hung out with them out of seeming obligation; she had kept up her sarcastic, dry humor and had been friendly the entire time. She, at least seemingly, enjoyed what time was spent with the rest of them and her team… but it was clear that it, and everything else she had done, had taken a toll.

It was hard to confront someone about a problem when they hadn't let it get in the way of your relationship with them.

"Hey there Blake." Sun Wukong walked up to Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO's usual table and slid in the seat next to Blake, the black haired faunus smiling distantly as she turned her exhausted gaze over to Sun.

"Hey there Sun… still got those hoops I see." A slight grin quirked on the edge of her lips as Sun just grinned.

"Yeah, gotta say, took me a little bit of time to get used to them but, you know, I really dig 'em." Sun flicked at the earrings he'd gotten just weeks before as Blake just tiredly nodded. "So… uh, anyway, Blake. I was thinkin'..." Sun coughed into his fist slightly, his body language suddenly tense as he tried his level best to appear casual… a moot point, as his own tail, practically stiff as a board as it curled up, betrayed his nerves. "I mean, I hear there's this dance this weekend… I know it sounds pretty lame but, well, you know, I was thinkin'... you and me, maybe not as lame?"

"Sure, sounds like fun."

"I mean, you know, the dance, this… wait, what?" Sun seemed surprised as Blake just shrugged her shoulders.

"It sounds like fun. I'll go with you." Before Sun could jump up in celebration, a loud yawn from Blake interrupted the scene as she shook her head slightly.

"... Blake, maybe you should go ahead and head back to the dorm, get some sleep." Yang advised, her lilac eyes narrowed slightly in concern as Blake nodded.

"It sounds like a nice idea… I'll see about it. Maybe five minutes here wouldn't be so bad." With that, Blake sat up from her seat and, though she stumbled slightly, wandered off. "I'll see you all later, Sun we can talk about the dance later."

"Yeah, okay, sounds good." Sun said, though his voice had been somewhat distant as he watched Blake wander off. Eventually, the blond haired faunus turned his attention to the rest of the table, a slight grimace on his face. "Think she's actually going to go and get some sleep?"

"She's probably going to try… but then she'll probably end up just popping open her Scroll and doing more research." Ruby slammed her head on the table slightly before she rubbed her forehead in. "I swear, this would be so much easier if she was actively fighting us on all of this…" Sun blinked a few times as he tilted his head to the side, where Weiss then stepped in to explain.

"So obviously, Blake's been wearing herself down doing a lot of this off-research on The White Fang and Torchwick. Near constant, hasn't been stopping… well, hasn't been stopping unless there's something going on involving us. Class, lunch, hanging out… but it's almost as if she's been trying to make up for lost time in those places by taking it out of her sleep. The end result is just that she's been running herself ragged.

"Thing is… she isn't fighting us on any of this. She isn't annoyed when we all hang out and she doesn't seem distracted by anything else than how tired she is… she really does throw herself into everything we're doing." Weiss said as she crossed her arms, at which point Yang just nodded.

"She hasn't even been biting back when we've asked her to get more sleep. She's… compliant, but she just doesn't follow through. It's… making this kind of hard to figure out." Yang sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair, while Josuke just blinked a couple times.

"Have you guys just tried hanging out around the dorms and doing team stuff there? See if you can't… I hesitate to use this word, but trick her into getting some rest?" Ruby nodded from her position against the table as she turned her head to face the pompadoured teen.

"Yeah; rather than go out and do stuff, we have tried just sitting around the dorm, doing some reading or studying together. Stuff that might help her relax. But… she just gets kinda fidgety. She doesn't slip off to sleep and by the time most of the rest of us do, we'll find out she spent the next several hours after just doing research before catching a little bit of sleep."

"That can't be good for her." Jaune threw in as the rest of Team RWBY nodded solemnly.

"She's been going to Tonio's so that's been a stopgap measure, but even he's saying that she's pushing herself way too hard. Even her Aura and his Pearl Jam will only be able to keep her up for so much longer if she keeps going at this pace."

"So she's not fighting you guys on your concerns, still trying to do school work and be part of the team but she's still working herself to the bone on everything else…" Koichi muttered slightly as he took a bite out of his food. "That does sound like it's hard to work around." Yang nodded as she ran a hand through her hair.

"There's something wrong, something eating her, and… I dunno, I think I might know what it is but… it doesn't line up. Nothing lines up with how she's acting. She's way too pleasant for her to be pushing up away and she's not… doing this for our approval, I don't think?" Yang growled in slight frustration as she banged her head on the table. "I swear, I thought arranging for the dance would be the most frustrating thing we'd have to deal with all week." Ruby and Yang, side by side on the table, just sighed as Nora blinked.

"Wait, you guys got dance duties? I thought Team CFVY were supposed to be on top of that." The bubbly bomber popped some food in her mouth as she tilted her head to the side as Weiss shook her head.

"Team CFVY's away mission's been unexpectedly delayed a few times now so they won't be able to make it back. Ozpin informed us just yesterday that we'd be the ones to help set up for the dance…" Pyrrha looked up a bit sadly as her green eyes locked with Weiss'.

"I'm guessing Blake hasn't turned down helping." The Schnee Heiress just shook her head.

"Nope, she's ready to… which stinks because that's just going to exhaust her more." The white haired huntress just sighed exasperatedly as she shook her head. "I swear, how could someone be so difficult by acting completely not difficult? That sentence doesn't even make any sense yet here we are!" Weiss slapped her forehead slightly as Ren just shrugged.

"You guys try asking her what's wrong? Or telling her that you're really worried about her? Rather than being indirect?" Weiss just sighed as she looked up and nodded at Okuyasu.

"Trust me, after last time that was one of the first things I did. I sat her down, talked to her… and she said that nothing is wrong in specific. There's no threat, there's no sign of Adam, there's not even anything directly pressing. She just… wants to do this. She says it's 'all her' and that's it… and she's not lying either, as far as I can tell." Weiss placed her head in her hand as she looked down to the side, Ruby having solemnly nodded in agreement.

"And when we try to tell her how worried we are… she doesn't bite back or tell us we're wrong to worry. She… she looks ashamed. Disappointed. Not even at us… it's like she's disappointed in herself. She promises to try better and…" The silver eyed huntress shakes her head as she pounds it back into the table.

"... And she really means it." Yang finished for her baby sister as she rubbed her temples. "I just… I just really don't get it. If I had any idea what was wrong I might be able to talk to her but as it stands, I'd be taking a shot in the dark. Blake knows she's not helping herself but… I dunno, it's like she can't help herself or something. I've asked Tonio if it's some kind of Stand but he's said he hasn't seen a sign of it in all his palm readings." At that, Ren just shrugged his shoulders.

"You never know what can guide people towards behaving certain ways." The calm advice from the magenta eyed young man was quickly followed up him taking a long sip of his cup of tea. "Sometimes… problems do just spring from ourselves. Problems that we or others might have a hard time understanding, especially if we don't share with one and other the experiences that have shaped us… the experiences that might compel us towards otherwise very foolish action." The advice sounded surprisingly sage and wise, even for Ren. A far off look had been in Ren's magenta eyes as he recalled the fatherly tone of Muhammad Avdol whom had spoken these very words to him following Polnareff's conflicts with the Stardust Crusaders… before they never saw Avdol again.

"Yeah. Blake's been through a lot… then again that's no surprise, that's pretty much true of everyone here." Nora snorted slightly as she raised a hand. "Honestly, the number of people between us that we could consider well-adjusted human beings and faunus could probably be counted on one hand." Nearly everyone at the table seemed to immediately nod in agreement with the bubbly bomber as Jaune, Ruby, Sun and Koichi frowned slightly.

"What are you guys talking about?" At that, Yang barked out a sharp laugh as she pointed around but, seemingly unnoticed by either herself, the rest of the table or her target, had included Pyrrha into the count despite the redhead having not spoken up..

"Well there we go, there's our five right there."

"Anyway… I guess we can look at the bright side." Sun said with a shrug as he stood up, a slight grin on his face. "Blake isn't pushing anyone away, so it's not like we're short on chances to try to help her out. Think I'll go ahead and head on off myself. My team pretty much egged me on to get off my tail and ask her out, gotta tell 'em that things have worked out. I'll talk to you all later."

"Later Sun." Everyone had nodded and waved the monkey faunus off as he departed.

"He isn't wrong, Blake is doing her best to stick with us all, so there's no reason to get completely down in the dumps." Ruby said as she lifted her head off the desk, a series of nods having spread across the table as everyone had agreed with her.

"Yeah, just gotta hope that we can get her to get some sleep before the dance. I'd hate for that big night to kind of slip right past her because she was too sleep deprived to enjoy it." Yang said with a small smile… though the reaction at the table was a little more mixed as this particular topic had been brought up. "Oh what, don't tell me that you all are gettin' antsy about the dance?"

"Oh yeah, big gathering with a bunch of people where I'll have to dress fancy and wear lady stilts. How am I not just bursting with excitement over this…" Ruby spoke disparagingly as she shook her head, as Weiss and Yang just laughed a bit.

"Trust us Ruby, it isn't that hard." Ruby turned to her sister, having outright ignored Weiss, as her silver eyes drilled into Yang's.

"I've never seen you wear heels before, you should be in my boat!" Yang just shrugged as the lilac eyed teen grinned at her baby sister.

"Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean I haven't had practice Rubes. Clearly something you should've kept in mind there little sis." Nora groaned slightly as she set her forehead on the table.

"Jeez, I'm gonna have to wear heels too… that's gonna suck so hard." Nora ineffectual kicked her legs underneath the table as if to emphasize that point, though most everyone ignored it.

"Geez, we're gonna have to wear suits aren't we? Gonna be weird hoppin' out of our uniforms for somethin' like that." Okuyasu groused slightly as Josuke nodded along with him, though Koichi had looked decidedly less put off by the idea of getting out of his uniform for an evening.

"Won't be allowed to wear our pins either I don't think." Josuke muttered idly as he fiddled with his peace sign pin, a slight chortle breaking out across the table as Yang leaned forward.

"I mean, it's not like suits are all that different from wearing your uniforms all the time. Kinda similar levels of formality if you ask me…" At that, a smile stretched across Yang's face as she pointed at the three. "Or, you could say… UNIFORMALITY!"

"Hahaha! I get it!" Okuyasu high-fived Yang quickly as everyone at this point just resorted to tuning the two out. Honestly, their efforts to try to stop this had failed and now they, and even Josuke and Koichi, had resorted to the tried and true tactic of just pretending that they hadn't heard the terrible pun in the first place.

"I'm more curious about whether or not you guys have any good dance moves to show off." Jaune mentioned slightly as he leaned against his arm. "My sisters helped me pick up a few here and there," Most had taken this as Jaune overstating it for the sake of showing off to Weiss, but no one had immediately challenged him, "-but the way you guys talk about Morioh it doesn't sound like you have much of an entertainment or night scene for that kind of stuff."

"I mean, just because we don't have clubs and stuff doesn't mean people don't dance. Pretty easy to just dance to have fun if you're really feeling like it." The pompadoured team leader spoke with a shrug as he looked across the table. "Me personally, I'm alright at dancing I guess. Not great but I've done a little…" Dancing was like posing while moving as far as Josuke had been concerned. However, while Josuke had spent many, many an hour in front of his mirror posing to see if he looked good with his hair, he hadn't exactly managed to translate a lot of that into learning how to dance. His mom had shown him some moves for if he'd ever ended up finding… well, 'true love' as he liked to put it, but he wasn't amazing.

"My mom and sisters helped teach me too, so I'm pretty alright." Koichi admitted with a smile, though one he quickly pulled back on as he laughed. "Though that probably doesn't lend itself to me looking 'cool' if that's what you mean." Everyone turned to Okuyasu expectantly as the scarred teen just glanced around.

"Yeah, less said about me and my skills the better." Everyone had chuckled slightly as they got exactly what Okuyasu meant. Really, everyone else besides Ruby herself seemed to have a pretty okay grasp on dancing and seemed otherwise confident in their abilities. That this seemed to be another thing that Team JOJO were going to experience for the first time had been yet another treat for the Four Kingdom Hunters.

"Man… to think, this is going to be your first big social dance party. That's gotta be a little exciting for you guys." Jaune said with some awkwardness himself as the three members of Team JOJO just looked at each other.

"... You know, I guess it is." Josuke said with a grin as he stretched back. "We've been getting to see a lot of the Four Kingdoms since we got here, but new stuff is still new." Okuyasu and Koichi nodded in agreement while the rest of the table just nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you guys'll have a great time. There'll be punch and loud music and some good food… if we can arrange all of that." The members of Team RWBY all looked amongst themselves sheepishly after Yang had spoken up, before Yang just grinned mischievously. "And even if you guys can't dance too well, all you have to do to keep from gettin' too ribbed by anyone is to grab yourselves some dates."

"... Pardon?" Koichi and Josuke had asked, nearly simultaneously, as they stared wide-eyed at Yang. Ruby had elbowed her sister in the ribs, having heard the teasing tone… Okuyasu, on the other hand, had a far stronger reaction.

"BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The scarred teen had just belted out a belly laugh as he wiped a tear from his eye, the rest of the table having gone a bit wide-eyed at him as he grinned at all of them. "Nah, don't count on it. We might look like a group of studs but trust me, Koichi, myself and baby face don't exactly got good odds with that kind of stuff." Okuyasu just shook his head as he pointed over at Jaune and Ren. "Those two have better odds at gettin' themselves some dates for the dance than the three of us." At that, Ren perked up an eyebrow as Okuyasu spoke and Jaune seemed completely and utterly chuffed at the praise.

"Wow Okuyasu, you really mean it?!" Jaune practically jumped onto the table at the vote of confidence from Okuyasu, the rest of the table having glanced curiously at Okuyasu. When the scarred teen's gaze shifted from Jaune and Ren in specific and looked between Pyrrha and Nora, the entire table besides Jaune had gone stock still in horror. Ren hadn't noticed the look Okuyasu had given Nora, too caught up in what seemed like Okuyasu's loud mouth about to expose Pyrrha's feelings for Jaune, though Nora seemed mortified nonetheless.

"Totally man, I mean, all you really got to do is-"

"JAUNE!" Ren called out, slamming his fists into the table to grab the blond knight's attention. Jaune and Okuyasu seemed rather stunned by this show while the rest of the table just furiously nodded at Ren whose mind whirred at a mile a minute as he tried to think of some avenue of escape from this situation. "I left my scroll in my dorm room. Could you come and help me look for it?" Ren, just as fast with his mind as he was on his feet, quickly secured a plausible excuse as Jaune just tilted his head to the side.

"Ren, why not ask Nora to help, I'm sure she'd know where you'd leave your Scroll even better than I would." Ren paused only for a moment to think before he leaned in close.

"I may have left it somewhere a little… touchy, if you get what I mean Jaune." The blond knight's brow furrowed for a moment, before his eyes went wide.

"Secret guy spot?"

"Yeah, sure, secret guy spot." Ren's cheeks flushed red for a moment as he shot a quick glance over to Pyrrha who could not have looked more thankful at that moment if she tried. Though she hadn't seemed entirely embarrassed either. Part of her look just seemed… distraught. Oddly so, even.

"Alright man, I gotcha." Jaune whispered conspiratorially as he gave Ren a pat on the back. "Alright then, we'll talk to you guys later, I'll go help Ren find his Scroll. We'll be back in time for classes." Jaune just gave Ren a bit of a wink as the magenta eyed young man groaned a bit and waved to the others as the two quickly departed. Once they were nice and far from the table, out of earshot and out of sight, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief, though none looked quite so relieved as Pyrrha and Nora, as Okuyasu just groused a bit.

"Okuyasu, bro, you nearly let those lips of yours go way too loose man! Were you really about to tell Jaune and Ren about that stuff." Yang ran a hand through her blonde locks as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not that there's anything to tell Ren mind you, because we're just friends!" Nora quickly jumped in to interrupt Yang, who just paused for a moment before she half-heartedly nodded to Nora.

"Yeah, right, I guess Nora." Even Yang seemed to only have it in her to half-heartedly agree with the bubbly bomber as she looked back at Okuyasu. "Seriously man, you did promise you wouldn't let those, that-" Yang quickly corrected herself as Nora's eyes urged her to do so, "-secret loose. What's the deal man?"

"Look I promised to keep that secret over a month ago when I figured that maybe they'd get on with it and just tell them already. I mean, I thought we were only a week away from these two puttin' on their big kid pants and telling them… or that Jaune and Ren would figure it out already." Okuyasu crossed his arms as he stared the rest of the table down. "But it's been over a month! And from the way you guys tell it, this has been going on for a long-ass time before we showed up! I can't be the only one here who's getting a little annoyed with this!" Okuyasu looked around the table and Pyrrha and Nora looked to their friends for support…

Only to feel completely and totally betrayed as most of the rest of the table couldn't meet their gaze.

"Really?" Pyrrha asked, sounding somewhat surprised herself, as Ruby chuckled awkwardly.

"I-I have absolutely no idea what Okuyasu's talking about! I haven't noticed anything! It isn't obvious, whatever 'it' is, not that I'd notice 'it' even if I knew what 'it' was, but I don't because there isn't an 'it', which I don't know what it is in the first place soooo…" Ruby's face went red as she felt more and more awkward with Pyrrha and Nora's eyes locked on her. "... Oh hey, cookies!" WIth that, Ruby shoved a fistful of the baked goods into her mouth and just outright refused to meet Pyrrha or Nora's eyes as Okuyasu just nodded.

"You see, no one wants to say it cause they're all too damn polite, but seriously, this is starting to get a little old." Okuyasu leans forward on the table slightly as he points accusingly at the pair of them. "All either of you two would have to do is ask and I can guarantee you that Jaune and Ren would give you both a chance. Those two are total bros, no way they'd turn up their noses at you guys. Not the kinds of men those two are." Okuyasu said in a semi-sage tone, as Nora just shook her head.

"Oku, Ren's my best friend, I don't have those sorts of feelings for him." The red glint to her cheeks having spoken otherwise Okuyasu just barked out a laugh.

"Nora, even if you weren't full of shit, which you totally are-" Nora flinched back a bit as Okuyasu just looked right at her, "-it could just be fun! You have the opportunity to go to this dance with someone! Which is more than what most of this table could say!" Okuyasu heaved a weary sigh as he shook his head.

"It's true… though not for me. I just figure I'll be too busy runnin' the party to have a date." Yang had said rather dismissively and, for all intents and purposes, people bought it. Yang was the sort of person who, if she really wanted, could have a date to the dance by just snapping her fingers. No one had any reason to doubt what she said.

"And personally, I'm not much about the dating scene. Guys only ask me out because they figure that they'll get perks for my family's name… not to say I don't have a date in mind for the dance." Weiss said with a small bit of a grin, while Ruby's case seemed to obvious that it went largely ignored, especially when Pyrrha turned to look over at Weiss.

"Is that why you think that Jaune keeps asking you out Weiss?" The red haired warrior asked almost disbelievingly as Weiss shrugged.

"Well he wouldn't be the first guy to just pop out of the blue and try to win my attention because he was interested in the fact that I'm the Schnee Family Heiress. He doesn't actually know much of anything about me and while I'm definitely good looking, that's not exactly a rare trait at Beacon." Okuyasu nodded a bit.

"Seriously, like, almost every girl at this school is at least an 8 out of 10. It's kind of weird when you think about it." Weiss flushed slightly at Okuyasu's rather brazen statement, but just shook her head.

"Okuyasu, that's terribly crass… but proves my point." Weiss crossed her arms. "Jaune doesn't really know me and I'm not the only beautiful girl in this school, Pyrrha." The green eyed huntress flushed slightly as Weiss shook her head. "The only thing that would have immediately drawn attention to me is what it always is; my money."

"Kinda sad really." Josuke muttered to himself as Weiss just sighed and shook her head.

"It is what it is, you get used to it." Pyrrha just shook her head vehemently as she looked across the table.

"But Jaune isn't like that! Jaune… Jaune isn't the sort of person who'd just want to use someone for their status. He's gets along with people and gets to know them because he wants to be their friend or… I guess be in a relationship with them, in your case." Pyrrha noted awkwardly, as she shook her head. "I get where you're coming from Weiss, a lot of people are like that and trust me, I know that from personal experience… experience that runs a bit close to Beacon, actually." At that, Weiss had the decency to look somewhat shamed as she nodded at Pyrrha, yet for her words the red haired tournament fighter hadn't actually seemed that upset with Weiss, which had relieved the white haired heiress. "But Jaune isn't like those kinds of people. Jaune wouldn't do something like that. He's genuine and kind and wants to do the right thing… I don't see why you wouldn't give him a chance." At that, Weiss finally raised an irritated eyebrow as she glanced over at Pyrrha.

"You know Pyrrha, if you think all of that is true then I really do have to agree with Okuyasu; why haven't YOU given Jaune a chance then by asking him? It's way past clear how you feel about him and the only one who's in the dark is Jaune himself. If you'd just go ahead and ask I'm sure he'd be delighted." Pyrrha flinched and flinched hard as this sentiment had been thrown back in her face, the red haired young woman stunned into silence as she quietly opened and closed her mouth a few times. Eventually, much to the surprise of the rest of the table, a slightly dour look crossed Pyrrha's face as she slowly stood up and departed. Weiss, having realized she might've gone a step too far in that usual way of hers, moved to get up out of her seat.

"Pyrrha, wait, I didn't mean to sound so harsh, just-"

"Relax Weiss… it isn't you. Pyrrha's… been like this. Been getting worse even." Nora muttered from her spot at the table as they all watched Pyrrha depart. "Any time Ren and I try to psyche her up about Jaune she just dips into this mood… it's like what you saw when we went out for the first time a couple weeks ago but… I dunno, it's like it's getting worse. We keep trying to pep her up but it just seems like the conversations always end up like this."

"It doesn't even sound like she's upset with him. Heck, she had nothing but nice things to say about him… this is confusing." Koichi whined slightly as Okuyasu just pat him on the back.

"Glad I'm not the only one who's completely lost for once." Nora just nods in agreement.

"Yeah. Pyrrha isn't upset, she doesn't dislike him and she keeps trying to help him like this. She's been feeding him all sorts of advice… by the way Weiss, you might want to get ready, Jaune's been looking around for his guitar." At that Weiss' face went red as she placed her hands into her palms and groaned.

"Why is this my life?"

"But… whenever we try to help Pyrrha maybe get up and ask him herself she just… I dunno. Shuts down I guess is the best word?" Nora groaned lightly. "It's been making everything just the slightest bit awkward around the dorm room. Not even Ren's pancakes are helping."

"Jeez, relationships sound pretty complicated…" Ruby remarked as she plopped another cookie in her mouth as Yang just absent-mindedly nodded.

"Really shouldn't have to be. Those two are just making themselves miserable by running around all this crap and not just walking up and asking Jaune or Ren out. Seriously, they only have themselves to blame for being a couple a sadsacks." Okuyasu spoke firmly as he gave a curt nod, at which point Nora just blew a raspberry at him.

"First off, there still isn't anything Okuyasu, secondly, I am not a sadsack. I'll have you know that I'm quite happy with my current relationship with my best friend and that I wouldn't risk ruining it over ANYTHING!" Nora stated firmly, a slight twitch to her right eye before she quickly reeled herself in. "Not that there's anything that might potentially ruin it, mind." The scarred huntsman just rolled his eyes before Nora finally pointed right at him. "Besides, you're talkin' a big game there Oku, but I don't see you asking anyone out. You're talking about how the three of you don't have good odds and, you know, it sounds like you're just makin' excuses!" Nora laughed slightly as she figured she'd have finally gotten Okuyasu on the back foot and maybe would've gotten him to leave the totally non-romantic feelings she had for Ren be.

However, not one moment later she realized she'd made a huge mistake; not because Okuyasu had reacted in any significant way, oh no, Okuyasu just seemed to take a thoughtful posture as he tapped his chin. No, she knew she made a mistake when Josuke's face went as red as a cherry tomato.

"Okuyasu, don't listen, you don't have to prove anything! Nora just doesn't get it, you don't have to prove your" Josuke's attempts to keep Okuyasu in his seat ultimately failed as the scarred teen just shrugged his shoulders and slipped out of his seat, "-fucking Brothers, not this again." At that, Josuke immediately turned his face away from the ensuing scene as everyone, even Koichi, watched Okuyasu with some interest.

That interest turned to horror that matched Josuke's own as Okuyasu climbed up onto the top of the table and, facing the rest of the dining hall, took a deep breath.

"HEY!" With one shout, every single set of eyes were on the group's table, everyone furiously blushing under the sudden attention from the rest of Beacon Academy and all of its transfer students as Okuyasu shoved his hands into his pockets. "So! The dance is this weekend and I don't have a date yet! I was wondering if any huntresses would like to accompany me! It's an open invitation so just say so if you'd like to go out with me!"

The entire dining hall was completely and absolutely silent as everyone stared up at Okuyasu, eyes wide in disbelief as any number of teens just looked at the scarred huntsman. There were many different looks; absolute disbelief, mind-boggling embarrassment, confusion and uncertainty and, finally, some actual respect; quite a few young men in the crowd had actually been rather impressed with Okuyasu's chutzpah.

The female members of the crowd, on the other hand…

"... No thanks…" While not everyone had answered verbally, it had been clear enough that there weren't really anyone in the crowd that wanted to accept Okuyasu's offer. The scarred teen just shrugged his shoulders as he waved them all off.

"Okay, just thought I'd ask!" With that, Okuyasu quickly hopped down from the table and sat back down in his seat, a slight sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head. "Eh, figured that'd be the answer, but it never hurts to at least try." The young man grinned a bit as he took a bite out of his food, all the while the entire rest of the table just stared in disbelieving awe at him.

"... Yeah, Okuyasu Isn't some wallflower. He's forward and isn't exactly shy about it. Hell, the first time we ever met he told me he thought my mom was hot… and then proceeded to tell her that to her face." Josuke rubbed his face in his hands as he relayed this, as the rest of the table's blushes just went instantly deeper. Even Yang, who liked to put up the image as the ultimately confident, in control and cool as a cucumber social butterfly was blown away by Okuyasu's display and Josuke's story.

"I can't believe you actually did that." Ruby squeaked out soon after. "I mean, both things, they're equally unbelievable…" She just shook her head, her silver eyes wide as dinner plates as Weiss just slapped her forehead.

"I don't doubt it for a second… this is Okuyasu, after all. Not an ounce of guile or restraint in his entire body." At that, Okuyasu just snorted.

"Hey, I have guile and restraint. I have tons of secrets." At that, the table actually laughed slightly as Koichi just slapped his forehead.

"Okuyasu, you don't say you have secrets… you know I need to stop bothering and just roll with it." Despite his words, a soft smile pulled at the corners of Koichi's lips. Okuyasu had definitely been good about not mentioning either DIO or Josuke's parentage, so he wasn't wrong. When it was something important, Okuyasu could fight against his better urges and keep his mouth shut, especially if it was for his friend's benefit. But, as he showed with Pyrrha and Nora, and Weiss and Blake before them, if he thought his friends were being ridiculous, he was just as willing to speak up to try to fix it.

Didn't mean that he wasn't ridiculous sometimes, but having been friends with him for well over a year now, Koichi appreciated these things about Okuyasu. Which was more than could be said for when he first met one of the infamous Nijimura face to face. Speaking of-

"Anyway, point is, that's what I'm talking about. The three of us don't have as good a shot of getting dates as the rest of you, save for maybe Ruby, and that's for a lot of reasons." Okuyasu pointed to himself. "For me… I dunno, I'm not that much of a catch I think." Everyone nodded slightly, having come to understand Okuyasu's rather blunt form of honest self-evaluation after his story at Tonio's. "I mean, I look like a stud and I think these scars make me look cool… but I know I can seem pretty off-putting to folks when they first meet me and I look pretty scary. Heck, I think Rubes here is still getting used to me." Okuyasu grinned over at Ruby who just awkwardly laughed and scratched the back of her head.

"Come on Okuyasu, you weren't… okay yeah, I thought you were pretty scary and a bit too much at first." Ruby readily admitted as Okuyasu just grinned at her before he shrugged.

"Plus, people can tell that I'm really not all that smart at all. So between those two things, it just seems like girls aren't interested in either asking me out or being asked out by me. Which means, I stay single… which, trust me, makes hanging around with Josuke all the more painful." Okuyasu groused while his leader went a bit red in the face. Everyone else immediately understood though; being around Josuke, who seemed to always have a line of girls following after him of varying length depending on the time of day, would probably get frustrating after a while.

"Oh come on Oku, you aren't that bad. People just have to get to know you so they can realize what a big softy you are underneath the scary exterior." Nora laughed slightly as she poked Okuyasu's arm. A mischievous grin crossed Okuyasu's lips as he turned to face Nora.

"Oh-ho, is that right Nora? Well my invitation was open to everyone in the dining hall, so hey, if you really don't have any romantic feelings for Ren, then maybe you and I could go out to the dance?" At that, Nora's face went immediately red as she sputtered.

"O-O-Okuyasu, it isn't that I feel anything for Ren, or that I don't want to go with you, but, well, you know, it might, might compromise our friendship and besides I really want to go hang out with Ren at the dance, AS FRIENDS, and maybe we can have a good time…" As Okuyasu's grin grew more and more and took on a more shit-eating appearance, Nora had realized she'd been played and just huffed as she crossed her arms.

"Like I said Nora, full of shit." Okuyasu barked out a long, hearty laugh as he leaned back in his chair, Nora's face going ever more read as she tried to sink down into her chair and just disappear. She'd been so embarrassed that the bubbly bomber considered 'boop'ing Okuyasu for good measure and to get him to stop. The thought passed as she realized that having no physical Aura meant that Okuyasu wouldn't take the hit well, so Nora just waited for the scarred huntsman to stop laughing at her. After a few moments the laughter subsided and Okuyasu wiped away a small tear he had in his eye.

"Right, so that's me. Koichi here's pretty much just as unlucky, but that's mostly because the little guy's just so shy. Even if a girl did ask him out, he'd probably sputter and mutter about something or other until she walked off. The less said about him trying to ask out a girl the better." Koichi just frowned slightly as Okuyasu spoke. It wasn't that Koichi had thought that Okuyasu's assessment was wrong, Brothers knew that what Okuyasu had just said would have perfectly described Koichi even just a month ago. He was horrifically shy and he didn't have much interest, or ability, to ask out girls. If one did come up to him and say that they had been interested he'd be happy sure… but he'd probably sputter and freeze in place, just like Okuyasu had thought.

However, now? Now…

"Actually Okuyasu, I think… I think I might try to ask a girl out to the dance myself." Koichi muttered, incredibly embarrassed, as his face went a deep shade of red. "And… I think… maybe… she might say yes if I ask?" Despite the uncertainty in Koichi's tone, there had been a certain amount of hope there too as the blue eyed young man smiled ever so slightly. The note passing between himself and Neopolitan had continued unabated and, in fact, had even picked up ever so slightly. He still hadn't actually 'seen' her since Angelo, though he had spotted her with her team from time to time… and when he had, she'd smiled at him before she inevitably just kind of vanished into a crowd and started stalking him. But still, she smiled!

Koichi had still wanted to at least see her, to see if maybe he could sort out these weird feelings for his stalker. At this point, it was the only thing he was certain of; that after what she'd done for him and all their note passing, that he at least just wanted to talk to her face to face, to try and figure things out. The dance presented a good opportunity, he thought; maybe if he just asked her flat out, she'd come… but then again he'd been asking if he could actually see her at all and she'd avoided it. Koichi wasn't certain of any of this but still, with the new confidence he'd gained after the pair's fight against Angelo, he was certainly going to try.

As he spoke, Okuyasu's body language went stiff as a board, his face neutral and unemotive as he stared off into the distance. For a moment, the gang had gotten a bit concerned for the scarred teen as Josuke reached over and waved a hand in Okuyasu's face.

"... WHAT?!" Immediately, tears sprung forth from Okuyasu's eyes as he reached around and grabbed Koichi by the shoulders, shaking the young man slightly as Okuyasu's brown bore into Koichi's. "No way! Koichi, you've got yourself a date to the dance?! You can't do this to me little buddy! Josuke's going to have all those girl's chasin' after him like he's some kind of exotic animal, I was depending on you to just hang out with me and take the sting out of it! Who's the girl Koichi, who's stolen your heart and left me without a buddy to commiserate with!?"

The table couldn't help it, Okuyasu's overreaction to this had gotten most of them to bust a gut laughing, while Ruby just watched the scene in slightly stunned silence, having not expected that reaction at all. Okuyasu shook Koichi by the shoulders, the little guy's head whipped back and forth as he cried out. Unnoticed to the table, a pair of disguised green eyes watched very carefully, a mix of embarrassment and murderous intent aimed at the group, the former aimed at Koichi and the latter aimed at Okuyasu.

"It's Neopolitan, the girl on Cinder Fall's team with the black hair, now stop shaking me Okuyasu!" Koichi demanded, the rest of the table a bit surprised as even Okuyasu stopped shaking Koichi for a moment to blink at him.

"What? You mean the chick who dresses in that maid get-up and has the twintails?"

"Okuyasu, maids don't wear tops that expose their midriffs…" Weiss commented dryly as a slightly wry grin formed on Yang's lips.

"Not any maids you know probably, but I bet there are some who do." Yang barked out a slight laugh as everyone's face went a bit red at the table, though Koichi quickly shook it off.

"Yeah, that's her. I just thought I'd give it a shot you know… we've talked some and… well, it's not important." Koichi shook his head slightly; Neopolitan hadn't revealed herself to his friends after she had helped him out with Angelo, for whatever reason. She'd been gone, or at least out of sight, almost as soon as he had been out of danger. Maybe she was afraid that his friends wouldn't have reacted well to him having a stalker but… well, whatever the reason, he wouldn't spill the beans if she hadn't wanted them to know.

"Koichi, we haven't ever even see you talk to her." Nora commented curiously as Koichi just went a bit red.

"We've talked… mostly by passing notes, but we've talked!" At this, everyone's expression kind of drooped disbelievingly, even their silent audience member giggled silently at the sight. It was amusing to see Koichi twist and turn like this, even if it hadn't been her own doing. Amusing and… well, Neo hadn't said more as Okuyasu just barked out a laugh.

"Man, you spooked me there Koichi. Thought you really had left me in the dust to be all alone during the dance. Good one man, I didn't expect it." Koichi frowned slightly as Okuyasu let go of his shoulders, the grey haired young man just huffing as he slipped out of his seat.

"I'm not joking, I'm serious… yeah, yeah I'm serious!" With that and a determined look that had begun to crop up more and more often it seemed, Koichi had walked off to find Cinder Fall's Team. For a moment, the invisible stalker in their midst had hesitated for the briefest of moments before the invisible presence followed after the short young man.

"Jeez, wonder what crawled up his ass." Okuyasu remarked slightly as he took a drink, Josuke just shrugged slightly as he looked over.

"Who knows, maybe he's actually serious and he's going to ask her out. All the best to him if he is, though I don't know how someone will respond to just being asked out of the blue… still, it's another good sign that Koichi's gotten himself some confidence. Even if he is a little embarrassed about asking someone just randomly cause he likes the look of her." Josuke spoke with a slight grin as he took a bite out of some food. The rest of the table nodded and, for a moment, conversation died down as everyone just took a moment to eat a little bit more before their food got cold. Before long, however, a slight furrow of Yang's brows had made itself known.

"Okay so that covers why you think you and Koichi couldn't get a date for the dance… but, what about JoJo?" At that, everyone's curiosity had been peaked thanks to Yang's question as the remainder of the table turned to face the pompadoured teen. "I mean… seriously, it's JoJo, it should be a cinch for him to get a date to the dance."

"Yeah seriously, with all the attention he gets I'm pretty certain that he'd have at least five dates lined up for just about any occasion." Weiss spoke with a bit of a roll to her eyes, all the while Josuke himself just flushed red.

"Oh, well, you see, it's just I don't really feel like having a date to the dance, that's all. Right Okuyasu?" As Josuke turned to look at his scarred friend, he saw that Okuyasu's face had twisted into a shit-eating grin, which had immediately set of Josuke's warning lights. "Okuyasu, don't you dare, this isn't something that-"

"You'd think that, but get a load of this little tidbit. Baby face here has never had a girlfriend." Okuyasu blurted out, a cackle let loose as Josuke's face went pure red and he buried his face into his forearms.

"... Excuse me?" Even Ruby seemed to have a hard time believing that, all the while Yang just had a small smile cross her lips.

"You're telling me that Higashikata 'I have a line of girls a mile long waiting to jump my bones' JoJo has never had a girlfriend?" Various faces went beet red at the table from Yang's little wordplay, as Josuke just threw his head up and glared at her.

"Hey, I do not have a line of girls a-"

"JOSUKE!"

At that, Josuke flinched as he slowly turned his head and, lo and behold, a small group of girls had gathered just a little ways behind him, faces red from embarrassment as they all twiddled their thumbs or played with strands of their own hair.

"So, you know, Okuyasu got us thinking and… well, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the dance with me this weekend!" One girl clambered forward, which had caused Josuke to flinch back and away. He didn't need to have held that position long as one of the other girls immediately grabbed the other one by the shoulders and pulled her back.

"As if! I'm going to go out with Josuke, he helped fix my phone and that basically means we're dating, isn't that right Josuke?!"

"Err, hey, listen-"

"No way! That was just Josuke being nice! Josuke wouldn't be into some ugly little duckling with hair that looks like it could double as a floatation device!" The girl flinched back, a betrayed look on her face that quickly twisted into anger as she poked a finger into the other girl's chest.

"Well you know what, I'm sure Josuke would prefer a woman who actually looks like a woman and not a ten year old boy, you flat-chested bitch!" With that a minor fight broke out, not just between these two girls but several of the other girls that had come to surround the table. Josuke looked absolutely miserable, and his misery was much of the rest of the table's pleasure. Okuyasu barked out laughing; even if he was a little jealous of how easily Josuke could grab the attention of the ladies, times like these certainly took the sting out of that jealousy. Yang just couldn't help but hold back snorts of laughter, the sight of the pompadoured teen so thoroughly humiliated and frustrated just a treat for her as it ever was. Not that she'd ever inflict it herself, but it was just funny seeing the put-together and competent Higashikata Josuke act more like his age from time to time.

Weiss and Ruby did their best to turn away and not face Josuke as entertained grins crossed their face, while Nora was right there with Okuyasu as she blatantly laughed at the situation.

"GIRLS!" Everyone stopped fighting or laughing and turned to Josuke as the young man shouted out for their attention, a few deep breaths taken to help calm himself down as he looked at the group of girls that had gathered around. "Look, I'm not considering taking anyone out to the dance right now. I'm actually in the middle of talking with my friends. So please, just, just stop, alright?" At that, the girls that had surrounded the table immediately glared over at the various female occupants at the table…

Only to be quickly cowed when Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Nora quickly showed that they hadn't been about to back down.

"Okay… we'll talk about this later Josuke! Bye!" With that, the girls ran off, fighting amongst themselves as they did, while Josuke just palmed his face in his hands and shook his head mournfully.

"Great… just… just great…" The pompadoured team leader just shook his head as the rest of the table cooled off, now that the annoying distractions had wandered off.

"So the way Okuyasu tells it, this is pretty common in Morioh too, right?" Ruby asked as she tilted her head to the side, the fifteen year old still pretty mystified by all this stuff. Josuke paused for a moment, as had Okuyasu, before they both nodded. In truth, it might've been even worse here in the Four Kingdoms than back in Morioh. While Josuke was a more renowned and famous hunter in Morioh, that was a double-edged sword considering the status of his birth and how most of the city took his mother's… seduction, they'd call it. Being a bastard was a pretty difficult weight to lug around, even for someone who most would admit was bright, charismatic, kind and handsome.

Still, those very same traits meant that even with the weight of his birth around his shoulders, that he still got a lot of attention from girls his age. Which, yes, lead to situations like these more than one.

"Yeah, pretty much." Josuke skimped on some of his other thoughts as Okuyasu nodded to confirm Ruby's question.

"Then I really don't see how you haven't dated anyone yet. Seems like it'd be a cinch." Yang shrugged her shoulders as she leaned against the table, curious.

"Were you fat as a kid or something?" Nora asked, which had caused much of the rest of the table to sputter slightly.

"Nora, he's a huntsman! How would he even get fat with the physical demands of the job?!" Weiss asked as Nora just shrugged.

"I dunno, just figured I'd take a shot in the dark. After all, how does Port stay so fat when he's off every night wrestling all these different Grimm?" Nora asked as the rest of the table just kind of looked over at one and other, before glancing back to Nora. The turquoise eyed young woman just blinked a couple times before realization struck. "Oooooh! He's lying! It all makes sense now!" The rest of the table just sighed for a moment before Nora pointed over to Josuke. "Anyway, I have a few more ideas as to how, if Josuke really doesn't want to tell us. If it's not cause he was fat, then maybe-"

"Okay Nora, okay. No more shots in the dark please… and no, I wasn't fat as a kid." Josuke just shook his head as he raised his face from out of his hands, the young man furiously blushing as he looked about the rest of the table. "If any of you laugh… I'll have Crazy Diamond do terrible, unspecified things to you. I swear it!" Josuke pointed an accusatory finger, all of which earned him was a snort of derision from Yang and disbelieving looks from the rest of the table.

"Yeah, uh huh, sure you will. Just spill the beans JoJo, it can't be that embarrassing." At that, Josuke just groused for a moment as he crossed his arms, an embarrassed blush on his face as his blue eyes darted around for a moment. Finally, the young huntsman just sighed as he scratched at the back of his head.

"Look… hunting down girls with hot bodies or chasing skirts… that's really not my style. It's not something I find a lot of appeal in." Josuke turned his blue eyes to his friends as he took a steadying breath and tried to put on a smile. "I'm more the kind of guy who believes in True Love, you know what I mean?"

The table was absolutely silent as Josuke had said this. Okuyasu, having already heard this spiel again and again, just sat there with a grin on his face, waiting for the inevitable reactions. Josuke, in the meantime, seemed rather nervous as he looked around, waiting while the rest of his new friends absorbed this bit of information.

"Oh… my… Gods… THAT'S ADORABLE!" With that, Ruby Rose shot up out of her seat shook Josuke by his shoulders, the pompadoured teen utterly thrown off as Ruby's silver eyes twinkled. "Just when I thought you couldn't get anymore like the heroes from my stories, you go and say something like this! Josuke, you're going to be a great huntsmen and beat up all sorts of bad guys and then one day you're going to meet the love of your life and you two are going to love each other and have lots of kids and then you'll all live happily ever after! It's so cute!" Josuke blushed as he shook his head indignantly.

"Ruby, don't call it adorable, that's more embarrassing than just laughing it off!" Josuke's face had turned beet red as Okuyasu barked out several laughs, the gesture followed up by Nora while Yang just held back her giggles as best as she could. Weiss just seemed to be nonplussed and more than a little curious, but she sat back while Ruby continued to coo over how much like her stories this was.

"Man, that's so friggin' cheesey JoJo. I didn't think there was anyone who'd actually still believe in that kind of stuff at our age. No wonder you were so embarrassed." Yang chortled slightly as she wiped a tear from her eye, a wide grin plastered on her face as she watched the scene.

"I dunno, I think it's pretty neat." Nora had finally gotten past her laughs as she nodded along. "True Love, the idea you're meant for someone and you just gotta look for them… that's pretty nice." Nora smiled a bit warmly as she spoke, as Okuyasu just grinned over at her. "NO OKU, NOT REN, NOT LIKE THAT!" Okuyasu just barked out more hysterical laughter as Nora reacted before he could even tease her. Finally, Weiss just shook her head as she gathered her things up.

"You know, between hearing about Team JOJO's little antics and watching Pyrrha and Nora dance around it, I think I'm going to go ahead and take your advice Okuyasu. I'm going to go ahead and ask my date out to the dance and just do it. No worrying about it, no dancing around it. See you all later." Weiss beamed excitedly as she quickly ran off, Okuyasu just offering her a wave as he nodded.

"Well at least someone's taking my advice. Always a good sign." The scarred teen spoke mostly to himself as he turned back to his food, Josuke just having then gotten Ruby to calm down about how 'cute' and 'adorable' him believing in True Love was.

"It's just great. I know when I saw my mom and dad that I knew they loved each other and were meant to be together. True Love's totally a thing." Ruby said with a wide grin as Josuke just nodded slightly and readjusted his uniform, having been shaken up a bit in Ruby's excitement. "Was it the same for you Josuke?"

…

Dead silence. Josuke's face froze in a slight look of shock as Ruby uttered those last couple words and even Okuyasu paused in devouring his remaining food as he turned his brown eyes over to look at Josuke with some concern. Nora, Yang and Ruby just blanched, Ruby especially seeming quite upset as she realized that she had just inadvertently stepped on a landmine.

"O-Oh you know, nevermind, forget I said anything. I didn't say ask you anything about anything Josuke. I was just talking out loud without actually meaning any of the words I was saying, same as usual, I certainly didn't want to bring up anything uncomfortable if I did, not that I brought up anything and… hey wanna see how many cookies I can eat all at once?!"

"Ruby." The silver eyed girl stopped freaking out as soon as Josuke spoke up, a calm tone to his voice as he just shook his head and smiled softly at her. "It's fine. You didn't know anything and you really didn't insult me or anything. It's cool. We'll just drop it." Ruby let loose a sigh of relief as she nodded, though inwardly it still left her curious. Same for Nora and Yang, who had just witnessed the little scene go down. Still, the dour look that had been left on Josuke's face, despite his attempts at putting on a smile, and the slight concern on Okuyasu's had dissuaded them from prying then and there. Instead, the group just calmly, amicably talked amongst themselves, ready to move on from the slightly awkward hitch in their conversation…

Though, unbeknownst to most of the group, a series of interesting thoughts had begun to circulate in Yang's head as she lightly tapped her chin, lilac eyes dipping between Josuke and Ruby. For Yang, being the big sis and watching over Ruby had pretty much been her job for… jeez, for as long as she could really remember now. Ever since their family fell apart, it had kind of fallen on her to be more of an adult than she might've otherwise been expected to be. Even when dad recovered, a lot about making sure Ruby was okay had fallen on Yang's shoulders. It had been difficult at times but, well, she loved Ruby so that was okay.

Her mind now focused on one simple fact, one that had hovered around in the back ever since arriving at Beacon; Ruby was fifteen now. Despite how childish her little sis could act sometimes, Ruby was a teenager now and, well, it was starting to show. Her little sister had always been a little cutie, but now… well, boys were going to start to notice a few things. That… that had put Yang a little bit on edge. Ruby was socially awkward and out of her depth in even the most minor situations, though admittedly that had improved markedly over the years. However, Yang was still convinced that, when it would come to eventually dating, Ruby would just be completely out of it.

It was funny when Ruby said that the only love of her life she needed was Crescent Rose but… well, Ruby still obviously did dream of other things. She had basically just ooed and awed over them just now. It'd only be a matter of time and, well, Yang hadn't been looking forward to her little, baby sister's first boyfriend…

That was when Yang's lilac eyes drifted over to Josuke, and a small, mischievous grin formed on her lips.

Responsible, charming, would never lay a finger on his friends unless they insulted his hair, easy on the eyes, a complete and total dork who was almost as bad as her sister, a talented huntsman, closer to her sister's age than anyone else at this school, extremely loyal. All of these things characterized Josuke to a T and all of these things spelled out one little word to Yang.

Safe.

Josuke was such safe First Boyfriend material that she doubted her dad would be able to find fault in him. It'd be great; Ruby would get a little bit of experience to roll into a new relationship with around the time Josuke would leave back for Morioh and Josuke, well, he'd get some nice memories with her baby sister. He'd be thankful for that… better be thankful for that.

As that last thought crossed Yang's mind, she paused for a moment as she tapped her chin. Was it really right for her to interfere with Ruby's life like this? After all, she'd tried to do it before and…

… And it worked out perfectly. A bright smile lit up Yang's face as she nodded to herself. No, really; she lett Ruby alone on her first day and then bam, made friends with Jaune within the first ten minutes of being at Beacon and then when she pushed her to talk with Blake, the two hit it off well too!

Yang was great at interfering with Ruby's life!

The lilac eyed girl inwardly chuckled at the wording, but hey, it was true. So far she was two for two for helping Ruby experience life here at Beacon Academy. Might as well swing for the third while she was at it.

With a firm nod and watching as Josuke and Ruby settled down into easy conversation, Yang had her goal in mind; she was totally going to hook her sister up.

Ruby could thank her later.

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: So, seeing as how this is the Dance arc and it's fairly obvious shipping is going to play a bit of a role here, we'll start simple on my thoughts with romance in fiction and then branch out from there as we go in the actual arc.**

 **First, foremost and most simple of all of my opinions; I fucking hate the gentle misunderstanding. There is nothing more irritating to me than when conflict in a plot feels like it's being shoehorned in because there's supposed to be conflict leading up to the Third Act rather than as being a natural result of characters, their personalities and their interactions with each other. The fact that so many romances now depend completely and totally on this plotline as their major source of conflict just irritates the everloving shit out of me and makes me never want to read Pride and Prejudice ever again.**

 **Sensible character who usually thinks things through and doesn't act rashly? Doesn't matter if you introduce a gentle misunderstanding? Hotshot character who normally isn't shy and is willing to speak openly and plainly to people? Just introduce a little gentle misunderstanding and they'll be doing whatever they can to avoid their significant other because whatever lazyass excuse you wrote in for the sake of conflict. I don't really know my audience too well for this fic as it's hard to tell which of your hundreds of readers read what else in their spare time, but the best analogy I can think of outside of fanfiction would be comparing Great Expectations to Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps the important caveat to this is the fact that Great Expectations, while the romantic elements form a large part of Pip's motivation and desire, isn't the entire drive of the story, whereas Pride and Prejudice is entirely built on the romance and therefore conflict has to entirely derive from it. And making consistent, character-based conflicts is hard, apparently. But still, point remains; I'm a million times more invested in reading about Pip's story than anything going on in Pride and Prejudice because there's SOMETHING to Great Expectations, something that speaks to both characters, how they've been raised and taught and what THEY want and not what the PLOT needs.**

 **If you've ever watched a rom-com and felt more frustrated about how illogically, stupidly and out-of-character two characters were acting rather than feeling invested in their plight and hoping they make it through, chances are the plot's relied in a gentle misunderstanding.**

 **The most frustrating thing about Gentle Misunderstandings and why people hate them usually comes down to how they end though; completely predictably. There's no tension in the resolution of a gentle misunderstanding, it's going to get resolved and in a way that pretty much leaves no room for the characters to grow. Characters grow when put to the torch of actual conflict and drama, conflicts that actually have weight. The Gentle Misunderstanding has no weight by its very nature, it's a conflict with no stakes because it's a misheard word, a liar revealed or some out-of-character concern that's only brought up to prolong the story. No one really changes at the end of one of these, it's pretty much just 'Wow, I'm glad we worked this out', 'Me too', 'Give us a snog'.**

 **Unfortunately, gentle misunderstandings are easy to write in fiction because most romances focus on the establishment of the relationship as the core 'goal', the point in which a story that either is a romance or features it ends. Character conflicts that might be more in-depth and invested usually don't occur at the beginning or before a relationship starts… you know, if all you're doing is just looking to churn some crap out.**

 **The upcoming drama that involved Koichi and Neo isn't because their misunderstand is simple and easily resolved; they're on opposing sides of a conflict and yet dig each other, so there's a feeling, like there's an honest to goodness hurdle that won't be easy to overcome, if it is at all. Even if you might suspect that it's going to turn out fine because fiction, even the illusion of tension can be effective. Pyrrha in this universe has been given a bit more backstory and character and you can see how those aspects of her are affecting here, and that effect on her personality is showing and whose resolution will, hopefully, lead to a more rounded character. Blake's conflicts don't really lie in the start of a relationship, hers has always been more tuned towards the maintenance of them and not abandoning them when times get tough (though in this series even that's been tuned a little different, as evidenced by the past two chapters). Weiss has a distrust of people who come to her, even if she herself does desire to date and be in a relationship of some kind.**

 **All of this is just barely scratching the surface and it's part of a design philosophy that I pretty much wrote into the story whenever I got around to considering and outlining the shipping;**

 **Character-driven conflict that drives the character arcs, plots and relationships forward, rather than plots dictating the same.**

 **See you all in five days and I hope you all have a wonderful week.**


	26. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 2)

Beacon Academy, Meanwhile

"Darn it Okuyasu…"

Koichi muttered this little semi-curse to himself as he made his way through Beacon Academy, looking around the school for Cinder or any member of her Team at their various hangouts. The young, blue eyed, grey haired man was stuck between feeling frustrated and eager to get back at his friend and being totally embarrassed and feeling completely unprepared for what he was now attempting to do.

It hadn't been that Koichi had not considered asking Neopolitan out to the dance before Okuyasu inadvertently egged him on. Quite the contrary, as Koichi and Neopolitan kept up their note-based talks and as Neo stuck around to help him from time to time, the thought had become more prevalent to the short huntsman. Especially as the dance neared and the talk about it swelled around Beacon Academy. Koichi and Neopolitan had kept up this… weird cycle between them, one that had left Koichi in a bit of a state of limbo.

On the one hand; stalker. She seemed to know whenever he was in trouble or facing some manner of difficulty, most likely because she noiselessly followed him around just out of sight even when he was out on the town with his own friends as was the case two weeks ago when she helped him pick out that those outfits. It was something straight out of some warning he'd hear a lot of male huntsmen pass around with each other about crazy girls. This behavior was considered completely odd and out of sorts with reality, the kind of thing you took as a warning sign. He hadn't really seen her up close in forever and only managed to catch her, sometimes, during class and out in the hall. She'd seem all too aware of him too and she'd always meet his gaze and smile back. The fact that he didn't quite understand why she'd chosen to stalk him rather than approach him had also been a touch on the confusing and, at times, concerning.

It wasn't something that people should've considered charming or… worthy of weird feelings.

But that was the other hand; Neopolitan did make Koichi feel weird, and not strictly in a bad way. She had saved his life against Angelo and done so at risk to her own life. She'd been around and always gave a hand, even over stuff that Koichi wouldn't have expected. Her notes were always funny or hiding some little joke that made him chuckle and her attitude… she wasn't shy, if he had ever thought that was the reason she was stalking him. She was cool and confident and… and not the kind of person Koichi could've ever imagined hanging around with him without having been placed on a team with him first. For whatever reason she might've stalked him, a lack in self-confidence wasn't it. Hell, her presence at the fight with Angelo's, her own show of drive and sacrifice… it'd helped push Koichi over his own edge. He'd become better since then. He'd been more confident, more outspoken, more willing to be his own person. He was an equal to Josuke and Okuyasu in a way that he hadn't felt like before. All of this without even mentioning how Echoes had evolved…

And also without mentioning that Koichi had found her cute.

These were confusing, befuddling emotions for the young man to feel. On the one hand uncertain, nervous and a bit spooked while on the other hand charmed and… oddly enticed by her. The dance, he had thought, would provide him with an opportunity to let things be settled. Whatever reason she had for not showing herself to his friends or himself, surely it could be gotten around with the cover of a social event. Surely he could be able to actually see and talk to her again in a place where them being seen together wouldn't be considered odd (or whatever reason had kept her back). Then… maybe he could sort these things out. Maybe find out just what exactly it was he felt when the complications were shaken off and he could just hang around with her.

Maybe… maybe he'd like it. Maybe she'd like it? All he knew was that he had wanted at least an opportunity to sort all this out.

However, as much as Koichi had grown as a young man and as much as he'd changed since first arriving at Beacon… he was still Hirose Koichi at heart. He was still a little bit nervous and a little bit shy at times. So him rushing off to ask a very attractive girl out to dance, effectively a date, had caused his cheeks to flush as he swallowed a small lump in his throat. That he was currently doing it because he'd been effectively egged on by his friends and thus faced the possible shame of going back to them and allowing them to think that he had, in fact, lied to them only added to that nervous energy he now carried.

If they thought they had caught in him a lie or bluff about asking a girl out, or having known a girl to ask out, the jokes about his dignity would have no end. As much as he loved hanging out with Josuke and Okuyasu, it'd be nice if he didn't actually give them ammunition to keep poking fun at him like that.

With those thoughts in his mind, Koichi continued his search. After a little while of dead ends and no signs of any members of Cinder's Team, Koichi found his break; Mercury and Emerald had been hanging around the library, quietly talking amongst themselves and on a phone. As Koichi noticed them he waved to get their attention which, once he had it, he could've swore he saw a surprised look on Emerald's face and an intrigued one on Mercury's before they both whispered something into their phone. Slightly put off that he'd caught them at a bad time, but not deterred, Koichi slowly approached.

"Well, well, if it isn't the little man of Team JOJO himself. What can we do for you… Koichi." Mercury seemed to take a moment to remember his name which Koichi had found fair. Before his spars against Team CRDL and now other members ever since Act 2 had allowed him to advance up the rankings, he hadn't been worth remembering, even in his own opinion. Plus, Mercury always came off as the spacey sort, especially after his fight this morning.

"Oh, well, yeah, sorry if I caught you two at a bad time with that call, I just thought I could ask a question is all." Koichi responded with a slightly sheepish smile, to which Emerald responded with a wide, friendly grin as she waved him off.

"Ah, no worries Koichi, that was nothin'. Cinder's just off campus for today handling a little bit of team business around Vale. With the dance coming up we're gonna be needing some good looking clothes, and the boss decided she'd be kind enough to sort that out for us." Emerald's friendly demeanor had hidden her annoyance with the interruption. Cinder had always said that the best lies were hidden behind half-truths, and so she employed it here; yeah, Cinder was out organizing their needs for the dance, including duds… just not the sort of duds that kids like Koichi would notice them wearing. Still, Emerald kept up her act while Mercury just raised a curious brow.

"Yeah, nothin' major squirt. So, what brings you to us Koichi? Josuke send you off to ask us about something?" Mercury tilted his head to the side as Koichi's cheeks flushed red, the young man just scratching the side of his head as he looked down to the side. It was quite evident that the little man was embarrassed and for Mercury and Emerald, it had taken them both a moment to figure out why he might've been so… well, he was normally shy, but this was a bit more than usual, especially nowadays. Once he had figured it out, Mercury's normally bored or distant gaze rose up into a bit of mirth. "Oh-ho, is that why you're here? Well, I can give you and Emerald a little bit of space if you want to be a big man in private there Koichi. Gotta say, didn't think you'd be so bold." Koichi and Emerald flinched, the blue eyes of the short young man wide as he shook his head as Emerald sent a very discrete glare Mercury's way.

"N-No! Not that! I'm not here to ask about Emerald!" At that, both their eyes went a bit wide as Mercury covered his mouth with his hand, a series of chortles heard just behind it as he wrapped his other arm around his gut.

"Cinder? Seriously? That's… gutsy." Emerald tried her best to think of the most friendly term she could've used for this little turn of events. Asking Cinder Fall out to the dance… if the little shit had known what he was about to step in, then he surely would've been pissing himself right now. But, yet again, Koichi shook his head, which caused a pair of confused looks to cross their faces.

"Me? Well Koichi, I can't say that I'm not flattered, cause I am and I'm probably gonna brag about this to Emerald next time she tells me no one could possibly want me, but-"

"I wanted to know if you two could tell me where I could find Neopolitan!?"

A dead silence suddenly settled in amongst all at the table, as Mercury and Emerald just stared blankly at Koichi. The young man himself had gone completely beet red, embarrassed at his sudden explosion of noise but, nonetheless, certain in his question. After a moment both Emerald and Mercury blinked and tilted their heads slightly, clearly confused expressions on their faces as Mercury slowly raised a hand.

"'Scuse me Koichi, not sure if I heard you right there. You said you want us to tell you if we know where we could find Neopolitan… that's what you said, right?" Koichi flushed slightly as his question was thrown back at him, yet nodded firmly regardless. Mercury and Emerald met each other's eyes for a moment before Emerald's red orbs went back to Koichi.

"How do you know our teammate Koichi? Neopolitan isn't exactly the most… social, among us. Not exactly a person who gets out there to be seen… in fact, she around so little I'm surprised you even know her name… like, really surprised." Emerald grit her teeth a bit as she fought to keep the smile on her face. "She's quite the… free spirit, after all. Didn't seem like the kind of person who'd take time out of her day to go around making friends." Koichi looked down to the side as he kicked at the floor a bit. So, Neopolitan hadn't even told her teammates about how they knew each other. It made sense he supposed, it would be a little weird to tell your team about how you were stalking a guy…

Koichi hummed for a moment as he thought about what Emerald said. Was that why Neopolitan had been so insistent on not being seen and just quietly stalking him? She hadn't come off as lacking confidence… then again, maybe she wasn't shy and just didn't want to know too many people. Maybe the idea of making friends with his friends didn't appeal. Maybe she was just antisocial and only wanted to get to know and stalk him.

Once again Koichi felt an odd mix of emotions in his gut before he just shrugged.

"Oh you know, we've seen each other… around. We talk sometimes… err, or, I talk and she writes stuff down because she can't… you guys are her teammates, you know what I mean." Koichi said with an embarrassed huff as Mercury and Emerald just nodded slowly.

"Oh yeah, we know exactly what you mean Koichi." They also knew that Koichi had been bullshitting them about how he knew Neopolitan. Now, both Emerald and Mercury knew when Neo would've actually first run into Koichi, after all, everyone had heard about her report on Angelo and that little shitstorm. Everyone but Cinder had been glad to see the asshole dragged into custody again, even if Torchwick seemed frustrated that his and Cinder's plans, once again, fell through. However, Neo hadn't said anything about making such a… delightful impression on Koichi.

Nor had she said anything about handing her name out.

"So, you two have talked multiple times now, is that right?" The green haired young woman asked as she kept her tone even and friendly despite how frustrated and confused she had felt. Koichi just nodded casually as he kept his hands in his pockets. "How did you two meet anyway?"

"Oh… you know, we just ran into each other in the hallway. That's it." Koichi scratched his cheek a bit as Mercury and Emerald seemed utterly unimpressed by Koichi's attempt at a lie.

"Riiight… well, sorry to say Koichi but we really don't know where Neo likes to spend time when she's not in class or when she's skipping. Like we said, bit of a free spirit that girl. Just so hard to figure out where Neopolitan is at any given time." Mercury uttered somewhat awkwardly as he chanced a look around while Emerald just offered a friendly, if sad, smile.

"Sorry we couldn't be of more help Koichi. Who knows, maybe you'll run into her again yourself." Emerald gave a slight tilt to her head as she smiled consolingly at Koichi, who just slowly nodded his head with a frown.

"Yeah, maybe. Well, thanks anyway you guys, I appreciate it." With that, Koichi slowly wandered off, his eyes peels as he tapped his chin and tried to think out the best, new way to approach this little problem of his. Emerald and Mercury just watched for a slow few seconds as Koichi walked away and, once out of sight, the two's friendly, cheery exteriors immediately melted away into annoyed, frustrated frowns.

"Well, it sounds like Neo's been having a little bit of fun on the side." Mercury crossed his arms as he shook his head, Emerald having bit her lip in frustration as she looked over at the silver haired teen.

"I don't get it; literally no one has seen them together and Koichi's been within sight of a lot of people a lot of the time. There's no way she'd have been able to slip in time with him without anyone noticing." Emerald frustratedly growled as she leaned a hand against her cheek. "You know people would talk and gossip the everloving shit out of something like that. 'Four Kingdom Huntress and a Frontier Huntsman' sounds like the kind of insipid gossip these fucking kids would pass around like popcorn." Emerald sounded as if she had been ready to gag at the thought, while Mercury just tapped his chin in some thought.

"Entirely possible that they haven't been seen together because she hasn't been seen." Emerald arched an eyebrow as she looked over at Mercury. "Think about it, little miss ice cream headache is pretty much unseeable and unhearable at any moment of her choosing. It's possible that she's been having a little bit of side fun with Koichi at his expense… would explain why Koichi's coming to us too. The little shit probably actually hasn't seen her since the Angelo incident." Emerald carefully considered this as she frowned.

"Still, that isn't exactly what we were all expecting. She was supposed to have just stepped in to save our asses from being torched by Whitesnake if Angelo actually managed to kill Koichi or the other idiots on his team. The shortstack wasn't supposed to see… hear… ugh, read more about her at any time since then." The young woman ran a hand through her green hair as she clucked her tongue. "Cinder's not gonna like it." To that, Mercury shrugged.

"Not much to be done; Torchwick's been insistent about not leashing that little bitch to us and instead letting her roam wild. So long as she doesn't actually do anything to endanger us, she's technically keeping within CInder and Roman's very loose guidelines… plus, this could just be that little shit appreciating her saving him and wanting inside a pair of hotpants. Always possible." Mercury commented dryly as he shrugged his shoulders, which had earned him a rather swift punch from Emerald.

"Regardless, we should probably get Cinder back on the phone and tell her. Next time she speaks with Roman, the two of them can have a little talk." At that, the sound of the halls becoming somewhat active reached Emerald's and Mercury's ears, which caused them both to grimace.

"Let's head back to our 'room' here before we do so. Not much point in having this conversation if we end up caught." Mercury offered and Emerald readily agreed. With that, the two stood up from their seats and immediately took off. As they had, they left one presence behind at the table, one that had been following Koichi around for most of the day.

Neo stuck her tongue out at Emerald and Mercury as they walked off, bringing her hands up into little puppet-like gestures as she pantomimed the two talking shit before she rolled her eyes. She swore, hanging around with Cinder Fall had given the two the very unfortunate impression that they were both unbelievably clever… or, Emerald at least. Mercury only thought he was clever with his wordplay… which, if Neo could speak or laugh at all, she would've quickly corrected that little misconception.

Emerald though, the little kiss ass, seemed to think she had some kind of lock on 'reporting' Neo. Yeah, good luck with that. As far as anyone could be seen, no one had seen Neopolitan around Koichi and that was that. Hell, even his own team was pretty well convinced that Koichi had been full of crap. It was a little bit bothersome that Koichi had gone to her 'team' in order to ask about it, because being in the know as they were, Mercury and Emerald were able to put a few more things together. They wouldn't have enough to land either herself or Roman in hot water, Neo had been careful about that, but still, it would be annoying. Koichi's attempts to play it cool had utterly failed in that regard and, even if Mercury and Emerald hadn't been aware of how they would've 'met', they probably still would've been able to put two and two together. The boy was a charmer in his own way, but his skill with lying was pretty unimpressive...

Unimpressive though it might've been, the silent spectator couldn't help but find the attempt to be at least a little cute. The little man was trying his best to play it cool and quiet like she would've wanted. It was nice that he respected her notes enough to do that, even if it meant embarrassing himself in front of his friends. He hadn't tried to pressure her into revealing herself in front of his friends by exposing their little secrets or by demanding it of her. Hell, the only thing he'd asked was to see her again at all…

It kind of stung to have to continually turn him down, if she had been honest. The little guy had already grown on her into a neat little curiosity by the time the fight with Angelo had rolled around… though, Neo wasn't one to kid herself, she was still technically stalking the shit out of him by then. But that stalking was pure business, no pleasure and no fun involved… well, some fun, but it was mostly business. During and after Angelo however? Neo didn't bullshit herself and wasn't in deep denial like Emerald or Cinder, that event and their interactions after had changed things. Neo had begun to stalk Koichi not for a mission, like she would excuse it to Roman and Cinder… she did it because she wanted to watch him. To interact with him in some way. This eventually even evolved into their little note passing and in Neo helping him out from time to time.

Really, stalking Koichi had proven greatly entertaining for Neopolitan… for various sundry reasons on top of the more innocent ones. A sly grin formed on her lips as she nodded invisibly to herself; Josuke and Okuyasu might've joked about Koichi having no dignity, but Neo? Yeah, she definitely didn't have any dignity. She didn't particularly care either; she was limited in what ways she could actually reach out to the little guy now that she had a vested interest… and the reason she limited herself was because of one thing she knew for absolute certain.

The Breach was going to end all of this.

Neopolitan silently sighed to herself as she leaned against the desk. By some luck, most people passed around the table she had sat herself at in the library and congregated elsewhere, leaving her pretty much alone. The Breach would ensure that even Neo's limited stalking was going to end. Koichi was going to either be killed during it or he'd be captured and shipped off to Whitesnake to have… something done to him. What exactly would happen to him wasn't clear, but Neopolitan could only assume that the little guy would probably die from it too.

Despite how cutesy Neopolitan was playing this with her stalking and note passing, she knew on some level that interacting with Koichi anymore after Angelo had been some kind of mistake and that giving him her name had ESPECIALLY been a bad call. Yet, well, Emerald was right in one regard; Neopolitan was a 'free spirit', if free spirit meant she acted based on impulse from time to time. So long as it didn't harm Roman, Neopolitan didn't see any harm in doing what she wanted.

And this wouldn't. Whatever feeling she might've worked up for Koichi after the fight with Angelo and their interactions after, it wouldn't have mattered. Roman took her in when she had no family and made her something, something she was proud of. Hell, the man was as good as family itself as far as she had been concerned. She was going to see to it that he made it through all this or be damned trying. Hell, if needed, she'd personally hand Koichi over on a silver platter. She'd kill him if Roman needed it.

But he didn't… and liking a guy on the opposite side wasn't going to hurt anything either. Neo didn't hold herself back because she thought her stalking Koichi would hurt Roman's agenda or The Breach. Neo kept it to stalking and just that because she knew the end was pretty well sealed for the little guy. Koichi was dead one way or the other, and there were no two ways about it. There was no point in getting even more attached to him when all that was going to wait for them at the end of The Breach was his corpse.

She was… she was going to miss Koichi. Him and his ass. Neo grinned slightly to herself as she looked out towards the entrance of the library. The dance was set to take place on her time off. If she showed up and Mercury, Emerald or Cinder noticed her, that'd only confirm their suspicions. Neo… would've liked a last chance to watch Koichi. Hell, seeing him in a little suit before she got shipped off to Mountain Glenn would've been one last treat for the eyes, one last little bit of fun she could've had before it all came to an end. It would've been nice to go and just keep an eye on him for a little bit more, but… well, maybe it was better this way.

Neo herself admitted that she was impulsive. Knowing that Koichi wanted to spend the dance with her, wanted to see her… it might've given her some pretty stupid ideas. Might've made knowing The Breach was set to happen just that little bit more depressing.

Roman would come out of all of this with a win at least. Whatever else came of The Breach and whatever else Neo might've had to feel a little bit sad about, Roman would finally win. He'd finally get to be his own man again and they could ditch Cinder's ass and enjoy their rich reward once everything went through. Despite this, the look on Neo's face was balanced between her sly grin and a bit of melancholy. She'd planned on spending the rest of the day stalking Koichi but… well, watching him trying to find her to ask her out, eh, Neo wasn't the type who liked to watch kicked puppies. That was precisely the mental image she got from such a display.

So, with a bit of a huff, Neo decided she'd head back to the safehouse and… whatever, maybe scare the piss out of some White Fang? That might be fun.

* * *

Team JNPR Dorm Room, Beacon Academy, Meanwhile

"Jeez Ren, you could've said that you just forgot your phone on the nightstand. Figured you needed me to help you look because you thought you lost it… somewhere else." Jaune's face went a bit red as he spoke, as did Ren's. Though the latter's embarrassment had been more to do with having had to go through this little charade to protect Pyrrha's 'secret' in the first place than what Jaune might've suspected.

"Apologies Jaune, it… must've just slipped my mind." Ren sighed internally as he placed his head in his hand and shook his head. If he had been honest, Ren had seen Okuyasu's growing frustration coming from a mile away. While Polnareff still held the record as far as stubborn bullheadedness in his opinion, Okuyasu wasn't too far behind and neither men were strong at keeping secrets if Joseph had been anything to believe back when Avdol miraculously survived.

It wasn't even that Ren was 'that' upset. Ren, having been with a strong personality like Nora for so long, had grown more than used to similar personalities. Okuyasu felt things a little more strongly than someone like Ren and wasn't as afraid to put his voice out there. To be frank, even Ren felt the frustration Okuyasu felt when it came to Jaune and Pyrrha. To watch the two dance around it, Jaune through ignorance and Pyrrha through whatever it was going through her head as of late, had been a mild source of frustration. Not even that they were angry, Hell Ren doubted Okuyasu could be really 'angry' at any of his friends for too long or over such a simple reason. Ren felt his own frustration because… well, it was hard to see two of his friends just not be happy for various reasons.

Pyrrha wasn't happy keeping Jaune out of the loop on this, however much she might be trying to hide that now, and Jaune certainly wasn't happy with his efforts to woo Weiss. Not that Pyrrha should be seen as a 'replacement' for Weiss nor that Jaune owed it to Pyrrha to make her happy. Such thoughts were a bit disgusting to Ren. He just saw in it an opportunity for two of his friends and comrades to be a little happier, and he was certain Okuyasu saw it too. After all, that's how his bubbly companion and partner saw it as well.

Ren's head snapped over to the door as Pyrrha wandered into the dorm room, the red headed former tournament fighter seemingly in some thought before she saw the two of them and gave a semblance of a smile.

"Oh, have you two found Ren's Scroll?" Jaune nodded as he pointed over to the little device in Ren's hand, as Pyrrha gave Ren an appreciative nod, one that was quickly met by Ren.

"Yeah, turns out that he just left it on the counter. Not much of a look but hey, we found it… now I just need to remember where I put my guitar." Jaune checked underneath his bed with a slight frown as he scratched his head; he'd already checked his locker earlier that day and he was sure he'd unpacked it into the room sometime when he'd arrived at Beacon. It'd been so long since he last played it that he'd actually forgotten where he left it. "Maybe the closet…" The blond knight muttered to himself as he got up from the floor.

"Your guitar?" Pyrrha asked, slightly befuddled, as Jaune nodded.

"Yeah, figure that if I'm going to ask Weiss to the dance, I need to do something a little special. Something that'll really grab her attention with some pizazz, you know? Show some confidence and one of my… better skills." Jaune muttered with a sheepish look on his face as he walked over to one of the team's closets. Low and behold, the wooden guitar had been sat in there along the back wall, partially covered up by discarded uniforms. "There we go!"

Ren watched as the look on Pyrrha's face went through several stages; endearment as Pyrrha's green eyes softened and a small smile played across her lips. Disillusionment, as Pyrrha's smile shifted into a frown and her eyes darted away from Jaune… and, finally, determination and resolve as Ren held his breath. Was Pyrrha actually about to-

"Jaune." Pyrrha spoke with a firm tone of voice, one that had immediately grabbed Jaune's attention. "I don't think going out and asking Weiss with the guitar is a good idea." Ren's face fell at that, a slight shake of his head sending his strand of pink hair around as he walked over to a chair to sit and watch the usual show.

"You think so Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, not even for a second having questioned or fought back against her. There was a level of trust that Jaune had entrusted in Pyrrha, Ren noticed, ever since the incident back during their first term. If Pyrrha suggested that it might not have been a good idea, Jaune had been all too willing to listen… on top of the fact that Pyrrha was a woman herself and thus probably had some insider knowledge.

"Don't get me wrong Jaune, I'm sure you'd be… very dashing if you tried to use that guitar on anyone else." A small smile twitched on Jaune's lips at the compliment, as Pyrrha continued. "But… I think Weiss might be like me, or perhaps even more jaded." Jaune quirked a blond eyebrow as Pyrrha took a breath. "Jaune, a lot of people will and probably have asked Weiss out, as… have a lot of my fans. And no, not because we're attractive or because of our other qualities… though, I'm sure those played a part." Pyrrha awkwardly tucked a hair behind her ear as she recalled Surface and his Stand Master Toshikazu.

"A lot of people are more like Toshikazu, though not as bad. Weiss has probably experienced the same thing… people who've only wanted to get to know me or be with me for my fame and, for her, people who only want to be close to her because it means having a chance at the Schnee family's fortune. Weiss… has probably had to put up a lot with that." Jaune's eyes went a bit wide as he shook his head.

"Oh jeez, I mean, I always thought so, but I didn't really think about it because I've never thought of Weiss like that… then again, Weiss can't read minds so she wouldn't know that…" Jaune muttered dishearteningly as Pyrrha just smiled slightly.

"What have you thought of Weiss, Jaune?"

"Well, I mean, you know Pyrrha. I'm completely head over heels for her, I haven't exactly been subtle." Jaune joked a bit, but Pyrrha just motioned for him to go on. Jaune paused for a moment, clapping his hands together slightly. "I mean… she's cold, but also incredible. She's smart and graceful and talented-" Jaune actually chuckled a bit, the obvious excitement in his voice growing as he waved over to Pyrrha, "-I mean, have you heard her sing?" The smile on Jaune's face dipped as he looked down and over to the side. "I just wish she'd take me seriously, you know?"

Pyrrha smiled warmly as she offered her leader a nod. She took a long, hard breath as she stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then be serious and tell her what you just told me Jaune." Before the blond haired, blue eyed young man could respond, Pyrrha just shook him a bit. "No ridiculous schemes, no antics, no… guitar." Pyrrha chuckled lightly as Jaune blushed. "Just tell her the truth."

"But… what if I get it wrong? What if that's not what she wants to hear?" Jaune seemed rather surprised by Pyrrha tone and the forcefulness of her advice, but Pyrrha just smiled.

"Jaune, you can't get it wrong if it's the truth… and Jaune, trust me. People like Weiss and I… we appreciate the truth more than you know. Goodness knows I'd like to hear what you just said… from a potential date." If Jaune had noticed the hesitation in the last chunk of Pyrrha sentence, he certainly hadn't shown it. An appreciative smile crossed his lips, one met by an equally warm smile on Pyrrha's part, as Jaune clapped her on the shoulder.

"Thanks Pyr." With that, Jaune made his way to the front door, sans guitar, as he twisted his head to look back into the room. "And Pyrrha, I don't think you'll need to worry too much about that. Loads of guys probably feel that way about you. Heck, if you wind up at the dance dateless, I'll wear a dress." The warm feelings gave way to light, earnest chuckles as Pyrrha offered a slightly hesitant nod to Jaune Arc.

"What are you still waiting for?" With one last nod, Jaune ran off, leaving Ren and Pyrrha alone in their dormroom.

"... I have to admit, I'm wondering if Okuyasu's approach was all that wrong at this point." Ren spoke aloud as he watched the scene play out before him as Pyrrha just sighed wearily.

"Ren-"

"Pyrrha, I respect that you've asked to handle this yourself, but I have to be frank… you're terrible at handling this yourself." Pyrrha chortled slightly as Ren spoke, the magenta eyed man having spoken with the usual, even tone he'd almost always spoken with.

"I know what I'm doing Ren." The Mistrali man just shook his head slightly.

"Weiss has her eyes on Neptune, you know. Jaune can ask and, even with your advice, she'll probably say no or have already asked Neptune out." Ren frowned sadly as he looked towards his teammate. "I just don't understand why you don't take your own advice Pyrrha. Those words… they were genuine and, well, very insightful. If you followed through, told Jaune the truth, what reason would you have to believe that he'd say no?" Pyrrha simply stood there for a moment, her eyes having dipped down slightly as she looked off to the side.

"... You're probably right too." Pyrrha spoke with a weary sigh as she ran a hand through her hair. "He would probably say yes, wouldn't he? Jaune wouldn't do it to be desperate either… if he knew, he'd give me a chance, he'd let me in. Him being the kind of guy he is, he'd give it his all too." A warm smile crossed Pyrrha's lips as she spoke, with Ren just nodding exasperatedly.

"Yes! Exactly. I don't see the problem then. Why hesitate still, Pyrrha?" Pyrrha's smile fell as Ren spoke, the former tournament fighter having bit her lip slightly before she looked Ren in the eye.

"Ren, what would you do if Nora left you?" The magenta eyed young man flinched back slightly at the seemingly random question, blinking in confusion as he looked to his teammate.

"Pyrrha, where did-"

"Just sate my curiosity, Ren." Pyrrha implored slightly which, again, stunned Ren for a moment. After a bit, Ren's gaze evened out and he spoke with an absolute certainty.

"She won't… both because she won't abandon me and I won't abandon her. We've been together for almost as long as we can remember, and we'll probably stick together for as long as both live. The things Nora and I have gone through… there's no breaking that bond. She'll be by my side and I'll be by hers" It had been Pyrrha's turn to be surprised. It hadn't been spoken as if to suggest Ren owned Nora in this regard, as he had been equally sure that he wouldn't leave her. It hadn't been said with false confidence either; to Ren, this was an absolute certainty. It was something that he could time his watch by.

Pyrrha smiled slightly. If the two of them ever worked this out, it'd be an occasion. Still, she pressed on. "Let's speak hypothetically Ren. As impossible as it is… if Nora ever, ever left you, how would you do? How would you feel?" For a moment, Ren remained stern and stone faced. It was clear, even when pressed to think in some hypothetical, that the young man resisted the notion that his best friend would ever just abandon him.

However, Pyrrha saw it; a brief moment where an ugly little limp formed in Ren's throat. A moment where his eyes darted off to the side. Hesitation, nervousness… fear.

Pyrrha knew she had gotten the answer to her question, however, soon enough Ren returned his gaze to Pyrrha with a slightly perplexed look.

"A little early to be thinking of something that consequential isn't it Pyrrha?" There was an implied joke, as Ren leaned forward. "Besides, if it got that serious, I doubt Jaune would ever leave. He's the loyal type, that much is certain. Heck, several months of Weiss swatting him away and he still hasn't left her heels." Ren shrugged slightly, though Pyrrha just nodded.

"Indeed. Jaune does seem like the type who'd be loyal, always there, ready to support you and not wanting to burden others with his own problems and failings… that's just the kind of person he is." Once again, Ren seemed confused as Pyrrha just shook her head, her ponytail flopping about her back as she looked up to Ren with a pair of sad, sad eyes. "The kind of person I'm really not." With that, Pyrrha turned on her heels and made for the door.

"Pyrrha, what are you talking about? How could you think something like that of yourself?" Ren asked, perplexed, as Pyrrha stopped at the door. She paused for a moment, just a moment, before she looked back to Ren.

"Ren… you left Mistral with Nora because you didn't have a choice." Ren was flabbergasted; this turn in topic had seemed to come out of left field and yet before Ren could press, Pyrrha forged forward. "You two were children, orphaned by the Grimm in a kingdom that would've just taken advantage of you two… that would've ruined your lives." Pyrrha brought up a gauntleted hand to her eyes as she wiped at them.

"I had a family Ren… one that I had supported with my rise through the tournament ranks completely and totally and had loved me even when we didn't have money. I had wealth and status and could afford any protection. My parents loved me dearly and I had a network of support that would've stood by me, even in the face of something horrific… something that we would've had to fight." Pyrrha took a deep breath as she looked Ren in the eyes.

"Do you want to know why I left Mistral Ren? I've been giving it a lot of thought ever since… ever since Surface." Pyrrha couldn't pin this on her match with Josuke. That had provided kindling, that had given her some reason to think over 'why' she left, over 'why' even after all this time she was so childish as to be more excited to fight someone her equal or, Hell, her better than being a Huntress… but it had been looking Toshikazu in the eye and seeing a reflection of her old life, of the people who wanted to use her that she could've ignored, of the threats that she could've stood her ground against, that made her think deeply.

"Beyond the excuses, beyond the cost, beyond the fact that I would've needed to fight to stay… do you want to know what tipped me over on leaving Mistral? The thing that most weighed heavily on my mind when I left… the part of my life I hated so much that it made leaving Mistral seem like an escape?" Pyrrha turned her eyes back to the door and, with a deep breath, spoke three simple words.

"I was bored." With that, Pyrrha departed and left a rather stunned Ren in her wake. Ren slowly sat back down into the chair and took a deep breath. It was rare that Ren had been shaken up by something. But the look in Pyrrha's eyes… the deep, personal shame, the self-loathing… that had shaken Ren up quite a bit. There were few times in Ren's life after the Stardust Crusaders where he'd felt like something in his life was beyond his control or his aid…

At moments like these, Ren closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and remembered. Remembered the advice of an old friend and teacher. The sage words of the Vacuoan fortune teller, the master of Magician's Red, Muhammad Avdol, rang out in Ren's ears…

And they caused Ren to just shake his head slightly.

"Don't think even you'd know what to say here, Avdol. Might be that you were twelve years too early."

* * *

Safehouse, The City of Vale, An Hour Later

"Alright so once your little operation is settled, he'll slip into their system and hang out for as long as he can, get some information about their movements in the aftermath and then slip back out. That about sum it all up?" Torchwick rubbed his forehead a bit as he spoke with Cinder on the other end of the Scroll, the woman's face and voice being 'just' enough of an irritant to really get under his skin at the moment. Really, these past several weeks had been a disaster as far as Roman had been concerned. Yes, work on The Breach had gone on unabated and yes, if things there went to plan, then they'd have Vale and everything they wanted in it right in the palm of their hands…

But that was a big if, especially with so many other things going wrong. Tamami, that old rat, had gone down, as had Toshikazu and a smattering of other smaller Stand Users. Picked off here and there either by those brat kids who, he swore, were starting to give him a fucking ulcer, Ironwood's little toy soldiers and the real ones who made the robots looks positively animated and alive and, finally, Kujo Jotaro himself.

The last of which had 'especially' gotten under his skin, given the skinny he'd gotten off of witnesses to any of Jotaro's happenings. The main one had been a four on one little match around the time Angelo had managed to kidnap one of the little brats. The sort of lopsided odds that were supposed to have given them their chance to take down Jotaro nice and clean.

He wiped the fucking cement with them. All of them, in less than a second (or, in reality, several seconds of this shit called 'Stopped Time'), taken down without the man himself having even broken a sweat. When faced with that kind of power and when faced with the fact that over and over and over again his own allies and forces had failed to act against these brats or Ironwood…

It was enough to get Roman to think some very nervous thoughts. To consider if, perhaps, that Mistrali bastard Bucciarati may have had a point.

It was still ridiculous and, despite Cinder's ravings about how they couldn't fail, how they were meant to succeed, Torchwick had yet to buy into this nonsense about fate or Gravity. However, his mind wandered there now, more and more, as he was faced with more and more failures.

The only bright spot, and it was barely a bright spot at all, was Angelo. Yeah, Cinder was all on-board with that fucking psychopath, but frankly, the guy had scared the everloving piss out of Roman. Better than he was in Ironwood's little neck of the woods rather than standing around waiting for the chance to slit his throat, as far as Roman had been concerned. Still, that had been another failure to chalk up to his side in all these things.

If all this had stressed out Cinder any, she certainly hadn't shown it.

"Yes. If we're lucky, if they have any plans in the immediate follow up that might actually punish our own efforts with setting up The Breach, then he'll be able to come back to us with them so that we might counteract them," Cinder smirked slightly as she looked up to Roman. "I'm honestly looking forward to this, dear Roman. If all goes well, Mercury, Emerald and myself might actually be able to end our little farce of a stay over at Beacon. That would certainly be a relief to those two, I'm certain." Cinder said with a light, breathy laugh as Roman just ground his teeth nervously.

"If it all goes well. So far very few of our encounters with any of the brats or Kujo Jotaro have gone to plan Cinder. Honestly, I don't know how you're so confident." Cinder shrugged her shoulders slightly as she smiled back at Roman.

"Well, no matter what happens, The Breach is beyond their ability to stop at this point, especially with how little information they have at their disposal. A failure here or a failure there won't matter, especially with stopgaps and backups in place to ensure that failure doesn't spread." A thoughtful look crossed Cinder's face as she tapped her chin. "Although, you have raised a fair point, dear Roman. There are a few points where failure in this little affair might become quite consequential. Emerald and myself will handle ourselves just fine, but… well, if the other pieces don't fall into place, we'll need to be able to slip back into Beacon Academy without drawing much notice.

"If your little pet would join us at the dance, it would certainly give us just the fallback we need should anything happen. Give good cover to Mercury as well." Roman frowned as Cinder spoke; he'd known well enough who Cinder meant by 'pet' and, while aggravated to no end, he just huffed to relieve some of that irritation before he spoke up.

"Neo won't be able to join for the dance, I'm afraid. It's scheduled during her off-hours and, considering how loaded up she's going to be helping ensure The Breach goes to plan, I intend to keep her pleased as punch. A bored and aggravated Neopolitan can be a headache to work with, I assure you." The words were far less angry or irritated than they might've suggested as Roman leaned back slightly, Cinder's face scrunching up in some disgust as she shook her head.

"I honestly don't see why you abide that ridiculous little stipulation of hers. A person of her calibre if put to use constantly-"

"Would wear out or go hopping mad." Roman stated firmly as he brought out a cigar and lit it. Conversations with Cinder about Neopolitan always had a tendency to go down this way. "Neopolitan is my most loyal soldier and the most effective. She always get the job done no matter what it is and usually within good time. If she wants to… oddly split her days to match up with this duality of hers, I say go for it. Unlike me, Vale doesn't know what she looks like or what her name is. She's free to do it." Roman had taken several long drags on his cigar as he spoke.

Roman had been all too happy to oblige his… best soldier, the word tasted bitter even in his mind. Neo had always been by his side ever since he took her in eight years ago. Girl was more loyal to him than he thought any person could've been, especially for some mute street orphan he just happened to pick up off the street. Neopolitan always made sure she got Roman what he wanted when he ordered it… the least he could do for her was to oblige her own requests every now and then.

That the girl stirred some very… paternal feelings in him would just stay in his head for a while.

"Hmmm… speaking of Neopolitan and loyalty, Mercury and Emerald brought up something very interesting today, Roman." Roman arched an eyebrow as he took a long drag on his cigar, as Cinder just grinned malevolently. "You see, Emerald and Mercury had a very interesting conversation with Hirose Koichi, the boy Angelo kidnapped and that your little Neo helped save." Roman nodded his head slowly as he stook another drag on his cigar. Neo had told them about it; Angelo had gone rogue, intended to kill all the brats he'd manage to catch, which would've gotten their asses into some shit with Whitesnake, and she stepped in to help make sure it hadn't happened. She'd insisted, afterward, that she'd continue her work in keeping an eye on the Hirose kid; apparently he'd awoken to some new Stand Powers from the fight.

"Well, it seems that little Hirose Koichi was quite taken with Neopolitan's little rescue; he'd wanted to ask her out to the dance." Roman sputtered a bit as Cinder said this.

Excuse him? Ask Neo to…

Kid was either dumb or utterly ignorant about who Neo was and what she was capable of. Likely the latter, in all honesty. As little as Roman thought about these brats, he had to give them some credit. Neo had given them the play by play and there'd been enough confirmation about it, the kid hadn't seen anywhere near full skill during that little scuffle. Everything he would've seen was some girl who looked to be around his age and attended Beacon Academy saving his ass and helping him put the beatdown on a serial killer… there were worse targets to try and woo under those circumstances, he supposed.

"Alright, so the little shit wants into the pants of a girl who rescued him and is easy on the eyes. Hell, I'd almost find that relatable if we weren't talking about Neopolitan." Roman took a long drag on his cigar as he spoke, to which Cinder could only grin.

"He asked for her by name."

That… wasn't right. Neo's inclusion into Beacon had been rather last-minute to make up for how stacked the deck was getting with all these Stand Users suddenly popping into the campus. They only had Miuller and her Jail House Lock to work with as far as slipping her in had been concerned rather than the several forged documents that had helped to get Mercury, Emerald and Cinder in. Still, it had been enough to make Neo inconspicuous; belonging without belonging, a known quantity but nameless. She wouldn't interact with people, wouldn't let them really see her and wouldn't stick out enough to draw attention to the fact that nobody actually knew her name.

Hirose Koichi knowing her name… only one way that could've happened.

"Alright, so Neo gave him her name. And?" At that, Cinder seemed to blanch a bit, surprised by Roman's casual tone. "Look, Cinder, you might have to worry about keeping your little chicks in a row, but I don't. Neo's actually loyal, she and I actually get along; your little pets are just afraid of you." Roman took a long drag on his cigar before he expelled some smoke from his nose. "If I started worrying about Neo's loyalty every time she did something just because she felt like it, I'd have a lot of gray hairs by now.

"But you see, no matter what crazy shit Neo gets up to, I can depend on her to stay loyal. No matter what she's done, she's stuck it out with me. Considering she's been doing this for about eight years, right now I can't really say I'm worried." Roman chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders. "She gave her name to a little shit who she happened to fight with. Who cares?" Cinder's brows furrowed at Roman's dismissive tone however, without her presence directly in front of him, Roman had felt more than comfortable talking back, especially as it concerned Neopolitan.

"Now then, did your little peons actually tattle about something important, or is there something more pressing we can talk about? Time is money Cinder." The golden eyed woman just stared long and hard at Roman before, finally, she just smirked and shook her head.

"No, dear Roman. That will be all. Enjoy what little bit of downtime you have, for after this dance, you'll be shipped out to Mountain Glenn along with Neo." With that, the Scroll's line went down and Roman had been left staring into a blank screen. After the line had gone dead, Roman had taken a long, deep breath as he took a drag on his cigar.

"Jeez… getting me worked up like that." Roman frowned as he bit into the end of his cigar, taking a long drag as he placed some of the ashes into a nearby dish. "And Neo… bit impulsive there, but nothing out of the ordinary, I'd say." With that, Roman made to wander around the safehouse and look for a little bit of business he could take care of. Suddenly, the door to the safehouse opened and, to Roman's surprise, Neopolitan walked in, out of her school disguise and plainly as herself. Roman popped an eyebrow, pulled out his pocketwatch and checked the time.

"Ah, Neo… you're early. Wasn't expecting you for another couple hours." At that, the young ice cream themed woman shrugged her shoulders as she meandered about. The White Fang at the building with Roman suddenly tensed as Neo passed by; Roman, to them, was a known quantity, whereas most of the White Fang shared Mercury and Emerald's opinion of Neopolitan, namely, to be freaked out. Roman just watched the scene with his arched eyebrow as he snuffed out the remains of his cigar in the dish.

It was a little unusual; most of the time if Neo had time to burn she'd do it either in her own apartment or somewhere out on the town. It wasn't as if Neopolitan and Roman didn't spend time together; they just mostly did it during work. It was unusual to see her hanging around one of the safe houses rather than in one of her own spaces.

"Well… not much to do around here so if you're bored… I dunno, why not head home for a few hours? Go for a walk or… you know, whatever you do." Once again, Neo just shrugged as she meandered on up to a few White Fang goons. Sweat had started to visibly pour from beneath their uniforms as, even from behind their eyewear, Roman could tell that they had their eyes locked on Neo. In all honesty, it was a bit hilarious for Roman to watch other people's reactions to Neopolitan. Years of having been around her and practically having raised her into what she is today numbed her to Neo's sensibilities and oddities. In all honesty, he found much more amusement in them these days as watching people shit themselves over a mute girl who barely came up to their chests…

Well, that was just hysterical and usually seemed to be hilarious for Neo as well. Part of it was just her nature; there seemed to be a slightly sadistic, masochistic edge to Neo at times where she enjoyed just holding her power over others, something that Roman could relate to. After all, when you grew up powerless, abusing what power you eventually got became all the more fun. It was something he found he could relate to in the girl… and probably part of why he, well, 'adopted' her in the first place.

Now, Neo hadn't ever killed anyone who was employed with them or seriously maimed them; that was a line of professionalism that Roman had drawn and that, Neo, as ever, had stuck to when ordered. Plus the girl just seemed like she took more joy in people 'thinking' that was what she was going to get up to rather than doing it outside of missions. It's what separated her from the Angelos in the world…

Not to say that she'd never killed, Gods knew, girl had a body count. But it was always targeted by Roman himself. Like he said to Cinder, he never had to worry about Neo's impulsive actions ever endangering himself or her. The girl was loyal to him and his cause and he could always take that certainty to the bank.

Yet, despite the fact that the goons reacted how he knew they would, feeding into Neo's little toying around with them and her casual disregard for their space as she slowly stalked betwixt them… something was off.

Neo wasn't having fun with this. Hadn't even cracked a smirk or a grin.

That… was pretty unusual.

Roman bit his lip slightly as he watched Neopolitan roam over to a nearby table and just splay out beside it, a slight huff having escaped her mute lips as the girl frowned slightly. Reading Neopolitan was a skill that took a lot of practice for someone. The girl was mute, so she couldn't exactly communicate easily. You could take the time to let her type up or write messages, sure, it could come easier but Hell that was a less than perfect solution. It was hard enough to read people through their tone of voice, their expression or their body language when they could speak aloud to you. Reading a mute girl as she typed with no tone or inflection to help guide your thoughts was another level.

But, Roman wasn't the premier crime lord in Vale, worthy of being partners with Cinder and her organization, for nothing. The man got to where he was partially because he knew how to read people; knew how to see how they ticked. Knew who he could trust and who he couldn't.

Knew a great little bundle of potential just wasting away on the streets, ignored by everyone else.

So after a lot of time and effort, Roman had learned to be quite good at reading Neopolitan's moods. Once he did, it became increasingly easy to do so; her pride and her very casual nature meant that she often expressed herself quite plainly in terms of expression and mood. Hell, you could often feel it pouring off of her; it's what made her smug grins so annoying when turned on your, after all. You could feel how superior she thought she was to you in those moments.

When she'd entered, he'd made a bit of a misstep; it wasn't boredom he had felt pouring off of her, though for Neo it was often the emotion that came paired with this one… which, really, made it no wonder that he hadn't picked up on it first.

She was frustrated. No boredom paired with it, just pure frustration.

Roman lifted up his bowler and scratched at his head a bit. He'd been witnessed to a frustrated Neo often enough though, as he thought, usually for Neo she only got frustrated when she was bored. It was why she varied up her life so often; it kept her on her feet, kept any one thing from getting stale. Yet now, she was just aggravated and she had attempted to take it out on some of the White Fang goons by scaring the piss out of them.

Not a bad way of dealing with frustration all things considered, but still, curious. It was weird too because Neo's mood these past several weeks had been nothing short of fucking spectacular. Roman couldn't have thought of one day where Neo came in bored, frustrated or anything less than ready to go in and do work. She'd managed a shit ton of jobs for him off of that too, and it'd been a boon to Roman's stressed out mind. Amidst all the failures and the fallbacks with Cinder and the Stand Users, he could still always count on Neopolitan.

She'd spent a lot of her free time around Beacon too, now that he thought about it. He hadn't liked to keep tabs on her but… well, can't blame Roman for feeling a little protective of her after eight years. She hadn't been by her apartment a lot and people hadn't seen her wandering the streets much anymore or at her usual hangouts. Really, it should've bored Neo to tears hanging around that school so much, but-

" _He asked for her by name."_

Roman paused for a moment, all his thoughts swirling together as he knit his brows together. He slowly pulled out a cigar and lit it, a curious look on his face.

"So Neo… I know how much you value your free time and I know we agreed, but Cinder came with a pretty big request." The brown and pink eyed girl just rolled those eyes of her as she stuck her tongue out and, for a moment, Roman couldn't help but chortle. "I know, I know, but hear it out. So, you know how big the plans are surrounding the dance. Could be a make or break moment in a lot of these plans, so Cinder's been wanting some… assurances, just in case something goes wrong." At that, he saw it; Neo perked up slightly as she turned her head to look at him.

"She had asked if I could somehow get you to move or give up some of that free time of yours so that you could hang around at the dance, make sure that if anything goes wrong that Cinder and Emerald can be slipped back in safely and that Mercury doesn't stand out too much. I told her no, mostly because I know how much you hate doing favors for those stuck up bastards, but I just thought I'd let you know." And so, Roman watched very carefully as he took a long drag on his cigar. He knew what he was looking for, knew what to watch for. He'd seen it before in others often enough and used it to his own benefit, in more ways than one.

So when Neo's eyes widened a bit before a grin tugged at the corner of her lips, Roman couldn't help but internally curse.

Fuck.

Fuuuuuuuuuck!

He was so close to not having to deal with this bullshit!

Eight years. He'd made it through eight years of not having to deal with this kind of teenage crap from Neo. Hell, he'd been all but certain he was never going to have to. He'd been so worried when she'd hit thirteen; being thirteen was possibly the worst time to be alive for a person and equally hellish for being around them. But it'd passed by quietly enough. He'd thought he was in the clear, thought he wouldn't have to worry about this shit.

Yet, as Neo pretended to think for a moment, a playful glint to her eyes as she tried to pass herself off as inconspicuous and coy, Roman couldn't help but bite at his tongue to keep from shaking his head.

Really? The short guy? This was going to be what brought up this mess, huh?

Finally, after having thought about it, or pretended to think about it, it could be hard to tell with Neo, the pink and brown haired girl pulled out her Scroll and tapped away at it as she walked over towards Roman.

' _I really didn't have much to do that day anyway. Was probably just gonna sit around and watch tv. Watching the chaos unfold would probably be a lot more fun.'_ A cocky grin was on Neo's face as she nodded, attempting to pass of her little excitement as excitement for the operations themselves.

Roman, of course, knew better.

"Uh huh. Wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that Koichi kid would it?" Neo blanched for a moment, for once it had been Roman who got the drop on her, as her mouth just hung open for a moment as he spoke. Neo seemed to be poised to make some kind of comeback with her Scroll before a thought seemingly crossed her mind. Her expression lowered into a glower as she looked off towards Beacon Academy and Roman just nodded. "Yeah, fraid Cinder's peons squealed on you. Which is a shame; I thought people your age would have a little more solidarity than that. Turns out they're more whipped than even I thought, which is saying something.

"But, we're not talking about them right now." At that, Neo brought her gaze back to Roman, as she had done her best to look casual. She flipped out her Scroll and typed away at it.

' _I actually haven't seen him face to face since Angelo.'_

Well, that much was the truth, at least. Roman could tell just by watching her face as she thrust up the message to him.

"Uh huh." Yet still, Roman hadn't seemed all that impressed as he took a long drag off his cigar.

' _I wasn't even interesting in going until you brought up the possibility!'_

"Now that there's a lie. You thought about it… you just decided not to because it'd confirm those brats and Cinder's suspicions, right?" Roman had gotten awfully good at learning Neo's little quirks and her way of thinking over the years. That she flinched when he lobbied this accusation had been more than enough proof for him. "Alright so… I don't even get why this is happening. What's been going on at Beacon, and no bullshit Neopolitan." Neo puffed up her cheeks a bit as she looked up to Roman, before she clicked and clacked away at her Scroll.

' _... I may or may not have been watching him during my free time and exchanging some notes here and there.'_

"Fuck me, you've been stalking him? That's what you've been doing with your free time? Neo, do you have any idea how creepy that is?" Neopolitan stopped to think for a moment before she just smirked and shrugged her shoulders, obviously not giving a shit. "Jeez… at least tell me you haven't done anything… you have done inappropriate shit, I can tell just by looking at you." Neo once again tried to play herself off as coy, but the tint of red on her cheeks told him everything. "Gods be damned Neo… I know it's a little much to ask someone who was raised by a crook to have some dignity, but… agh." Roman shook his head as Neo just silently chuckled, a sly crinkle on her lips that died down once Roman turned back to look at her.

Roman took a long, hard drag on his cigar as he looked at Neo carefully. She was impulsive, she was bullheaded and overly proud of and confident in her own skills. These were things that Roman knew all too well about Neo, things that he knew of as her kind of sort of weaknesses. Not that she'd ever think of challenging people so far above her own skill level just off that confidence, God knows she'd know when to run, but still…

"You know he's going to die here once The Breach happens, right?" Roman asked firmly as he took a long, hard drag on his cigar. There wasn't even a beat of hesitation as Neo nodded her head. "You know that he's… well, our opponent." The word 'enemy' never struck Roman as being particularly useful, especially in his line of work. People were your competitors, but never your enemies. When you made it that personal, you ended up driving yourself crazy and making stupid mistakes.

It was all business and even as much as Team RWBY and those other brats might've frustrated him, he wouldn't have dipped down low enough to refer to a bunch of teens as 'his enemies'.

Still, Neo hadn't hesitated as she nodded her head again.

"You know at any moment I could order you to go out, take your umbrella and stick him in the head, right? That would be what I'd want you to do… and I could count on you to do it, no hesitation, right?" If Neo hesitated at all, she hadn't shown it. She just nodded, twirled her umbrella around and fixed him with a confident look. Roman arched a brow and decided to test her. "If I ordered you to gut him and string him up by those guts, you'd do it?" And, just like that, Neo fixed him with a slightly disgusted look. "Alright, alright, so you're not just telling me what I want to hear." Her expression had said that well enough but, eh, a little stress test here and there would assure his own nerves.

At that, Roman finally had to just sigh and shake his head. Neo had impulsively gotten herself interested in some short, scrawny little chump she'd helped save from Angelo… but she was still on his side. He could doubt a lot of things and a lot of people. He could doubt even himself sometimes. Hell, these past few months working with Cinder had him doubting a lot of things he'd held as gospel.

But he never had to worry about Neopolitan. This girl would stick by his side to the very end… mostly because he'd done the same for her over all these years. The two were a pair and had been for a long time now. So long it felt like there hadn't been a time where this pint-sized killer hadn't been in his employ. The two had an odd relationship, he knew; he raised her to be a vicious assassin and killer and she was good at her job and enjoyed it. But, Hell, she was as good as family to him, and better than any family he'd actually ever had, and he was sure the feeling was mutual.

It was a two way street… she had absolute faith in his because he had absolute faith in her…

Still, he wished he didn't have to deal with this bullshit. He was so close to avoiding it all…

"You're just going to watch more, right? That's what I can take away from these other activities, right?" Neo just grinned slightly as she nodded her head and Roman… Roman just shook his head wearily as he palmed his face in his hand. "I'll talk to Cinder about letting you in on the plans and setting up your place at the dance… and I'll do it before I start to think better of this bullshit." Neo grinned and nodded her head, reaching out to clap Roman by the shoulder. The man groused and waved her off and, just like that, she made to leave the safehouse. "You'd best get your ass back here when your shift starts. I'll be expecting only the best for this, Neo." With a quick nod, Neo waved him off and departed. She'd be back when it was her time to work for him. She'd stuck by that agreement as long as he'd stuck by his end…

With that, Roman sighed as he reached up and took off his bowler so that he could run a hand through his hair. When he pulled it back, a few odd grey strands had come along onto his gloves and he just shook his head.

"I swear, between this and talking to Cinder again, I'm getting way too many gray hairs… once The Breach works out, I'm taking a well earned vacation." With that, Roman placed his bowler back on and walked over to his Scroll.

The things he put up with.

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: So, first off, Neo's and Koichi's little thing isn't an unheard of thing in fiction. Plenty of examples of people on opposing sides of the line forming some kind of attraction that ends up getting a little too deep. A lot of the tension in that dichotomy comes from the fact that their loyalties lay on two different sides and legitimately; they both believe in their causes and they believe in the people they're working with. It's the stress between being loyal to your own cause and wanting to be with someone who stands against it that ends up being the main drive of the drama and a drama that feels legitimate…**

 **That is, when one side isn't portrayed as being hilariously or stupidly evil and abusive. Now with Cinder, being hilariously and obviously evil is kind of her thing and drawing back on that would end up with her being out of character. Roman, however, always came off to me as a character with a bit more going on in his life. Yeah, he was a villain and a criminal, but he didn't seem like the kind of guy whose entire life revolved around those things. Hell, I bet Roman probably had some hobbies and, in interviews, we find out he actually has a father-daughter relationship going with Neo, which adds some depth to his character. Now, Volume 3 changes that… but I'll discuss that when we get around to talking more about Roman himself and his character arc.**

 **Roman was going to hear about this. Emerald and Mercury, more specifically Emerald, are pretty much toadies and the second they find something out, they'd go to Cinder. And Cinder, who seems to really dig pitting people against each other and sewing chaos so that she can take advantage of it, seemed like the type who'd try to sew some seeds of discord in Roman's ranks so that she could play off both sides against the other to her benefit.**

 **I could've used this as an opportunity to go somewhere a little more typical; Roman finds out, flips out, forbids it and then Neopolitan goes out and bes rebellious which shows that there's hope for this relationship despite them currently being on opposite sides of a conflict… but the fact that it gives that hope destroys the drama of wondering just how this shit is going to turn out. So instead, I decided I'd go and kill two birds with one stone; I'd establish Roman more as his own character so that his future, spiraling character arc has a starting point where, yeah, maybe we're not rooting for him but we don't exactly like seeing what's going to happen to him AND cementing why Neopolitan is so loyal to this guy and likes him so much. It gives both Roman and Neopolitan some humanity and it'll make the future drama not just between them but between Neopolitan and Koichi have that much more tragic bite. Because we like these people and knowing that they're going to suffer sucks ass… but in a good way.**

 **Plus Roman seems like a chill guy so long as he can count on you to get your job done. Doesn't really come off as the sort of guy who'd throw a fit.**

 **Then we got Pyrrha. It's probably no surprise after last chapter, but the 'I'm too shy to actually state how I feel about you' romantic trope isn't one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, for characters who are cripplingly shy or have legit reasons to fear losing something, I can understand it. It's why, despite the pressure put on Nora for her hesitance, I'm not changing up the exact dynamic of her drama with Ren. She's been friends with Ren for well over a decade and she fears that if she tries to change that relationship by making it romantic that she'll lose that friendship she treasures. It's always hard to risk something comfortable and wonderful for something that, yes, could even more amazing and beautiful but also represents risk and the potential that you'd lose something you cherish in the process.**

 **Pyrrha's dynamic in canon followed that too much so when I was actually giving her a backstory, it had the pleasant side effect of actually giving Pyrrha's dilemma as far as her and relationships were concerned that gave the dance a little more punch. We got this hinted at in Surface and we're seeing it come to more fruition here and, when the moment comes, we'll see the full extent of it as Pyrrha faces Jaune at the dance. I wanted a bit more of an emotional pay off for what is, essentially, the moment Jaune and Pyrrha get together in canon because it'll not only help things play off forward but… well, the less said about future plans the better. It also gives Pyrrha a bit more of her own identity rather than 'I'm famous and I've been around people but I'm just cripplingly shy about stating what's on my mind for pretty much no reason'. Like, dude, for real?**

 **Again, I don't necessarily blame the RWBY writers for this. There wasn't a lot of time and as I extrapolated back in the Surface Arc, Pyrrha was probably a character born in order to die and further everyone else's character arcs. The simplistic, easily understandable nature of the 'I'm too socially inept to ask someone I like out' conflict made it easy to slot in and make Pyrrha still relatable while not dedicating too much screentime to a backstory or her own identity as a character. When you've only got so much time and paper to work with these are the sacrifices you need to make.**

 **And again, I'm just some guy doing this for free by writing an hour a day so I can go ahead and make these kinds of additions/slight modifications.**

 **Hope you all had a good week and enjoy your weekend!** **As always, second update of the month will be a Chibi style update so look forward to that if you're so inclined.**


	27. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 3)

Dance Hall, Beacon Academy, The Next Day

"So wait, I'm confused, what does it mean if you're playing all this crap?"

"Alright; these cards empower my soldiers so that when I put them on the transports for the amphibious invasion, they'll get bonuses to actually attack Josuke's positions in Mistral. Once I get a beachhead, then I can play some different cards next turn to try and see if I can knock Josuke out of the game."

"... Why the Hell don't you just play poker or something less complicated if you want to play a card game?"

"Because, Okuyasu, Remnant: The Game isn't just a card game; it's a super strategic board game that I've NEVER won a game of before… and now I'm about to! Yang and Blake have been pretty much knocked out… it's just me and Josuke now. I'm gonna tear down his kingdom and instate myself as the ruler of the entire world!" Ruby cackled, almost maddeningly, as she spoke.

"Well… you can try Ruby." Josuke had honestly been a bit taken aback by Ruby's energy, but there had been the smallest sign of a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

The day had been slow going for Teams RWBY and JOJO. Team JNPR, curled up in its own various dramas, whether they had been Pyrrha's ongoing issues, to which Ren hadn't spoken a word of to anyone, or Jaune's sudden downturn in mood that he had not explained to anyone, hadn't been seen by their sister team or Team JOJO. Though odd as the various members of the team mingled quite a bit, there was an understanding that Team JNPR had some issues to work out and that they'd see them all at the dance, hopefully resolved.

For Team RWBY and JOJO, though they each had their own issues, they were less all-encompassing, at least for most of the day. Blake was still exhausted and Koichi still spent time seeking out his 'date' but, for the most part, the teams seemed to function fine…

"Why are you all even playing that game when we've still got stuff to set up for the dance?"

Well, except Weiss Schnee who, against her seemingly upbeat mood the day before, seemed quite annoyed and testy that day. Ruby, Blake, Yang, Josuke and Okuyasu all looked up from the table on which Remnant: The Game sat and looked to the white haired heiress, who just stared annoyed at the group as Yang shrugged.

"We've all been putting in a lot of work Weiss. No harm in having a little break, especially when JoJo and Okuyasu stop by for a visit. Come on, put your feet up and at least watch." Weiss just huffed in response as she sauntered off to handle other decorations, the rest of the team just having shrugged at the white haired girl's response.

"Anyone else think Weiss doesn't seem quite as upbeat as she was yesterday?" Josuke remarked casually as he shifted some cards around in his hand, the pompadoured team leader having been introduced to the game, its rules and the various cards in the deck at the beginning of this particular match.

"Yeah, seems like something crawled up her ass and died." Yang practically choked with laughter at Okuyasu's far more blunt assessment as Ruby just seemed to be slightly surprised while Blake shook her head.

"Dunno. Weiss just came back to the dorm yesterday in a bit of a funk. Said that she realized that she didn't have time to have a date to the dance and to manage it at the same time, so she had to cancel her plans with her date."

"Neptune?"

"Yeah probably Neptune." Ruby said as she recovered from Okuyasu's phrasing, as she just shrugged. "She's seemed annoyed and distracted, to be honest. Though some of us would say that's a good thing… some of us who're being a little bit jerky." Ruby glanced over to Yang as the blonde just shrugged.

"Hey I didn't say it was a good thing!" Yang held up her hands defensively as she leaned forward against the table. "Weiss has just gotten so caught up in the decorations in stuff that she started tossing around other duties left and right… and I got music." Everyone else nodded as Yang shrugged. "All I said was that it'd be a good way of making sure the music for the dance was awesome rather than whatever Weiss might've brought in." Blake smirked slightly as her tired, amber eyes drifted over to Yang.

"That wasn't your exact phrasing…"

"Anyway! Ruby, you were going to make your move?" Yang quickly redirected the conversation over to Ruby. Slowly but surely over the course of the game, Yang and Blake had their positions dismantled by Josuke and Ruby. They both held on, but barely, and knew that they only continued to stay in the game because Ruby and Josuke's war machines had turned on the other…

Or, more specifically, that Ruby had ramped up for an invasion while Josuke… seemed to be playing terribly passively. After having taken a chunk out of Vale and securing his position in both his Mistral and Vale, he had sat back and slowly drawn Ruby in. The silver eyed girl, having never won a game of Remnant: The Game before, had been blinded by her greed. Yang and Blake just awaited to see what Josuke had been ready to spring.

"Oh right!" With that, Ruby turned her gaze over to Josuke, a maddening glint in her silver eyes as she pointed directly as Josuke. "This is it Josuke! You've been a worthy opponent and a fine leader, but now I'm afraid I must crush you under the heel of my grand army! Even as we speak, they disembark from their ships to land on your shores and to take your lanes. As a sign of my eternal and everlasting grace and as a nod to your worth as a foe, I shall keep you at my side as a worthy advisor so that you might see the era of peace and prosperity that my reign shall bring to all of Remnant! Be prepared Josuke, for the Era of Ruby Rose shall finally begin!" Yang smiled distantly as she watched her sister get into character; it would be her first time winning one of these games… or would've been if she hadn't suspected Josuke had something up his sleeves.

That suspicion had only been heightened when, rather than ease himself away from Ruby and her excited speech, Josuke instead seemed to lean into it, a clever smirk on his lips as his blue eyes stared right back at Ruby, defiant and proud.

"Great." The word slipped between his lips, strong and proud, as Ruby turned her megalomaniacal gaze back down at Josuke, having been distracted by fits of a conqueror's laughter. "I've been waiting for you to make this move… and I've made my preparations well in advance. Sorry to say Ruby… but you've activated my numerous trap cards."

"WHAT?!" Ruby's voice called out, clearly shocked, as even Weiss paused her work to look at the display. Lo and behold, cards that Josuke had placed around various spots in his Mistrali Empire flipped; one by one, Ruby's face paled as each were revealed, knowing that her fate was sealed as each card had been revealed.

Sea-side gun bunkers, mines ladening the waters and many of his own pieces were just near enough to finish the defense against her devastated pieces. Ruby Rose's amphibious invasion force had been almost entirely cut down before it even reached the shores of Mistral and Josuke's land-based forces had ensured that those who reached the shore wouldn't live to tell anyone what they had seen.

"You've fallen right into my hands Ruby. As Mistral with its mighty trading networks, the rewards from any of my victories are immediately doubled. The resources you've poured into this invasion fleet, and then some, are now in my hands!"

"N-Not like it matters! You don't have the pieces, the men, machines or Grimm, to take advantage of all the resources at your disposal. That'll take you tons of turns, in which time my Atlesian production centers will crack back out a full army to oppose you." Ruby seemed desperate for a counter as Josuke just shook his head, his pompadour lightly bouncing with the motion as he grinned over at her.

"Ordinarily that'd be right… except it's my turn." With that, Josuke played two cards from his hand; The Seven Nation Army and In The Navy.

"N-No!" Ruby called out, hands trembling, as Josuke just nodded.

"Indeed. With The Seven Nation Army, I'm able to call upon the seven nations of Mistral to give me the men necessary to match my resources… which, thanks to your little invasion, now numbers quite high." With that, Josuke placed several pieces across the board, mostly concentrated towards the coast. "Transporting these pieces would ordinarily be a problem… but thanks to In The Navy, I'm able to galvanize the coastal communities of Mistral into lending me their merchant vessels up to my Naval Cap… which, thanks to controlling Mistral and Vacuo, is quite high.

"With your own armies slaughtered on my beaches and with the necessary men and fleet power…" Josuke began as Ruby just dropped against the table, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"You can easily invade Vale and take out the center of my empire… crushing me." With that, Josuke just nodded satisfactorily as he smiled, far more kindly.

"Great game Ruby, Blake, Yang, seriously, this was fun." After she bemoaned the fate of her first victory for a moment, Ruby perked up and nodded her head.

"Yeah, it was fun. Good work Josuke; I'm honestly a little surprised. Usually people don't win their first game because Remnant: The Game is so complex. But you really handled it great and your luck was fantastic! You pretty much had ever card you needed at any given moment." Ruby said with a broad smile as, for a moment, Josuke leaned his head to the side to hide his face from the others.

"... I'm such a villain…" The pompadoured teen quietly muttered under his breath before he regathered his expression, the laughs and giggles that threatened to spill out having momentarily warped it into a slightly deranged looking grin, before he peered back at the others with a normal smile. "What can I say, anyone can tell you that I'm quite lucky." With that, Josuke motioned to pick all the cards back up and put them back in order.

 **THUUUUUUUM!**

Only for all of them to fly out of his hands, out of the girls' hands and off the table as The Hand grabbed all the various cards in its left hand, firmly gripped as its strange aura surrounded its right.

"Oi, Okuyasu, what's… wh-what's the big idea?" Josuke, having started sounding so confident, suddenly went meek as he realized what position he was in. Okuyasu just grinned wildly as he took the cards from The Hand all the while Josuke just swallowed a lump in his throat. "O-O-Oi Okuyasu, you don't have to worry about putting them in order, I'll go ahead and do it." Josuke's suggestion passed into one of Okuyasu's ears and right out the other as the scarred teen spread the cards out in his hands and immediately set to looking at them.

After but a moment, a wide grin split Okuyasu's face as the Nijimura hooped victoriously.

"FINALLY! AFTER ALL THESE FUCKIN' YEARS, PROOF!" Before Weiss or anyone could scold Okuyasu for having cursed so loudly, the Frontier huntsman slammed the deck of cards onto the table and spread them out for everyone to see. "I knew it! I knew it all this time! You aren't lucky Josuke! You're a fucking cheater!"

Everyone gathered look down at the table as Josuke just swallowed nervously. It took a moment for their various eyes to focus in on what Okuyasu had been talking about but, after but a few seconds, everyone realized what the scarred teen had seen. There were several duplicates of the cards Josuke had used in the game spread out on the table, those cards that had provided linchpin turns in the game that had moved it into Josuke's favor. Cards that it had almost seemed had naturally slipped into Josuke's hands.

What's more, more experienced players like Yang and Ruby realized that cards that would've been favorable to anyone else in the game with effects similar to Mistral's The Seven Nation Army were missing and it hadn't taken a lot of thought to consider where they might've gone.

"I've suspected it for so long! I always knew that somehow Josuke was cheating at these card games. At first I didn't have any idea, but then I remembered; Crazy Diamond! He's been using Crazy Diamond to 'fix' cards in all these various games into new shapes that would give him the hand he needs! That's how he's never lost a game of poker and that's how he won this game!" With that, everyone looked over at Josuke, shocked expressions on their faces as the pompadoured teen just scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Uhhhh… hahaha… haha… heh… hoo boy…" Josuke just leant his head down, unable to refute this proof laid out before everyone, as Ruby just shook her head.

"I don't believe it…" She seemed lost, distraught and utterly betrayed, silver eyes wide as she looked down at the table. "... I LOST MY FIRST WIN BECAUSE JOSUKE'S A FILTHY CHEATER!" With that, Ruby practically pounced across the table and grabbed Josuke by the collar of his uniform, shaking him vigorously as the non-physical Aura empowered teen flailed uselessly in Ruby's grasp. "WHY'D YOU DO IT JOSUKE, WHY'D YOU TAKE MY FIRST WIN FROM ME, WHY ARE YOU A CHEATER?!" In response, Josuke just continued to flail about, the young man having sworn somewhat distantly that it had felt like his head was about to whip right off his body.

"Rubes! Calm down! You're going to break JoJo's neck at this rate!" With two firm hands Yang managed to keep her sister from having accidentally murdered Josuke, the pompadoured teen just having slumped back into his chair as he grabbed his head, his vision spinning and his stomach doing flips as he attempted to right himself.

"Seriously though Josuke, I never would've figured you'd cheat at a game." Blake yawned slightly as she leaned back, whether the yawn having been because of how exhausted she remained or because she had barely had it in her to pretend to be offended that Josuke cheated at a board game couldn't have been determined.

"Gods my head…" Josuke muttered to himself as he shook of the last bit of his dizziness, Ruby having calmed down as she too looked at Josuke expectantly. "Okay… I really don't know why. I just… I'm playing a game and I see that I'm probably going to lose… and you know, it's not like we're betting money on any of these games or anything. I've never wagered money on a game with my friends. I wouldn't cheat under circumstances like that… but you know, if it means I can beat my friends at a few games… you know, I figure, what's the harm?" Josuke scratched at his chin as he said this, Weiss having shaken her head as she turned back to her decorations.

"I swear, that sounds like something that Joseph Joestar would say in that biography of Stroheim's." Josuke seemed to unintentionally flinch as Weiss had said this, though he kept his features otherwise schooled as she wandered off. The thought made a few passes through Josuke's mind time and time again as even Yang seemed to shake her head disappointingly.

"Really JoJo, for shame. Cheating at card games and board games against your friends? Why would you do something like that." Everyone nodded in slight agreement, though Blake hadn't seemed too bothered, before a wide, toothy grin threatened to split Yang's face. "After all, with skills like that and Crazy D in your pocket, you could probably make so much money gambling it'd be nuts!"

"Exactly, that's the lesson you need to take away from this Josuke." Ruby had seemed ready for some kind of other moral spiel as she prepared to continue… up until she realized exactly what Yang had said. "Wait, what?!" Even Josuke seemed to blink a few times as Yang shrugged.

"Yeah totally! If you can get Crazy D to fix stuff up that quick and that quietly, then it'd be a cinch for you to go down to some casino and gamble a bit. Heck, you've especially got the money now. Just think about it; raking in even more money that what Ozpin's given you just by sitting around playing some cards for a few hands! Hell, it isn't even that bad because casinos stack the deck in the favor of The House anyway! You're just… leveling the playing field is all. Best part is, it's complete strangers or jerks who try their best to rob people of their actual livings in order to line their own pockets, so it's not like you're actually doing anything wrong." As Yang spoke, Josuke's expression shifted bit by bit.

A small grin slowly crept up his lips as Yang spoke, the possibilities obviously having slowly trickled through his mind. The way she had phrased it all… it did make it sound appealing. Still..

"I mean, Yang, that's technically robbing folks. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing huntsmen and huntresses should really be up to… even if they do stack the deck." Josuke scratched at the back of his head a bit as Yang just dismissively waved her hands.

"Come on JoJo. You saw how much of a good time we've all had thanks to the money you get… you'd be able to do even bigger and better stuff if you won a bit more. And besides, most people would be happy to see The House at a casino get wiped clean every now and then… and it'd convince people that casinos aren't a scam meant to take away all your money, so they'd go to the casino more and eventually even the casinos would win out in the end. It'd make everyone happy." Josuke nodded along. Despite his better senses… he didn't know, Yang's logic appealed to a certain part of himself that had only ever surfaced during games like this. Hey, if everyone would be happy…

"Okuyasu, I take it back." The scarred teen blinked in confusion as he looked over to Weiss, a disgusted look on her face as she shook her head. "You aren't the worst influence, Yang is." Okuyasu gave a quick 'whoop' in celebration as Ruby just nodded vigorously with her partner's evaluation.

"Yaaang!" Ruby whined as she leaned against the table, glaring at her older sister. "Stop corrupting my friend! Josuke shouldn't doing something like that with Crazy Diamond! It's supposed to be a tool of good and justice, like Crescent Rose! Don't try to corrupt it like that." Ruby puffed out her cheeks as she spoke. It was clear that Ruby hadn't entirely taken her sister's scheme seriously, even if it did seem that Yang and Josuke had been just a touch too… invested in the idea for a few moments there. As Ruby spoke whatever spell the promise of cold hard cash had over Josuke seemingly broke and the pompadoured teen just sheepishly scratched at the back of his head as he nodded with Ruby's words. Yang, on the other hand...

"Oh I'm sorry Ruby. I didn't know you wanted Josuke to be kept pure and innocent for you. Don't worry, big sis won't corrupt 'your' friend." The teasing tone in Yang's voice was quite evident and it just caused… well, it caused Ruby to huff in embarrassment, but not the way Yang had hoped.

Operation "Get My Sister Her First Date" hadn't kicked off with a bang. Yang had spent yesterday going through the planning stages of her idea to try and get Josuke to either ask her sister to the dance or for Ruby to ask the pompadoured teen. It really would've been a sweet little thing, in her mind, and it would've given Ruby good experience going forward and good memories, so she really had poured over the planning stages yesterday. At first, Yang had tried to call in her years of experience with asking boys out and having dates with them…

That quickly went nowhere fast as Yang realized she wasn't exactly experienced herself. Now, don't mistake her; Yang Xiao Long was no virgin flower. She'd made out with a few boys back at Patch and certainly went to more than a few crazy parties when she could be reasonably sure her father wouldn't find out and Ruby would be otherwise fine for the evening, but when it came to actual dating? Eh… chaining herself down just didn't appeal to Yang. It was… well, her sense of freedom just wouldn't allow for it. Yang internally grimaced as the thoughts rolled through her head but ignored the slight ping. That was her reason and she was sticking to it. If anyone asked, that was it.

Point was, Yang had really no experience with actual dating or romance. She knew how to get a boy to turn his head and knew what buttons to push in order to just have a little bit of teenaged fun, though nothing serious, but… well, she guessed when it came to actually getting 'with' someone she was pretty much as new to the game as her younger sister. Which was actually kind of sad. Despite this, Yang was not deterred in her mission; she said she'd hook her sister up and by the Gods she was going to hook her sister up, come Grimm or high water.

So with any avenue in experience when it came to actual, serious dating having been completely empty she then tried to think of what exactly it was about her that drew boys in; good looks, confidence, an attitude that at once screamed approachable and desireable. That about summed it up, Yang thought. A flick of her luxurious mane of hair, the right outfit, batting her eyelashes just right, it was usually some pretty simple stuff. Heck, sometimes she really didn't have to try; when you exuded a natural charisma or were just good looking enough, people would just be drawn to you… now, they might not be the sort of people you'd want to hang out with, but point was, that was there.

The thing was that Josuke and Ruby each had these in their own ways; while Ruby wasn't exactly the most socially adept, her sister was a little cutey and was slowly flowering. People who knew her also knew how kind, gentle and, in her own little way, charming she could be. Ruby had a way of speaking when it came to inspiring people or picking them up, a simple sort of wisdom that, combined with her genuinely heartwarming belief in things like absolute good and heroism, just drew you into her. Yang would never refuse to admit that in some ways, Ruby inspired her as a leader and would be huntress much as Ruby looked up to her as a big sis.

Josuke… well, Josuke had pretty well flowered by this point and that seemed like it was only going to pick up. 'Handsome' barely covered it. Josuke also had the natural charm and charisma that drew people in, even if against his will. Hell, he had a practical army of young women following him around these days thanks to the dance. That charisma was backed up by a belief in himself and his cause; there was no doubt that Josuke felt like he knew who he was and what his purpose was. The guy was just a pillar in that regard and, as Koichi and Okuyasu could tell you, that effect about him had a way of raising up the people around him. The fact that, underneath that cool and charismatic exterior Josuke proved to be almost as much of a dork as her little sister had just been icing on the cake.

Yet despite all of this, despite all these things they each had going with each other it hadn't seemed to drag them in closer to each other. Their mere proximity to one and other, the fact that they were so similar in so many ways and that they seemed to have such similar worldviews hadn't drawn them in. Sure, Josuke seemed a little more… intense from time to time when it came to potentially killing folks like Angelo, but… well, that wasn't such a big deal, was it? It hadn't represented ways in which he and Ruby were seriously different, in Yang's mind.

In the end though despite all this time they had to spend with each other and get to know one another they were just good friends as evidenced by their easy conversations (mostly led by Josuke) and by how well they got along.

It was frustrating in a way that made Yang chuckle; here she was, beyond annoyed that someone hadn't made a move on her sister or that her sister hadn't made a move on someone. This was pretty ass-backwards, she knew; the standard go to was that she was supposed to be some grizzly bear that was going to protect her sister's innocence. With Josuke though, Yang didn't have to have that fear; if Ruby ended up with him then she probably wouldn't have to spend an hour of her life worrying about him or other relationship dramatics. Josuke just didn't come off as threatening or otherwise neglectful, he'd be a good boyfriend. And Ruby… well, Yang didn't have any illusions about it. Ruby was fifteen, after all. She could take care of herself… most of the time.

It'd just be a sure thing that she'd be fine with Josuke. If Josuke were around to take care of Ruby… Yang wouldn't…

The blonde shook the thought, as much of a… weird sort of joy it brought to her, it still seemed weird to her to think it.

So with those two things out of the way, Yang's well of experience had pretty well dried up almost immediately. So Yang took to the only other source of information she could think of, a well-spring of relationship advice and experience that she had been sure wouldn't steer her wrong.

Romance novels.

The sorts of thing she imagined Ruby liked; the idea of a heroic, charming, strong young man who respected you wooing a strong, independent but loving young woman. Blushing, sparkles, happily ever afters, the sort of things she imagined Ruby would be all over and that Josuke, if his professed belief in True Love was any indication, would probably be able to live up to.

So she started building her plans to work like these. The tactic she employed first seemed pretty common; constant teasing. With especially dense people in these novels it seemed like if you kept teasing them about them and a 'friend' then they'd slowly start to realize how right they were for one and other and the seeds for a romantic bond would set in. There'd be blushing, the couple-to-be unable to meet each other's gazes and a sort of feeling in the air.

Well, there was certainly blushing on Ruby's part, but less in the 'Uwaaah~ I didn't think about Josuke like that' way and more in the 'Stop it Yang or I'm gonna tell dad next time I see him' sort of way. More annoyed than falling in love.

With Josuke it was even worse; even now, the guy played off her teasing of Ruby with a good-natured laugh as he just shook his head and apologized to Ruby, swearing that he wouldn't follow through with Yang's advice and that he wouldn't cheat casinos out of their money which had promptly brought Ruby out of her foul mood and had her grinning again. He never blushed and he never stammered; he just seemed comfortable and willing to play off any of Yang's teasing with a casual aside. Like it meant nothing!

Jeez, some people were so inconsiderate.

But Yang had yet to be deterred. Teasing and prodding at the two had only resulted in either annoyed huffs and banter from Josuke, sure, but the novels she read had keyed her into another surefire way of getting these two to go on a date. Another absolutely positive way that she could see this through.

As the group slowly picked up Remnant: The Game as the conversation died down into a lull, they all spread their hands out to pick up the various pieces and cards in the game. Yang's lilac eyes locked onto each and every single one and with the intensity of a hawk stalking its next meal, she kept her eyes peels for opportunities that waited. Then, she saw it; a piece that had been just a little bit closer to Josuke than Ruby but that her sister had, nonetheless, had begun to stretch out her arm to reach. A grin slowly but surely stretched across Yang's lips as she nodded.

This was it. This was the moment.

"Yo, JoJo, mind grabbing that piece over there." Yang motioned quickly, just outside of Ruby's view as Josuke's eyes darted back to the piece and question before he just casually nodded. This was it, this was what would settle it. She'd read it in all these books; the two would reach out, unaware of the other's hands and, slowly but surely, they'd creep towards each other until…

" _Oh!" Ruby gasped slightly as a sudden show of bishie sparkles surrounded both herself and Josuke, their hands having momentarily touched. The two teens blushed heavily as their hands recoiled for a moment, their eyes darting to meet the other before they each glanced off to the side._

" _I-I'm sorry about that, wasn't watching where this thing was going…" Josuke muttered as he scratched his cheek, Ruby having just demurely nodded her head._

" _It's fine, I wasn't watching either…" The sparks continued to fly and the scene practically lit itself as Ruby's hand tapped momentarily against the table before it reached out to lightly brush against Josuke's knuckles. "H-Hey, Josuke…"_

" _Yeah Ruby?" The pompadoured teen blushed deeply, his cheeks a crimson red as Ruby's fingers slipped in between his._

" _I was thinking… the dance is coming up and I really don't have a date. I wasn't really thinking about it before but… well, touching hands-"_

" _Yeah, I know what you mean." Josuke said awkwardly as the two just glanced towards each other. "So…"_

" _So…"_

" _I'll see you at the dance? Maybe we'll dance?" Josuke asked in a very shy, withdrawn tone, normally so out of character for the charismatic and strong-willed Stand User, while Ruby Rose just smiled and nodded._

" _I'd love to Josuke."_

'Yes. That is exactly how this is going to turn out.' Yang nodded firmly to herself as she watched. Their hands extended, each reaching out for the piece and then, the magic moment, they touched…

"Ah, sorry about that Ruby."

"No problem Josuke." And their hands just immediately went back to work as Josuke handed the piece off to Yang and Ruby continued to clean up the board game. Yang just froze in place, the slight smile on her face frozen in place before an annoyed tick reached her eye.

'What the Hell! That was supposed to be fool proof They touch hands and then boom, they're in a relationship! You're telling me that two friends just accidentally grazing each other's hands means squat?!' Yang resisted the urge to pull at her hair for a moment as the thought ran through her head. 'Shit that actually makes a lot of sense.'

Yang just sighed as she leaned her head into her hand as the other finished cleaning up the boardgame. Okay, so maybe going to a romance novel for advice on how to hook her sister up wasn't a good idea, especially considering it had been one of Blake's… but, where else could she go? No one else she knew was in a 'relationship'. Blake was going out to the dance with Sun but that was more a date than anything else, something which Yang already had her mind wrapped around. The rest of her team and Team JOJO seemed hopeless as well… and it'd be a cold, cold, COLD day in Hell before she asked anyone on Team JNPR for relationship advice.

Oh yeah, asking Ren or Nora how they kept their relationship so awkwardly close yet distant would've been good for a laugh but maybe not much else. And Jaune and Pyrrha? Shoot, might as well as a fish how to breath air for how much good info you'd get out of the two of them. Lilac eyes closed as Yang ran through everyone she knew…

She could've asked dad…

No.

No no.

Not Taiyang. She couldn't do that to him. Couldn't dredge up those memories… not after what she saw happen to him… not after everything he went through.

"Ah!" Yang was snapped out of her thoughts and everyone else suddenly snapped their heads over as Blake suddenly stumbled. The black haired faunus had gotten up to help Weiss with the decorations after the game and, after a few minutes of concentrated effort and work… well, Blake was leaning up against a table, her eyes fluttering and rolling around in her head slightly as she shook it. "Sorry… got a bit light-headed there."

Besides, Yang had bigger problems right now. Deciding to put her own little operations to the side, Yang decided that enough was enough. Maybe she wasn't good at hooking people up but… she thought that maybe she could deal with this. So before anyone else on Team JOJO or Team RWBY could get up, Yang slid out of her chair and walked over to her partner, steadying Blake as her lilac eyes met amber ones.

"Blake… can we go talk somewhere private?" Yang asked gently. Blake had been pliant and willing to go along with Team RWBY and their activities this entire time, but she'd always been evasive and… well, weird when it came to whatever issues she had that were causing her to act this way. Yang couldn't have been sure if her simple request would've been answered well, even if Blake didn't seem to want to distance herself.

At first, it seemed like that would be the case against Blake just looked up at Yang with an attempt at a smile, words forming on her lips that Yang knew would've been to the effect of 'Yang, I'm fine.' But then Blake really got a good, hard look at the expression on Yang's face and, after sweeping her eyes across the rest of her gathered friends, noticed matching expressions on theirs.

Worry. Concern. Fear.

They were scared for her.

And Blake… well, at that moment, the look on Blake's face made a few of the bleeding hearts move for her at that moment.

The shame that crossed her features was deep and harsh.

"Yeah Yang… we can go talk." With that, Yang nodded firmly as she helped Blake steady herself on her feet. Blake had insisted it wouldn't have been necessary, that she felt fine now, but it was clear that the blonde haired brawler wasn't taking her chances.

"We'll go to some classroom. They're all closed this late so we should have a nice, private little spot." Blake just nodded, somewhat dumbly, as she and Yang walked off. The others watched on in silence as they walked through the dance hall and, after they left, each turned to one and other.

"You think Yang's going to be able to talk some sense into her?" Josuke asked as he tilted his head to the side. While Weiss had seemed somewhat uncertain, Ruby just smiled and nodded.

"Yang can do it. She always has a way of making you feel better about anything and everything. I'm sure she'll be able to handle this. It's like Okuyasu said, you just need to talk things through, right Okuyasu?" Ruby turned her head to look at the scarred teen. Silver eyes widened slightly in surprise as Okuyasu just frowned, a fold to his arms as he looked over to Weiss.

"Yo, Weiss, you know a little something about this don't you? You and Blake had your little out and out before this." Weiss just nodded slowly as Okuyasu grimaced. "How much do you think Yang will really be able to help?"

"... I don't know." Weiss answered truthfully as she rubbed at her arm. "Blake has changed for the better, and she and I did sort things out. We're great friends now but… the reason why I've been so hesitant to go forward and talk to her myself is because I did hear what The Lock exposed. I do know some of what Blake's wrestling with… and I don't know how much I could help her." The ice princess frowned as the rest of the group seemed solemn.

"Maybe Yang stands a better chance but… Blake's waters run pretty deep here."

* * *

Special Topics Classroom, Beacon Academy, Meanwhile

"Alright Yang, you got me here… let's hear it." Blake muttered slightly as she and Yang stood around the desk of the classroom. Despite the dance having drawn so near, the classes at Beacon still ran. There had been a lot of rushing ahead in regards to preparation; as part of the Vytal Festival, all the first year students from the various academies scattered around Remnant who had transferred to Beacon would be partaking in a 'first mission' together. In order to prep all the students various teachers had crammed together classes and information, rushing through their lesson plans in order to ensure that everyone would be ready.

So much so that many teachers still held hours after their normal classes for any students who might've felt the need to brush up on a few subjects before going out. The only class that this hadn't been the case was Jotaro's Special Topics; very few students in The Four Kingdoms needed to understand Morioh and its systems and history better to make sure they'd survive their first mission and those that might've, Team JOJO, were already well-versed when it came to their homeland and their Stands. So Jotaro's class was always empty at the end of the day.

Which, in Yang's mind, had made it quite ideal for having her little discussion with Blake.

"Sounding pretty resigned there Blakey." Yang spoke softly as she sat up on the desk, Blake's eyes having darted down to the side as she sighed.

"I… I get what this conversation's going to be about. I know what you're trying to do Yang and I really do appreciate it… but I don't think it's going to help much. So yeah, 'resigned' is a good enough word for it I guess." Blake yawned to herself as she leaned up against one of the rows of tables that had made up the student's seating portions of the classroom, her bow folded down towards her head thanks to the slight droop of her faunus features.

"Well, let's see if I can't prove you wrong on that one." Yang said with a bit of an optimistic smile. She and the others had run through what Blake might've been feeling or what might've been causing all these issues for her these past couple weeks. Weiss had a lot of insight and, working things out, the three teenaged girls had come to the conclusion that Blake's withdrawal was because… well, she wanted to deal with The White Fang.

It made a lot of sense in Yang's mind; The White Fang had been a huge part of Blake's life and their corruption over the years into a terrorist organization had caused her to sully her hands and made her dream of peaceful relations between faunus and humans all the more distant and, seemingly, impossible. So many years of her life and so many experiences had been given over to The Fang in a desperate bit to see her vision of a peaceful world brought to light, and they had betrayed that.

Of course Blake would want to deal with them, of course she'd want to settle the score and get affairs in line. Of course she'd want to spend every waking hour trying to find something on The Fang. Desperation bread obsession, as Yang knew all too well herself. That Blake's desire to get back at The Fang hadn't spilled over into her relationships warmed Yang's heart, of course. Blake really wanted these friendships and relations she forged to work out. Yet all of it would be moot if Blake was slowly but surely killing herself to try and make this all possible. Blake's noble sacrifices and her work would be for naught if her exhaustion caused her health issues or otherwise ended up killing her while out on a mission or in the middle of a fight with either one of Roman's Goons, a Fang Operative or a Stand User.

The Fang obviously meant a lot to Blake and seeing the issue settled… it drove her and to some pretty extreme extents. That, right there, Yang could actually sympathize with. She thought, perhaps, that sharing her own story would help Blake to move past this rut she'd gotten trapped in. That her own experiences would help Blake move past hers. So, with a deep breath, Yang folded her legs together and looked at her partner.

"Blake, listen… I think I know what you're going through. Maybe I don't' have your exact experiences but… I think I can come pretty close." For a moment, Blake seemed rather interested; her tired, amber eyes perked up as they looked over at Yang, searching her for an answer. Yang of course just smiled, glad that Blake was so open to all of this. "All this stuff you're doing… the obsession you have with finishing your business with The White Fang. I understand wanting to fix things. To want to settle things and figure out 'why'. But… the extent you're going to isn't healthy Blake." Yang started off and, for a moment, she thought she had Blake dead to rights as the black haired faunus' eyes widened with a bit of surprise.

That is until they settled back down into their exhausted droop as she shook her head. "Sorry to say Yang but… you don't have it. That isn't… that's not what is wrong here. I'm sorry." Blake continued to face Yang dead on, though the blonde bombshell had hoped she would have turned away. Facing her dead on, it enlightened Yang to something; Blake wasn't lying. She wasn't trying to avoid some truth that Yang had settled on, wasn't trying to deflect and she wasn't trying to run away… Yang had it wrong.

"What?" Yang asked, hands on her knees as she leaned forward. "Blake, I don't get it. Every single night you're doing research on The Fang and Torchwick into the late hours. Every single moment you aren't spending on school or with us you're spending trying to find reports of Stand Users or criminal activity we might try to link to them. Blake, you are obsessing over this, why would you tell me otherwise?" Even if Blake believed it herself, Yang couldn't. Blake just sighed as she shook her head, palming her forehead a bit.

"I don't want to sound like a bratty pre-teen Yang… but I really don't know if you or any of the others could understand. This isn't… this isn't something I think a lot of you have had to deal with." Blake turned away from Yang and walked over to a window that had illuminated the classroom in the afternoon sunlight, her eyes peering out at Beacon's campus as Yang just scoffed.

"Eh, sorry to say partner, but you did come off like a pre-teen." She dropped 'bratty' so as not to offend Blake, yet her remark still drew light chuckles from her partner regardless. "Listen, Blake, if something's wrong we want you to tell us. You won't know if we won't understand it unless you do… and we're really worried about whatever this is and what it's doing to you. If you don't open up, how're we supposed to help you?"

Blake took Yang's words into careful consideration. She knew, on some level, that Yang was right. Knew that if she didn't open up about this that there'd be no way she'd be able to deal with it on her own. After all, that was half the problem; she couldn't deal with it on her own. She was making no progress. She… she couldn't get back. Couldn't get back to…

Blake closed her eyes as she leaned her forehead against the glass mirror. She took a long, deep breath as she tried to settle herself and, before long, she opened her eyes again. The reflection that greeted her wasn't the tired, uneven and barely conscious gaze that she knew she should have seen in the mirror. The eyes that looked back, the reflection she saw; they were steely and determined. Hardened by a belief in her own righteous cause and justice. These were eyes that knew their purpose beyond a shadow of a doubt and relished in their actions to further that purpose. Eyes hardened by years of violence. Eyes eager for more.

A gaze that she had come to regard with abject disgust and shame.

"Yang… have you ever looked at your own reflection and hated the person you saw in it?"

"What?"

The what hadn't been so much a question as a gut response. Of all the things that Yang could have expected Blake to say, of all the things she had expected to pour from her lips, something like that hadn't been at the forefront of her mind. It wasn't something that sounded like the calculated, thoughtful Blake. Or at least, not the one she'd come to know.

"Yang… I did horrible things in The White Fang. Terrible things. When people call The White Fang a group of terrorists and murderers… they would also end up talking about me." Blake brought her arms up to support her head as she stared back at her reflection. "Weiss already knows it and I imagine she shared a little bit with you… but I hurt people Yang. I hurt them so badly. Some of them… a lot of them didn't recover. Some never will. Those who aren't dead or crippled for life had their lives ruined or their livelihoods shattered. For all my talk and bluster about my morality and my beliefs… I ended up covering myself in the blood shed by The White Fang. All for a cause I 'knew' I believed in…

"Maybe that's the worst part of it. How certain I was. How absolutely ready I was. That I 'knew' I was doing the right thing. There wasn't any doubt in my mind when I was doing these things Yang. I relished the opportunity to strike back at human oppressors. I lived for it. I thought the people we attacked deserved it. Especially at first; I had no problem with the orders coming down. Hell, I bought into Khan's rhetoric hook, line and sinker. One of the useful, young idiots who helped make up the ranks of his new Fang… and I just so happened to be an especially useful one.

"It took so many years for me to start to question. So many years for me to consider that what I was doing wasn't right. Took so many lives for me to begin to wonder if I could live with the person I'd become anymore. Yet I didn't confront any of these questions. Didn't try to wrestle with them… I hid from them. I blamed it all on Khan and Adam and the New Fang and I ran. I cried about how I was 'preserving' the ideas of the The White Fang, how it'd changed without me noticing… the truth was I did notice. And for the longest time, I didn't care. I was just… all too happy to go along with the ride, so long as I had Adam behind me." Blake spit off to the side as she spoke, a glare directed at her own reflection as Yang just gaped for a moment. "It was only when that rat bastard Tamami threw it all back in my face that I realized that what I've been running from… what I've been trying to hide from."

"Blake… if this is about worrying that we won't forgive you if you don't do something-"

"No! I know you'll forgive me!" Yang was thoroughly surprised when Blake turned around, eyes shining slightly as she bit her lip to try to reign in her emotions. "You all; Ruby, Weiss, you, JNPR, JOJO, Ozpin… you all have forgiven me for these things. Even Weiss who I've probably hurt the worst out of any of you forgave me… and wanted me to forgive myself. You all don't care what I've done or the person I was… you all are just ready to accept me as your friend…" Blake bit her lip as her expression quivered, the girl having leaned against the wall.

"You all wouldn't even be the worst of that… did you know I actually still have parents?" Yang actually did look surprised. She hadn't expected it given what Blake had shared about her past and she certainly never brought them up before. "Part of how I was so useful to Khan was that I'm the daughter of the old leader of The White Fang, Ghira. Oh, you'd better believe a lot of people felt like their consciences were settled when they heard I was joining up with The New Fang. Dad though… mom and dad, really, they didn't believe in what Khan and his followers were espousing. They believed in peaceful protests and that violence would only serve to keep humanity and the faunus divided… he was so wise and… and he tried to talk with me the night I was going to leave...

"I spat in his face when he tried to convince me not to join." Blake barked out a harsh laugh as she brought a hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "I called him every terrible name in the book. I said he was a traitor and a hypocrite and that he never really cared about the plight of the faunus. That if he did he would be ready to go to any lengths to secure our rights… that if he was actually half the man he says he was, that he'd join me with Adam and Khan. Mom… mom just cried. She begged me to listen, to take a breath and consider things. To not let my anger and hatred make me a terrorist… I didn't. I didn't at all. I just left them, abandoned them and I haven't spoken to them since…" Blake choked for a moment as the shining in her eyes gave way to pinprick tears at the corners.

"But if I went back to Menagerie today… if I went back home… they'd welcome me with open arms. My mom would probably just cry and thank the Gods that I hadn't died doing some fool thing… dad would probably lock me in my room for years, but… but he'd be so happy. He wouldn't care. He'd just be glad I came back." Blake ran her hands up her arms as she shook her head.

"I've done so many terrible things Yang. Things that no one should forgive me for, that I can't forgive myself for… and yet I have wonderful friends who'd stick by me to their last breaths without a second thought, who'd forgive me no matter what I did so long as I was friends with you all. Parents who loved me enough to beg me not to make the worst mistake of my life and who'd probably just praise the Gods that I came home… and I've done NOTHING to deserve any of it!

"A murderer doesn't deserve good and loyal friends. A terrorist shouldn't have a loving family waiting for them with open arms! A person like me who's taken that away from so many other people, who has killed so many friends and family and loved ones… what right do I have to any of that?" Blake asked Yang, her arms open as she seemed to beg her partner for an answer to that question… one that hadn't been forthcoming.

"... So I have to deserve it. I have to do whatever I can to deserve all this. I have to work every second I can to make sure The Fang doesn't continue doing what I did… I have to show you guys just how right you were to trust me… I have to be a different Blake Belladonna." Blake lowered her head as she spoke before she turned back to the mirror. "... But no matter how hard I try, no matter what I do… I can't. I don't see a new me in my reflection. I don't see a me that deserves friends and family… I see the Blake Belladonna who was all too happy to be Adam's little bitch." The reflection mocked her, an image of her not even a year beforehand… the utter contempt, that attitude, that disgusting loyalty to The New Fang… it was there in the window, mocking her every second she looked at it.

"... I'm not even at zero." Blake muttered as she leaned back against a nearby wall and slid down it, cradling her legs as she stared back at Yang. "The things I've done… the people I've hurt… all of it totaled against the 'good' I've done, it doesn't leave me at zero Yang. I'm a negative. I've inflicted so much pain and hurt on everyone around me and I've given so little back in return… and no matter how hard I try, it just seems like I can't crawl my way back up. I'm just… less than zero."

Silence fell upon the room. While Blake just buried her face in her knees, her shoulder shuddering, Yang stared on in almost horrified awe. Tears pricked the corners of her own eyes as her heart reached out for Blake… yet both her heart and mind had no idea what she could have possibly done. The weight that Blake had carried on her shoulders was immense, truly something terrible to behold… and yet there it was. And Yang hadn't had something comparable to it. Sure, she had her own downs in life, her own choices that she regretted… but Blake didn't just regret the choices she made. She hated them and hated herself for having made them… and they weren't just little things easily swept under the rug.

Yang's mind pounded against her skull as she tried to come up with a response. Any response. Anything that wouldn't just leave dead silence between her and someone who was fast becoming one of her best friends in the entire world.

" **Yare yare** , an unfortunate view for a huntress to have of themself."

… Okay that was something but, somehow, Yang hadn't found that particular phrase in any way comforting.

The two members of Team RWBY snapped their heads over to the office door that led out the back of the classroom and saw none other than Kujo Jotaro standing there, a stack of papers under his arm and a deep, furrowed brow creased across his face. Which accented his signature frown in a very disheartening manner.

"Jo-, I mean, Mr. Kujo. Fancy seeing you here. What're you doing here so late?" Yang asked, pretty well surprised that Jotaro had still been around.

"Because the Special Topics were pretty much stapled onto the class schedule in the month before the semester, my classes end up going on for a while longer to accommodate all the students of all the years that are staying here at Beacon. The work is… less than fulfilling, but it needs done." Jotaro muttered as he set his various papers onto the desk as he approached the two girls. "More important is what you two were just talking about."

Straight to the point, unsurprising given what Team JOJO had told them about Jotaro. Still, it had left Yang and Blake with pretty much no time to come up with any kind of defense.

"Mr. Kujo, please, I know what you must've heard was terrible but I promise you, I'm…" Blake paused as she realized how it might sound if she said 'I'm here on Ozpin's wishes'. Letting people know that the Headmaster of Beacon Academy knew she was a secret faunus and a former terrorist to boot yet still allowed her to attend Beacon would've looked VERY bad. "... I'm… I'm here to be a huntress. I want to help people, I don't want to hurt anyone… anymore."

Despite her assurances, Jotaro's face kept that stoney expression of his… or perhaps in spite of her assurances. Or maybe her assurances just had no effect at all. It was hard to tell with Kujo Jotaro just what kind of effect your words were having on him.

"Y-Yeah, listen, Blake's not like that anymore! Swear it! It's totally fine, she's been helping us deal with The Fang for months now too!" Yang declared as Jotaro just turned to face the lilac eyed teen. The giant of a man just stared down at her for a moment before he sighed, having readjusted his cap as he muttered under his breath. It was clear he was a little bit bothered by something, but that annoyance hadn't seemed particularly aimed at her at the moment.

"Alright, Xiao Long, I'd like for you to wait outside. I'm going to have a few words with Belladonna." Jotaro's tone was firm as he looked down at Blake, the black haired faunus having shifted uneasily under the man's intense gaze.

"Look! Blake doesn't mean anyone any harm! She's our friend, whatever she's done before! So… so just back off, alright!" Blake seemed stunned when Yang stepped in front of her defensively, a mix of worry and frustrated rebellion on the blonde's face as she stared up at Jotaro. Blake had known her friends would stand by her, but here in the moment, it still surprised her.

Jotaro, on the other hand, just sighed as he readjusted his cap.

"Man you're annoying… I'm not going to do anything." Jotaro looked at the two of them, his gaze serious but having been let up. "I meant what I said, I'm just going to have a few words with her. That's all. I've been watching this little display go on for weeks now, and it's about time someone stepped in to actually handle it." Jotaro spoke seriously as Yang relaxed for a moment, before that hard edge of rebellion came back.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to leave her right now, not with everything she's already going through. I wouldn't be any kind of partner if-"

 **THUU** UUuuumm….

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

… thuuUU **UUUM**!

… tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK**!

"-just sat by and left her…"

Yang Xiao Long was no longer inside the Special Topics Classroom, standing in front of her friend and defending her with great gusto against Kujo Jotaro. No, Yang was now firmly parked outside the class, staring at the locked door. Lilac eyes went wide as she stumbled a bit, feeling an odd sense of vertigo from the sudden shift in scenery. Two things kept Yang from heading right back into that classroom; the first was that the only way she was getting back inside was if she broke the locked door down. Now, Yang hadn't particularly wanted to inflict any property damage on Beacon Academy that she, or her dad, would have to pay for… much less if said property damage would lead to her getting expelled.

The second reason was the pit that had formed in her stomach at the display she had just… well, not 'witnessed' but been a part of. Jotaro's Stand had been given a name and Nora and Ren had shared their own memories of Star Platinum and all of its punch ghost-based abilities. However, Josuke and the others, though they hadn't outright stated it, made it clear that Star Platinum had changed and evolved since the last time Nora had seen it…

If this was the sort of power that Star Platinum now wielded, Yang decided that perhaps it would have been for the best to just wait this out for Jotaro to conclude his business with Blake.

For Blake Belladonna, the display had perhaps been even more terrifying in her exhausted, sleep-deprived state. One moment her best friend and partner had been defending her right in front of her eyes and the next Yang was gone and Jotaro had turned his back to her without having even moved, a slightly winded sigh having escaped his lips as he shook his head.

"Have a seat Belladonna. We're going to have a chat."

It wasn't a suggestion or a request. This was going to happen. In her sleepless state, Blake's mind panicked as she considered the possibilities. As far as she had known, only Ozpin, her teammates and her friends knew about her life as a member of The White Fang. As she understood it, Ozpin had kept it secret in order to allow her to continue to learn as Beacon so that she could eventually become a huntress. It seemed like if anyone else in the staff knew they either kept it quiet or they were utterly ignorant… and if they did figure it out, they might just turn her in.

Was that what Jotaro was going to do? Was he going to turn her into the authorities? She certainly had a list of crimes that followed her a long, long ways that she could get hung up for. It'd probably be easy enough to see her thrown in jail. Then again, Jotaro didn't seem like the delegating type… would he just use whatever ability he'd used to get Yang to disappear out of the room to disappear her? Would he do the 'Ora Ora' thing and just kick the crap out of her?

Despite these panicky scenarios flying through her sleepless mind, Jotaro just continued to walk away from her, back turned, before he approached the back of his desk and took a seat, putting his feet up on the wooden surface with an expectant look. Deciding not to anger the guy with the Stand Power that could disappear folks, Blake swallowed a lump in her throat as she cautiously approached the desk and took her own seat…

Holy shit. Hoooly shit. The chairs hadn't been there beforehand, Blake realized. No, the desk was barren when she and Yang arrived, no chairs to be seen.

What the Hell was Star Platinum?

Jotaro just watched her face as she nervously twitched, a sigh escaped his lips as he reached into his jacket pocket. Blake watched the movements of his hands carefully, ready for just about any move he could've made…

Any move except for him pulling out a pack of cigarettes, of course.

Blake blinked in slight confusion as Jotaro tapped against the bottom of the cardboard container and, with the experience of an old pro, bumped a single cigarette out of the box. With a flourish he pulled it out and placed it between his lips. Blake's amber eyes wandered over to the box; there was no lighter in there, so how was-

 **FFFFFT!**

It was a blur. Just a blur. That had been all Blake could see as something flittered in front of Jotaro and left only the lit end of his cigarette behind. It hadn't taken Blake long to realize what had happened; Star Platinum had moved so fast and struck so hard that it was able to light Jotaro's cigarette in less than a second.

She was dead. This was how she was going to die; with Jotaro smoking a cigarette while Star Platinum pounded her skull in. That was the only thing that was going to-

"Here, we can't very well talk this shit out if you're shaking like a leaf. You haven't slept for more than a few hours in nearly a month, I'd wager…" Blake blinked in confusion as her eyes focused in, trying to figure out just what was happening. What was happening, it turned out, was that Jotaro had bumped out one more cigarette from his pack and offered it to her, that same expressionless look to his face as he impassively looked at her.

"... You sure about that? I am a minor…" Blake muttered as Jotaro just clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

"As much as this school likes to treat you all like you're still children, you're old enough to handle these kinds of decisions yourselves. Especially by Morioh's standards, considering you'd have been a full huntress three years ago. Sending you out to fight and kill Grimm is a bit more of a 'health risk' than this." There was a slight annoyance that laced Jotaro's tone as he spoke, but again, it hadn't seemed to be directed at Blake. The amber eyed teen just stared at the proffered cigarette for a moment, biting her lip slightly as she wandered if this was some sort of trap…

Eventually, Blake unsteadily reached a hand out and grabbed the stick of tobacco, placing it between her lips.

 **FFFFFT!**

And once again flinched as the barely visible phantom image of Star Platinum formed in front of her and lit her cigarette with its bare hands. Blake nervously took a small drag on the cigarette and only coughed slightly as she took a few more hits. She wouldn't have admitted it out loud but the nicotine… it had given her a little bit of focus and took a slight amount of her edge off.

"Handling it well for someone who was nervous about being a minor." Jotaro commented idly as he took a drag on his own cigarette.

"... A lot of smokers in The White Fang. I never did it myself but… well, you're around it often enough it doesn't really bother you." There was no point in denying any of it if Jotaro had overheard her entire conversation. Still, even with the buzz of nicotine running through her, Blake's nerves had still made their presence known.

"Mmmm…" Jotaro seemed to be in some deep thought as he closed his eyes, as if organizing his thought as he rapped his fingers against the desk.

"... Look, Mr. Kujo, I mean it when I say I mean no harm. I know for someone who grew up in a place where faunus and humans are already so close to equal that it'd seem… terrible for people to turn to terrorism to achieve equality, but that isn't my life anymore… I might not be better than that, but I don't-"

" **Yare yare** , that's not what I meant Belladonna." Blake's mouth snapped shut as Jotaro spoke, exhaling after a particularly long drag on his cigarette. "Huntsmen are people of all sorts of backgrounds. We know better than anyone what it means to accept all kinds in a dark moment. Hell, Robert Speedwagon was some thug before he ended up becoming the man he was." Jotaro intoned calmly as he shook his head. "No, what we're going to talk about and what the school should have dealt with themselves by now is this attitude of yours." Blake flinched slightly at Jotaro's blunt assessment. She had been uncertain as to exactly how he meant it or where he was going with it but… well, she was intrigued, to say the least.

For another minute the two just sat in silence. Blake had to imagine that Jotaro was giving her time for the nicotine to really run its course, to give her some focus and to take the edge off her nerves, before he really dived in. After what felt like forever to the still nervous faunus, Jotaro opened his eyes and looked directly into hers.

"I was fourteen… three years before the Stardust Crusade. That was the first day I beat someone halfway to death's door just because they pissed me off."

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 4)**

* * *

 **A/N: I did warn y'all that this was gonna be a long arc. Hahahaha.**

 **So starting off; Blake. You'll notice with Blake in the canon series that a lot of her character's conflicts are external; it's Adam, The White Fang, Faunus Rights, the actions of The White Fang and what they've become that generally define her characters' conflicts. Not a lot about what she did as a member of The Fang, her actions or what those actions say about the strength of her beliefs in those times. Yes, the 'running away' angle works fine for the conflict of the earlier Volumes, but I think there's a reason why in Volume 4 most people seemed… bothered with Blake's bits rather than in with them. Volumes 1-3 set up and paid off most of the conflict from this part of Blake's nature and by Volume 4 it had run a bit thin.**

 **Here, I'm still addressing that inherent cowardice of the character but, with Tamami and the events of Volume 1 still being canon, we've still got plenty of pay-off for it. I wanted to set up more conflicts for Blake's character that were internal, things she'd have to wrestle with, as a way of keeping her fresh throughout the series. Hopefully it'll work to keep folks invested.**

 **Also, I'm sure I'm not the first person to have noted that the adults in the RWBY-verse are… well, let's put it nicely and call them 'negligent'. Once again, we get some set-up and pay-off; as early as Crazy Diamond (Act 2) we set up that Jotaro is on some level dissatisfied with the different ways the Four Kingdoms treats their 'children' in these schools and that, in Morioh, if there's a problem affecting a hunter's performance that it's usually addressed directly. Both of these things were meant to reflect the trend in JoJo's where, as one reviewer put it, people actually confront each other and address problems rather than letting them sit.**

 **Plus it helps re-integrate Jotaro back into the story now that we've mostly 're-introduced' the 'core' cast.**

 **Hope you all enjoy and have a great week; see you on the 18th.**


	28. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 4)

"I mean, metaphorically speaking right? You didn't actually…"

Blake's words died on her lips as she took a long look at Jotaro's expression; no, the stoic of a man hadn't been speaking metaphorically. He hadn't been trying to phrase it in a dangerous sounding way to relate to Blake's own issues or to make it sound worse than it actually was. Jotaro had nearly beaten someone to death, all on the account of them having pissed him off.

"My mother would tell you that I've always been a kind, gentle young boy who never got into any trouble… maybe at a certain time she was right, but perhaps not for the reasons she thought." Jotaro took a long drag on his cigarette before he exhaled through his nose. "I've never been a… social person. I've just never been all too inclined to be around people. Quiet, reserved, kept to myself. It meant I hardly got into trouble, but it wasn't because I was some saint. I just didn't want to really deal with people…

"That's a hard thing to pull in The Frontier though, especially when you're a Joestar. Everyone knows your name just because Morioh is a tightly knit community; people knew who I was because of the legacy my family's built over this past century. Some people might call it a 'perk' of being a Joestar that people want to know me but… well, it never appealed and I always found it to be a hassle. That's… that's what I thought of a lot of things back in those days." Jotaro again took a harsh drag on his cigarette. To Blake, it had been clear that Jotaro wasn't exactly 'happy' with dredging up these memories. Yet before she could offer to just cut this off, Jotaro fixed her with a hard look and she quickly closed her mouth.

"Being a Joestar meant a lot of things were expected of me. I was going to unlock my Stand, I was going to be a huntsman and I was going to be someone important. Especially considering the fact that my mother… well, she wasn't exactly cracked up for any of it, so I'd need to pick up the slack. A lot of expectations were riding on me. Expectations that I, for the most part, met when I managed to first summon forth Star Platinum when I was eleven years old. Even when it first came forth from the sea of my soul, Star Platinum was powerful. For the people of Morioh, this was just a good sign of what could be expected of me…

"At first, I was fine with all this. Hell, when we're kids we often just go along with whatever our parents and elders tell us. They always seem to know what's right and what's wrong. We'd never think that they'd lead us astray. So I didn't think too hard about it… but after a while, my natural tendencies made me question it. I hadn't wanted to be someone important, hadn't wanted to be in the limelight, hadn't wanted to deal with people's expectations. It was all an annoying hassle… all because of things I hadn't decided on for myself."

"You became a rebellious teenager…" Blake couldn't help but grin at the thought. Jotaro had always come off to her and her friends as a rather in control and very straight laced huntsman. Sure, he was stoic and sure he could shout at you if you got a little too loud like Nora, but even Nora didn't seem to take offense to the latter. He seemed so… adult and in control of it all. The idea of him as some angsty, rebellious… well, edgelord, put a small grin on Blake's face.

"In a manner of speaking…" It was clear that Jotaro hadn't been entertained by the idea or the memories of this. "You could also say that I was a thug who just didn't want to deal with any of the shit that had been put on his plate. As time went by, I started to question if I wanted to be a huntsman and, if I really didn't have my heart in it, why I should bother with the shit in the first place. Morioh had been… alright for the past several decades. We weren't making headway on breaking out of our position but then… well, that was expectation by then. It all seemed like such pointless bullshit to me. Then… then I turned fourteen. And something happened half a world away. Something that'd eventually change my life."

' _Jotaro… Hehehehehehehe… Joestar blood suits me, don't you think?'_

Even after all this time, that voice haunted the white capped Joestar, who just bit into his cigarette as he took a steadying breath.

"Up until my fourteenth birthday, I had mostly had control over Star Platinum. Sure, he was starting to get more violent as these thoughts ran through my head… but it wasn't something I'd lost control over. I still had my head on my shoulders and controlled my temper and that of my Stand. I wasn't pictured as having been a problem child. I had mostly just kept all my thoughts about how little I thought about the Morioh system to myself…

"Then one day I got into a spar. I had graduated to being a full huntsman by that point, but even still, sparring with other huntsmen was necessary to keep your skills sharp and to help sharpen other's skills. A lot of people liked the idea of sparring with my Star Platinum; after all, if they could somehow manage to beat it, then they'd have a leg up for bragging rights. The guy I was sparring with today… he tried to get into my head. Really tried to make me lose focus and make a lot of mistakes. He was unknowingly digging his own grave, of course; something had happened to Star Platinum," Jotaro had now known what, of course, but he hadn't yet seen fit to share the story of Dio Brando with the Four Kingdoms yet, "-that was making it… harder to control. Making it more violent. Of course, this was going hand in hand with my own temper beginning to get out of hand.

"I was getting closer and closer to my breaking point every single day. Every time someone brought some 'inconsequential bullshit' to me I'd grind my teeth as I just tried to look good for the sake my family. Every time people got into my face when I just didn't want to deal with them, I'd try to look the part of a member of the Joestar Family and keep my cool. Even if all I wanted to do was to tell these people to fuck off, that they were annoying me and I hadn't wanted to deal with them. This guy just kept pushing those buttons, kept trying to make me lose my cool…

"And eventually, Star Platinum and I did. I let loose the chain and… well..."

The first time he'd ever seen Star Platinum let loose its now famous battle cry and punch rush someone had been… an interesting experience. On the one hand, he knew what he was doing was wrong; his Stand had bypassed his sparring opponent's and went straight for the User, breaking bones and utterly battering him until he pretty much couldn't stand up under his own power. He beat the ever loving shit out of the guy, so much so that they had to rush him to the hospital. Yet despite knowing that what he had done was wrong, knowing that it ran completely counter to any and all expectations anyone had ever had of him…

It had felt good to let loose. To just beat someone's face in until their own mother wouldn't even recognize them. It was… cathartic, in a way. Though the sentiment now sickened Jotaro.

"You… I mean, Star Platinum beat him half to death." Blake finished as she thoughtlessly took a drag on the cigarette Jotaro had handed off to her.

"It's a moot distinction." The older huntsman said as he shrugged. "A Stand is a vision of its User's soul. It is the embodiment of our fighting spirit and who we are as a person. Our will, our emotions, our growth as people, all of this effects our Stands. They are us, even if they might not always look like it. There isn't a distinction to be found; I beat him half to death, regardless of the fact that I didn't use my own fists." Jotaro explained calmly as he took another long drag on his smoke.

"Of course, I didn't see it like that at the time. I made excuses even years later about how my Stand was getting out of control and how it was growing more violent… Hell, I still sometimes like to say it for the sake of intimidation." Jotaro puffed out a small cloud as he shook his head. "Still though, even if there were… outside forces affecting my Stand, fact remained that if I were the type of person with more self control who could keep themselves from losing their cool that Star Platinum wouldn't have acted as it did.

"At the end of it all, the guy spent months in the hospital. Hell, some people joked for a long time that he was still there getting treatment years later. A lot of people started to distance themselves from me after that too; they hadn't wanted to run the risk of being the next person to have Star Platinum unleashed on them. I should've taken this as a sign that my thinking was wrong, that I had lost some basic amount of grip on myself… that I wasn't the person I should be or that I should want to be.

"But being left alone, not having people trying to bug me for this and that, having people out of my face… I enjoyed it. If that kind of behavior could get me what I wanted, solitude, then why not escalate." Jotaro snuffed out his spent cigarette as he bumped out a new one from his pack. It had been clear that digging these memories up had agitated Jotaro as, despite smoking for nearly as long as he had, Blake's own stick had barely ticked off from her slow breaths.

"So I fully took on the identity of a thug and delinquent because I thought that'd get me what I wanted. To be left alone and to have some manner of control over my own life by doing whatever came to mind. I beat the crap out of people, more than I had to and most of them spent as long in the hospital as the first guy I kicked the shit out of. I had mentors who tried to reach out on behalf of my grandfather, father and mother to try and figure out what was wrong with me, who talked like they knew so much more than I did… Hell, they probably did for all the years of experience that they had. Not that would admit that when I was that age, mind you… so I decided I'd be the one to teach them a lesson, and you know what? None of them ever came back to try again.

"When I'd be sent out to the Outskirts, hoping that some manner of calm task or responsibility might cool my heels, I'd still raise hell. At restaurants on those island villages that served me what I thought off as 'shitty food' I'd make it a policy to stiff them with the bill."

"... You know, not for nothing Jotaro… but you sound like you were an asshole." Blake commented dryly as she shifted a bit in her seat. Yeah, Nora and Ren's story of their time with the Stardust Crusaders hadn't made Jotaro sound like a saint, but this Jotaro having been described to her sounded like a thug, someone who abused his strength, position and relations to just do whatever the Hell he wanted, damned be the consequences or who he shoved over in the process.

"You're definitely not wrong about that." Jotaro commented idly as he looked down at her. "For years I kept that behavior up, doing what I could to drive people away just so I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore… Hell, if my behavior got me out of the hassle of being a huntsman, all the better… but it didn't. Because no matter how terrible I acted, no matter how miserable a punk I was, I had people in my life who wouldn't give up on me… and at the time, I think I hated them most of all.

"My grandfather kept me on and kept trying to give me some mentoring from time to time, trying to see me through what he described as my 'difficult phase'. Apparently he wasn't much better at his own age." Blake smiled softly; the Joseph Joestar describe in Stroheim's biography certainly did sound like quite the handful. "I called him an old bastard and did what I could to tell him to piss off. My father… well, he tried but he took his work as a huntsman seriously. He wasn't around too too often to give me any kind of direction… my mother though. Brothers… she probably did the most out of all of them and I probably gave it to her the worst because of it. She never gave up on the idea that I was a good person and that I deserved all the love she possibly had in her to give me…

"If we got all of you on Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO to raise your hands and count your fingers, it probably wouldn't total even close to half the number of times I called my mother a fucking bitch to her face." Blake flinched hard at that, the thought of calling one's mother, especially when Blake herself had a saint of a mom in Kali Belladonna, having appalled her. "I was just a bastard who was dead-set and determined to stay one. I didn't want their help and I didn't want them in my face. I didn't want all these things outside of my life in there." Star Platinum once again briefly reappeared to light Jotaro's new cigarette as he brought it to his lips.

"... So what finally made you change? What got you away from being this person? It's clear that you hate him now but… what made you finally be that different person?" Blake asked, almost sounding desperate, as Jotaro just took a long, hard look at her.

"That's what I'm going to fix with you here and now." Jotaro stated simply, leaving Blake momentarily befuddled as he took a drag on his cigarette. "One moment didn't change me. I wasn't able to be satisfied with the person I was because there was something I did, something big that happened, that made me different. That's not how changing as a person works. That's not how people work. If you're throwing yourself into all of these investigations and late nights because you're looking for that break… well, I'd hate to tell you, but you're only going to end up killing yourself." Blake blanched at Jotaro's upfront and blunt assessment as the tall man just took a quick breath to settle himself.

"I could tell you about big moments. Moments where I wasn't the person I described to you. When I first met Kakyoin, we were enemies rather than friends. He hurt an innocent woman as part of a ploy to get to me… and I got fucking pissed. Not just out of anger, but out of a righteous fury. Out of a sense of justice… then my mother started to die. All because some bastard half a world away happened to have been awake for a while." The phrasing had clearly confused Blake but Jotaro had just continued on regardless.

"I was ready to kill him. Despite all the times I called my mother a bitch, despite how far I tried to push her away… in that moment I was ready to leave home and my life of solitude behind to save her. However these moments aren't the ones that changed me… no, the moments that changed me made these moments possible."

"What were they?" Again, Blake leaned forward to get her answer but Jotaro just shook his head.

"I couldn't tell you."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't… because there were so many that I can't even remember." The exchange had passed quickly and the emotions that flowed through changed just as quick. From desperate and frustrated to confused and curious, Blake watched as Jotaro looked out the window. "I wasn't as stubborn as I thought I was. My mind wasn't as closed off as I thought it had been. I wasn't so set in my ways as I wanted to be. In the end, no matter how hard I fought against the people in my life… I wasn't the type of person who could shut out what they were saying completely. My conscience still existed somewhere in there… and everyday it spoke to me. Everyday I listened to what my grandfather had to say, even if I told him to shove it up his ass afterward… and no matter how hard I pushed back, my mother never gave up on her son.

"No matter how hard I fought it, these things… they got to me. Bit by bit and little by little, they chipped away at who I thought I was and who I thought I wanted to be. The Kujo Jotaro who religiously called his mother a bitch every single day and pushed her away… the day he would run into Kakyoin, I let my mother kiss me on the cheek to send me off in the morning. She wasn't being subtle about it, I knew what she was up to… but I just huffed and called her annoying before going on my way. My mind and conscience slowly took new information and new thoughts in… and it changed me. Bit by bit I changed until I wasn't the same person… till I was the kind of man who'd journey halfway across the world to save his mother's life.

"That's no small thing either. I honestly can't tell if you if even a year before if I would've been the kind of man who would've willingly made that commitment. Who would have put himself out there like that. I probably wasn't, to be honest." As Jotaro spoke, Blake's face fell, the cigarette burning uselessly between her fingers, as she listened to him.

"... So. What you're saying is it takes time." Jotaro just nodded slowly.

"Yes." With that, a shimmer of light shined besides Jotaro, one that startled Blake out of her myopic mood as she blinked in some startled confusion. There floated Star Platinum… but not the one that Nora had described. The Stand as described by Nora focused more around darker purples and blues for its skin and had black gloves and a red scarf. Golden lines hadn't been quite as apparent on its skin and its colors had mostly run together. This Star Platinum… lighter shades of blue and purple, most notably cyan, had taken up a lot of its appearance. Its black apparel had turned white, matching Jotaro's own, and its red scarf had also turned white. Golden lines now ran down its stomach, somewhat separating out the shades of blue and purple.

"Stands give us insight into who we are as a person… and have given us insight into how people tick. People like Koichi, who have potential locked inside of them deep down that's buried under issues and their own insecurities, who can change dramatically if given the right incentive… they aren't typical. Most people will change bit by bit and slowly over time. That's also reflected in Stands; Star Platinum became more and more powerful over time as experience shaped both myself and it. Echoes will probably reach that point eventually too… but not before Koichi fulfills his own potential." Jotaro commented idly as Star Platinum met Blake's eyes, keeping her focused locked to Stand and Stand User rather than down on the floor.

"The fact is… you've changed as well. The person you described… yeah, you're right, she sounded like a tool. Willing to lend herself to whatever cause or use that happened to abate her own anger. The kind of person I'd gladly have gladly turned Star Platinum on and have beaten to within an inch of their life without remorse." Blake swallowed nervously as she turned her gaze over to the more experienced huntsman.

"Then why don't you?"

"You tell me; is that Blake Belladonna the sort who would be here at Beacon Academy right now?" Blake had feared that response as much as any. She understood the general arc of his advice and what he meant… and, if she were honest, she could see what he meant. No, a year ago she wouldn't have even dared to imagine she'd have left the fang. Hell, six months ago she was still gleefully working for the cause of faunus rights through horrible violence. What Jotaro had described… that had been what happened to her. Time slowly but surely changed her perspective. Time slowly but surely showed her what she was doing was wrong.

Still…

"That doesn't exactly help with how I'm feeling now, or help me in any way make up for what I've done to my victims." Blake said flatly as Jotaro just nodded.

"You're right, it doesn't. You do have a lot of crimes stacked up against you." Blake actually chortled a bit at that rather blunt assessment.

"Aren't you supposed to be on my side in all this?"

"Well I'm not about to sit here and feed you bullshit either. Not much point in trying to impart some wisdom if you sugarcoat it." Jotaro intoned casually as he took a drag on his cigarette. "You're right; time itself doesn't change what you've done, doesn't make up for your crimes… but it makes you into the person who will. You chose to come here to Beacon, you chose to fight against the Fang numerous times according to Ozpin… and now you've chosen to take your crimes seriously and to try to repent for them.

"Regardless of whether or not you think you've changed, you have… and you're only seventeen. The person you'll be in a year will be unrecognizable to you now. But you'll only get there if you pace yourself, if you don't try to kill yourself in an attempt to force all of this." Blake lowered her head slightly as Jotaro spoke.

"It's just… hard to 'let' something like that happen. To have to wait for it."

"Even harder when you have regrets piled on your shoulders." Jotaro spoke in a calm tone as he just exhaled smoke from his nose. "Trust me, you aren't the only one to have ridden this rodeo before… and that's something that you can take comfort in as a hunter. You have people who've been where you've been, people willing to give you a shot because you are risking everything to help save innocent lives. Regardless of whether you think you deserve it now, you have the support of the people around you…" Ghostly images appeared in the corner of Jotaro's vision as he spoke; a head of red hair, dark skin and a tuft of black fur. "Even from the ones you feel like you've let down. It'll make waiting for your perceived change a Hell of a lot easier."

Blake looked back over her shoulder to the entrance to the classroom, a ghost of a smile having formed on her lips as Jotaro moved the ashtray forward. Blake blinked, realizing how much of the stuff she had let hang on the end of the cigarette. Blake sat there in silence along with Jotaro for a moment as the two finished with their respective cigarettes. For Blake the tingle of nicotine had gone a long way towards easing her tiredness and giving her mind some focus… still, as she reached up to rub her her eyes she could have practically felt the bags that had formed underneath them.

"Gods…" She chuckled hoarsely as she shook her head. "I probably look like shit."

"You can take the probably out of it." Jotaro stated casually as he took another drag on his cigarette, Blake having long since finished her.

"Jeez, you must've been a hit with the ladies with a way with words like that Mr. Kujo." Blake joked, still rubbing at her eyes as a small hint of a smile formed at the corner of Jotaro's lips.

"You'd be surprised… or perhaps with you knowing Josuke, you wouldn't." Blake just sat there for a moment, a smile on her face and her hands having covered her eyes as she took a long, steadying breath. She dropped her hands, eyes bloodshot, as she looked up to him.

"Mr. Kujo… thank you. Not just for the advice but also… for not threatening to report me." With that the more experienced huntsman just shrugged.

"Like I said, huntsmen and huntresses come from all walks of life. No point in taking one who's here of their own will out." Jotaro laced the end of his cigarette into the ashtray, smothering the embers as he looked at her. "And believe it or not, but we were all seventeen at one point in time… some of us even prefer to share our experiences with our fellow huntsmen and huntresses." Blake nodded as she took a shaky breath and stood up from the desk.

"... I still feel like I'm less than zero. I'm still not satisfied but… I guess killing myself isn't exactly going to make it better." With that, Blake awkwardly rubbed at her arm as she looked around. "Listen, Mr. Kujo, I was wondering-"

"After class. If Nora and Ren are around, I'll ask them to wait for me outside." Jotaro said with a stern nod as Blake smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks."

"There's no need for that. We're hunters, it's our job to look after each other's well being." Jotaro waved Blake off as he continued to drag on his cigarette. "Now go on; I'm sure your partner is just about to tear her hair at this point."

"Heh… no matter how worried Yang got about me, I doubt she'd ever tear her hair out over it." Blake intoned lightly as she turned to walk out of the room. Jotaro sat there as he finished his second cigarette, exhaling softly as a cloud lazily drifted out in front of him. Over a decade's worth of experience had made him… acceptable at this, he supposed.

Hell, having so long to practice with Josuke and Okuyasu and their combined issues had at least given him some skill with handling young hunters.

" **Yare yare** , still such a pain though." Despite it, a slight grin crossed Jotaro's lips as he extinguished the second cigarette.

* * *

Yang practically jumped out of her skin as Blake left the classroom, the lilac eyed teen having been surprised to see her partner walk out not just free and clear but also without Jotaro hovering behind her.

"Blake, holy crap, are you okay?! I'm so sorry! One moment I was there and the next, I just, I didn't mean to-"

"Yang, it's okay. Star Platinum kind of caught us both off guard." Blake spoke softly as she smiled at her partner. The weight of her guilt had still been there, of course. Jotaro had made it clear enough that she was probably always going to carry it around…

But instead of having felt worse at having made her partner worry, Blake felt… okay. Or at least, more okay than she had in awhile.

"Oh… well, speaking of, how'd it go with Mr. Kujo? You… gonna be alright or?" Yang's question drifted off at the end as the blonde cradled one of her arms, the amber eyed teen having just nodded in return.

"Yeah… Mr. Kujo's not gonna turn me in or anything. He was telling the truth. We just… had a talk." Yang sighed in some relief at this, though concern crossed her face again as Blake took a moment to yawn long and loud. "But jeez… I really don't think the… the excitement is going to keep me awake for long." Probably best not to mention that Jotaro had given someone who was, legally in the Four Kingdoms, a minor a cigarette. "I think I'd like to head back to the dorm and actually catch up on my sleep…" With that Blake started to head back to Team RWBY's dorm room, Yang having kept her eyes locked on the back of Blake's head as a slightly disbelieving expression crossed her face.

"So we talking actual sleep here or are we talking 'I'll close my eyes for five minutes and then pull my Scroll out to check the news'?" The blonde bombshell asked as she tagged behind her partner. Blake actually chuckled lightly at that, turning her gaze over to Yang as she did so.

"Actually sleeping… I honestly don't think I could keep myself awake much longer even if I wanted to." Yang looked at Blake with a skeptical look; she'd heard this little bit time and time again from Blake, so she searched her partner's face for any of the twitches and tweaks that hinted at her usual intentions. After a moment a smile finally formed on Yang's own lips; Blake wasn't lying. She was telling the truth.

"Well hot damn. What, did Jotaro scare you straight or something? Threaten to 'Ora Ora' you if you didn't actually catch some Zs… 'or-a' did he pull some weird Stand trick on ya?" Yang asked with a slight grin, Blake having repressed a groan as she looked over at her partner.

"No… he just gave me some good advice. Told me some things I really needed to hear. Maybe didn't necessarily want to hear, but things I needed to hear." Yang just smiled as she turned to face back forward, the more laid back member of the duo having stretched her arms up above her head before she placed them behind her head.

"Well that's good news. The dance is tomorrow night and… well, not saying Sun wouldn't be happy to see you there regardless, but if you walked in looking like that he might have to second guess as to whether you're actually still alive in there." Blake rolled her eyes as Yang spoke.

"I'm pretty sure it wouldn't matter to Sun; he seemed excited enough just getting a yes out of me yesterday." Blake closed her eyes slightly as she spoke, Yang having nodded slightly.

"Gotta admit, kind of surprised that you decided to say yes anyway. Not for nothing Blake but even in the best of times you aren't exactly a social butterfly." Blake grimaced a bit as she looked over at Yang.

"Maybe, maybe… but that doesn't mean I don't like to have fun now and then. After all, I'd need to be able to stand some fun every now and then if I was going to be around you for any amount of time. Otherwise I think I might've died from your enthusiasm." Yang chortled a bit as Blake just looked back forward. "But yeah, I get you… but, it just sounded nice."

"Sun doesn't really swing me as your type though, especially going by your reading material." Blake just nodded slowly, a slight frown having tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Let's just say I've had my fill of 'my type' and that getting away from that sounded nice. I'll take goofy, inadvertently charming and harmless over brooding, stoic and psychotic… now…" Blake admitted the last part under her breath as Yang just shrugged.

"Eh I really don't get this stuff but if you say so Blake." With that, the black haired faunus just laughed again as she turned an appraising eye over to Yang.

"Yeah, I can tell you really don't get this stuff. Your efforts to set Ruby up with Josuke says that clearly enough." Yang nearly choked as she swung her head over to Blake, face as red as a tomato as she looked her partner dead in the eyes.

"How can you even tell? I've been trying to be so subtle about it!"

"Yang, you're being about as subtle as herd of stampeding bulls. I'm pretty sure everyone but Ruby can tell what you're trying to do… well, maybe not Okuyasu, but he'd probably pick up on it if someone pointed it out to him. Heck, I'm pretty sure the only reason Josuke hasn't said anything about it is that he's trying to be nice and not tell you that he doesn't really want to go out with Ruby." Blake commented dryly as Yang just guffawed.

"Please, what guy wouldn't want to go out with Ruby? She's adorable, nice and she'd be totally into this whole dating and True Love stuff. It's a natural match." Blake just shook her head.

"Yang, do note that I read my romance novels for entertainment, not because they actually give good advice." Blake laughed slightly as she spoke. "Yeah, all that is true and you know, I'm sure that on some level you may even be onto something… but it just seems like Ruby isn't interested because, well, she's Ruby and probably hasn't put much thought into boys and Josuke… well, he's probably looking for something else. Either that or he really just does only want Ruby as a friend."

"Pfft, I'll get them to come around, you'll see." Blake just shook her head at Yang's antics. "Besides, come on, you can't say that it'd be perfect; they both want to be huntsman, they both obviously really care about people, no way they'd ever screw the other and… well, you get what I'm saying! It'd be great. Josuke would be a super safe boyfriend for Ruby to have as her first and then… I dunno, they can both move on and find their 'right' partners when they get tired of it or whatever.

"Plus I got some totally amazing entertainment for tomorrow evening! Originally I was going to have a couple djs after the formal crap that's supposed to start the dance off with, but I found this totally amazing band. Their lead guitarist… holy crap, the guy's good. They'll play a nice few mood-setting sets and then bam, it'll all come together!" Yang gave a good, solid laugh in triumph as Blake bit her lip in thought.

"... I'm not saying you're entirely wrong. Your inexperience is showing, but you're not entirely wrong. Chemistry isn't there but they would make for a pretty nice couple… but I wonder if you've fully considered all the possible consequences." Yang looked at Blake, confused, as the black haired faunus shrugged. "Yeah, Josuke believes in True Love and Ruby really seems like the type who'd really latch onto the first guy she really fell in love with who 'got' her values… but that seems like a recipe for something a little more than a first time, experimental boyfriend, don't you think? Say Josuke does find 'True Love' and Ruby does find that Josuke is a guy that she 'gets' and 'gets' her. You might not just be setting yourself up for a first boyfriend there Yang."

Yang turned forward as she cupped her chin in her hand slightly. Honestly, she hadn't really thought about all of that. The idea of Ruby and Josuke staying together on a more… long-term basis hadn't been something she'd considered. Being the type who moved from experience to experience, boy to boy and never really chaining herself down the idea of making your first relationship something more serious than just funsies… well, it seemed foreign to her.

But… well, if Blake was right…

"... Eh. I could have worse brothers-in-law than Josuke." Blake honestly seemed surprised by that assessment as Yang placed her hands behind her head. "Yeah. Josuke seems reliable, he'd never hurt her… and who knows, they'd probably be happy. I'd never have to worry about Ruby again… yeah, never. It'd all be fine." Yang's voice dropped a bit as she spoke, Blake having assumed that Yang had just finished with whatever she had to say.

"Then someone else can take care of Ruby for me. I can just go."

Blake's ears twitched under her bow as she looked over at Yang, slightly surprised. Blake's amber eyes blinked a few times as she tried to search for any sign that Yang really had said something like that, had really said such a thing. But Yang looked perfectly normal, as if she hadn't even uttered such a thought. Blake tilted her head… before she just sighed. She was exhausted and bordering on delirious from her lack of sleep. Yang loved Ruby to bits, the bonds the two sisters had were pretty much unbreakable by the looks of it. She doubted Yang would ever actually say such a thing…

Sleep was what she needed. Gods, if she was starting to hear things, she really was losing it.

* * *

The Next Evening, Dance Hall, Beacon Academy

With Blake's situation having been patched up, and Blake herself would readily admit to the talk she and Jotaro had being more of a patch job to keep her from destroying herself over her issues rather than dealing with her feelings fully, things seemed to calm down on the surface. Of course, anyone with a pair of eyes could see that while the surface drama of the group of teens had died down, the underlying currents of malcontent rushed along. Pyrrha, despite Ren's best efforts, still kept her distance which had now been made even worse as it seems Jaune had somehow fallen into the dumps, the blonde teen having come back from his own trip two days prior in a funk. Yang's attempts at setting Josuke and Ruby up continued to fail all the way leading up to the dance, Weiss' sour mood seemed to be going strong even as she heiress attempted to distract herself with working on the dance and Koichi… Koichi still seemed dead set on getting his 'date' set.

Only Okuyasu, Blake and Sun seemed to be fully on board with the dance, though Okuyasu would sigh, groan and complain with having arrived at the dance dateless himself. Josuke hadn't presented any complaints either, for some reason he had seemed a little nervous about the entire affair.

Evening rolled into morning and the last classes before the dance had been completed as most everyone went to their respective rooms to get dressed before going off to meet their dates… or to just head directly off to the dance if they had none.

For Team RWBY, they'd been excused early from their classes so that they could get dressed and get to the dance to help finish setting things up in the hall. The stage had been set for, at first, the classical music to play that would set up the entire affair and then for the entertainment Yang had hired on. Weiss, despite her mood, had managed to put together a very nice set of decorations that brought the dance hall together… though she never seemed to stop pestering with it even after everything was done. Blake had left a little bit early so that she could go meet up with Sun and Yang, while, Yang now stood at the front of the dance hall behind a podium, ready to greet the various students and guests of the dance as they arrived. It'd be a bit of a hassle at first but, once everyone showed up, she'd be able to dip out to enjoy some dancing, some socializing and some continued pestering of her sister and Josuke.

Ruby had joined her sister at the front; Weiss had been busy 'going over' the decorations one more time and Ruby had gotten a little tired of being asked over and over if the flowers on the table looks like they were placed in just the right spot.

The first to arrive for that evening, at least among Team RWBY's group of friends, were Team JNPR. Before Ruby or Yang could effectively move to greet either Jaune or Pyrrha the blond team leader just gave a quick wave before he walked over to the punch table and Pyrrha… well, Pyrrha just kind of wandered off somewhere.

"Still no progress huh?" Yang asked Nora and Ren as they wandered in.

"That's an understatement; it's pretty much gotten even worse." Nora whined slightly as she rubbed her head while Ren just looked off in both directions.

"I expected Weiss to say no, but it looks like Pyrrha setting Jaune's expectations up ended up being a bit more of a hit this time than previous ones… as for Pyrrha." Ren just placed his hand on his forehead as he shook his head. "It's… it's complicated." Nora just nodded in agreement as Ruby tilted her head to the side.

"How complicated we talking about?" The silver eyed teen asked as Nora just blew out her cheeks.

"'We didn't know our friend nearly as well as we thought we did and assumed A LOT of stuff that ended up making us feel like jerks' complicated." Yang and Ruby both winced at Nora's summation.

"Pretty bad stuff." The two nodded as Yang just tried her best to grin. "On the bright side, you all do look great. Digging Nora's and Pyrrha's dresses especially."

"Well duh, mine's pink, of course it's gonna look good." Nora chortled slightly as she gave Ruby and Yang an appreciative thumbs up. Yang's effort to try and move past the drama had not gone unnoticed by either Ren or Nora and had been appreciated.

"Hopefully a little bit of fun tonight will help take everyone's mind off of everything… or at least give some of us time to think." With that Ren just looked over at Nora and nodded his head into the party. "Shall we?"

"Let's! I'm so hungry, hope you guys brought some good snacks for this party." With that Ren and Nora quickly walked into the dance hall side by side, Ruby and Yang just watching them go as both sisters tilted their heads to the side.

"I still can't tell if they're actually together." The silver eyed girl admitted as Yang snickered slightly.

"I don't think you're the only one Ruby."

"Yeah seriously, those two are a weird pair."

"Tell me about it."

With that Ruby and Yang grinned nice and wide as they turned towards the entrance to the dance hall and were greeted with Blake and Sun. Blake, dressed in a rather nice looking black ensemble, looked better than she had in days. Admittedly her eyes were still moderately bloodshot and some of the purple bags underneath her eyes were still quite clear, but it was a vast improvement. Weeks of sleep deprivation weren't going to get washed out in one night of sleep.

Sun, on the other hand…

"Nice tie there Sun, really tried your best to look good for your date huh?" Yang asked with a cheeky grin as Sun just shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey I put on a black shirt too. Folks from Vacuo, we aren't exactly shirt and tie kind of people. The fact that I put on one of these stupid neck traps in the first place should say something." The mix of serious and joking in Sun's tone earned a few chuckles from Ruby and Yang while Blake just rolled her eyes a bit.

"I'll be sure to appreciate your sacrifice Sun." Sarcasm dripped off of Blake's tone, though it was hardly venomous, while Yang just grinned.

"Best be careful there Sun, you wouldn't want to cross-"

"A 'Blake' cat, yes Yang, very funny." At this point both Sun and Blake had spoken up, which caused Yang to puff up her cheeks as she glared at them.

"Stop ruining my awesome jokes!" The group of friends had a brief laugh at Yang's expense before Blake and Sun dipped out into the dance floor. After that Yang just huffed and leaned against the podium, clearly annoyed that no one appreciated her awesome sense of humor. After a while of seeing people through and waiting smiles crept up onto Ruby and Yang's faces as another group of familiar faces finally walked on through the door.

Familiar if somewhat uncomfortable faces. Team JOJO, despite the gripes and complaints of Okuyasu, had to change out of their standard uniforms for the dance and get into more 'appropriate' dresswear for the affair. Their suits were by and large the same as the other male huntsmen who had come to the dance and, all told, the three of them looked rather good.

Though apparently the trio had spotted Sun Wukong sometime because in spite of the 'orders' to dress for the part, the three had taken to personalizing their suits up. Josuke had placed his pins on the lapels of the formal attire, flaring them out as he combed his hair to have it look its best. Okuyasu had popped up the collars of his own dress suit and placed his money symbol pins on the ends, though this had apparently been all he could have reasonably expected to get away with. Koichi, surprisingly, had followed up with Okuyasu's example, his square pins placed on his collar to change up his look a bit. To make way for their pins and to be able to better manipulate their collars the trio had done away with the bow ties that had been normal for everyone else, somewhat conspicuous lumps in their pockets as the trio wandered forward.

"I take it you three saw Sun sometime before getting here, right?" Yang asked somewhat cheekily as Okuyasu grumbled a bit.

"If that asshole can get away with jeans and a short-sleeved dress shirt then fuck having to deal with those neck traps." Okuyasu pulled at his collar a little bit. Of the trio, Okuyasu seemed the most agitated about the change in attire, the scarred young man clearly uncomfortable in the get up. "Feels like I can barely move in all of this and that tie? Just made it worse." Josuke nodded his head in agreement as he placed his comb back in his pocket.

"Yeah, no kidding. People think that our uniforms look too formal and uncomfortable but, compared to this, our uniforms are beyond great." Josuke reached his hands up to pat at his hair, clearly trying to make sure that his pompadour would still look the part even at this formal setting.

"... I've gotten too used to wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants. This really is just awful." Koichi joined in on the whining as Yang and Ruby appeared about ready to bust a gut.

"Team JOJO, individual members capable of taking on Stand Users, murderers and Grimm… meeting their match at the hands of formal wear." Yang belted out a loud laugh as Team JOJO all just glared at her, Ruby offering the trio a far more sympathetic look as she looked down at her own attire. "You guys just better be careful; any of the chaperones spot you and they might be a little peeved that you aren't in proper attire."

"Well… anyway, not like it matters. If anyone who'd actually care would stop by to check on us, we could just have our Stands quickly put our ties back on. So no harm in just keeping them off and being a little bit comfortable" Josuke shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, Ruby and Yang's expressions dropping slightly as the door opened behind the trio.

"You might want to be a bit more careful about who you say that kind of stuff around, Josuke." Immediately Team JOJO turned to see Ozpin, Ironwood and Jotaro having strolled on into the Dance Hall, the three men… in their normal attire.

"Indeed, just because others are ignoring the traditions of the Vytal Festival Dance doesn't mean that respectable young men should be as well." Ironwood commented dryly as Ozpin nodded in agreement, taking a long sip from his cup of coffee as Okuyasu just growled.

"Oi, oi, oi! What are you three doing lecturing us about that when you all ain't even dressed up? What's your excuses?" WIth that, Jotaro, James and Ozpin all looked at each other for a brief moment.

"... I'm a grown ass man. I don't need to dress up for some dance." With that Jotaro immediately walked off into the crowd.

"This is my formal wear. Atlesian uniforms are considered the highest standard in dress for hunters and soldiers in Atlas…" Ironwood quickly coughed into his fist as he also walked off, his eyes scanning around the room for a head of blonde hair, which just left Ozpin alone with the group of students as he looked at the five gathered. He gave them a wink before he spoke.

"... I'm going to go with Jotaro here; I'm a grown man. I don't need to dress up for a school dance… it's a rather refreshingly honest excuse I think. I'll have to use it more often." Ozpin chuckled and walked off, keen on joining either Jotaro or Ironwood somewhere in the dance hall. "Have fun."

"... Fucking hypocrites…" Okuyasu muttered to himself as everyone readily agreed with the scarred teen. After a moment Ruby just smiled over at the trio as she tried to move past their near 'catch' at the hands of the highest ranking adults any of them knew.

"I know how you guys feel though. I really hate this dress and I REALLY hate these ladystilts. It's all just so uncomfortable." Ruby nodded her head towards the three of them as she smiled genuinely. "You all look pretty good for being so uncomfortable at least."

Yang's grin widened as she realized that Ruby had just given her a prime opening. However, just before Yang could exploit it, the door opened up once again and a loud declaration could be heard after a moment's hesitation on behalf of the new arrivals.

"Sal-u-tations!"

"HUH!? PENNY!"

Almost immediately Ruby has disappeared from Yang's side, bowled over Okuyasu and Josuke and ran past Koichi as she used her semblance to clear the distance between herself and one Penny Polendina. Immediately Team JOJO seemed rather surprised by Ruby's reaction to the green-dressed young woman while Yang just palmed her face in her hands.

"Hello there Ruby, it has been quite a long time since we've seen each other last." Penny responded, quite politely, as she smiled at her only friend. The silver eyed girl, on the other hand, just nodded vigorously as she turned back to Team JOJO.

"Guys, this is one of my other friends, Penny! She's… from Atlas." Ruby clipped her excitement a bit to keep from spilling anything on Penny before she turned back to the robot girl. "Penny, these are some new friends of mine-"

"Higashikata Josuke, Nijimura Okuyasu and Hirose Koichi. I've heard of them Ruby." Penny said with a smile as she walked up to the trio and extended her hand out. "Hello there friends of Ruby, it is good to finally meet you in person. You've been the talk of Atlas'... well, just Atlas ever since your new way of manipulating Aura became known to us." The trio blinked slightly at Penny's phrasing, before Koichi just nodded.

"Oh, you mean our Stands?"

"Yes! It has been of a great deal of interest to Atlas to see Aura manipulated in such a way when everyone had previously considered it fictitious garbage… in my father's words." Josuke and Koichi attempted to laugh good naturedly and wave off Penny's awkwardness, while Okuyasu just crossed his arms a bit as he tilted his head to the side.

"Well that's… good to know, I guess. Nice that we're making an impression." Josuke smiled brightly as he shook Penny's hand, which Koichi then followed up shortly behind and, eventually, Okuyasu relented as well.

"So you've heard of JoJo and the gang here eh Penny? Wow, who'da thunk you guys would've been famous with Atlesian types by now. Movin' up in the world." Penny blinked in confusion as Josuke scowled at Yang for using that dreaded nickname in front of someone new.

"JoJo? What is a JoJo, exactly?" Penny asked, leaning forward slightly as Josuke just sighed.

"It's a nickname... " Upon seeing Penny just blink in confusion, Josuke licked his lips a bit as he scratched the back of his head. "You know, a name you give someone to kind of show… I dunno, friendship, affection or something like that, I guess?" At that Penny's eyes brightened as she nodded.

"Sen-sational! I didn't know that such practices were common… Ruby, you and I are going to have to think of nicknames for each other later!" Ruby's eyes sparkled a bit as she excitedly nodded before Penny turned her green eyes back towards Josuke and the others. "Well JoJo, thank you for telling me about these 'nicknames', I'm afraid I don't have much social experience."

"Hold on there Penny." Josuke waved his hands in front of his face as he looked down at the short robot girl. "I actually really don't like people calling me JoJo. It's not a nickname that I find a lot of… joy in, I guess you could say. I really only put up with it coming from my friends or family." Josuke put his hands into his dress outfit's pockets. Penny just nodded slowly as he spoke before, finally, a sad frown tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Oh… I see. So we are not friends then, Josuke?"

…

Josuke just stared at the sad look on Penny's face. He hated that nickname, he really, really friggin' hated it. But seeing this girl look so sad, for some reason, it just crushed him. Like watching a kicked puppy whine on the ground, or something to that effect. Josuke rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a second before he turned his light blue eyes over towards Yang.

"I hate you so much…" He muttered as Yang just grinned a bit.

"I know JoJo, I consider you a close friend as well." With that Josuke just sighed as he turned back towards Penny.

"No Penny, that's not it. Any friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine." Ruby smiled brightly as Josuke said this and, immediately, Penny perked up.

"Then may I call you JoJo as a nickname to signify our friendship, Josuke?" The pompadoured teen just palmed his face as he took a deep, annoyed breath, though the gesture seemed to have gone right over Penny's head.

"... Sure Penny, you can call me JoJo."

"Sen-sational!" Despite himself, Josuke couldn't help but grin at the obvious satisfaction Penny took in this entire affair. For a moment, it seemed like the young woman had her day really brightened up by having made another friend.

"Ms. Pollendina, we should move along to one of the corners."

Up until two Atlesian soldiers quickly to flank Penny on both sides, the two having been sure to get some distance in between her and the others present with their mere presence. Team JOJO, Ruby and Yang flinched a bit as this occurred, Penny just having deflated under the sudden presence of the Atlesian soldiers as she just nodded.

"Yes, of course… I'll see you all later, come by if you would like to speak or dance." Penny attempted to put her previously excited smile back on as she was escorted to another part of the dance hall, the group having just watched in some stunned amazement as most of them tilted their head to the side.

"What the Hell was that all about?" Okuyasu asked, clearly confused, as no one seemed to have an answer for it. Ruby had just kept her mouth shut as she shook her head, her mood having deflated slightly.

"I dunno." She lied and, apparently, quite badly as the others looked at her expectantly. "Listen, I'm going to go ahead and grab some punch, I'll talk to you all later." Ruby said with a slightly deflated tone as she walked, or more appropriately stumbled, on over towards the snack and drinks table. Yang just watched for a moment before her mind snapped her into the present moment as her lilac eyes went wide.

"Wait, Ruby, before you do that how about…" Yang sighed as Ruby quickly slipped out of her sight and into the crowd, the noise of people talking and moving around more than likely drowning her out. Alright so setting up Ruby here and now at the podium was out but hey, she knew where her sister was heading at least. So long as she knew where Josuke would be, then it would only be a matter of time for her to get them-

"JOSUKE!" Everyone flinched and flinched hard as, without warning, a small mob of girls immediately appeared at Josuke's sides, the pompadoured teen having swung his head around as the group of young women looked up at him expectantly.

"You know I just remembered that I… I have to…" Josuke realized that he didn't have any excuses as Okuyasu and Koichi were right there with him. "... Bye!" With that Josuke quickly extricated himself from the group and immediately walked as fast as he could to get away, though this only resulted in a 'chase' as the group of interested ladies immediately sped off after him.

"Wait, Josuke, no! Just ask Ruby and they'll…" Before she could make her pitch Josuke had turned a corner in the dance hall and had been chase down it, leaving Yang to just growl in frustration as she pulled at her hair. "I swear to the Gods, why is this so friggin' difficult?"

"... Not for nothing Yang, but maybe you're just kinda terrible at this?" Yang flinched a bit as Koichi spoke up, the lilac eyed teen turning her gaze at the short, somewhat spiky haired young man as he frowned.

"Oh jeez, first Blake now you?" Koichi's cheeks turned a bit red as he looked off to the side.

"Well probably not just us either…" Koichi muttered as Okuyasu crossed his arms, a slight tilt of his head as he frowned down at his teammate.

"What the Hell are you talking about Koichi?"

"You mean you haven't been able to tell Okuyasu? Yang's been trying to set Josuke and Ruby up for the past couple days." Okuyasu blinked at this as he scratched his chin, his brown eyes having gone a bit wide as he looked up.

"Oh! Is that what she's been doing? I thought she was just trying to annoy the piss out of them for a laugh." Yang resisted the urge to slam her face onto the desk as Okuyasu gave this rather blunt assessment as Koichi weakly laughed.

"Well.. that seems to be about the extent of what she's accomplished with Ruby, so I guess you're not wrong." Yang tilted her head side to side as she pantomimed Koichi's sentence… before she blinked.

"Wait, with Ruby?" Yang tilted her head to the side as Koichi just shrugged.

"Josuke seems to find it more funny than anything. I don't think he's really interested, but… I think he'd pretty much say it's harmless." Koichi shrugged his shoulders as Okuyasu nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, trust us Yang, that 'True Love' crap Josuke spouts ain't just something he says to sound like a cool guy. Baby face actually believes it." Okuyasu frowned as he shook his head. "Of course the jackass who has girls just waiting to jump him would." With that Okuyasu just bumped Koichi on the shoulder as he nodded towards the refreshments table. "Come on Koichi, let's drown our sorrows in some punch." Koichi frowned a bit as he looked up to Okuyasu.

"Okuyasu, she could be here you know, I'd still want to ask her." With that Okuyasu just barked out a bit of a laugh as he shook his head.

"Right, right, sure thing Koichi. Let's just get ourselves some punch and start supporting a wall." With that the duo departed, leaving Yang to man her position by the podium as she just heaved a weary sigh and rubbed her temples.

"Well… this night couldn't get much worse at least. We can only go up from here." She said with a light-hearted grin. "When the entertainment gets here, then stuff'll really get going." As she finished, the doors opened up again and Yang just gave a polite nod and allowed the next four in.

After all, while she knew Cinder's Team, she wasn't exactly what she'd think of as close to them.

The four 'teenagers' all walked onto the dance floor and looked around, self-satisfied grins of various stripes on their faces as they looked over the dance hall.

"You know, it's almost going to be a shame; they put so much effort into all of this too." Mercury commented idly as he looked appreciatively towards some of the arrangements, his tone dripping lightly with sarcasm as the other three members of the group just ignored him.

"Alright, we split off from here… Neopolitan, you're to remain within sight until the signal's given. Once things start, you can use the cover to disappear… just make sure Mercury doesn't end up caught out by the end of everything." The disguised Neopolitan shrugged her shoulders and quickly departed as Cinder spoke, much to the annoyance of Emerald. Neo had the outline of the plan and, while it would be annoying to actually have to deal with these people seeing her out in the open… well, it'd just make looking over Koichi a little bit more exciting without the protection of invisibility. A nice little risk to add to the little game of cat and mouse the two had going.

"Meanwhile, Emerald…" Cinder drawled off as Emerald nodded, picking up where her boss had left off.

"I distract the big one by getting him as far away from the CCT as possible and keeping him there at least five minutes before things are set to go off." Cinder nodded as she took a long look around; they hadn't arrived on stage yet but, thanks to Xiao Long, he'd be in a prime spot once Ozpin took the stage to give his little address later on that evening. Her golden eyes scanned around the room and spotted the other, his eyes darting from person to person, taking in every little detail they could before moving on, a cocky smile gracing his lips. She hadn't seen sight of the third… good, all things considered. Once things got started here, he'd make sure that so much time would be wasted that they'd have no idea what was going on.

"It sounds like we all know our places. Good, very good. If things go well tonight not only will our foes not know just where and how we've hit them but… well, I doubt they'll have much time or energy to dedicate to looking into The Breach before it's too late for them." Cinder said coyly as she reached up a hand to comb a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

"Not to mention we'll be able to get out of this school and stop with this bs. Tell you what, I don't know how many more conversations with these people I can handle before I start going native." Mercury rolled his eyes as he looked at the rest of the group… being the first to notice that Neopolitan had already walked off to take her spot somewhere amidst the crowd. "You sure it was a wise idea to agree to Roman's change of plans? The guy's obviously been whipped by her somehow and we know that she's… well, of a mind, so to say." Mercury shrugged as he crossed his arms as Cinder just smiled and shook her head.

"Mercury, when everything's said and done we'll need her around. Either to sneak myself and Emerald back into the dance should something go wrong or to sneak you out should everything go right. After all, you won't be in much of a position to get yourself out once things start." Mercury just grimaced at the thought; he'd shared as many details as that weirdo asked for, including his own. He hadn't looked forward to what that would mean for him later on tonight, but orders were orders.

"I'm sure you'll be fine Mercury. Nothing you need to get torn up about." Emerald grinned a bit wickedly as she said this as the grey haired teen just rolled his eyes.

"Careful there Emerald or I might just end up mistaking you for a less well-endowed Yang Xiao Long." Emerald resisted the urge to punch Mercury right in the gems quite admirably; they couldn't afford to stand out tonight.

"... Mercury still had a point. It might've been best to turn Roman down once he suggested that ice cream freak come tonight." Emerald muttered as Cinder shrugged.

"If dear Roman trusts her… well, I say either way we end up winning. Either she ends up falling through on that trust and Roman ends up further into our own web or she comes through and we end up with her expertise serving us well tonight. She can't really get in the way of any of our players tonight whatever she does… and, to be honest, I think Roman is probably right about her." With Cinder having spoken her piece Mercury and Emerald just nodded their heads. The two noticed that Cinder seemed a bit more… excited tonight than perhaps was usual.

But why shouldn't she have been? For months and months now, she had ran circles around Ozpin and Ironwood in this game they had been playing. Stealing half the power of The Fall Maiden, lending aid to Roman so that he could steal such a large amount of Dust right underneath the noses of Vale's authorities, keeping herself and her cronies hidden in plain sight in Beacon Academy. It had all been almost too easy, Ozpin almost too simple an opponent…

But tonight. Tonight would be the crown gem of this manipulation. The greatest move made in the game yet, something that wouldn't go surpassed until The Breach itself. The very idea of it, of thoroughly embarrassing Ozpin on his own campus with his own students and the guests he'd promised the safety of in the crossfire…

Yes, it all made Cinder Fall very, very excited. Let these children wrap themselves up in their petty dramas, let them lull themselves into their false sense of security surrounded by Atlesian soldiers, 'hunters' and the music. Cinder Fall had bigger fishes to fry once the moment was right.

"Tonight promises to be quite the show… though perhaps not for the reasons these children think."

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 5)**

* * *

 **A/N: Not much of an Author's Note to be had this time around. Got to explore a bit more of Jotaro's character, which I've always found to be an interesting exercise to really think about, and we set the scene for the dance, setting up both its personal drama and laying down some hints for the type of shenanigans we'll see pulled by the series' opposition. A lot of personal drama to sort through before the big show begins and, once it does hit, we'll be popping off for a while now. By the end of this trough we should have a few new potential conflicts, arcs and new status quos setup for the next series of rising action, climax and trough chapters to go through and then we'll repeat the cycle. Overall I'm rather satisfied with how this has gone so far and I'm actually quite happy to see that a lot of you seem to be pumped not just for the action but for the characterization stuff as well (which I've probably made no secret is my favorite part of writing this).**

 **Also yes I am aware that Cinder doesn't start off this little event actually 'at' the Beacon Dance and starts off ready for her infiltration of the CCT. I know. The in-universe justification is that there's a lot more moving pieces at the actual dance itself that Cinder wants ot make sure are in place before she gives the signal to go. The meta-narrative reason is that I want the fact that there's something or somethings lurking in the background of the dance. Something to just always keep in the back of your head during these next couple chapters and having Cinder present to mark off her check list would help set those expectations.**

 **See you all on the 23rd and I hope you all have a fantastic week.**


	29. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 5)

"To the socially awkward?"

"To the socially awkward."

Ruby, Jaune, Okuyasu and Koichi stood gathered around the snack table, a glass of punch in each of their hands. Okuyasu stood back behind the table, supporting the wall as he chatted as amicably as he could with the more socially inept members of his circle of friends which, to be fair, did include himself. Ruby, generally not all that down for the dance in and of itself, just decided to hide out by the punch bowl to avoid Yang's weirdness and to just be out of the way of as many people as possible. Jaune, still a little beaten up over the Weiss situation, had decided to join them. Koichi, meanwhile, had just hoped that by not sticking himself in the middle of the crowd where his height would end up leaving him unable to look around, might still be able to spot Neo… if she was here at all. It was an increasingly vain hope but one that the little guy had held onto.

Everyone else had either disappeared not to be seen, like Josuke and Pyrrha, were busy having fun, like Neptune, Sun, Blake, Ren and Nora or, like Yang and Weiss, were still busy with their work… either assigned by someone else in Yang's case of self-assigned in Weiss'. As the classical music played in the background Okuyasu couldn't help but yawn as he rolled his shoulders, the scarred teen trying to dig around for a topic of conversation now that the four had gotten done with their little mini-toast.

"Sucks about Weiss there Jaune." Okuyasu muttered as he scratched at his cheek. This time Okuyasu hadn't gone so far as to make fun of or hint at Jaune over Pyrrha. Even the normally stubborn and oblivious Okuyasu had noticed the goings ons between Pyrrha and Jaune and how worried Nora and Ren seemed. The situation had seemingly gone from mildly amusing and annoying to… tense. Tense enough for even the Nijimura to notice.

So he just decided he'd sympathize with Jaune as a fellow failure in grabbing dates to try to make the blond feel better.

"Eh, it's whatever Okuyasu. I should've really expected it by this point you know? I've been turned down plenty and… well, I can't exactly compete with Neptune, right?" Jaune shrugged his shoulders as he took a sip of his punch, the other three members of the socially awkward club just nodding in agreement as they took drinks of their own punch. After a moment though, Okuyasu and Ruby narrowed their eyebrows. Koichi, having been so busy looking for Neo, hadn't kept up with the goings on of the W in Team RWBY. Okuyasu and Ruby, on the other hand…

"What do you mean Jaune?" Ruby asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"Well I mean come on. Not a lot of guys can pull of blue hair of all things. Neptune's pretty cool so I can see why she went with him."

"... Those things potentially being true Jaune, that's not what we're talking about Jaune." Koichi muttered slightly as he tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah, Weiss didn't come here with Neptune." At that Jaune did a spit take of his cup of punch as he turned his head to the rest of his friends.

"What?!"

"Yeah, Weiss has been telling everyone that she doesn't have a date to the dance because she didn't have time for one. I mean, we figured something had gone wrong with Neptune, but…" Okuyasu and everyone else looked over at Weiss and… the scene was actually a little pathetic. Weiss stood by a table, picking at a white rose that refused to stand up straight, all the while casting sidelong glances over at Neptune who had taken the time to drop by Sun and Blake. Jaune blinked a few times as his gaze narrowed, the blond team leader having handed his remaining punch over to Ruby as he furrowed his brow.

"Hold my punch…" He muttered as he stalked on off. Ruby and Koichi blinked in confusion a few times at this display, Ruby having absent-mindedly taken a bit of a sip of the punch that had been handed off to her. After a moment, both heard a slight 'tch' sound to their side which drew both of their gazes over to Okuyasu who just stood there with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Brothers above, you guys are the most frustrating people I've ever met, and that list includes my brother Keicho." Okuyasu rubbed at his forehead a bit as he spoke, Ruby chuckling slightly as she watched Okuyasu wind up a bit. "Jaune has some famous celebrity or some crap that wants his socially awkward ass and never manages to even notice, Ren and Nora are basically an item but just keep dancing around it, Josuke is an asshole who has lines of girls following him around but doesn't even give one a chance because 'True Love' and now Neptune got asked out by Weiss… and turned her down so that he could show up to the dance friggin' single!" Okuyasu rubbed his temples a bit as comical tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

By this point Koichi and Ruby just smiled slightly, more amused by Okuyasu's little emotional show than anything, both having known Okuyasu long enough to realize the scarred teen wasn't actually taking this shit personally. As Koichi turned his gaze away from Okuyasu and scanned the room again, he stopped as he spotted a mop of black hair. At first, he had thought his eyes had just run across Blake again and was prepared to move on… until he realized a couple things.

One was that this mop of black hair hadn't been accompanied by a scraggly mop of blond hair. The second was that this hair had not been blessed by a single bow but two… and finally that the two bows had been white and not black. Koichi's eyes went wide as he took in all of the details he could, his lips curling up into a smile; all the features came together and soon enough the young man internally cheered, he had spotted her.

And it seems like she had been momentarily distracted by something and hadn't noticed that he'd seen her. Setting his cup of punch to the side while Okuyasu continued to rant, Koichi quickly departed his two friends and disappeared amidst the crowd.

"Dammit, it's so not fair, why can't we be that lucky Koichi? Why do we have to sit by and watch these idiots just squander all their good luck?" Okuyasu muttered as he looked down to the side, only to notice that he'd been ditched by Koichi. Ruby too noticed this but, by the time they both had gotten to looking around, they realized they could have no longer spotted Koichi amidst the crowd of people, especially considering how his short stature would've blended him into the crowd.

"Man we're just getting' ditched by folks left and right aren't we Ruby?" Okuyasu asked with a bit of a tilt of his head as Ruby just nodded her head.

"Yep, then again not too surprising, this isn't exactly the center of the party right here." She said with a bit of a shrug as the two just stood around for a few moments. "... So, uh, what interests do you have Okuyasu?"

"Eh… don't got too many. Cooking I guess but that's more or less just cause I have to do it for myself." Ruby nodded a few times as he said this as she turned back ahead.

"I'm more into weapons myself." Okuyasu chuckled a bit as he looked over.

"Really, couldn't tell." The silver eyed girl just rolled her eyes as Okuyasu continued. "My brother was into weapons too. Not so much in wielding them but, well, knowing about them played a role in how Bad Company worked." So, for the next while, the socially awkward, cut down to just Ruby and Okuyasu, chatted amicably. Meanwhile Koichi did his best to force his way through the crowd, keeping his eyes locked on Neo as she turned back to look over the crowd. After a moment or two her green eyes went wide and Koichi realized that she must've only just now realized she lost track of him. Koichi swallowed a lump in his throat as he measured out the distance between the two of them; this was his one shot.

Fifty-five meters.

Fifty-two meters.

Fifty.

" **[Act 1]**..."

As this little scene went down, Koichi suddenly bumped into someone in the crowd. Stumbling back a bit, having been thoroughly distracted by his own pursuits, Koichi turned a slightly scared and utterly embarrassed expression up towards the person he had just rammed into.

"Oh jeez! I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to just bump into you! I'll just, uh, I'll just be on my way!" Koichi quickly forced himself up onto his feet and bowed slightly to the stranger, who just seemed to smile reassuringly at him as he nodded his head, a mop of white hair having waved about as he did so.

"No problem little guy, accidents happen. There is just one thing though…" Koichi nodded, wanting to make it up to the guy he had just rammed into, as he watched his face scrunch up curiously. "That's a habit, right?" Koichi blinked in confusion as he was asked this, the stranger just smiling again. "The way your face just goes stock still in that expression, it's just what you do when you're scared, right?"

"... I… I guess?" Koichi responded slowly, uncertainty having marred his features, as the young man in front of him just smiled satisfactorily.

"Great. It's just something I take a lot of interest in and like to ask people. Enjoy the dance." With that the white haired young man quickly departed, Koichi just having blinked in some confusion as he watched after him. The guy was… certainly weird. You'd think someone like him would've stood out at Beacon…

Koichi shook his head and turned his head back up towards the balcony and, to his displeasure, found that Neo had walked on off out of his sight. Still, Koichi continued to walk toward where he had last seen her and, with some focus, adjusted his ears to listen out. After a few moments, Koichi smiled as he nodded with a great deal of vigor.

He might've lost her by sight, but thanks to Echoes…

* * *

The music sucked.

These kids couldn't dance worth shit.

Cinder, Mercury and Emerald all wore the biggest, most shit-eating grins on their faces as they looked over the entire scene… not that anyone was actually taking notice if this, mind. As ever, these idiots stayed completely oblivious.

And she was just standing up on one of the passages on the second floor above the dance hall, watching over the entire scene and all the players that had, currently, arrived to make sure things were going alright. Emerald had been ghosting Jotaro for most of the night, waiting for Cinder's signal, while Mercury seemed to just be doing his best to come off as inconspicuous. Again, the dude had miserably failed by Neo's own measurements, but whatever.

Then there were the… tag alongs that Cinder had Jail House Lock sneak in. That Stand was a friggin terror for how often it had managed to pull this off. The 'main distraction' of the night hadn't arrived yet but he would and, soon after he did, a little bit of chaos would erupt. That might finally make things exciting… maybe. If things didn't go predictably.

Neopolitan sighed wearily as she leaned up against one of the railings and shook her head. Honestly, what was it about this stupid dance that was supposed to make coming here worth it again? Disguised green eyes slowly scanned the crowd before they fell on the snack table and, immediately, a coy smile worked its way onto Neo's lips.

Oh right; Koichi looked good in a suit. That's what she was getting out of putting up with everything else this dance had to offer. Neo got her fill of the sight of her stalkee in his tux and immediately scanned the room again. She had to look busy if Cinder or any of the others happened to look her way, after all. She hadn't been entirely sure what Roman had said to get their suspicions off her, if he had at all, but if she showed any sign that they had been right about her and that she was 'compromised', as far as she could be given how loyal she was to, then the two of them would never hear the friggin' end of it.

Honestly, all of this was going to go fine, she supposed. She wondered if Koichi would make it through the initial go of it; the way that Cinder had set everything up, the trio would make short work of a vast majority of the participants of the dance within the first few seconds of their trap being sprung. If Emerald played her part well, then Jotaro wouldn't be around to Time Stop shit and potentially mess things up. Koichi could very well be one of the guys to go down in the initial little surprise. As ever, the thought disappointed Neo, especially now having seen that, yes indeed, Koichi made for an adorable sight, but the thought of tonight going off without a hitch made her…

Where the fuck was Koichi? Neo's green eyes blinked in slight surprise as they scanned the floor down. She'd gotten lost in her thoughts and with pretending to scan the floor for so long that she hadn't realized that Koichi had just gotten up and moved. She bit her lip slightly as she moved away from the railing and back into the passages of the second floor of the building. Up until the trap was sprung she was expected to stay in sight; after all, as utterly braindead as these Beacon types might seem to her when it comes to not noticing Cinder and her clique, even they'd have a hard time not noticing the fact that a guest arrived at the party and then promptly vanished without actually leaving.

This, of course, ran the risk that Koichi might accidentally spot her, but she'd come up with a plan for that. She picked out her spot on the second floor because most people wouldn't bother to look up above them, for one, and for another it'd give her a good view of the entire scene. It'd let her do her job and have her fun at the same time. But that momentary distraction, pulling herself into her own thoughts, seemed to leave her without immediate eyes on Koichi…

Immediately her green eyes across the dance floor to look for him; he wasn't at the punch table with The Hand or the silver eyed girl, that doofus with the shield and sword seemed to have gone walk-about too, the cat faunus and the monkey were still only entertaining the blue haired tosspot with the goggles, Higashikata Josuke was still, presumably, being chased around, Pyrrha Nikos had walked off the dance floor moments before and the the girl with the hammer and her… boy toy? Boy toy. They were still on the dance floor. The blonde bimbo was still at the entrance of the dance too...

And Koichi hadn't been with any of them. Without resorting to her semblance Neo snuck back as quietly as she could in order to get some space between her and the dance floor. It would've been a big if for Koichi to spot her, though it seemed like he'd been looking around most of the night as well, but it was still better to play safe than sorry with getting spotted by the kid. She had already essentially gotten a lot out of Roman for being allowed to come here in the first place and… well, Neo knew herself well. Like she said, she was impulsive.

After a solid few minutes of dipping in between halls and people, Neo decided to stop and recollect herself. She'd picked out a good few spots around the dance hall where she could watch over the events of the dance and Koichi, so all she'd have to do was to sneak to another one of them. By now Koichi would have arrived at her old spot where she had been skulking and probably figure he'd just seen something. She could go to another spot, hide out and then find him again and then get right back to stalking the little guy-

"Uh… hi!"

Neopolitan promptly proceeded to turn around and reach for her…

Oh right.

No umbrella.

So instead what ended up happening was that Neo nearly jumped out of her skin and turn to face Koichi, her body positions to defend herself with a weapon she hadn't had on her at the time as the young, silver haired teen just flinched back.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I… I didn't mean to startle you, it's just… well, I tried to call out to you a moment ago and you didn't respond so…" Koichi flushed slightly as he scratched the back of his head, looking down and to the side as Neo slowly relaxed, realizing precisely how little danger she was actually in. She should've been more aware and less in her own thought, she knew, but she hadn't expected Koichi to actually track her down. Hell, had made good distance between where Koichi would've likely spotted her and here, so how did he…

Again, as it had been back at the warehouse, Koichi read her changing expression and slowly swallowed a lump in his throat as he pointed to his elbow. Neopolitan raised an eyebrow before the ice cream assassin realized just what Koichi had been hinting at. She quickly brought up her corresponding elbow to her face and, immediately, her green eyes went a bit wide; those strange symbols that Koichi used had been plastered onto her arm. A high-pitched humming sound emanated from it, one that had been lost in the background of her mind behind the orchestral music… but if Koichi had been listening out specifically for it then he would've...

"When I got within fifty meters of you, I had Echoes stamp something small onto you so I could follow you by it… I just figured this was my one shot and I kind of didn't want to waste it… which probably sounds really creepy now that I think about it."

Expecting a frown or some disapproving look from Neopolitan, Koichi was instead surprised to see Neo grin a bit at him as she placed her hands on her hips. The kid was still as sharp as ever. The moment he saw her he had a plan in mind and put it to good use. Exactly the same thing he did back with Angelo… though this time without the edge of desperate fear guiding his actions. Maybe a little excitement was lost without that element, but still; this was still the Koichi that had managed to get her attention alright.

Right down to the thoroughly red cheeks as he mumbled something, a mix of embarrassment and… hmmm, pride, maybe, on his face as he stood under her gaze. As Koichi seemed to hesitate in front of her, Neo just sighed a bit as she waved at him; no point in backing out now, this was happening. He'd gotten to her and done so rather impressively by her scorecard. She'd hear him out and then… turn him down gently. She pretty much knew what he had on his mind, Hell, she'd basically watched him for most of the past couple days to see it. She just had to say no to the little guy and then that'd be that.

Still, there was no harm in letting him speak his piece as a bit of a reward for having managed to sneak up on Roman Torchwick's best assassin. Plus hey, it was a good show for her too; watching as Koichi tried his best to wind himself up, to figure out what he was going to say, it was pretty adorable. Like watching a puppy try to climb its way up a stair that was way too big for it. Kinda futile, but the effort and the determination made it interesting to watch.

Koichi seemed to take a long, deep breath. A flash of that determination and courage she'd seen back at the warehouse seemed to pass by his eyes as his hair, oddly, twitched a bit. He looked up at her and, taking a deep breath, he uttered a handful of words.

"It's really weird that you've been stalking me all this time!"

… Not exactly the words that Neopolitan had been expecting. In fact, that probably really showed on her face as she tilted her head to the side, Koichi keeping his eyes locked on her as whatever courage fueled that declaration carried him through to the next.

"It's… it isn't exactly supposed to be something people like, you know? Knowing that there's always someone on watching their back, looking on them, without having asked… the fact that it'd been going on for so long and that I didn't even notice it most of the time… that's something that concerns most people too… and, well, if I'm being completely honest, when I think about it a lot it is just kinda… well, really, really off…"

Well… he wasn't wrong. Even Neo herself had admitted to herself quite a few times that she was being a bit of a creeper in doing all this. Now, Neopolitan had absolutely no shame so she hadn't cared a whit about whether it was right or wrong for her to be doing this…

But hearing it from Koichi? It… made her feel weird. Not in the really good way that things involving the little guy usually did either.

Koichi seemed to see this in her expression but he hadn't moved to suddenly correct himself or to assuage her. At least, not directly on this point. Instead his expression just seemed to grow more conflicted as he scratched his arm.

"But… well… I think…Man, I had this all planned out in my head and it sounded way better in there." Koichi face went beet red as he had said this, the young man taking a long breath as he nervously looked up to her. "I think you're really cool." Koichi's face went a deep shade of red as he said this, the young man having scratched the back of his head. "You're really confident and sure of yourself. Even when Angelo was there you didn't seem like you were scared at all. Like, beyond what I've even seen in my friends. You couldn't have cared less what Angelo had in mind or what he would've done… you just knew what you were going to do and you did it. Even when he surprised you, you had this clarity and this self-assuredness. You didn't doubt yourself for even a second. It was really inspiring at the moment and, if I'm being honest, it's a lot of what I've always wanted to be too."

If Neo actually had the capability to laugh out loud, she would. The huntsman right in front of her, squeaky clean and heroic, was telling her that he wanted to be like her. The assassin. Granted, he didn't know she was an assassin, but still, point remained. She shook her head as she prepared her Scroll to respond in some way, but as again surprised as Koichi reached a hand out to keep her from raising it.

"And… well, thanks to you, I did become some of that. I did change and that change wouldn't have been possible if you didn't save me from Angelo. If you didn't show up and risk your life to save a complete stranger… well, not a complete stranger but… jeez, you know what I mean." Koichi whined slightly as he looked off to the side. Again, a lump formed in Neopolitan's throat as he said this. It always made her feel somewhat uncomfortable that Koichi mistook her intentions with Angelo and the events surrounding the warehouse; that he built them up as some kind heroic act where she had been willing to risk all to see him survive…

Granted, that did happen, she didn't want him to die because it'd hurt Roman, but that was just that; it'd hurt Roman. She had a stake in it relating to someone she cared about. Koichi had been at the time just something to work around. It was an entirely selfish thing that happened.

"And… you're really fun to be around too." Koichi muttered with a red face as he scratched at his cheek. "I mean, I guess we haven't 'technically' been around each other, you always seem to be just out of my sight but… your messages always leave me feeling pretty good, and they're funny and… and you're still watching over me and helping me. Even when you don't have to."

… Okay, granted, that was true. And Neo knew that was a mistake. In fact, letting this happen, letting this little exchange go on, was itself a mistake. She promised Roman she would only watch Koichi, that she was just going to stalk him one last time before The Breach and that was that. She just needed to tell the adorably little runt to shove off, to get out of here, to-

"And… I don't know anything about you. Or at least, not too much. Really, you probably know a lot more about me than I do you." Waaaay more true that he could've ever thought, which was why- "I want that to change though." Neo's face actually scrunched up in a bit of surprise as Koichi declared that, the blue eyed young man looking absolutely terrified as he looked up to her.. "I know it's silly to want to know your stalker. Like I said, I know all the stuff you've done isn't something I should be interested in. Heck, my friends would probably think I'm crazy but… well. I'm alive because of you and I'm a different person because of what happened with Angelo. So… I dunno, I want to get to know you better. Like… I dunno, maybe we could dance a bit? Have a bit of punch… talk face to face? I mean, not talk because you can't talk, but you can communicate, which is what I meant, which I'm sure you knew is what I meant because we've already done this and why am I still talking…" It seemed as though panic had finally seized him up as Koichi stood in front of Neopolitan, seemingly ready to pass out as he waited for her answer.

Welp, Koichi had gotten what he wanted; he'd walked up to her, put on his brave pants, or as brave as the boy could muster outside of a fight to the death it seemed, and asked her out to her face.

Now it was time to shoot him down.

Neopolitan just put her hands on her hips as she smiled coyly at Koichi. Nevermind that all this was perhaps the most innocent thing she'd ever heard in her life. Go dance, drink some punch, have a little talk? Compared to some of the stuff that she'd heard after hanging out with Roman for so many years, it was pretty childish… but then Koichi hadn't come off as overly experienced in any regard. Part of that built into how he was kind of endearing. He had no idea what he was doing, but he had an idea of what he wanted and by the Gods he was going to walk up to a girl that caught his fancy and say 'hey, even though you're a creepy stalker, I'd like to get to know you better'.

Nevermind that he was shaking like a leaf. Gods, if he was half as nervous as he looked he was probably about ready to suffer a heart attack. All over a little date to a little school dance. Sure it was with a girl that he, to Neo's own little bit of pride, said he thought was really cool, but still, it was a pretty silly thing. He was making this out to be like it was a big deal… and again, that was actually a little flattering, but still.

Nevermind that he was going to die in a week when The Breach hit. No matter what happened at the dance tonight, no matter what she said here, Hirose Koichi was going to either be rounded up or killed once The Breach hit. The kid was doomed to die and getting more attached to the little guy was just going to bum her out even more when it happened. I mean, it meant that nothing that happened tonight would matter, but still…

Hmm…. nothing that happened tonight would matter. No matter what answer she gave, it'd all be reset the moment that The Breach hit and he died. She could go forward working with Roman and Koichi would just be a pleasant memory in the rearview mirror. She had previously taken this as a reason to be bummed out… but, hey, it could also be a reason to just cut loose, have some fun and enjoy herself for a night.

It could be fun… and like she said to Roman, if he ordered it, she'd kill Koichi on the spot. No matter what stupid bullshit that Cinder, Mercury or Emerald thought, Koichi being absolutely friggin' adorable in a tuxedo didn't really change much of anything as it concerned her goals. He was still on the opposite side and, when push came to shove, she'd put him down if he ever actually threatened Roman's goals. It wasn't like Koichi was an actual threat to that loyalty. Roman wouldn't really be spooked.

And again, none of this would even matter in a week.

It was all absolutely harmless.

Oh sure, some tiny part of Neo's mind, the part that was overly cautious and 'reasonable', said that she promised Roman that she'd only watch the kid. That she promised him that it was all she was interested in and that doing more would probably be a bit of a breach of that trust. And that, besides that, 'fraternizing' with the enemy wouldn't score her points with their employers. That all the excuses she was working up were just that; excuses that she was making up on the spot to justify the fact that at this very moment, Hirose Koichi, the little man who had stood up to Angelo and stood up for her when she was technically his enemy, knowingly or not, and who thought she was fucking cool, looked like a sweet little treat. That her impulses were telling her to just dance and enjoy herself and that if she really thought about it, she really shouldn't be doing this.

That the deep, deep shade of red that was on Neopolitan's face as she ran over Koichi's words probably should've been a warning sign that this needed to go ahead and get drop kicked right here and right now.

But, there was just two itsy bitsy, teeny tiny things fighting against that voice.

That little voice of cowardly logic and reason was very, very little to Neopolitan.

And Neopolitan was, if nothing else, impulsive as all Hell. Heck, Roman probably expected her to go off the reservation and just enjoy herself however she wanted. It'd probably be unexpected for her to stick with orders that even Roman hadn't seemed particularly invested in.

"I-I understand if you're not interested… I mean, not interested in dancing because I think you're interested in me… or at least that's why I think you're stalking, but that doesn't-" Before Koichi could continue beating his own confidence down Neo just shook her head, gave a silent laugh and grabbed his hand while she pulled her Scroll up with the other. A few taps of the buttons here and there and a little message had been typed up.

" _Come on, let's rub this in your friend's faces and then dance our asses off. I think I'll enjoy seeing both… for different reasons, of course._ " A coy smile formed on Neo's lips as she dragged Koichi away, the young man seemingly stunned by the turn of events before eventually a grin crossed his lips.

"Yeah! Sounds like fun!" Neo had her back turned to Koichi as she dragged him back towards the dance floor, so Koichi couldn't have seen the look on her face. Probably for the best too; Neo probably wouldn't have been too proud if anyone would have seen the grin that graced her own features.

* * *

"There is no guy. Nobody asked me."

"But that's… you're Pyrrha Nikos! How could nobody ask you?"

This… this had been about the exact opposite of how Pyrrha had hoped this night would go. She had come to the dance with the hope that she'd just mix in with the crowd and, failing that, would be able to dip out without much of anyone noticing. The entire evening was just set to be a constant reminder of where exactly Pyrrha stood in all of this; in a room full of huntsmen and huntresses, surrounded by her best friends and with Jaune so nearby. It was set to be a terrible evening, one that she had been all too ready to just duck away from. That it would just pass by without drawing her in or it drawing too much notice from her.

But, as ever, her own luck seemed to have its own plans, its own sense of humor. As soon as she had left the dance floor, practically the moment she had secluded herself on the balcony away from her team, away from Jaune, away from her friends and away from everyone… who just so happened to show up.

Jaune. Of course Jaune would show up just then. Of course he'd appear to her just when she wanted the evening to pass. And of course he'd be asking after how she was, if she had her date, if she was okay… and how anyone could have failed to ask her out, given her status.

It was almost ironic, coming from Jaune. The one person who had seen her as a normal person, who hadn't taken her status into account when it came to anything in their relationship, was stunned that someone as famous as her hadn't had a line of dates to fall up behind her.

Honestly, it'd make her laugh if the thought hadn't also simultaneously struck right at her nerves. Jaune's words perhaps struck a bit too close to home. Perhaps Jaune being here had left Pyrrha with the very real sense that she just didn't have anywhere to run…

Perhaps Pyrrha was just tired. Tired of shouldering these thoughts and feelings to herself. She had wanted things to just… stay put. She had made her decision, she had come to her conclusions… she had realized who she was and she wanted things to just settle. Yet here she was, faced again with everything with the object of her own teenage affections just asking her these questions, poking at her with that look on his face. With that disbelief and worry. She knew that Jaune had noticed how she'd been… drifting. Perhaps that had been what drove him to come up here in the first place.

Maybe just hoping the status quo would stick, Jaune would get his date with Weiss and that she could just fade into the background had been too much to ask for. Because right now… Pyrrha couldn't hold her silence anymore. She had to say something… and if anyone deserved to hear what Pyrrha had to say, if anyone deserved to know Pyrrha Nikos personally, it was her partner.

"Jaune… I have to imagine you remember the day when Toshikazu revealed himself well, right?" Jaune stumbled a bit as Pyrrha said this, the red headed tournament fighter smiling gently as she just nodded. "Of course you do… you were directly involved in it all and… well, I have to imagine you'd have had a hard time forgetting with how angry I saw you. You're right Jaune, I am famous and I am well known… and that has given me access to the sorts of love and adoration that a lot of people only dream of achieving… but that came with people like Toshikazu. People who only wanted to use me. People who only wanted Pyrrha Nikos for those talents and skills."

"But, Pyr, it can't have all just been…" Jaune muttered in disbelief as his partner just smiled and nodded at him.

"You're right Jaune. It wasn't… but… it and other things were convenient excuses, even if they were problems." Jaune's face turned into a confused grimace as Pyrrha spoke, the red headed huntress turning her gaze out to Beacon Academy. "... I wasn't always this rich and the name Pyrrha Nikos wasn't always famous. It used to be that my family and I were quite poor, living in Mistral… Ren and Nora don't even really do it justice. Being poor in a place like Mistral… it really can be Hell on Earth, especially if you have something someone wants.

"It was why I was so thankful for my talents and why I was so excited to put them to a use that I could feel comfortable with. I fought in tournaments because it represented a safe way to get my family out of our social standing and into the ranks of Mistrali High Society. I had everything anyone on Remnant could've ever asked for Jaune. My parents loved and adored me even before we became rich and… they were so grateful to have me as a daughter. They loved me so dearly because of all the 'work' I did in getting us above our standing. Even if it was all so easy.

"I had managers and connections that made my life so incredibly easy that I might as well have not been living it myself. I had legions of fans and an adoring public who would've stood by me through a great deal and who sent letters and kind words that made the Toshikazu's seem so utterly small by comparison. It was a good life, an easy life, the kind of life most people would love to live…

"It was… lonely though. A bit. When you're put up on that kind of pedestal, people can be afraid to approach you. You can find yourself put so far up above people that they're afraid to even come near you, for fear that you're just so far above them that they aren't worth your time. After I became famous, I was isolated…"

"Pyrrha…" Jaune reached a hand out to touch his partner's shoulder, only to fumble when Pyrrha took a small step back.

"But… that doesn't mean that I helped myself there. That I made an effort to change those sorts of things." Pyrrha shook her head as she ran a hand through her hair. "Do you remember what I said back during our first day, Jaune? When it came to our teams?" Jaune thought for a moment, before a grin graced his lips.

"That you'd just let the chips fall where they may… eh… and then you chucked a spear at me to stick me into a tree." A tense smile pulled at the corner of Pyrrha's lips as she nodded.

"Part of it was just me wanting to help you land… but the other part… the other part was me putting more effort into that moment than I had with anything in a long, long time."

A brief silence filled the space as Jaune's expression contorted into one of pure confusion. Pyrrha took a deep, shaky breath as she looked over at Jaune, her green eyes shining slightly as she smiled at him.

"Jaune… why do you want to be a huntsman?" Jaune opened his mouth, ready to question her… but the look in her eyes, the purpose behind them, quickly silenced him. Jaune thought for a moment before he looked back up at Pyrrha.

"Because… I want to be a hero. I want to be worth something at the end of it all. I want to be remembered as someone who did what they could to help people. Someone my ancestors could be proud of. Someone… I could be proud of." Pyrrha nodded, a warm, genuine smile on her face as she nodded.

"And you will be that hero. You're loyal and kind and you have a strong sense of justice… you won't leave anyone behind. You'll stand by your friends and comrades no matter what… even if it's a crazy Stand User. That's just the kind of person you are, Jaune." Pyrrha turned her back to the balcony as she crossed her arms across her torso. "Ren and Nora… they learned a sense of justice from people who were willing to reach out and help them, even with no promise of a reward and even if it meant slowing them down from their own goals. Ruby's a lot like you in wanting to be a hero… Weiss and Blake, they both have their causes they want to make up for, things they want to live up to. Yang… heh, I think she might just be in it for the adrenaline." Pyrrha chuckled as Jaune watched carefully.

"Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi… they're huntsmen because it's the only way their friends, family and their homes will survive." Pyrrha took a long, deep breath as she shook her head. "No matter who among our friends I look at, there's a purpose for them being here. They have a reason… even if you might think it something simple, they have something they believe in. Something they want… something they think is worth risking their lives for. Something worth sacrificing and working for. Even if it means being away from their families or, or never seeing them again, they all have something that makes their sacrifice worth it. You have that something.

"Jaune… I was so fortunate in Mistral. I had so much that so many people would've given up everything for. I didn't want for anything when it came to money, I lived a comfortable life… and I had a loving family and a network of support ready to stand by me. I was lonely, sure, but… but if I had reached out, if I had put in the effort to find people like you, if I reached out and took a chance… maybe I would've met someone like you in Mistral. Someone who saw me as a person and not just a celebrity. Someone I would've very much liked to have been at this dance with."

Jaune's mouth went dry at the basic confession, his blue eyes wide as dish plates as Pyrrha, his partner, as good as admitted that she had wanted to come to the dance with him. Before he could react though, Pyrrha had dropped a bomb.

"But I gave that all up… for no other reason than the fact that I was bored… and that finding something worth staying in Mistral for would've required more from me than what I was willing to give."

"Pyrrha…" The red headed tournament fighter shook her head as tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.

"There were people who wanted to use me… but that's true of everyone famous in Mistral, and most of them still live there, leading their own lives. I could've reached out to my family and managers and tried to fight back, tried to fight for my home… but I wasn't satisfied with my life in Mistral. So I just took the easy way out. I decided that I was bored and that moving away would give me a chance to just… reset. A chance to find something new.

"I had gotten tired of the job that had given my family and I so much, tired of the adoration and love of fans who put me on a pedestal and rather than reaching out and trying to find true friends among those people, I just left with little more than a 'goodbye, sorry for the early retirement'. I… I left my mother and father behind with no other explanation than that I had wanted to retire. I can't even be certain that the people who wanted my talents for their own gain still hadn't gone after them. I just took their word on faith because it offered me an excuse. It offered me a way to get away from my boring life and to start over…

"And for the longest time I excused it all under the idea that I had just grown up. That my boredom wasn't because I wasn't being challenged in the way I liked, but because I didn't find purpose in my work. That I would be able to find a purpose in being a huntress that I didn't find in being a tournament fighter." A harsh, bitter laugh tore itself from Pyrrha's throat as she turned back out towards the balcony.

"Jaune… I haven't been excited once fighting a Grimm. I've been detached and utterly unphased. Fighting most of our class has been a cakewalk, the idea of it being training to be a hero… it didn't even remotely give me a thrill. I wasn't finding purpose in becoming a huntress. I didn't find excitement in it… do you know what I found excitement in Jaune?" Pyrrha shook her head. "I've been so thrilled to fight Josuke. Every single time we fight I feel that rush, that feeling, that I felt when I first began my career as a tournament fighter… and it's for no reason other than the fact that Josuke is a challenge. That he's a great fighter and an excellent combatant and… and it… it's just who I was. I wasn't bored because I was looking for purpose. I was just bored and decided to throw so many wonderful blessings away because for all the love they gave me… I didn't care enough to actually try.

"And every time any of you congratulate me for it, tell me how good it is that I gave up a life of luxury and comfort to be a hero… I feel sick to my stomach. I feel disgusted in myself and in my decisions. Because I haven't even spoken with my family since I came here to Beacon… they don't even know why I really left." Pyrrha took a long, deep breath as she turned back to Jaune. "I'm alone right now Jaune, when I'm "Pyrrha Nikos"... because the people who love me but are too afraid to approach me I don't make the effort to connect to, the people who would want to use me I want nothing to do with…

"And because the people I'd want to be with… I'm nothing like them. Not even close." A heartbroken smile crossed Pyrrha's lips as she looked Jaune in the eye. "Jaune… I would love nothing more than to just go back down to the dance floor with you. I wasn't willing to say it so many times before Toshikazu because… well, that would've required 'effort' on my part. I thought I just wanted to give you the chance to decide, that I wanted to be asked out like a normal girl… but… but that's just an excuse. Asking you, putting myself out there, it would've required I work to get something I wanted rather than sitting around miserable about it like back in Mistral. After Toshikazu… after I took a long, hard look at myself… Jaune. You deserve someone who will not just appreciate how kind and loyal you are… but who'll be willing to return that kindness and loyalty fully. Someone even like Weiss… she's rough on the outside, sure, but… but she would return that kind of loyalty, that kind of kindness, that kind of honesty. I can't… because I'm nothing like you."

"Pyrrha… come on. You can't possibly say that. You've been an amazing partner, you've stuck by my side…" Pyrrha smiled gently, but sadly, as she pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"It's easy to do when it's someone like you Jaune. Someone who offers up so much so freely. Like it was with my parents… but… I abandoned them when I got tired. When things got tough and required a change, I just gave up." Pyrrha shook her head. "If I'm the kind of person who'd do that to the people who raised her… how could I not be the kind of person who'd ditch you if things ever got too tough? In what world does that make sense, Jaune?"

For that, Juane honestly had no answer.

"I came here because I'm selfish and flighty… I wanted a completely clean, easy slate where I could be away from my fame and my boredom and try to find something new… and I did. I'm just… not worthy of any of it at all. No matter how much I might want..." Pyrrha heaved a shaky breath as she stepped forward, a hand gently resting on Jaune's shoulder as she looked up to him. "I hope… I hope you find something here at Beacon for you Jaune. You of all people deserve that…" With that Pyrrha Nikos stepped past Jaune and out past the entrance to the balcony, leaving one Jaune Arc thoroughly stunned as he leaned forward against the balcony, looking for something to support him. It took Jaune several long, hard seconds of thought for him to process all of this but when he did, Jaune just shook his head.

"Wow… I messed up. I messed up big."

Let Jaune Arc count the ways in which he'd been a massive tool not just tonight, but for months now. First, his partner was attracted to him for who knows how long and he just stood by oblivious… Gods, worse than that, he had actually gone to her for advice on girls! Next… despite his words after Toshikazu, despite how much he declared that he was ready to help Pyrrha if she needed it… when she was facing a problem like this, when she was so down on herself, Jaune didn't even notice it. Hell, didn't even see it until she told him right to his own face. Finally, and this was perhaps the crowning achievement in Jaune's failings as a friend and partner… he had just let Pyrrha go back down to the dance hall, by herself.

For no other reason than because Jaune had absolutely no friggin' idea what to do.

His partner had laid this all down, finally opened up to him and finally gave him the opportunity to show that he meant what he said and that he'd always be open to help her… and here he was, mouth open and gasping for air like a fish.

If Jaune could give himself a little bit of leniency… this was a lot. Jaune had left his own family behind to be a huntsman, true, and Jaune himself felt like his own reasons for being a huntsman, especially at first, were nothing to be really proud of…

But the way Pyrrha spoke about it, she HATED these things about herself. Hated how she just abandoned her old life and hated the reasons why she did it. But you know, they were reasons that Jaune could understand in some way… or not, given that he was in no way famous or popular or had a legion of fans or money…

Okay, maybe Jaune couldn't completely understand it either and that was another way he just couldn't really reach out to Pyrrha to help her…

"Hell… I need help."

"Hey, uh… Jaune right?"

… Oh you had to be kidding him. This could not have been more poorly timed.

"H-Hey… Neptune."

If Jaune still felt like his sense of humor was fully intact, he might've actually found this kind of hilarious in a way. The guy he had started off wanting to directly confront before he saw Pyrrha wondering off, still in her terrible mood… and now Jaune hadn't really 'wanted' this confrontation and could only think about his partner.

Funny, from a certain perspective. Just not this one right now.

"So… pretty lame party huh? I mean, really, ballroom dancing? I'd heard Yang arranged something cooler."

"Yeah…" Jaune muttered awkwardly as he tried to get his thoughts in order, just kind of hoping the conversation would eventually fizzle out.

"Cute girls though, huh?"

… Okay.

"Neptune… listen, this is a bad time. You know, a few minutes ago, I wanted to reach out and shake you by that tux of yours until your stylish hair flew off your head but right now, I just… agh!" Jaune placed his face in his hands as Neptune flinched back a bit.

"Woah, where'd that come from man?"

"I mean… is that really what you think of the girls you hit on or who ask you out Neptune? Girls like Weiss?" Before Neptune could even ask how Jaune knew, the blond knight continued forward. "That you have so many options, so many choices that are so easy to pick up that you can just turn down a girl like Weiss Schnee? I have wracked my brain for options, thinking about what in the world could possibly lead you to do something like that and for the life of me-"

"I can't dance…" Neptune finally admitted, somewhat weakly, under Jaune's barrage, the blue haired young man clearly on his back foot. Jaune's mouth opened and closed a few times as he tilted his head to the side, as if trying to make sure he hadn't misheard what Neptune said.

"... Let me get this straight. You turned down Weiss Schnee, a talented huntress, a beautiful girl with tons of talent and smarts and who's going to so many placed in her life… you'd rather break a girl's heart and go to a dance by yourself because you can't move in rhythm to music?"

"That about sums it up, yeah." Neptune shrugged casually as he said this, while Jaune just stared at him for a long moment. Perhaps in another time and place, Jaune would've had the energy and the sympathy to deal with this. As things currently stood...

"... Ugh… wow… I really can't deal with this right now. Sorry for getting so hostile Neptune just… got a lot on my mind." Jaune turned around back towards the balcony as he looked out over Beacon Academy, Neptune's eyebrows rising slightly as he walked up to the young man.

"I can tell, you seem pretty tense. What's up?"

"It's… I dunno, you probably don't want to hear about it." And probably wouldn't want to deal with it, but Jaune let that go unsaid.

"Well hey, you never know." Neptune offered as Jaune turned his gaze over to the blue haired young man.

"... Pyrrha just told me that she left her entire life in Mistral behind because she felt bored and rather than try to actually work through her issues there she just left friends and family behind to come here to Beacon and that, because of that, she really can't stand herself or her reasons for being here… and that because of that she doesn't want to go through with dancing with me despite wanting to because she thinks she'll just ditch me if things ever got too hard."

Jaune's rambling took less than a minute to impart, the young man still having been partially shellshocked by all of this. Jaune waited for a minute, waited for Neptune to respond and when he still heard only silence Jaune turned his gaze to the side to see Neptune's mouth gaping open a little bit, his eyes slightly widened in shock, before he coughed into his fist.

"... So I think I'm going to go ahead and go back down to the dance floor."

"... Yeah I can't say I blame you. Later Neptune."

"Good luck Jaune." Jaune just nodded somewhat apathetically as Neptune wandered on off. Well, that hope for some advice was a bit of a bust. It really did seem like Jaune was going to have to puzzle through all of this shit all on his own… him. The socially awkward goofball who didn't even notice all of this shit about his partner despite the fact that he had tried to keep an eye out for her like she did him. Jaune, the guy who managed to completely miss the fact that his partner liked him for months.

Oh Gods above, he was so friggin scre-

The sudden clatter of footsteps from the entrance of the balcony caused Jaune to whip his head around, blue eyes wide in surprise as he saw Josuke hiding behind one of the pillars to the balcony, his chest heaving in deep breaths of air as he looked back behind him. The pompadoured teen turned to his fellow team leader and gave an emphatic 'shhhhh' as he pressed himself as close to the pillar as he could. Soon enough a small gang of the hangers on that Jaune had come to associate with Josuke passed through, their eyes having caught Jaune as they all turned to him.

"Hey Jaune, have you seen Josuke? We just lost track of him…"

"... Yeah, I saw him. He went that way." Jaune pointed down the hall away from the balcony as the small gang of young women nodded and walked on off. As soon as they were out of earshot Josuke heaved a sigh of relief as he took out his comb and ran it through his pompadour to straighten it out.

"Oh man Jaune, thank you. I thought I was screwed there. Great to see you here man." Josuke grinned a bit as his own light blue eyes looked up to face his fellow team leader… only to become perplexed at the slightly dour expression that had crossed Jaune's face. "Oi, Jaune, you alright? Not exactly looking so hot there."

"That easy to tell huh?" The shield-wielding huntsman sighed as he turned back out to the balcony. Having already gone through this song and dance once with Neptune, Jaune hadn't been entirely sure he was quite ready to go through it again with Josuke.

"Yeah. Not for nothing Jaune, but you have a terrible poker face." Josuke said as he walked up to the edge of the balcony with Jaune as he leaned up against it.

"Well not all of us can have cool poker faces by cheating at the game, Josuke." At that the pompadoured teen just scoffed a bit of surprise.

"Damn, so they've already told huh…" After a moment of slight levity between the two, Josuke looked over to Jaune. "Look, Jaune, whatever's eating at you I'm willing to help you out."

"... Look Josuke I know you want to help, and I really appreciate it, but…"

"But you'd rather have Koichi here? I know you two a bit closer friends and all…"

"No no! It's not that. Yeah I'm a bit closer with Koichi than you or Oku, but I still consider you two good friends." Jaune quickly corrected the situation as Josuke nodded. "It's just… I dunno, i don't even think I'd be able to tell Koichi about this and expect help. You see, it's about Pyrrha." Josuke's head perked up as he tilted it a bit, a slight grin formed on his lips.

"Ah, you finally pieced it together huh?"

"More like she told me to my face… and other stuff…" Jaune muttered as Josuke's expression dropped, a far more serious look on his features as he crossed his arms.

"I see… everything kinda finally fell through huh?" Jaune scoffed a bit.

"Finally? Guess that means everyone could tell huh?" Jaune asked with a slight shake of his head. "Everyone but me…"

"Yeah…" Josuke awkwardly scratched his cheek a bit as Jaune just sighed.

"But yeah, Pyrrha told me… and she told me what's been eating her too." With that Jaune gave the same short summary to Josuke that he had given to Neptune. Once again when he finished silence reigned on the balcony. For all of Josuke's insistence that he'd listen in, the teen seemed a bit dumbstruck by the declaration.

"... Shit. That's… that's pretty rough there." Jaune nodded with a sigh as he looked out at Beacon Academy. "... So, what are you going to do about it?" With that Jaune turned his gaze over to Josuke, the young man having stood his ground as he crossed his arms.

"... Honestly, I dunno. I've been thinking about it a little bit but… I feel like I'm a bit out of my depth."

"... Well, I can't say I know much more about this kind of stuff than you do… but maybe if we put our heads together we can try to figure something out." With that Jaune's face peeled back in a bit of surprise, before an appreciative grin crossed his features.

"Thanks Josuke."

"No problem man." The two young men sat in amicable silence for a bit as their minds whirred. After a bit, Jaune just sighed and ran a hand through his messy mop of blond hair.

"Where do I even start with all this? Pyrrha's been holding this back for so long and… I don't even know where to start sorting this all out." Josuke tapped his chin for a moment as the pompadoured teen thought.

"Well… let's start with the basics." Josuke muttered as he pointed over to Jaune. "What do you think of it, exactly? That Pyrrha likes you?"

"Honestly? I can barely believe it. Pyrrha's so… amazing at a lot of things. And she was my best friend. I thought she was fine with where our relationship was and… and I thought that there was no way I stood a chance. Oh jeez…" Jaune slammed his head on the balcony railing. "I'm literally the people she was talking about."

"Oh come on, you aren't… that bad." Josuke muttered as he scratched his chin. "Sure you put her on enough of a pedestal that you never even considered that she might like you and want to date you blond ass, but that's not you not knowing her. Like you said, you're her best friend… you're just thick as all Hell Jaune."

"... Well at least I know you're not just telling me what I want to hear."

"Yeah, like Jotaro said, no point in handing out advice if you're going to sugar coat it." Josuke chuckles. "You know, it's funny… you have two girls around you of pretty similar social standing, and the one you think you have a chance with is the one who had constantly shot you down. That's… that's kinda funny, in a way."

"Yeah, hilarious." Jaune sighed as he shook his head. "Anyway… I really wouldn't be opposed to it. I mean, like I've always said, Pyrrha's super supportive and kind and caring… heck, the only reason we're in this mess is because she doesn't think she'd stick things out if they ever got too tough." Josuke nodded slightly as he crossed his arms.

"She'd probably think it was another selfish thing on her behalf if she tried to date you knowing that. That it'd just be another thing she did for her own sake."

"Yeah… how are you even supposed to argue with that though? Pyrrha think she's going to seriously hurt me no matter what because… well, she had a history. Heck, it's probably made even worse because she likes me. How do you work around that?" Jaune asked, seriously, as Josuke just tapped his chin a bit. How did you work around that. Pyrrha knew her actions were selfish, and there was little point in arguing otherwise because… well, they were pretty selfish.

Pyrrha was bored and frustrated with her old life and when danger got thrown into the mix, she bailed, even if it meant leaving people who genuinely cared about her. That was selfish, even if she did go off to become a huntress. How did you make that okay? More to the point, how did you make it okay to risk hurting someone again?

How was it okay to be…

"It's okay to be selfish sometimes, you know."

"... Wanna run that by me again Josuke?" Josuke scratched his cheek as Jaune looked at him quizzically. Okay, he wasn't his mom when it came to putting together advice, but maybe.

"Look, when I was thinking about coming to Vale, I wasn't… entirely thinking about the good it would do for anyone." Josuke admitted as he gave a shrug. "Honestly… the prospect of it all was too exciting for me to think of really deep stuff like that. I was thinking about seeing the cities I'd only ever heard stories of, being in Kingdoms that I'd never seen… seeing a home that a lot of people in Morioh fought to get reconnected with.

That reconnection and the good it'd do for Morioh wasn't exactly on my mind. I was more excited with the idea to play tourist. And yeah… I felt terrible about it. Because that's not the way you're supposed to think if you're a good person, right? If you want to be a hero or a huntsman. You're always supposed to think of others, always supposed to think selflessly… to do anything else is to be a selfish jerk… or worse." Jaune just kind of stood and resisted the urge to nod.

"But you see… my mom actually gave me some good advice on that turn. That we're only people and that… well, sometimes it's okay for us to be selfish. Especially if we're not hurting people and if we're still doing our jobs as huntsmen. I could be more excited about seeing Vale and meeting new people… so long as I didn't let that desire go to my head and let myself ignore everyone around me, then that's fine. It's okay to want things for yourself was the bottom line I got."

"Pyrrha does think she's hurt other people though. She does think her mistakes could still hurt people. Like her parents, who she hasn't talked to after leaving. She'd argue that going out to become a huntress wouldn't… justify abandoning her family… huh...

"Jaune?"

"Nothing Josuke just… just thought of something." Jaune's eyes dipped down as he looked out across the Forever Fall… back in the direction of his own home. "You know… hearing that and thinking about it… maybe I understand Pyrrha's problems a little more than I thought." Jaune nodded to himself, his blue eyes slowly narrowing into focus. Maybe… maybe that was the way to go.

"... Josuke, thanks. I really appreciate this. When Pyrrha dropped this all on my head, I guess I was kinda shocked… getting it off my chest, getting some advice… I think I know what I need to do now." With that Josuke just kind of grinned as he nodded his head.

"Great to hear Jaune. So, what's the plan?" Jaune pushed himself back from the balcony railing as Josuke spoke, a determined glint in his eyes.

"... I'm going to tell Pyrrha that she's more like me than she thinks, for good and bad. I'm going to remind her of how great a partner she is… and finally-" Jaune cracked his knuckles as he walked off, "-I'm going to put on a dress."

"... What?" It took Josuke a minute for him to realize what Jaune had just said and, as he did, the pompadoured teen snapped his head over to the entrance of the balcony. "Jaune? What was that last thing you just said? That Four Kingdom slang for something right? Jaune?! Jaune! Ja-aaaooof!" Josuke quickly walked on after Jaune after the blond departed, only to find himself running into someone in the hall. As he recovered, he realized that the person he had inadvertently run into face to face was a… very uncomfortable looking Cardin Winchester. Josuke and Cardin blinked a few times as they looked at each other, each settling into a slightly uncomfortable stance.

"Winchester."

"Higashikata."

Before the pair could get into it, the sound of a gaggle of girls chatting amongst themselves came from down the hall, echoes of Josuke's name coming from their direction as the blue eyed teen began to sweat. He looked over at Cardin… and immediately noticed the slightly dark glint in the other huntsman's eyes.

"Cardin… don't. Seriously. What have I ever done to deserve something like that?"

"How about breaking every bone in my body, punching me through a window with your Stand and having me land in the school fountain just because I insulted your hair?"

A brief silence overtook the pair as Josuke just blinked a few times.

"... You know what… you make a valid argument. I kind of deserve this."

"You kind of do."

"... Will you give me a headstart at least? I mean, I did fix you back up afterward."

"No, no I will not."

"... Fair enough."

With that Josuke immediately sprinted off again as Cardin called on the group of young women who, having been given directions to their quarry, resumed the chase. Cardin just stood there for a moment, a satisfied smile on his face, before he grimaced.

"... Now where the Hell is that friggin' bathroom…"

* * *

Being a third wheel sucked ass.

That's what Okuyasu had decided after having hung around with a few of his other friends at the dance. After a good long discussion with Ruby in which the silver eyed girl seemed genuinely interested in how his brother's Stand operated, the girl seemingly enthralled with the intricacies of Bad Company, they eventually did split. Ruby had wanted to hang with her sister, a desire that was sure to only end in frustration for her because of Yang's designs, and Okuyasu… well, he wanted to hang with some of his other friends.

Problem was that while Okuyasu could be a bit thick from time to time, he was at least self aware enough to know that he shouldn't cramp on other people's good times. Blake and Sun seemed like they had been having fun, the monkey faunus even having managed to catch a laugh out of Blake here and there while they danced. The two seemed to have been enjoying themselves after Neptune departed for… who knew where to be honest.

Speaking of the blue haired Mistrali student, he hadn't been anywhere to be seen. Not that Okuyasu was too interested in hanging with either him or Josuke and for the same reason; the scarred teen was sure he'd get annoyed with both Josuke and Neptune if he hung around them long enough for them to get the attention of girls that they'd just shoot down.

Damn, life was unfair.

Okuyasu had considered hanging with Ren and Nora… but, well, would he be a third wheel if he did that? They'd probably say no but the pair were such a weird set that Okuyasu couldn't be sure if he would or not. Taking the safe bet that if he hung around with those two for too long that he'd end up feeling a bit awkward no matter what he did, he ended up passing. Penny, the weird new girl that they'd just met at this dance, still had those Atlesian Soldiers practically watching her every move and… well, Okuyasu wasn't scared of them, he still didn't want to bug them and potentially have Ironwood hearing about what a nuisance he was being.

Plus Penny was weird. Very, very weird.

Pyrrha and Jaune weren't even an option. Okuyasu did NOT want in the middle of that shitshow.

This left Okuyasu looking for Koichi, his fellow bro in single suffering. Still, he'd had a really hard time finding the little guy. It wasn't too surprising given that Koichi was so short; it was super easy to lose him in a crowd of people if you took your eye off of him for too long. Still, where the Hell was he? Ever since he dipped out from the punch table, Okuyasu hadn't seen or heard-

"Okuyasu!"

"Ah, Koichi, there you are buddy. I was wondering where the hell you wandered off to." With that Okuyasu turned with a wide grin stretched across his face, glad that he'd finally found his buddy.

That grin promptly fell a bit when he noticed that Koichi wasn't alone. Very decidedly wasn't alone. That he had, in fact, a girl, shorter than even Ruby but still somehow taller than Koichi, dragging him up to Okuyasu with a sly grin on her face. Twin pigtails tied up with white bows, a black and white dress scheme, green eyes, pale skin…

Yep, this was Cinder's teammate, Neopolitan…

The girl Koichi said he was going to ask out.

For a moment Okuyasu's brain went on the fritz while Koichi just flushed red with embarrassment and scratched the back of his head.

"H-hey Okuyasu. I wanted to introduce you to Neopolitan, the friend I told you about." There was an… odd combination of emotions that played on Koichi's face as he spoke. On the one hand nervous and excited, much like the usual that Okuyasu had often associated with Koichi and his more 'normal' moods. But then there was also the… hmmm, smug? Yeah, smug expression that flittered on the edge of his lips or passed very briefly in his eyes. The kind of thing that Okuyasu had seen more and more of after Koichi had been through his ordeal with Angelo. The confidence that had begun to really show through in his little friend.

Oh… well, Okuyasu supposed that he kind of earned this.

So swallowing a bit of his bruised ego, Okuyasu just grinned nice and wide as he reached forward and clapped both Neo and Koichi on the shoulders, surprising both.

"Well Holy Hell there Koichi, looks like I need to go ahead and eat shit. She was real the entire time!" While Neo was still stunned Okuyasu moved to shake her hand, the force of it having been enough to make the slightly stunned girl shake a bit. "Nice to finally meet you. Ya won't believe the trouble we gave Koichi over thinking' you weren't real. Shows what the Hell we know, right?" Okuyasu barked out a bit of a laugh as both Neopolitan and Koichi blinked. This had, apparently, not gone the way either had been expecting. Koichi had been expecting Okuyasu to break down in his usual display and had at once dreaded it and… well, kind of looked forward to it.

Neo, having watched most of Okuyasu's previous antics from the past couple days from the comfort of her semblance, had definitely been looking forward to it.

"O-Okuyasu… you aren't upset?" Koichi asked, somewhat surprised as Okuyasu just barked out another laugh.

"What? Come on Koichi! You're my teammate, my bro! I'm not about to be upset that you snagged yourself a date for the dance…" Okuyasu grinned nice and wide as he leaned over to Koichi, conspiratorially wrapping an arm around his shoulder as he pointed over to Neopolitan. "Especially not when she's a looker. Hot damn Koichi, why didn't you say anything about that?" Koichi sputtered as Okuyasu just laughed at his friend's expense, the short young man having ribbed the scarred teen as both smiled a bit.

"I dunno… you just kinda seem a bit put off by all this. I mean, I kinda wanted to get back at you for doubting me about her but…" Okuyasu just shrugged a bit as he looked at the duo.

"Don't get me wrong, you're a lucky bastard and I'll find a way to get you back for ditchin' one of your bro's for a piece of ass later." At that even Neopolitan's surprised expression gave way to a bit of coy grin as Okuyasu looked over to her. "But Hell, if you could swing a date, I'm definitely not about to sit here and fuckin' hold it against you. Hell, I'm actually kinda proud of ya; you managed to get yourself a little girlfriend before baby face."

"Oh, she's not my girlfriend, we're just hanging out for the dance." Koichi's face went beet red at Okuyasu's insinuation as Neo just nodded in agreement. Yep, tonight was just a little bit of fun. 'Boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' really hadn't worked its way into this fucking mess as far as she was concerned.

"Ah fucking semantics, you two are on a date, that's all that fuckin' counts in my opinion." Okuyasu nodded his head firmly and both Neo and Koichi just rolled their eyes at the scarred teen's exuberance. "Anyway, what the Hell are you two sitting around here for? Go on, dance your asses off or do something." Okuyasu grinned as he waved them off as Koichi's expression softened a bit.

"You sure Okuyasu? I mean, we-" Before Koichi could continue Neopolitan just nodded gratefully at Okuyasu as she dragged Koichi off, sending a slight smile and a wave back over their shoulders to the scarred teen. The big oaf wasn't quite as dumb as she thought… still pretty dumb, but just not as much as she thought.

"Seriously, you'd better dance your ass off Koichi! Do it for the bros who can't!" With that, Okuyasu just kind of let loose a small breath as he relaxed. "... Brothers above, it's so not fucking fair…" Finally, the breakdown that Koichi and Neopolitan might've expected came to pass as comical tears briefly ran down the sides of Okuyasu's face. "Even Koichi's got himself a girl after him! Why can't I get a fuckin' girlfriend dammit…"

Of course Okuyasu was a bit a bummed that another one of his bros had gone through 'the man's way' as he liked to call it from time to time, but Okuyasu was, if anything, a bro. Koichi was the kind of kid that would honestly feel bad if Okuyasu overreacted to the entire ordeal, even if he had wanted to rub it a bit in Okuyasu's face for cracking so many jokes at him. Okuyasu was definitely envious as all shit, but he wasn't going to ruin his bro's little date over it by making a scene. Koichi had a girlfriend and a looker at that; he was going to let the withdrawn boy enjoy that. Hell, before tonight, it looked like Koichi's fate would be similar to Okuyasu's. He could be proud of his bro for this.

So after a few, solid seconds of his little mini-breakdown Okuyasu regathered himself and let loose a small breath. Well, that had been all of his friends pretty well accounted for. With the score being 'no one I can hang out with without dealing with some shit or being a third wheel' that just left one thing…

"Looks like I'm supportin' a wall by myself tonight." With a bit of a shrug Okuyasu wandered off to the edge of the dance floor, a now slightly bored expression on his face as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. As his eyes glanced around the edge of the room for an empty seat or a good spot to just lean up against a wall Okuyasu noticed something, or rather, someone similarly by themselves and, similarly, miserable.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." He'd passed her by in his mind mostly because her mood had seemed rather… sour. Hadn't exactly been open and welcoming for most of the night and, once he'd mostly figured out why with Ruby, Koichi and Jaune, he'd understood it well enough.

Hell, why the fuck not. Misery and company or however the Hell that little spiel went.

"Oi; this pity party invite only?"

 **-To Be Continued- Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 6)**

* * *

 **Announcement: I may or may not be moving out of my current apartment and into a different one within the next couple weeks. Lots of stuff is uncertain and the details have yet to be ironed out, but given that the landlords want to clear the building out so that they can do some major work on it, moving seems likely. Regardless of what happens I'll still try to get my updates out by schedule but should one of these days fall through, you'll know why. If it's within my power I'll leave an update at or the Spacebattles thread to inform you guys ahead of time if it's going to happen. If not well don't worry. I'm probably not dead. Probably.**

* * *

 **A/N: When most people talk about rushing relationships in fanfiction, they're talking about starting a relationship. A lot of times when we think of fanfics and a rushed relation, we think towards fics that, within the first few chapters, establish some kind of romantic connection between characters without even remotely building up to it or doing so in a very quick, very cheap way. There's a second way to think about rushing a relationship too though and one that I usually find to be more annoying; the rush to imply a greater emotional depth to a relationship than what might be earned at the moment in the fic. Basically think of it as being when you see two twelve year olds in a fic declare their undying and everlasting love for each other… and we as the audience are meant to take it 100% seriously.**

 **Part of why this can really detract from the quality of a fic is that it breaks immersion pretty hard; being asked to take these kinds of declarations seriously can really do a number on your suspension of disbelief once you actually have experience in relationships and know that, outside of very inexperienced thirteen year olds, people don't actually talk much like this and, furthermore, it's never something to actually be taken all too seriously.**

 **The other part is that it kind of traps the author; once you have two characters declare their undying love and all serious challenges to their romance to be done… well then the only thing you have left to move drama into a relationship is usually bullshit or something crazy to spice up what has otherwise become an utterly dull read. If any of you have ever read Dominic Deegan you know exactly what I'm talking about.**

 **If you haven't ever read Dominic Deegan, I don't recommend it.**

 **This is why the emotional stakes of the relationships themselves here are rather low to start off with, because the stakes are small; these aren't star crossed lovers, they're teenagers. Most of whom only really like each other because they either think the opposing partner is cool, hot, cool and hot or in Pyrrha's case the closest thing to genuine human contact from a person their own age they've received in years.**

 **I'm just kidding on that last one. Jaune isn't real people.**

 **Nah I'm just kidding I love Jaune.**

 **I'm being serious with that last one, don't read any deeper into this.**

 **Anyway.**

 **Teens having teen relationships, the relationship themselves aren't meant to feel high stakes. If Jaune and Pyrrha don't resolve this issue, this isn't a matter of true love being thwarted. The emotional stakes come more from the fact that if the issue isn't resolved then Pyrrha as a character is going to be severely fucked by her own issues. We have gotten nowhere near the stage where the relationships themselves are the things that are at risk or are hugely worth worrying about, so I try not to treat it like that. Which is why I keep the language low key; Koichi doesn't think Neo's the one for him, he just think she's cool and the kind of person he'd like to see himself as. Pyrrha isn't deeply and madly in love with Jaune, she's just afraid that any relationship with her is doomed to end with her getting bored and just bouncing the fuck out, leaving anyone that she let's get too close holding the fucking bag.**

 **Which leads into the next point: if it wasn't clear in the Surface arc, which I really hope it was, Pyrrha's character has gotten a bit of a rework similar to Blake's. Both characters lacked a lot of internal conflict in their designs and their personal issues really didn't stem from within. We've discussed Blake but with Pyrrha it's even more prevalent because not only are most of her conflicts external, they're also pretty passive, or at least, her handling of them is passive.**

 **Pyrrha doesn't really affect her plot points in canon, they're mostly things that happen to her; Pyrrha kind of has the whole Maiden thing foisted on her as an example, it really isn't something she actively seeks out. Same thing with her apparent isolation in Mistral and life in general; it's a problem that just kind of ended up on her plate because she got famous. On top of this, Pyrrha's handling of her issues is pretty passive; Pyrrha's along for a long time but doesn't seem to go out of her way to have made new friends up until she threw the spear at Jaune and, well, fuck man. Her relationship with Jaune was only ever a 'problem' so long as she never actually did anything about it. The second she opened her gob, that problem was basically over and done with.**

 **This passivity is still pretty core to Pyrrha's character, but instead of it being there I retooled her character and her internal conflicts around that passivity and her general tendency to run away from problems… or to run towards them away from other problems. Now Pyrrha's history and personal issues is built around these canon characteristics rather than them just existing in a void never being explored, much like her family, because she was a character created to die to advance everyone else's characteristics. Much like Blake's sense that she's less than zero, expect this shit to periodically come up Pyrrha as she wrestled with these internal issues as they're expressed through external problems.**

 **Finally, yes, I did write that portion with Josuke and his mom both to help explain why he'd want to come to Vale without feeling like a piece of shit AND to have it pay forward with this moment here with Jaune. Like I said, I spent a lot of time outlining this before I got down to writing. Before anyone wonders why I had Josuke's part in it stay so small it's because, at the core of it, it is still Jaune and Pyrrha's issue to work through and while I'm more than happy to include the rest of the cast to give advice, I don't want their presence to overshadow the work Jaune and Pyrrha have to put into this.**

 **I would get more into Neo and Koichi, but I feel like I've given those two their space plenty of times before. I'll probably get into it again later, but Koichi's spiel was meant to help build on why exactly he's interested and it's more integration of what 'I think' made the Koichi/Yukako dynamic work from Koichi's end in canon… even if it was forever spoiled by the initial meeting, for me.**

 **Hope you all have a great weekend!**


	30. Dance, Dance, Dance (Act 6)

The clock had begun to tick down.

Cinder noticed it out of the corner of her eyes; tonight's entertainment had arrived. A local band that had been making considerable waves thanks to the talents of its lead guitarist. The group had come through the door, been greeted by Yang Xiao Long, and had been guided along towards the stage to begin setting up their equipment for after the formal ballroom dancing had finished. It'd be quite the show, everyone was assured. Something these children would greatly enjoy.

As her eyes met his, Cinder could only smile and agree with the sentiment.

With that, Cinder slowly disappeared into the crowd and began to make for one of the quieter places in the dance hall, sure to get Emerald's attention as she did so. The green haired young woman nodded and sunk into the crowd herself. Mercury and Neo would cover for the both of them should anyone ask where they were at that moment. It wouldn't take long.

In ten minutes Cinder would depart the dance hall and, while she wouldn't expect it, Ruby Rose would follow her out, shortly followed by Ironwood once the overly paranoid military commander checked in on his troops. Five minutes after Cinder would leave, Emerald would draw Jotaro out. After that…

Well then, the real party would begin after Ozpin made his way to the stage to give a little speech for the evening. Some claptrap, she was sure, but nonetheless, it would be the final signal.

The clock had begun to tick down.

* * *

The party was a complete success.

The ballroom dancing music was going well enough and now the last of the entertainment had arrived, every decoration had been meticulously placed, checked, rechecked, checked for a third time to make sure that not even a single petal on a single white rose had been out of place, the tables had all been set to perfection and the dance hall was lined with chairs for the tired or lonely to rest their feet while they either recovered or stewed.

Yes, the dance had been a complete success and she could be proud of it. It wouldn't have been possible, a part of her assured her, if she'd been distracted by a boy. Like, say, if Neptune had actually said yes. So yeah, there was a silver lining!

…

If that was the case then why in the name of the Gods was she one of the people just sitting around stewing at the edge of the dance hall?

Weiss sighed as she placed her chin in her hand and looked out across the dance floor. Partly it was because she was probably not the kind of person anyone would want to hang out with at the moment. Her mood was sour, she was a little snippy… perhaps more so than usual, some might say, and… well, she just didn't want to hang around her friends and drop that kind of mood down on what was supposed to be a fun night.

Admittedly it wasn't all Weiss being super nice and a great friend; the other big part of it was that she was protecting her ego. Her lie that she just didn't want to go out with a boy tonight could only hold under so much scrutiny… as much as Weiss tried to let go of the Schnee ego, she had to admit that she was still quite the proud person. To have been shot down so thoroughly by someone her own age… well, that was a bit of a sting. Especially considering how 'desirable' she had been back in Atlas with the endless wave of idiot 'suitors'. Then again, they had only wanted her for her family fortune and, Gods, didn't that just raise a lot of possible uncomfortable points.

Points that she was now going to ignore as she continued to try to drown herself in punch. On the bright side while her rather sour mood made her not exactly great company, that meant that people would generally stay away. She could sit here and stew in her own bad mood, wait for the night to be over, and then just go back to her dorm room and forget this entire stupid dance and-

"Oi; this pity party invite only?"

…

Weiss sighed as she craned her head up and to the side. She had known who it was immediately from the voice, gravely and loud despite already having been so close. Okuyasu stood just over the empty seat to her side, punch in hand and a bit of a shrug to his shoulders as he looked down at her. Weiss frowned slightly; on the one hand, yes, this pity party was invite only and she hadn't particularly been in the mood for company all things considered, and Okuyasu? Gods know that he was probably in a pretty crap mood himself if he was coming over to commiserate with her.

…

Yeah, he probably was.

"Just take a seat Okuyasu…" Weiss muttered as she cupped her chin in her hand, a slight grousing tone to her voice as she looked out over the dance floor. Okuyasu just nodded as plopped down into the seat next to her, the guy leaning back to get more comfortable as Weiss glanced over. "So, I'm guessing things fell through with everyone else if you're joining little old me over here."

"Yeah pretty much." Weiss snorted slightly as Okuyasu just bluntly admitted to it. "Who knows where the Hell Josuke is at this point, Ruby went off to find Yang and Yang's… I dunno, probably gonna try to set her up again. Pyrrha and Jaune just aren't going to be fun to be around at all and I'd feel like a third wheel with everyone else."

"What about Koichi?"

"Like I said, third wheel. Turns out he found Neopolitan and the two are dancing." With that Okuyasu pointed the diminutive duo out to Weiss and the Schnee actually arched a dainty eyebrow in interest.

"... Huh, so she is real." Weiss said, slightly amazed, as Okuyasu nodded.

"Pretty much my thoughts as well." A slight laugh clipped itself out of Okuyasu's throat as he shrugged. "So it was either deal with Jaune and Pyrrha, hover around everyone else while they're trying to have fun or commiserate with you Weiss."

"Good to know that I'm at least not the worst option on the table at the moment." Weiss spoke with a bit of a glib tone as she rolled her eyes. To be fair, Okuyasu's 'endorsements' of the others hadn't been entirely glowing either.

"Eh, what can I say, we sad single people have to stick together… except if they're being overly mopey because they're being idiots about not noticing simple shit." Okuyasu raised a punch glass as he said this, as Weiss just nodded.

"Here here…" With that, Weiss clanged her own glass against Okuyasu's, the scarred teen momentarily confused by the gesture before he shrugged and took a drink of the punch.

"Speaking of, why didn't you tell anyone that Neptune shot you down?" Weiss nearly spat out her beverage as Okuyasu just bluntly asked this, the light blue eyes of the Schnee Heiress turning over to Okuyasu as she momentarily glared at him.

"That is not what happened, I told you, I…" Weiss halted as she noticed that look on Okuyasu's face. Oh, she'd seen it often enough to pretty much have it memorized. That quirk of the brow and the slight frown that begged the question of why you were even bothering trying to bullshit him. Okuyasu wasn't overly smart but, well, much like a dog once he sunk his teeth into something he wasn't likely to let go. "... You know what, forget it. I guess the last person who'd judge me for not getting a date to this would be you…" Okuyasu nodded his head in ready agreement.

"Totally, after all, got shot down by every girl in the friggin' dining hall." Okuyasu crossed his arms as he said this, Weiss nodding as the memory caused her to shake her head.

"Still can't believe it… how did you of all people figure this out anyway?"

"I mean… we all thought it was kinda weird that you got so excited about asking him out and then did a 180. Then Jaune seemed like he was pretty certain you two were going to be here together… Hell, the guy seemed pissed when we told him what you said about all this and all. Wasn't exactly hard to put everything together after that." Weiss rolled her eyes as she shook her head.

"Of course the dolt would know about it somehow…" Weiss muttered as she sighed slightly. "But yes, Okuyasu, I asked Neptune and he said no. As for why… I couldn't tell you myself." Weiss shrugged as she said this. "Neptune didn't tell me why. He just told me that he didn't want to go to the dance with me and then walked off. That was that." Honestly, that had perhaps been the biggest blow to Weiss' pride of all. That she hadn't even been given a why or a reason as to why Neptune had just so bluntly said no. As if it should've been evident why he wouldn't want to go to the dance with her. As if it should've been obvious to anyone with eyes.

That it'd been delivered by someone she had actually wanted to go out with had only added salt to the wound.

"Alright so why keep it a secret? It doesn't exactly seem like a big thing that you'd need to keep quiet. Heck, you've talked about bigger stuff by this point, right?" And Okuyasu maybe had a point there. She'd talked about her issues with her father and The Fang, talked with Blake about their shared… 'history' she guessed she could call it and talked about any number of more dangerous things openly. Still…

"You have to understand Okuyasu, not everyone is used to being continually shot down. Not everyone is… open enough about their own faults to just admit that they have them or that they're the reason why stuff like this happens. Most people have pride and egos. When something like this happens… it's not something people like to own up to." Okuyasu nodded slightly as Weiss went on. "Quite the opposite… I'm used to actually being thought of as a bit desireable. I went up to Neptune and asked him out expecting him to say yes and for us to have a great time at the dance…

"Now I'm here alone, no date while a lot of my other friends have them, even Koichi. With a friend that ended up getting similarly shot down by just about everyone in the school." Okuyasu crossed his arms as he closed his eyes, face in slight thought as he nodded his head a few times. She expected that their conversation would be just that. Surely as thick as he was even Okuyasu-

"Nah, really not feelin' you on that one Weiss." Her hand slapped her forehead almost reflexively, a deep red mark having been left on her white, pale skin as Okuyasu cracked open one of his brown eyes. "You got shot down and now you're just sitting around wandering about why rather than asking yourself? Doesn't make a lot of sense. If you don't ask yourself why, then you can't exactly change whatever it is that holds you back."

"Like you?" Weiss asked, almost amused, as Okuyasu just grinned wide and pointed to himself.

"Yeah, like me! Sure I didn't have much luck this time, but hey, it went over better than the last time I tried to ask a girl out. Told her she was hot to her face and I got slapped for it. This time I didn't get slapped." Weiss nearly choked as she took the mental image.

"Okuyasu, Josuke told us about what happened with his mom and you saying that to her face. Why would you try it again if it went that poorly that time?"

"Well I just figured that it only went bad because Ms. Higashikata has… a bit of a temper and didn't appreciate someone her son's age telling her that. I didn't think it'd happen again with a girl my age. I figured they'd be flattered." Okuyasu just uselessly shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head. "Learned my lesson."

"Oh? And what lesson did you learn from asking every girl out at the dining hall then?" Weiss looked him over as Okuyasu brought his hand up to his chin, a deeply thoughtful look on his face as he scrunched it up a bit.

"Hmmmm… maybe don't try to ask every girl in the school out all at once? I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time; I figured at least one of them might say yes. But everyone looked… I dunno, uncomfortable?" Weiss couldn't help but actually bark out a laugh at that, Okuyasu's brow furrowing as the Schnee Heiress just nodded.

"Well that's something at least, and you're not wrong." Weiss shook her head at the thought. "Who knows Okuyasu, keep learning like this and maybe you'll eventually get a date somewhere down the line."

"I'm hoping so. Kinda sucks not being able to get one." Once again Weiss could only shake her head as Okuyasu just took her words completely to heart. The guy really did just have no guile and little sense for sarcasm. In his own words, he really wasn't that bright at all. Still, she couldn't fault him on one thing; at least he was being honest here. At least he was trying. As much as Okuyasu could annoy her, she couldn't exactly shoot down that attitude; that head-on approach to problems and that unwillingness to sugarcoat anything, even directed at himself… it made Okuyasu a bit of a constant. If you and your friend were just hurting each other, as she had been with Blake and vice versa, he'd let you know his thoughts on it and why he thought you were an idiot.

Whatever it was, no matter how uncomfortable, Okuyasu would just say it. No guile, no secret schemes, no nothing. Just the truth… because that was how he was raised. Not by a father who would have gladly lied no matter what, but by a sibling who genuinely wanted what was best for him. There was a certain amount of sympathy she could have for that situation; she had been raised amidst the affluent environment of the Schnee Dust Company, where your pride, your ego and everything else had to be virulently protected, even from the truth. Hell, Gods knew how many lies her father and family told themselves in order to shield themselves from the truth of what they'd done to the Faunus under their care. The only person who had never done so, who had always done her best to try to steer Weiss down a path that'd make HER happy and fulfilled was Winter, her sister.

Gods, speaking of her sister, what would she think if she saw Weiss right now; sitting in a corner, pitying herself with only one of her other friends by her side, all because she didn't want to take the time to really dig down and ask why. Why she ended up being shot down and why she might not have wanted to look inward for whatever reason so that she could improve herself. Really, the way Okuyasu spoke about Keicho, she heard a lot of her own sister in Keicho… and well, for better or worse, Okuyasu turned out like he did.

In all honesty… while the truth had stung her multiple times now, the lack of guile was refreshing. Maybe that was why she had, despite her misgivings, become such close friends with Ruby and Yang for as utterly bereft of poise and proper manners as they could be. Why, after the wall between them had broken down, she'd become such good friends with Blake. Why Team JNPR, with maybe the exception of Jaune, seemed to fresh to her.

Why Okuyasu's advice seemed to repeatedly come through.

Gods this was going to suck.

"Alright Okuyasu." With that, the scarred teen turned back to Weiss who just looked up to him. "Maybe you have a point. Maybe I am just… hiding from stuff that I could improve on. Maybe protecting my ego shouldn't come before improving myself as a person… so, here's what I want you to do." Weiss turned in her seat slightly as she pointed over at Okuyasu. "I want you to tell me why a guy might shoot me down." Okuyasu blanched slightly as she asked this, the scarred teen crossing his arms as he tilted his head.

"What? Why do you want me to do it? If you think I have a point, shouldn't you-"

"Yes, I should… but like I said, I have no idea why… or at least, that's what I think." Weiss sighed as she crossed her arms. "I have my pride and my ego… but I know that you, being the loud-mouth that you are-"

"Hey."

"-you wouldn't mince words with me. You'd tell me the truth even if it was something I didn't want to hear. Heck, you've done it enough times already." Weiss rolled her eyes as she said this and, at that point, even Okuyasu seemed to nod in some vague agreement. "So… I'd appreciate it if you gave me a boy's perspective about what might have caused Neptune to turn me down." Okuyasu seemed to think deeply for a moment as he crossed his arms and nodded his head, Weiss' eyebrows arching a bit as she leaned forward. "Well?"

"Well hold on and be patient, I have to think about this stuff first. Gotta get all my thoughts in order."

All of his thoughts in order. This really was going to suck.

Okuyasu closed his eyes for a moment before he just gave a firm nod. "Alright so let's start with the obvious; you can be pretty stand-offish as a person, especially when you're in a bad mood. Ya throw around a lot of sarcasm and insults when you're annoyed… and it's pretty easy to get you there with even just a little bit of teasing." Weiss just nodded in agreement; Hell, she'd started this little pity party of hers by noting the same thing. "You're also kind of like me in that you're stubborn as all Hell. Thing is, I know I'm not too smart so it usually isn't hard to convince me that I'm just being a stubborn ass if I'm actually wrong. You, on the other hand, think you know a lot with your fancy-pants education and upbringing, so whenever you're wrong it's like running your head into a brick wall."

"Oh please, when-"

"The Lock?"

"... Fair enough." Okay, yes, her stubbornness in not wanting to talk to Blake before and trying to just let the situation fix itself had caused its fair share of problems. More than that, her stubbornness had caused her to lash out at Okuyasu when her friend was just trying to give some good advice, advice that had turned out to work wonders. The fact that Okuyasu had made the comparison more personal by relating it to his own stubborn streak, but his being born out of ignorance while hers was more… know it all, she supposed, just put salt into that.

"You're also kind of intimidating to be around sometimes."

"Wait, didn't we cover this already with me being stand-offish?" Okuyasu shook his head.

"That's not exactly what I mean. So you're some big old heir to some huge company that owns the Dust stuff, right? That's basically it right?"

"... That's a super simplified version of what the Schnee Dust Company actually does, but close enough." Weiss arched an eyebrow as Okuyasu just nodded.

"Yeah, so you're a bit of a big deal. You're also a solid huntress being close to the top of your classes surrounded by some of the other best huntsmen and huntresses in Pyrrha, Yang and Josuke. When you're not being stand-offish… well, Ice Queen is actually a pretty good nickname for how approachable you seem. Kinda like you put yourself on a pedestal and act like you're above a lot of people around you."

"... Oh trust me, it was worse when I first got here." Weiss sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "The first time I ever met Ruby I think I threw around 'Schnee Dust Company' and 'Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company' enough to make her head spin. I put a friggin' safety pamphlet in her hand!" Weiss had been nervous about arriving in Beacon, nervous about being in a land outside of her own home. She had… fallen back on her fame and fortune as a means of holding herself up, of maintaining her image as an upper-crust person worthy of respect. Of course, it'd also made her… well, exactly as Okuyasu said. Seemingly unapproachable because she was so above it all.

Which might not have been a problem in and of itself if she wasn't so prickly when people actually did get to know her. The number of times she'd referred to either Okuyasu, Ruby or Jaune as dolts or idiots despite them being her friends was proof enough of that.

"You know what Okuyasu, I think I understand now."

"... You do?"

Weiss nodded. "These are things I've been trying to get better at with my friends but… well, years of upbringing with my family and in Atlas can be hard to shake off. I also do have a natural stubborn quality to me." Weiss held her head up high as she spoke, nodding fiercely as she looked out at the dance hall. "... And I can't say that I've exactly made headway on making those issues better tonight by putting myself away from my friends and just sitting here by myself, stubbornly shooing other people away so that I could commiserate." Weiss actually smiled a bit. It still stung that Neptune had turned her down, but it felt better to understand these issues. "So thank you Okuyasu, I appreciate your honesty."

"Well, sure Weiss. I'm glad you understand… so could you maybe fill me in on why then?"

"... Excuse me?" Weiss' moment of triumph immediately deflated as she looked back over to Okuyasu who still held a confused look on his face as he rattled his brain around.

"Yeah, I got done with all that but I still don't get why Neptune would turn you down. Doesn't make sense if you ask me." The scarred teen shrugged his shoulders as Weiss jaw dropped a bit.

"Okuyasu, you dolt, you just listed off a bunch of reasons why!" Surprise turned to momentary annoyance, which immediately caused Weiss to grimace as she, again, referred to one of her friends as a dolt, as Okuyasu just nodded.

"Yeah I did, but that's just the negative stuff. Hell, everyone has negative stuff about them. Josuke is a filthy friggin' cheater who'll punch the shit out of you if you insult his hair and can be really friggin' annoying with how lucky he is. Koichi's a nice guy but he can be hard to just carry a conversation with. There's other stuff too but you get the point; they have some negative stuff about them but I still like them and consider them my blood brothers because I appreciate all the great stuff about them." Okuyasu pointed over to Weiss, causing the white haired girl to flinch.

"Yeah you're stubborn, yeah you're an Ice Queen and yeah you sometimes have a lousy attitude, but shit, that's just the bad stuff. Sure you've got it, but you've also got plenty of good in ya. You're a strong huntress who cares deeply about her friends, deeply enough that the thought of hurting Blake kept you from potentially making it worse… you did it in the stupidest way possible at first, but it showed you cared. You also opened up to my friends despite being friggin' strangers in your kingdom when we showed you that we weren't assholes, big points in my book, and you're a good friend in turn. Plus, for how stubborn you are, you're quicker to learn from your mistakes than I am, that's for damn sure." Okuyasu's brown eyes turned away for a moment as he crossed his arms. "And other stuff too."

Other stuff presumably he'd learned by now was not okay to say to a young woman, if the awkward expression that crossed his face was any indication. Weiss actually smiled a bit as Okuyasu shrugged his shoulders.

"So yeah, you've got some bad stuff but shit so does everyone. If you'd said yes back at the dining hall I certainly wouldn't have turned you down. So I still don't get how in the Hell Neptune, when you walk up and ask him yourself could say no. I know I'm an idiot, but I just don't fuckin' get it. That's some fuckin' luck right there."

Had Okuyasu gone out of his way to excuse the negatives he'd earlier listed, Weiss might've just rolled her eyes and assumed that the scarred huntsman had just been trying to butter her up to catch her on the rebound. She's seen it done to others before and had been more than aware of the trick. However, Okuyasu hadn't. Indeed, by most accounts Okuyasu had utterly failed at being suave or charming. You didn't tell a girl who just got shot down by another guy about how she could be a pain in the ass if you intended to pick her up.

Instead Okuyasu had done as he usually did and let his thoughts fly freely; yeah, she had negative qualities, ones that easily came to mind to him, but they didn't erase the good either. Good that, to him, more than made up for the bad. No guile or underhanded attempts to get under her skin, no trick or verbal quirk to try and get her on his side. Just… Okuyasu being Okuyasu. Just saying what was on his mind honestly. And what was honestly on his mind was that to him, Weiss was a good person on balance. Someone he would've considered himself lucky to be asked himself.

"Thank you Okuyasu. That… actually does make me feel better." Okuyasu seemed to glance over curiously and, when met with a rather gracious smile from Weiss, just shrugged.

"Well, alright, glad to hear it I guess. Don't know if being told I'm a pain in the ass would make me feel better but whatever floats your boat." At that Weiss honestly just let loose a small laugh as she shook her head.

"I suppose so. Maybe I'm a bit mental." Weiss looked out across the dance floor as she felt her mood lift. Honestly, sequestering herself here in the corner away from her friends… Hell, if all she needed was someone to talk with, to get this off her chest, then it was silly for her to have hidden herself away again. Or perhaps she'd just needed another chat with the scarred, loudmouthed, guileless and… genuine member of Team JOJO.

"... Hey, Okuyasu-"

"Yo Weiss!"

Weiss and Okuyasu turned their gazes over to the source of the voice and both were immediately surprised when they spotted Neptune walking on over. Curiosity overtook the both of them as the blue haired young man sauntered on up. If Neptune had stopped by before her chat with Okuyasu, Weiss imagined she might've been a bit more annoyed seeing Neptune coming up to her… but, well, maybe this was for the best. Get this off her chest and figure out just what was up. After all, even if she had a vague idea of what Neptune had shot her down over, it'd be nice to get things settled.

"Yo Neptune." Okuyasu called out over Weiss' shoulder as the white haired heiress stood up to meet Neptune.

"Listen, Weiss… I just saw Jaune a little bit ago and… well, listening to his and Pyrrha's problems, it… I dunno, kind of put some things into perspective. I just wanted to say-"

"Before that Neptune… I'd like to apologize for having put you on the spot before." Neptune seemed confused for a moment as Weiss gathered up her courage. It was time to face the music in the most direct way possible, she supposed. "Listen… I know that I can be a difficult person to get along with especially when you first meet me, and that I can come off as agitated or stubborn from time to time. The fact that I acted so… embarrassingly around you also couldn't have made it easier. I don't know why you decided to turn me down, but whatever ended up driving you off, I want to apologize for and… well, I'd still like us to be friend if at all possible."

"... Woah, woah, woah, Weiss, hold on, you got the wrong idea!" Neptune seemed honestly flabbergasted as Weiss poured this onto him, the blue-haired young man's hands rising up placatingly as both Weiss and Okuyasu just blinked in some confusion. "Look, if that's what's been going through your head I'm really, really sorry! I didn't know that me shooting you down like that would've gotten to you… I guess Jaune was right about how I view girls…" Neptune muttered that last part as he shook his head.

"Look, it wasn't you, it was me-" Weiss didn't even bother resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the tried and true response as Neptune just waved his hands, "-I'm serious! I didn't turn you down because of anything you did or how you act! I turned you down because I can't dance and I didn't want anyone to know!"

"... What?"

The response was simultaneous. Brown and blue eyes had just gone wide with surprise and confusion as they stared right at Neptune, heads tilted to the side as if a new angle would allow them some insight that would explain the insanity either one had just heard. Yet, when all had been said and done and no different answers came forward, both Weiss and Okuyasu's jaws dropped slightly at what they'd both just heard.

This? This was why Neptune had turned down Weiss Schnee?

"... Okuyasu, hear me out for a moment?" Weiss asked as she gently cupped the side of her face, her gaze still partially shell-shocked as Okuyasu just crossed his arms across his chest with a matching expression.

"Sure Weiss, fire away."

"... So, I'm feeling pretty conflicted here. On the one hand; none of my flaws are what drove Neptune to shoot me down. I'm not so stubborn or so prone to poor moods that I drove someone away. That's good… on the other hand. None of my 'ups' were enough to counterbalance the fact that Neptune didn't want people to know that he couldn't do something that most people can't really do all that well… I got turned down because he couldn't dance." Neptune shifted a bit uncomfortably as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well when you put it like that…"

"I'm just… I just don't know how to feel about that Okuyasu. It's a really complicated feeling." Weiss shook her head for a moment before, finally, Okuyasu just nodded.

"I feel ya. I feel ya deeply. Your feelings? I feel them deeply."

"A-Anyway… what I wanted Weiss was to explain myself, to give you the truth… after hearing what Jaune and Pyrrha's set to go through, I kinda got some perspective… and I wanted to know if you'd still be cool with us being friends?" Neptune asked, nervously, as Weiss and Okuyasu looked on. Weiss turned her head to look back at Okuyasu and found that the scarred teen had just shrugged his shoulders and grinned, giving her a thumbs up. Weiss just nodded in agreement, a soft smile on her face, as she turned back to Neptune.

"Neptune… sure. This has been a bit of an affair, but… well, you did tell me the truth and kept me from guessing, and you did apologize. So yeah, I'd be willing to put this behind us and to still be friends." It would've been a silly thing to bust up a potential friendship over, both teens had decided independently, and Neptune could only grin in response.

"Cool! So, you wanna hang out with the others or something?" Weiss just nodded as an answer but, before anyone could move forward, she raised a hand to pause the conversation.

"Sure Neptune, that'd be fine… but first, I need to take care of something." Without even a moment's hesitation Weiss reached over and grabbed Okuyasu by the shoulder, dragging the taller teen over as he nearly stumbled. "Okuyasu here's been helping me commiserate and been keeping me company. I promised him a dance as thanks, so I'll be taking care of that first."

"... You did?" Okuyasu asked, confused, only to suddenly choke as Weiss elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh, yeah, right, you did… this is the kind of lousy attitude I was talking about Weiss." Okuyasu muttered the second half of the sentence under his breath as he rubbed at his ribs, Weiss just kept a friendly expression as she grabbed Okuyasu by his elbow and dragged him off onto the dance floor.

"Not exactly something you should say to a young lady who's actually offering to dance with you Okuyasu." At that, Okuyasu had snapped his mouth shut as he nodded in a slightly frustrated agreement, a wry grin on Weiss' lips as Neptune just watched the pair wander off. As Weiss got into position with Okuyasu, the scarred teen just looked off to the side for a moment as he sighed.

"Weiss… there's something I really think you should know first before we start dancing." Okuyasu muttered as Weiss just sighed.

"Oh Gods above… is this gonna be you telling me you didn't mean most of that stuff or something else, because if so I swear-"

"No, no. It's not that. I just thought you should know that… I really can't dance for shit."

…

The admission hung between the pair for a moment as Weiss just blinked, staring up at Okuyasu as the teen just awkwardly scratched at his cheek. Really, it shouldn't have been a surprise that Weiss almost immediately burst out laughing, though Okuyasu had been slightly taken aback. It was just too much for Weiss, after the evening she had. Of all the things Okuyasu could've 'admitted' to her right then and there especially after how the night had transpired. Of course, of course he'd admit something like this even as he was dragged out onto the dance floor with her. Of course he wasn't going to let it stop him. It pretty much summed him up perfectly.

"You know what Okuyasu? I really couldn't care less at this point." The Schnee Heiress admitted with a smile as she positioned Okuyasu's hands at the right spots. "Just… do your best."

"... Do my best?"

"Do your best." She reaffirmed with a nod. The two just stood there for a moment as a thoughtful expression crossed Okuyasu's face… before he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright, but you asked for it."

"Asked for whaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!"

Most women would've loved to have been 'swept off their feet' the night of a dance. Loved it have been with a date who just left them feeling like they were walking on air without a care in the world. As if gravity itself meant nothing to them.

Of course, they wouldn't have wanted it if it was all because their dance partner was as shitty a dance as advertised and was pretty much literally swinging them about. The rest of the crowd had given the pair a wide berth as Okuyasu did his best imitation of a ballroom dance, swinging himself and Weiss around the dance floor as the Schnee Dust Company Heiress screamed.

"OKUYASU, PUT ME DOWN AND THEN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"... Isn't it put me down or I'll kill you?"

"NO! WHEN YOU PUT ME DOWN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU DOLT!"

Okuyasu chanced a glance down at Weiss as she yelled this and couldn't help the wry grin that formed on his lips.

"You know, it's kinda hard to buy that when you look like you're about to bust a gut laughing."

Indeed, despite the Weiss' best efforts, a wide grin stretched the length of her face and the occasional, excited laugh punctuated her screams.

Meanwhile, Neptune watched on from the sidelines, slightly blown away at this turn of events, as Koichi and Neopolitan approached him from the side.

"H-Hey Neptune, you doing alright?" Koichi's words snapped Neptune out of his stupor as he looked over at the short young man and his equally short dancing partner, which caused Neptune to blink in some surprise.

"Oh wow she is real, who would've thought…" After that Neptune shook the dust out of his head as he smiled as best he could at Koichi. "And I'm fine Koichi… just kinda can't believe it, you know?" Neptune said as he crossed his arms, to which Koichi just nodded in agreement. The three of them watched the little display for a moment before Neptune sighed.

"Koichi… do you still think I'm cool?"

"Well, of course Neptune, why wouldn't I think you're cool?" Koichi asked, slightly confused, as Neptune just nodded. "I mean, your blue hair and goggles are really cool… yeah, totally Anyway, uh… I think Neo and I are going to get back to dancing, just… wanted to check on you." It was clear that there was some hesitation on Koichi's side, one that hadn't gone unnoticed by Neo as she just grinned mischievously at her dance partner. If Neptune had noticed, he certainly showed no sign of it.

"Thanks Koichi. Just… needed to hear that from a friend." With that Koichi nodded and Neopolitan took the young man's hand as she set out to drag him back out onto the dance floor. Neptune watched as the pair walked off, Neopolitan turning her head to look back at Neptune with a smile. Neptune returned it and, as she moved her hand up in what Neptune figured would be a wave, he made to do the same…

Only to stop dead in his tracks when Neo made an 'L' on her forehead and stuck her tongue out at him.

…

Where the Hell was Sun?

* * *

Well, that was a surprise.

Pyrrha blinked a few times as she, along with several other students, took a step back away from the tornado that had been Okuyasu and Weiss at one point in time. Amidst the screams the two's laughter could be heard, even as Weiss continually threatened the safety of Okuyasu's internal organs. The red haired tournament fighter sighed slightly as she placed her head in her hand; her advice to Jaune had been sound. Weiss was a lot like Pyrrha; they'd both grown up under circumstances where things were heavily controlled and where, while there were people who cared, there had been more than their fair share of people who wanted to use them. It was this shared history that allowed the two to become good friends after Weiss had gotten after her… 'ambitions', to put it charitably.

Someone you could trust to be frank and honest, someone who wouldn't attempt to trick or deceive you, someone with a lack of guile? That was someone both of them could appreciate. It was a shame that Weiss had stumbled onto Okuyasu first rather than Jaune though… it would've made both Weiss and Jaune quite happy, the Mistrali huntress thought.

Still, it couldn't be said that this wasn't… slightly entertaining, she thought with a small smile as she watched the dance floor erupt into a small amount of chaos. Though, weirdly enough, it seemed as though that he chaos wasn't just centered on Weiss and Okuyasu… something else was causing the crowd to stir, something-

"Hey Pyrrha…" Green eyes turned to look back behind her…

Oh Gods.

After watching Weiss and Okuyasu dance for a minute, Pyrrha couldn't help the grin that formed on her face once she saw what was behind her. Jaune, dressed in nowt but a pretty, pretty pink dress likely on loan from Nora and a pair of sneakers, approached her from behind. The crowd of students native to Beacon and transfer had now to split their attention between two odd sights to behold and, for the life of her, Pyrrha couldn't help herself.

She'd almost forgotten how miserable she felt and how much she didn't want to follow up with Jaune after their little conversation.

"Well… I did say that if you wound up at the dance dateless that I'd wear a dress… and you know me… an Arc and his word…" Jaune seemed to phrase his little call sign a little oddly, Pyrrha realized and, with a reminder of the prior circumstances, found her own smile diminishing.

"Jaune… I appreciate the effort, I really do, but I really would've thought after our… discussion that you would've left this alone…" Pyrrha's eyes were downcast as she said this, the somewhat forced smile on Jaune's lips slipping slightly as he walked up to her.

"I know, I know… and I really didn't mean for it to seem like that. I just… didn't know what to say up there. I really shouldn't have let you walk off… again, especially after I already did that with Toshikazu. I just didn't know what to say then." As Pyrrha sighed and took a step back, Jaune took a bit of a step forward as his eyes implored her to stay. "Just give me a minute to hear what I have to say, okay? I promise after that, whatever you want to do, I'll just let it happen, alright?"

Pyrrha barely noticed that the ballroom dancing music had ceased and that the musicians on stage had cleared out, ready to make way for the new band to step up. She just looked at Jaune for a long moment, her green eyes having met his blue, as she saw him practically beg her to just hear him out. Gods, she had been strong enough before all this… but face to face with her leader, her partner and her crush, Pyrrha just sighed as she brushed a strand of hair through her hair.

"Jaune, you're not going to make me change my mind about my actions. You aren't going to convince me that they weren't selfish."

"I know I'm not… because you're kind of right Pyrrha. Leaving your life behind on a whim, not telling your family… those are selfish actions. Coming to Beacon just to get away from everything is kinda selfish, even if it ends up doing good." Pyrrha actually blanched at that slightly, her body flinching slightly as she heard those words. She hadn't expected them from Jaune of all people and hearing her own thoughts echoed by her crush… well, it had come as a bit of a surprise.

"What… oh, well, yes." Pyrrha said, nodding, clearly surprised. "I'm… I'm glad you see it my way Jaune. But if that's the case, then I really don't see what there is to talk about."

"What there is to talk about is what you're wrong about… that you're nothing like me." Pyrrha's surprise fell to a frown as she shook her head, preparing to fight Jaune on this, as the blond just stepped forward. "And I mean don't get me wrong, you're certainly right in some ways. There's a lot about you that's nothing like me. You're talented and actually reliable in a fight for one. When there's trouble I can actually depend on you to have my back… which isn't something I can exactly say about myself. You're kind and really aware of other people's problems and always willing to extend a hand whereas… well, I've messed that up a few times now."

"Jaune-"

"But… we both did things for stupid selfish reasons that ended up hurting people we care about." Pyrrha hitched for a moment as Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Pyrrha, you talked up me leaving for Beacon like it was some great noble and heroic thing, that me wanting to be a hero was some sign about how great I am, how much better and more noble my intentions are than yours… and granted, yeah, maybe wanting to be a hero is better than just being bored. But I didn't want these things for the sake of just being a hero.

"It wasn't just wanting to be something because it'd help people or make my family proud… it was wanting to be something because I didn't just want to be a loser, some guy sitting around doing nothing with his life. You heard me at the beginning of the school year Pyr… I was so self-absorbed about not wanting to be the damsel, about wanting to be the hero, that I slapped down your offer of help because I had this vision of how I'd be proud of myself, about how I'd feel accomplished, and I held onto that."

"But Jaune, you didn't stay that way." Pyrrha shook her head as her team leader nodded in ready agreement.

"Yeah, I know Pyrrha, and it was thanks to you that it happened. Before that… I abandoned my family too. I got those transcripts, stole Crocea Mors and just left my family behind without a word. Heck, I they probably know I'm here at Beacon but… but not because of anything I did to tell them."

"Jaune, if your argument is that we're both terrible people and therefore it's fine…" Pyrrha almost sounded amused as Jaune spoke, but the blond again just shook his head.

"We made mistakes in doing what we did Pyr and we had our selfish reasons… but, well, our selfish reasons aren't hurting anyone. More than that, what we're doing here… it's going to help people. You and I are going to become hunters and we're going to save people. Sure, maybe I was a jerk who was more into being a hero because it'd make me feel better and sure, maybe you just wanted to get away from everything… but we're people Pyrrha. We make mistakes and… oh man, how would he have put it…" Jaune scratched the back of his head as he tried to recall his conversation with Josuke.

"And… well, and we want stuff. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes if you realize you make them… and there's nothing wrong with wanting something if you don't hurt people to get it." Pyrrha looked down to the side as Jaune extended a hand to place on her shoulder, the band having set itself up on stage as Jaune looked at Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha… we're not that different. We both came here because we wanted something different. Something… that we weren't getting before. We made some mistakes in how we did it… but we're not bad people. I know you're not because of how kind you are, how amazing you've been and how… patient you've been with putting up with me."

"... And how do you know you're not a bad person Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with a slight hint of a laugh in her throat as she looked up at her team leader who just shrugged.

"Well… it might be confirmation bias, but there's this girl who keeps telling me not to be so hard on myself. I think she might actually like me." Pyrrha couldn't help herself. The dorkiest thing Jaune could've possibly said and he said it. She chuckled slightly as she brought a gloved hand up to her eyes. "... Pyrrha, you made mistakes. It doesn't mean you'll make them again or that you can't fix them… or that you should not do anything you want to do just because you're afraid."

Pyrrha paused for a moment as Jaune spoke. Still, as the band finished setting up, Pyrrha couldn't help but cross her arms over her chest defensively.

"I don't know Jaune… I could still just leave. I could still just leave you high and dry. I… don't want to do that to a close friend. I really don't want to do that to someone I have a crush on."

"Well… I'm willing to take a chance if you are."

"... I really don't know Jaune."

As this went on, the band finally started to play; the lead guitarist strung mightily on his electric guitar, a stream of noise and chords filling the dance hall as the man prepared his instrument, the conduit of his soul.

Then he started to play.

And Cinder Fall, shortly thereafter, left the dance hall as lyrics flooded the room.

* * *

"Dang, knew I made the right choice in entertainment. Probably going to hear an earful from Weiss after this is all said and done though… if she'll even be able to stop from spinning."

If Yang was being completely honest however, the music was oddly fitting. The upbeat, fast paced of the guitar played well with the excitement of a lot of her friends; Sun had dragged Blake out onto the dance floor with little resistance from the black cat faunus. Koichi and… the surprisingly real Neopolitan had shifted into a far more energetic dancing than before, mostly led on by Neopolitan herself. Okuyasu and Weiss just kept up their little display, which had Yang laughing to no end for the first few minutes and, well, all her friends seemed to be really into all this.

Well, except for Ruby who she couldn't see and Jaune and Pyrrha… the former of whom seemed to be really giving it his all despite Pyrrha's hesitation.

"Come on P-Money, guy's really trying here. He finally got the hint just… jeez. Relationships really are more complicated than I thought." Yang muttered as she leaned her head on her hand.

As for Josuke, well-

"Oi, Xiao Long!" Yang turned her lilac eyes over to a crowd of female students who walked on up to her, their eyes darting about as some of them took deep breaths, most of them seeming a little winded after a lot of running. "You haven't happened to see Josuke around here, have you? We lost him again."

"Nope, can't say that I have. Now could you kindly move on. I'm looking for my sister and I won't really be able to concentrate on spotting her if you all are hovering around here." The gathered gaggle of females just seemed slightly affronted by Yang having brushed them off but quickly departed the way they came, leaving Yang to her lonesome next to the pillars on the balcony that overlooked the dance hall.

Or, at least, seemingly by her lonesome.

"Alright, coast's clear JoJo."

"Great! Thanks Yang, I owe you one." Josuke popped out from behind one of the columns, a slightly winded look to him as he brought out a comb to fix his hair back up as he sighed in a great deal of relief. When JoJo had run up to her, clearly tired and looking for someplace to hide, Yang was hardly going to turn one of her best friends down. She'd been through the kind of shit that JoJo had been going through before, though thankfully it seemed most boys had chilled out by now.

Beautiful people had to stick together, after all.

"Eh, don't even worry about it JoJo, just helping out a friend who's having a bit of a rough time. You don't… owe me…" Yang blinked her lilac eyes for a moment as a slightly sly grin crossed her lips as she quickly looked across the dance hall, trying to spot her sister.

"What's up Yang?"

"Oh, nothing JoJo, just looking for someone." Yang's lilac eyes scanned the floor as a small grin crept up onto Josuke's face, the pompadoured teen leaning forward against the railing as he arched an eyebrow.

"Oh? You wouldn't happen to be looking for Ruby so that you can try to have me pay you back by dancing with her, would you?"

"Of course not, I'm…" The words played out in Yang's head completely as her face went Ruby Rose red, the blonde bombshell snapping her head over towards Josuke as she saw the pompadoured team leader just give a wide, wry grin. "Oh Gods, Koichi was right, you did know. How?!"

"Honestly how could I not? You weren't exactly being subtle about it." Josuke joked as he scratched at his cheek, Yang just putting her face in her hands as she shook her head.

"Gods this is the worst… hey wait, if you knew then why didn't you say anything?" Yang asked, confused, as Josuke just shrugged.

"Honestly? I thought it was all pretty harmless. Ruby never seemed to catch on and she never really seemed interested and, well, she's a good friend. It was kind of funny to watch you flail around trying to set us up and, well, kinda flattering. I figured there wasn't much harm in just letting it happen and waiting for you to eventually stop." Josuke shrugged his shoulders as he said this, his face screwed up into a bit of a smile as he held back a few chuckles. In response Yang's face scrunched up into a slight frown as she put her hands on her hips.

"Oh? Havin' a bit of a laugh at a poor, poor girl and her attempts to set up her darling, cute little sister on her first date?" Josuke thought for a moment before he just grinned and nodded.

"Yeah actually. It was pretty amusing… more so than your puns, to be honest." At that Yang gave a gasp as she glared at Josuke.

"You take that back Higashikata JoJo!"

"... Brothers that's even worse than just calling me JoJo. Please stop."

"Take back what you said about my puns." Yang said crossed her arms over her chest as she said this, as Josuke just shook his head to the negative. "Well then I guess we're at a stalemate Higashikata JoJo." Josuke groaned slightly as he placed a hand to his forehead. Though, as he shook his head, a grin worked its way up onto his face, one that Yang soon mirrored. The two had a bit of a laugh as they looked down at the dance floor, the two well-dressed young folks just keeping quiet for a moment before Yang glanced over.

"So seriously, why aren't you interested? Ruby's adorable, she's a huntress and you two get along real well. I don't see why you wouldn't give it a shot if you knew you had my consent." Josuke just looked over at Yang and shrugged.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm repulsed by Ruby or anything. She's been a great friend since coming here and we have gotten close but… I dunno. I just don't feel 'that' you know? Hell, she acts more like a little sister than another girl." Josuke shrugged as he looked out on the dance floor. "I just… I dunno, it doesn't feel right."

"No spark of 'true love' eh?" Yang asked with a bit of a roll of her eyes, Josuke just grimacing as his admission was thrown up like that as he just sighed and nodded. "Honestly, it's so weird to hear someone actually admit to believing something like that. Especially at our age. Where'd you even pick up something like that JoJo; were your mom and dad just really lovey-dovey or something?"

It barely took a moment for Yang to realize that she had stepped on a massive, massive landmine. The way Josuke's amused expression fell into a frown, his brow furrowing and his gaze shifting off to the side, it immediately set off Yang's warning bells. She had just stepped on something she really, really shouldn't have.

"Oh, shit, look, forget I said anything. I didn't say anything! Let's just go back to talking about how cute my sister is and how-"

"It's… okay Yang. You didn't mean anything by it, Hell you couldn't if you didn't know in the first place, and… well, it's kind of a fair question I guess." Josuke scratched the back of his head as he sighed, light blue eyes looking down at the dance hall as he seemed to take a moment to think over his response. "I mean… in a manner of speaking you're right, I guess. Growing up… my mom talked a lot about my dad. About how much of an amazing person he was, about how much of a hero he was… about how kind and caring he was, how lovingly he treated her.

"She always talked about her time with him as if it was the best time of her life. Months and years that she wouldn't give away for anything. Especially since she ended up with… with me." Yang nodded her head slowly as Josuke spoke, lilac eyes locked onto the side of Josuke's head as the teen scratched his cheek. "No matter how lonely my mom ended up getting, no matter how much it was clear she was hurt by the fact that my dad wasn't around… she never cursed the time she spent with him or wished it away. Just the opposite; she seemed to get so much out of remembering those times, out of recalling those feelings. Even with all the difficulties she had raising me, it helped her pull through. It made her strong… and I felt that love pretty much every single day too.

"... I dunno. I guess growing up and looking at it, seeing just how in love my mom was and how happy it made her… I just kinda wanted something similar for myself. To love someone that much and be loved by someone that much. I'd prefer it if it… didn't end early…" Josuke had been incredibly careful about how he phrased it. He didn't want to lie but, at the same time, he didn't want the truth out. Not yet anyway. Just something vague. "But, I dunno. I guess I saw true love and thought that it was something I'd want too. And I still do think it. Probably sounds a little weird but… well, that's just how I see it."

It was funny. There was a lot about Josuke that Yang could sympathize with. She could sympathize with his desire to protect his friends and family, to the point of killing, like back with Angelo. She could sympathize with him being so protective of his hair because it… it was a link to someone he respected or cared about. She could even sympathize with the idea that he'd grown up with one parent for some time, apparently. All of these things she could nod along and actually feel like she had some stake in it too.

And at this moment, talking about true love…

Yang Xiao Long couldn't sympathize. She couldn't even remotely fathom what the Hell was going through his mind.

Yang could try, of course. She could try to put Josuke's words into action with her own family life… but the idea of looking at her father, the man she adored… who'd been utterly destroyed by love. Who'd been broken again and again, first by a woman who just abandoned him and second by one who died so shortly after giving birth to Ruby… who she'd witnessed fall into that pit of despair and who she had to help bring back up as just a child… who she had to cover for when it came to Ruby because of his despair…

The thought of looking at that, looking at the shell that her father became for that time, and coming away with the idea that 'true love' was something good and desirable just seemed utterly alien to her.

But, for Josuke, he had somehow. It was weird but, then, it didn't exactly sound like his mom ended up much like her dad. Who knows, maybe his mom was made of tougher stuff.

Still, she didn't get it. Not one bit.

"Well, whatever you say JoJo." Yang answered with a bit of a shrug as Josuke just snorted to himself.

"Eh figured that'd about be the answer." Yang grinned a bit as she shrugged.

"Just not something I exactly understand myself. Though still, sounds like your mom was once again some kind of badass." Yang leaned up against one of the pillars as she grinned over at Josuke. "I mean seriously; saves your life when your sick by running across a frozen ocean to get to The Outskirts, raises a kid by herself, toughs out the love of her life dying. She sounds like she's just made out of metal for how unbreakable she is." Josuke just grinned slightly as he chuckled.

"She'd tell you that comparing her to something as rigid as metal misses the point." Yang raised an eyebrow as Josuke looked forward. "Mom says that trying to stand tall and straight all the time, just bearing through everything without bending, usually ends up with you just getting snapped. That even diamonds can break if put under enough pressure… but if you can bend and bend and bend until eventually the pressure's off, you'll always be ready to snap right back into place. If you can give a little bit, be just a little bit soft, then you'll be able to stand up to the pressure. In that way I guess her Stand's perfect for her." Josuke chuckled as a far off look reached his face, Yang smiling genuinely as she leaned her head into her hand.

"Sounds like a pretty smart mom… and it really sounds like you're proud of her." Josuke just nodded firmly as he smiled.

"How could I not be? My mom's a kickass huntress in her own right who, even when she was raising me, still did her job for Morioh. She cares about everyone who cares about her and… well, she can be tough sometimes. And really, really, angry… like shit, you wonder where I get my temper from, I definitely get it from her." Yang chuckled at this as Josuke just shook his head. "But she never let's that get between herself and the people she loves. I've never felt like my mother loved me any less than she did, even when she's shaking me around and hitting me for being an idiot…" Josuke's smile dropped as he said this, his head lowering.

"... Which is a lot more than I deserved growing up, considering what a shitty fuckin' kid I was." Yang flinched slightly as Josuke said this, the lilac eyed beauty's gaze shifting around so she could look Josuke in the face.

"What? Come on, you? A shitty kid?" Josuke smiled wryly as he looked over at Yang.

"Remember our conversation back at the clothing store? About how kids can be pretty rotten or careless, even if they turn out like us?" Yang nodded, she remembered it quite well, as Josuke just sighed and shook his head. "I could really sympathize with how you felt about yourself and how 'careless' and 'shitty' you thought you were as a kid… I was a fuckin' worthless son. I caused my mother and grandfather so much trouble… because of me, so much shit got thrown their way. My mom, who was the kindest woman I knew, and my granddad… the man I wanted to be so much like as a huntsman. They didn't deserve any of the shit they got… but they got it anyway. Because of me."

"... If it's any consolation, you've turned out way better than that." Josuke turned over to Yang, a genuine smile on her face as she nodded. "Responsible team leader, great hair do, participating in the Vytal Tournament to represent your entire community… you've turned out good, JoJo." Josuke paused for a moment before he grinned.

"Yeah… I kinda had to, i guess. After a while, when I realized what was happening… I felt like I had to be that kind of son. I had to be the kind of son who did well by his folks. Who they could be proud of. To make up for everything else…" Yang nodded firmly as she slapped Josuke on the shoulder.

"Well, I'd sure as Hell be proud of you. And if you're mom's anything like you described her, I'm sure she's really proud of you JoJo." Josuke smiled a bit as he leaned forward against the railing, Yang quickly having followed suit. The lilac eyed teen wondered to herself for a few moments; would Summer Rose have been proud of her? She hadn't even bothered to think over to her own mom, wherever the hell that… person, nice words Yang dad wouldn't like it if you cussed out your mom, went off to. She had been more curious about whether Summer would've been proud…

Thinking of all the time and energy she spent essentially raising Ruby and helping keep their family together… Yang smiled. Yeah, Summer would be proud of her. Without a doubt. Heck, in a lot of ways Josuke's mom and Summer seemed similar; strong huntresses who loved their families and raised their kids well. Only difference was… well, obvious. One was alive and one wasn't.

Still, as Yang thought about this, she couldn't help the slight frown that came to her features. If Josuke's mom had his temper and if she really did raise him to be like the man he is today… would it have really made sense for him to be such a terrible kid? Like with Yang; she could get a little out of control, a little wild, so it was natural to assume that she could be a bit of a wild child if you didn't know her. But Josuke? Higashikata Josuke, who seemed to well put together and respectful… when you didn't insult his hair.

It seemed weird. The entire conversation, in fact, seemed to have been dipped in this… weird undertone that she hadn't been able to quite pick up on. Something wasn't right.

Still, as Yang chanced a glance back over to Josuke and saw the gentle grin on the pompadoured teen's face, she shrugged and looked back over the dance floor herself. Eh, whatever, it wasn't important. Time she spent thinking about this could instead be spent hanging out with a really cool friend and watching her friends act like idiots. Was Okuyasu still spinning Weiss around?

As all these teens had fun or watched their friends have fun or fall into their various dramas, none saw that, a few minutes after Cinder left, that Emerald had followed suit… her eyes very purposefully locked onto Jotaro.

* * *

"Well… this isn't the worst thing I've ever been a part of in my life."

High praise from one Kujo Jotaro who unwrapped a bit of coffee flavored gum and stuck it in his mouth. He couldn't smoke in front of so much faculty and in front of so many students, so he went with his… well, it was supposed to replace his smoking entirely if his wife had her say.

Still, what she didn't know and what Jolyne didn't see…

Jotaro sighed as the coffee flavor hit his tongue. Narrow, stern eyes looked across the entire dance floor. There were a few personalities he couldn't see; Ruby Rose had disappeared off somewhere, as had Ironwood. Though he could still be dancing with Glynda somewhere in there. Ozpin was up near the stage, clearly ready to give his address to the crowd of students for the evening and just patiently waiting for the band's current song to finish.

Josuke and his friends were scattered about the room, some dancing, some talking, but all of them… or well, almost all of them, enjoying themselves from what Jotaro could see. Glancing around to make sure that no one could see him Jotaro chanced a small grin. Though Stands and the arrows were on the forefront of his mind often when it came to their mission here in Vale, it was moments like these that The Frontier had long hoped for. It was a sign of progress… a sign that their dreams were finally coming true.

It was a good night, Jotaro decided.

"Oi… Jotaro…" A whisper caught Jotaro's ear, one that seemed anxious, as Jotaro's eyes glanced to the side. There, in the doorway of the dance hall… was one Jean Pierre Polnareff. Anxious and clearly nervous about something, he beckoned Jotaro over to the door.

Perhaps judging tonight as a good one was a bit hasty.

Jotaro looked around the room to see if anyone else had spotted Polnareff and, seeing that no one had, turned his gaze over to his fellow Stardust Crusader and gave a nod. Polnareff grinned his usual smile and nodded, pointing out to his own right as he slipped from view. Jotaro just sighed as he shook his head, spitting out his gum and rewrapping it in its foil as he walked over towards the door. As he did he passed by two Atlesian soldiers guarding… some red haired girl in a dress.

"Oi, you two." The soldiers turned, annoyed frowns on their faces at having been addressed so casually, before they each snapped to attention.

"A-Ah! Mr. Kujo! How are you, sir? Ironwood told us to treat you with the respect due to a foreign dignitary, sir! Anything you need?" The soldiers belted out nearly simultaneously as Penny just blinked up at Jotaro.

"Oh! So you're Mr. Kujo Jotaro? I have heard a lot about you! Pleased to make your acquaintance!" Penny offered a slight bow of her own head, one that Jotaro returned in kind.

"Likewise." Jotaro turned his attention back to the two guards. "If I'm not back in five minutes, send some soldiers out to pursue me, got it?" The two Atlesian soldiers seemed confused for a moment but nodded as Jotaro stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat as he stalked on out of the building. Glancing down where he'd seen Polnareff slip off to he saw the Four Kingdom born huntsman nod his head off towards a cluster of buildings around the Academy as he disappeared amidst them.

" **Yare yare daze** … let's see who the idiot is that thinks this shit is actually going to work out for them." Kujo Jotaro was no simpleton. He wasn't some easily tricked fool or a patsy. He knew a setup when he saw one. However, knowing this hadn't deterred him from being ready to step into whatever little trap had been set up. It had made him cautious, yes, cautious enough to get the Atlesian Soldiers ready to act just in case, but Jotaro also saw opportunity here. If he could get this idiot to spring their trap and then turn it around on them, then he'd have no problem beating them into a pulp and then dragging them before himself, Ironwood and Ozpin for interrogation.

It was another opportunity to get more information… and if some jackass was just willingly offering themselves up to get smacked down by Star Platinum: The World, then Jotaro was all too happy to oblige. So Jotaro stalked forward amidst the buildings, catching sight of Polnareff here and there as he continued to follow. He had Star Platinum ready to call forth at a moment's notice, but kept his cool. No point in showing that he knew what was up yet.

However, when Jotaro finally turned a corner that Polnareff had and found himself face to face with an empty alley that ended up with a dead end, Jotaro could only sigh.

"Alright. So you made yourself look like one of my friends to drag me out here. Congratulations, you got me just curious enough to humor you… but if this really was the best you could come up with, I'm afraid you'll find that you're testing the limits of my patience." Jotaro brought his hand up to the rim of his hat as he readjusted it. "So how about this; you and your Stand or you with your semblance go ahead and step out where I can see you so that we can get this over with. I honestly don't feel like wasting my time with this."

"Hehehehe…" An ominous laugh echoed amongst the buildings. One that made Jotaro's blood run cold as his eyes snapped open. "Direct and to the point as always, Jotaro. It seems like you really haven't changed at all in all the time since I last saw you." Jotaro turned on his heel to face the exit of the alley… and what he saw turned his blood to ice.

Pointy-toed boots colored gold that ran up the length of his legs into gold-colored black leggings that ended around his hips, showing off a black body suit that fit snuggly against his muscled form. A golden jacket on top of that, whose sleeves ran down into golden bracers that fit around the end of his forearm and wrists. To top it all off, matching green kneepads, a green belt with two straps hanging off either end and a green headband brought the entire look together, each band or belt punctuated with a green heart dead at their center.

More than that… near-white skin with thin, black veins that ran the entire length of his form that helped his bright blond hair stand out all the more. And the eyes. Eyes that he had never forgotten. Red irises against jet black sclerae. Eyes filled with unimaginable cruelty and pride as the figure stood there, posing with his hands on his hips, as he grinned maliciously at Jotaro.

This man… no matter how long Jotaro lived, no matter how many years passed… he would never forget him. Not the look of him… nor the sound of his voice.

"Dio…"

* * *

"I'd like to thank our guests here for the evening, the… I'm sorry, I didn't catch your band's name?"

"Don't have one quite yet sir." The guitarist spoke with a bow of his head as Ozpin just nodded. The Headmaster of Beacon Academy had gotten up onto the stage soon after the band had concluded their previous song, ready to give his address to the gathered students for this evening. The entire student population of Vale as well as all the transfer students that had arrived had turned their attention on Ozpin, eyes firmly locked on his form.

It was this attention that had caused them to fail to notice the flickering of the lights just above them.

"Ah, of course, apologies. Well still, I'd like to thank you all for providing such… interesting music for the evening. The students here seemed to like it." Ozpin spoke with a calm tone as he took a drink from his cup of coffee. "At any rate, allow me to get through this quickly so that you all can actually go back to having fun this evening. Goodness knows listening to a teacher go on and on is exactly what you'd hoped to avoid this evening." A light series of chuckles echoed throughout the dance hall as Mercury looked up, noticing each light flickering off and on as the seconds went by. He sighed as he got himself in position; this was going to suck ass.

As Ozpin continued with his speech the trail of lights flickered, the singular nature of them having gone unnoticed in the more broadly lit dance hall. As if following the wires that connected each light, rows of lights flickered in and out until, eventually, they stopped. Behind the walls, unseen to most students, a trail of brilliant yellow electricity crawled down the electrical wiring just behind Beacon's walls, flowing on down towards the sockets that had the speakers, microphones and instruments on stage powered up.

Only one person on that entire stage or in that room noticed as the yellow electricity flowed forth from the wall sockets. Only one person noticed as it quickly skittered across the wires leading up to the microphone that Ozpin was speaking into. Only one person noticed as it stopped just a few inches short of him while everyone else was busy paying attention to The Headmaster.

Of course, this one person wasn't about to speak up for Ozpin; he, like Mercury, was busy bracing himself for unpleasant sensation he knew was to come.

Although, he supposed it wouldn't be more unpleasant than the Hell that Ozpin was about to go through.

With that thought, the tone of the night changed. From fun and frolic among friends, dates and dancers to one of panic and worry. One moment changed a night of fun into a night of frantic terror.

For as Ozpin spoke, all of a sudden, his words transformed into a horrific scream.

"AAAAAAAAAA _AAAAAAAA_ GGG _GGG_ GGG _HHHH_ HHH!"

A bolt of pure yellow lightning shot forth from the wiring just beneath his feat, arcing up through him and into the air as it scattered across the ceiling, chattering and destroying the various lights that shone down on the dance hall as Ozpin continued to scream bloody murder, his voice distorted by the horrific amounts of electricity being shot straight through him.

The horror hadn't stopped there as, slowly but surely, the bolt of electricity began to take a new and altogether horrific shape. The students and faculty of Beacon as well as several armed Atlesian soldiers watched with petrified awe as the concentrated bolt of lightning shifted into a recognizable shape; a round, seemingly bald head that was punctuated by the cruel, sharp beak of some bird. Sharp claws, crackling with electric energy, spread out from the body of the bolt and arced around Ozpin, concentrating even more electricity into him.

Worst of all, most horrific of all, was the creature's eyes and its voice. Two balls of pure red that glared at out the entire dance hall and a voice and laughed and cackled, cackling with violent surges of electricity and filled with a manic, crazed tone.

" _ **YEEEAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!**_ "

For many of the students, most of whom had, at most, only seen the horrors of the Grimm a few times in their lives, it was all too much to bear. It started with one terrified scream and soon peeled into dozens, if not over a hundred, as the various students of Beacon panicked at the sight they had beheld. Even well-trained huntsmen and soldiers balked, mouths agape and eyes wide with horror, at the sight of Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy, being practically fried alive by whatever red eyed monster, this creature, was.

The nightmare would only be made worse for their screaming. As their terror filled the room and was evident on their faces, something new appeared to assault them, to add to their fears and end them by it. A kaleidoscope of colors filled the dance hall, bending and folding around various students as a hue of dark blue and purple surrounded these patterns. A singular being passed through this haze of color and twisted shapes, passing bodily through each students that had come into forced, direct contact with the shapes and colors as it did so. Each student that it passed through…

Folded in on themselves. Again and again and again the folds in their body multiplied as the shapes and colors folded in on them, turning pure white. The process was bizarre and bending to the mind but, by the end of it, the dance hall had been mostly emptied of its inhabitants… as most sat on the floor, screaming and wailing in horror at their new forms.

Paper. They'd been turned into folded up pieces of paper and left on the floor. The band had fallen into piles of paper on the stage as well, not a soul in sight. The survivors of this combined assault were stunned, absolutely stunned. None could believe either of the sights that they had fallen witness too. Before they could gather themselves for a counterattack, before they could even think to strike back, they all heard something screamed even above the horrified cries of their fellow students in the paper.

" **I got one!** " The survivors all turned their eyes over to the source of the voice and were, again, flummoxed. A little golden weevil-like creature with four arms and two legs stood, gold with purple stripes on its bodies as it held up one of the pieces of paper above its head, before it carefully folded it up in its hands.

" **I got one too!** " Another had screamed… and then there was another. And another. And another until it seemed as though they were crawling out of the woodwork, grabbing up students turned into paper and folding them up as they ran about.

" **Found one! Got one! I got one! Me too!** "

"WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN GOING ON?" The scream hadn't come from anyone person in particular, the chaos of the situation having caused the remaining survivors who hadn't shown open terror to lose their cool and patience, eyes narrowed in confusion and anger as they looked about.

Finally, Josuke and Yang hopped down from their position overlooking the dance hall, the pompadoured teen grimacing with a deep frown on his face as he took in the sight.

"We're under attack by enemy Stands!"

 **-To Be Continued- Dance Battle (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: IT'S AN ENEMY STAND!**

 **Anyway, in order; chemistry is pretty important to setting up a romance. I'm sure all of us have been in the same place before; you get a pairing shoved in your face very obviously by a series but you feel nothing for it. The characters don't endear and they really don't have much charm to them. Yeah, you're getting all these romantic moments that you're supposed to like, but you don't feel much for them because there's no chemistry between two said characters.**

 **Think of shows like Danny Phantom with Danny and Sam or anime like Love Hina with Keitaro and Naru. You get plenty of payoff and you're told how much these people care about each other but because you don't really feel it in their characterization, it doesn't really click.**

 **As much as not feeling rushed, this is the big reason why you set up relationships as friendships beforehand and do your best to keep the initial stakes low. It gives you a chance to not only set up some honest to goodness chemistry, but also to give people a time to come to their own conclusions about the charm, or lack thereof, in a relationship.**

 **This is why a lot of the time before the payoff in this chapter between Okuyasu and Weiss that I tried my best to show that they had chemistry and then reinforce that notion. Hopefully, judging by how many people seemed to like what I put in, I was successful and people will find this payoff satisfying for it. Once again like with Koichi and Neo, it's a small payoff kept very purposefully limited in scope so as to not make it feel like things are rushing along, but it is a payoff.**

 **Jaune and Pyrrha's segment here was a bit shorter than the one last chapter, partially because the one in the last chapter was so long, mostly because this is Jaune putting in his two cents and also because… well, we're not quite done yet. We've got a bit more work before Arkos gets its first big payoff. Why yes, I did put in Pyrrha's character conflict about worrying about abandoning her friends and close people when things get tough just before a big, tense battle.**

 **More set up and then we get to the big finale.**

 **Stand battles in JoJo are mostly one-on-one affairs save for when they're going up against extremely strong Stands. This is pretty understandable; a lot of Stands don't really have the power to stand up in a big old brawl especially after they've lost the element of surprise. However, with a cast this huge it's going to be hard to realistically keep dragging people away from each other so that they can have nice convenient one-on-ones.**

 **So if the main cast is going to be sticking pretty close together, how do we make Stand Battles a bit more tense? Well, thanks to Vento Aureo, we know of one way to do it; wombo combos. You'd be surprised what kind of super deadly combinations can exist with certain Stands and semblances if you think of how to use them creatively.**

 **The first phase of this assault, shock and awe, is over… now it's time for cleanup.**

 **See you guys next time when the fightin' proper starts. Place your bets on which members of the cast got papered and which ones are still up and ready to fight.**

 **Have a good week everyone!**


	31. Dance Battle (Act 1)

She saw it from the window.

Cinder Fall decided to indulge in a momentary distraction as she glanced out the CCT's window back towards the dance hall of Beacon Academy. Though one might hardly have been able to tell it was Cinder; covered in a layer of clothing thick enough to disguise even her gender, her hair pulled up into a tight knot and hidden underneath a large hood, eyes covered by thick goggles near impossible to pear through from the outside and face obscured by a well secured mask, the femme fatale had gone all out in ensuring that, whatever happened that night, no one would be able to decipher her appearance.

Underneath her mask Cinder grinned; Red Hot Chili Pepper had sprung his trap right on schedule and, she imagined, the entire dance hall must've erupted into chaos by now. As powerful and experienced as Ozpin was, there were few, even among the Maidens, who could withstand a direct pulse from the sort of electrical current Red Hot Chili Pepper was capable of producing. Surprise had a nasty effect even on those with physical Aura unlocked; while it would protect their body, the initial shock and surprise would leave them wide open.

The sight of RHCP and all its terror as it violently electrocuted the Headmaster of Beacon Academy… the terror that would cause would be the perfect opening for Enigma. He would snatch up as much of Beacon's students, transfers and staff as he could, with specific attention paid to the three Frontier Huntsmen that Whitesnake had been interested in. Those three that he could get Enigma would transport himself, a handsome reward ready for him should be get them, and greater for each number.

Which left all the rest of the students and staff folded into paper… Harvest would be the one to take care of them. It would pour out from its hiding places, at the same time giving RHCP the stage it needed to combat any survivors, and then take the rest of the papered members of Beacon and those who lived there. It'd spirit them away… and they'd either join cause with Salem or perish.

All the while the one man who would've had the Stand Power to either stop RHCP on his own or to stop Cinder at this tower was under assault by Emerald; no one was under any illusion that Emerald would be able to soundly defeat Kujo Jotaro. All she was meant to do was stall for time; to keep Jotaro from getting back to either the dance hall or to the CCT until the job was done. Cinder had confidence in her tool that she'd come through for her, that she'd see the job done.

A malicious grin crossed Cinder's lips as she looked out towards the City of Vale. With all this chaos, all this anguish afflicting Beacon those that did survive would pour their efforts into finding out how this happened or why and into trying to find the survivors. In the sort of state they'd find themselves in, with the flower of the Four Kingdom's youth clipped clean from the hunter program, how would they possibly be able to seek out information, or even have the focus to counter, The Breach before it was all too late?

It was the perfect plan. While The Breach would be the crown jewel of Cinder's plans surrounding Vale and Beacon, with the Academy left no choice but to bring forth the Fall Maiden, or someone with her powers, to combat The Breach, this night… this night would be Cinder's favorite.

Simply because she could not stop imagining the terror and panic on Ozpin and Ironwood's faces… assuming that Ozpin even survived his encounter with RHCP. In one sweep, their tools and pawns would be robbed from them, presumably dead, the flower of hunter youth left barren and dull. All while they didn't suspect a thing, left completely and utterly surprised as this assault on their very home, on their children, went completely under their radars. The idea of dragging Kujo Jotaro away from his own wards and snatching them away, leaving the man with the power to destroy Dio Brando with nothing…

It painted a lovely picture for Cinder.

The best part would be that none of them would be the wiser. Even now, Emerald was similarly disguised to Cinder and Mercury had been turned into a slip of paper that Neopolitan would pick up and spirit away. To all the world, it would just seem as though that Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and Neo had all been victims of this terrible act. They'd be free to pick up their actions elsewhere, completely uninhibited.

Of course, Cinder was a realist. There was a chance, a distant chance, that somehow these fools would manage to pick up their scattered pieces and mount a counter to her plan. That her scheme would fail. Neo would once again cover, sneaking Cinder and Emerald back in and making it seem like they had all recovered from being papered. Still, no one would suspect a thing and The Breach would go on uninhibited.

Still, Cinder couldn't help but laugh to herself, she very much doubted she'd need to worry about that. In fact, as the elevator rang and signaled the arrival of some pest, Cinder felt that she had only one thing to worry about for the moment.

* * *

They had come out of everywhere. From the underside of tables, from behind curtains, from around the rims of the lights that hung above the ceiling and even the chandelier. The tiny, weevil-like Stands flooded out from their hiding spots and into the main room. By the time it seemed like there were one-hundred of them to be counted, the surviving members of the gang had thought they'd seen them all.

How wrong they were.

Okuyasu had been the one to snap his foot back away from the floor as a sharp object punctured through the floor of the dance hall and another of the weevil Stands popped out. Soon followed by another and then another as the floor soon became filled with holes, from which these weevil like Stands poured out. While seemingly random, the holes were spread out across the dance hall in a very distinct pattern; it was left in such a way that there was barely two feet of space in between each hole and that almost the entirety of the dance hall had been covered.

Each and every single one of them, as soon as they were out, did the exact same thing.

" **I got another one**!" One would cry, and then another, as they each picked up a piece of paper. When the room was filled with what looked to be around three hundred of these little Stands, the surviving gang could finally take stock as the chaos, momentarily, died down.

Most of the students were just gone. Having never seen a Stand before, the sight of their first hostile one had been enough to put several on edge. The act it committed had been enough to push them right over the edge. Those who hadn't been terrified beyond reason of the mysterious electrical Stand that had assaulted Ozpin soon found themselves horrified by the strange papering that followed… and that horror had resulted in them being swallowed up by the very same phenomena. Soon enough the dance hall, once filled with life and young students, had been almost entirely emptied.

Okuyasu and Josuke glared at the electrical Stand, each utterly on edge from the ability they'd seen of it. Yang, Weiss and Blake stood by Josuke, Okuyasu and Sun respectively as the three members of Team RWBY looked desperately around for their leader only to not find her. Yang in specific seemed worried beyond belief that her sister had been caught up in this, and Blake and Weiss fared little better at the thought that their friend and leader had been captured. Sun looked desperately around for his own team, only to find none of them… not even Neptune. Nora, Ren and Pyrrha were left utterly stunned and nearly broken; their own leader had been snatched up and, for Pyrrha, it had been done right before her very eyes. She watched as Jaune, after a moment of panic thanks to the reveal of the electrical Stand, had been sucked away into a sheet of paper…

Pyrrha stared vacantly at one of the weevil-like Stands. Her gaze momentarily empty as she looked dead on at the Stand that had her leader, her partner, her friend in its grasps. This was the moment she had imagined in her head ever since Toshikazu. The moment where the friends she'd made at Beacon, people she'd gotten close to like Koichi and Jaune, would be put in danger. The moment she'd imagined that when it would come she'd be overcome by terror or apathy. To feel nothing more than the desire to get away and save her own skin.

That… that hadn't happened. Instead, as Pyrrha stared on at the small Stands, she felt some pressure in her chest. Something that grew and grew and grew until, finally, something inside of her snapped like a twig.

"YOU BASTARDS"! Without a moment's hesitation a black glow surrounded various metal objects in the room, Pyrrha's semblance having puppeteered the metal into the air and aimed the sharpest, pointiest bits of each down at the various weevil Stands. Before most could react, a rain of metal shot down at the swarm of Stands, skewering many and instantly dissipating them…

It hadn't helped for long, however, as the extras just quickly picked up the pieces of paper that had been dropped as they all motioned to each other.

" **Alright guys, scatter**!" With that the weevil-like Stands immediately broke ranks and made a mad dash for the various openings of the building. Pyrrha immediately summoned forth her semblance, ready to act again. However in her haste she hadn't noticed as the electrical Stand had dropped Ozpin's body, which had collapsed like a rag doll, as a devious smirk came to its lips. The others watched in fascinated silence as the Stand turned back into living lightning and, with little flare, jumped down into one of the holes created by the weevil-like Stands. Within mere moments, they saw flashes of light from the holes that now marked the floor.

Not even a second after it had first disappeared, the electrical Stand had reappeared behind Pyrrha, the green eyed girl's gaze immediately twisting back towards the Stand as a malicious grin formed on its beak.

" **HAAAAHAAAAA**!" In the blink of an eye the Stand immediately rocketed both hands forward, its fists slamming into Pyrrha's kidneys with enough force to leave deep impressions of its knuckles in Pyrrha's flesh. The tournament fighter howled in pain, blood momentarily gushing from her mouth, as she stumbled forward, the magnetized metal immediately dropping in response to her lost focus. As the Stand reformed behind her, it had taken on a far less monstrous appearance; fingers now ended up rounded ends with fingernails rather than electrical claws, its feet had extended down into shoes and the red of its eyes had fallen back into its irises, the rest of it white as normal. The Stand, apparently, had put on a little show in the name of achieving its goals.

"Pyrrha!" Ren immediately dashed forward, hands at the ready as he prepared to strike at the back of the electrical Stand's neck. Ren had expected the Stand to at least be somewhat winded by the speed it took. After all, all Stands had weaknesses and there was no way this Stand could move so fast and so far without having lost some power.

Immediately the calm and collected young man found himself utterly wrong as the electrical Stand again disappeared into one of the holes and reemerged behind Ren, a callous grin on its face. With a twist of its body the Stand swung a leg into the side of Ren's head, the force of the blow having sent Ren flying into one of the dance hall's windows and shattering it, the young Mistrali man momentarily stunned by the blow as he twitched for a moment.

"Jaune… Koichi… Pyrrha, Ren!" The Stand turned again to face the bubbly bomber of Team JNPR and was momentarily surprised by what he saw; a pure black flame dancing in her eyes. The Stand had just manifested Nora's worst fears; friends and teammates, people she'd spent months growing close to, now gone before her very eyes. Snatched away by some foreign Stand Power that they had not expected nor seen coming. The fate of friends and family across her entire life; Avdol, Kakyoin, Iggy, her parents, Ren's parents. All fallen to forces they couldn't have imagined. Now the very same specter of death, of destruction, lay at the feet of her friends… and Nora Valkyrie had sworn that she wouldn't just sit by and let that happen. Not again, not now.

So with a mighty roar that held none of the bubbly bomber's usual enthusiasm for battle, she charged for the lightning Stand, her fists drawn back as she was intent on striking the thing down. The Stand went from surprised to amused as it cackled openly and loudly, disappearing once again only to pop back out and slam its fist into the side of Nora's head, sending her stumbling away. As the Stand laughed, Nora brought a hand up to the side of her head, a momentary look of surprise on her face as the Stand stopped laughing and looked across all of them.

" **What a waste of fuckin' space. These are the brats that the bosses have been having so much trouble with? What a load, I don't even need all ten of my fingers to beat the ever loving shit out of you all.** " The Stand raised its left hand and, with a flourish, extended out it's pinkie finger. " **I, Red Hot Chili Pepper, could probably kill all of you with just my pinkie finger. It'd be amusing to say the least, tearing each and every single one of you apart with so little effort.** " The Stand, Red Hot Chili Pepper, looked around the room as it took in its handiwork; Pyrrha and Ren's Auras had gone to work patching them up, allowing the two of them to stand back up onto their feet. Nora followed suit while the rest of the gang seemed to just be trying their best to corral the various little minions running for the doors out of the dance hall and either out into the open or deeper into the building. Red Hot Chili Pepper's eyes eventually reached the stage and saw Ozpin's body…

Was no longer there. That's weird, he hadn't seen anyone actually walk up there to move him...

And Red Hot Chili Pepper no longer felt like it could move.

The red eyed Stand, with a slightly bored expression, turned its gaze over to a trio, one of whom he'd failed to notice in the chaos. While Josuke and Yang had been accounted for, the former now healing Ozpin's wounds, the third who now stood with them just glared angrily at him; a tall, blonde woman with a riding crop and a pair of eyeglasses.

" **I suppose it was too much to ask that Enigma take care of all of Beacon's staff in this little affair.** " Before any questions could be asked, Red Hot Chili Pepper just cackled as it once again turned into pure lightning, Glynda Goodwitch growling in frustration as she felt the lightning Stand slip through the fingers of her semblance's power. She could control any object well enough, but this all but confirmed it; whatever this Stand was, it could turn into little, pure electrical energy. As the group watched Red Hot Chili Pepper dip back into the holes in the floor, Glynda looked down to Josuke.

"Mr. Higashikata… is Ozpin?" There seemed to be an edge of terror to Glynda's voice, one that she had managed to keep off her face, as Josuke pressed his hands to the Headmaster's chest as Crazy Diamond fixed him.

"He still has a heartbeat so he's not dead… but I think the shock might've gotten to him. He's out cold and I can't bring him out of it." Josuke added to this remark as he lightly slapped Ozpin across the face, the Headmaster unresponsive as he just sat there slack.

"I'm not surprised given that my own semblance just failed to hold onto it when it changed form like that, it would seem that our foe… Red Hot Chili Pepper can become pure electricity. As strong as Ozpin is, I'm afraid he can't take a lightning bolt directly to… or perhaps I should say, in the chest and shrug it off." Glynda snarled slightly as she looked down at the holes. "I don't understand though… yes, the building has electrical wiring going through the floor, Beacon's got generators running all through it so it's a necessity, but the wiring is contained in plastic vinyl. How could…" Glynda's glare intensified as her sharp eyes spotted a glint, the other students soon enough picking up on it.

The wiring underneath the floor had been exposed, torn out of its plastic vinyl containing… or perhaps, cut out was more accurate.

" **I have to hand it to the little guys, Harvest might not be much with just one of it running around, but you set the swarm to work and it'll get a job done.** " Red Hot Chili Pepper's voice echoed through the room, the entire group put on edge as the Stand's voice taunted them. " **Speaking of, you'd best be careful; focus too much on little old me and you're going to let Harvest get away with all these students scot-free**." Everyone realized what a catch-22 they had been put on; on the one hand a powerful Stand the likes of which none of them, save for those from Morioh whom had witnessed the power of Star Platinum, had witnessed before taunted them from underneath their very feat.

On the other, these little insect-like Stands, Harvest apparently, were busily running between their legs and making for the exits. If they put too much of their time and focus on Red Hot Chili Pepper, then Harvest would take everyone away, every student, every friend, every member of the staff captured, to who knows where to have who knows what done to them.

" **But I wouldn't make the mistake of focusing on them too much…** " Everyone realized too late that RHCP's voice hadn't echoed like it had previously and, in fact, had come from behind Glynda. Before the bespectacled professor could respond to the electrical Stand's presence, Red Hot Chili Pepper once again cackled as it drove its fist into her back before disappearing again into the floor. Crazy Diamond and Yang simultaneously drove their fists into the floor, shattering a large portion of it as they tried to retaliate against the electrical Stand only to find that it had gone once again.

"Gods, what is up with this thing? It's so fast…" Yang growled underneath her breath as Josuke quickly had Crazy Diamond quickly fix Glynda up, his own gaze kept across the room.

"Like Glynda said, this Stand seems to be able to actually turn itself into electricity. It… it might not be too far fetched to say that when it's moving through the wires it's actually going as fast as an electrical current. At light speed." The pompadoured teen bit his lip at the thought; that was something to be spooked by. Crazy Diamond was fast and he knew that his friends were quite fast on their feet. But for a Stand to be able to move this fast…

"Is that a habit? That's a habit, right? For when you're freaked out by something?"

Before anyone could respond to the new voice, Sun Wukong suddenly realized something that they'd all missed as their attentions had been split.

"Shit!" The monkey faunus called out as he made a beeline for the doors leading to the outside of the entire building where several groups of Harvests were heading. It hadn't taken long for RHCP to suddenly appear in front of the monkey faunus, its fists reared back and ready to clobber the young Vacuoan man. Sun just grit his teeth and slammed his fists together across his chest, ready to take and blow and prepping his semblance. Even as Red Hot Chili Pepper slammed its fists into Sun Wukong, two doppelgangers immediately dispersed from Sun's sides and flew forward and around RHCP, the Stand forced to withdraw back into the floor before Glynda could get a good hold on it. With the moment secured, Sun's clones immediately rushed forward and slammed the doors to the outside world shut before any Harvest could get through them, leaving the tiny Stands to panic and follow their brethren to other hallways leading deeper into the building itself.

"Dammit… Fucking Brothers…" Okuyasu growled out, The Hand being summoned from his pure frustration as he swiped at a few Harvests. The Stands, before being swept up into The Hand's grasp, tossed the folded pieces of paper to other available Harvests before being disappeared into The Hand's Stand ability. "If we don't do something about this, these fucking pieces of shit are going to take Jaune, Neptune and Koichi away!"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about your friend Koichi. He's not with Harvest."

"Okay, even I'm getting sick of this; who is this and where the heck are you hiding?" Weiss Schnee demanded as her eyes glanced about. It hadn't taken long for the group of students and Glynda to notice a free piece of paper floating through the room. What had drawn them to it were the clothes that were being flung out of the paper; fancy attire and dress wear appropriate for the dance having been thrown casually out of the slip of paper as the voice chuckled.

"Just a moment, this dress wear really was quite stifling and I need a little time to make myself presentable." Soon enough the slip of paper floated behind one of the curtains at the windows. While flat at first the curtain soon billowed out as a form appeared behind it and, with just a moment's hesitation, said form stepped out into the open, a sly grin on the young man's face as he looked out at the crowd of students and Glynda.

Of an average height and slim build, this moderately dark skinned young man stood out for quite a few reasons to the gathered students. For one, his white hair that had been done in a criss-cross pattern and ended in curls that turned upward, immediately stood out against his skin color. For another was his attire; apparently gone was the dress wear he had disguised himself in, now the young man had been dressed in a long coat, tan at the shoulders and white at all other points. It was worn closed over his chest, but open the entire way down, revealing a black shirt and a pair of fitted black pants that flowed down into a pair of stylish black shoes, with several belts going across his abdomen and his waist. The most striking thing of all was the word 'ENIGMA' printed across the interior of the bottom of his coat.

"There we go, much better I'd say." The Stand User grinned as he flexed his fingers a bit, a piece of paper held nice and firmly between them. It hadn't taken long for everyone to put two and two together and, soon enough, the new Stand User found himself under the grip of Glynda's powers. "Oh dear, for a professor, it seems you don't learn your lesson at all do you Miss Goodwitch?"

" **I'd dare to say she doesn't, Enigma**." Once again, seemingly out of nowhere, RHCP appeared behind Glynda again, though this time Glynda thought herself ready. She swiftly let go of her influence over Enigma and turned to face RHCP, only to find the Stand gone once again. As RHCP appeared besides Yang and Josuke to slam a fist into each of them, knocking them off to the side, Glynda turned again and once more RHCP disappeared.

"Fuck this! The asshole who turned everyone to paper just showed up! If we kill his ass, then we can get everyone-"

"Nu-uh, Mr. Nijimura, I'd dare to say that's quite the bad idea…" With a flick of his wrist Enigma unfolded the paper in his hand and produced a lighter while his other hand snatched a piece of paper from one of the pockets of his jackets. With a flick of his wrist he produced a flame from the lighter and held it just underneath the paper. "Unless you'd like to see what happens when I burn this piece of paper with Mr. Hirose inside of it?"

As everyone froze in place, Enigma just smiled at them.

"Good, good. Seems as though it doesn't require much imagination to put in your head what exactly would happen to Mr. Hirose should I light his piece of paper on fire. Even Mr. Nijimura over there has caught on, it seems. Thick as the bastard is." Enigma's taunts only caused Okuyasu to growl as he and The Hand tightened their fists. He just wanted to scrape this piece of shit away so bad, just wanted to wipe his ass of the face of the Goddamn planet.

But he couldn't. Not while he had Koichi held in such a precarious position.

"You bastard… you're using Koichi as a hostage." Enigma just chuckled as Josuke growled at him, RHCP having popped back out of the floor momentarily and standing some length away from Enigma as the lightning Stand just grinned back over at them.

" **Well in a manner of speaking, we're holding all of you hostage.** " RHCP pointed out the various Harvests which were making for the exits to the room; though having been spooked off from the outside thanks to Sun's clones, each little Stand that made up the whole of Harvest made a run for the various halls, their little size made making progress a somewhat slow affair, but even at that moment a good number were funneling out. " **You see, so long as we keep you all right here, there's not much you can do about Harvest running off with everyone it's managed to capture. It'll find its way out eventually and then, well, good luck finding any of these saps again.** " Everyone ground their teeth together as they watched Chili Pepper's words come to pass.

"Meanwhile, Red Hot Chili Pepper and I just have a couple more jobs to do; Chili Pepper is being tasked with finishing most of you off however it damn well pleases." RHCP nodded as it maliciously grinned at the various students who all ground their teeth; it was clear that with RHCP's current advantage in the dance hall that it could've inflicted far worse injuries on them that it had, that it might've even been able to kill some of them with the element of surprise as it almost had Ozpin.

But it wasn't. It was toying with them, slowly picking them apart bit by bit in a bid to entertain itself.

"Meanwhile, I've been asked to secure our Frontier boys here for a bit of transportation in my paper." At that everyone flinched a bit.

"What the Hell do you all want with Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi?" Blake had been the one to ask, her amber eyes narrow and her teeth bared as Enigma just shrugged.

"Well, it's not so much them that we're interested in as their Stands. One of the bosses would be quite pleased if we managed to deliver these here boys to him on a silver platter. Their Stands are… interesting to him, we'll say." At that everyone's eyes narrowed as Enigma shrugged. "It's why I'm so interested in your tell there Mr. Higashikata. If you haven't put two and two together I can turn anyone who shows their fear's tell into a sheet of paper. It's why the fact that you bite your lip when you're nervous or scared intrigues me." Josuke clenched his teeth as he glared after Enigma, as a smug grin formed on his lips.

"Honestly, you wouldn't believe how easy it was to figure out Koichi's tell. He was a lot like these other losers at the dance hall; he just opened his mouth and screamed like an idiot with that dumb expression on his face. Honestly between him, the blond and the blue boy, well, they were pretty easy pickings." Enigma taunted the group with their friends, setting each of them on edge as they all threatened to come forward. The only one who seemed to be completely under control was Penny, who similarly hadn't been papered… but still hung back away from either Enigma or RHCP. She kept her eyes firmly locked on the electrical Stand, her internal processors having labeled Chili Pepper as a… dire threat to say the very least.

"I have to hand it to you, the rest of you didn't give me tells to work with. Either because you didn't have them…" Enigma sent an odd glance Penny's way before he grinned, "-or because you seemed more absorbed by other emotions. Hell, at least Mr. Higashikata here is actually responding appropriately to his friend's life being in danger. I'm becoming fairly certain that I'll never get a fearful tell out of Mr. Nijimura here… guy's probably too much of an idiot to know when to be scared."

"Okay that's it, come here you rat bastard!" With that Okuyasu summoned forth The Hand and had it raise its right appendage into the air, the distorted field surrounding its right hand.

" **Ah ah ah, Okuyasu~ None of that**!" RHCP again disappeared into the floor and appeared right in front of Okuyasu. The sound of bones shattering could easily be heard as RHCP sent a punch right up into Okuyasu's torso, skipping by The Hand entirely. A spray of blood gushed forth from the scarred teen's lips as he was sent flying, The Hand momentarily fading out of existence as he landed back several feet.

"OKUYASU!" Josuke's cry was loud and concerned as he rushed over to his friend, Josuke's teeth quivering as the young man seemed about ready to bite his lip. Enigma looked on with wild apprehension, a crazed look in his eye as it was clear his excitement raged at the sight. However, after a moment, Josuke reeled himself in as he knelt down next to Okuyasu, moving to heal his friend. RHCP just laughed as it prepared itself to go back down into the floor and follow up.

"GET BACK!" RHCP was interrupted by Nora once more as the orange haired huntress rushed forward to tackle the distracted Stand. RHCP just grunted in annoyance as it brought its tail around to slap Nora away. The red eyes of the lightning Stand narrowed; it… it could've sworn that there wasn't even a bruise on the side of Nora's face where he'd first struck her. Even as strong as their Aura's might be, for someone of his strength it shouldn't have patched her up that fast. As Nora landed again, the same contemplative look crossed her eyes. RHCP turned his attention back to Josuke and Okuyasu and grimaced when he saw the scarred teen back on his feet and ready to go.

"That's another reason why I like having Chili Pepper here. We cover each other's bases quite nicely; if I manage to get a reaction out of any of you, I can capitalize on it and immediately paper you. If I can't then, well, Red Hot Chili Pepper makes sure that you all can't touch me or go for Harvest."

"This is ridiculous." RHCP and Enigma turned their gazes over to Glynda, the professor clearly annoyed as she snapped her riding crop. "However fast and however strong Red Hot Chili Pepper might be, not even a Stand made of lightning can stand to take us all on at once." A series of nods went off as everyone slowly forced their way to their feet, ready to go in for a simultaneous attack on Red Hot Chili Pepper. With little more than a crack of Glynda's crop, the gang of students and their professor charged at Enigma and RHCP, the former having admittedly narrowed his gaze in worry as he saw the small army approach.

Chili Pepper on the other hand? Chili Pepper just laughed and cackled. More amused than actually threatened by this display that his opposition had put on before him. The Stand quickly reached back and grabbed Enigma by the collar of his jacket, a surge of electrical energy surrounding the pair as RHCP's red eyes stared dead on ahead at the group of huntsmen and huntresses. Enigma groaned, clearly displeased with where this was doing, however his body went slack as he snapped the lighter close and stuffed Koichi's paper into his jacket again.

One moment RHCP and Enigma stood before them, ready to be collapsed upon. The next the two surged into a bolt of lightning and flew down into the floor, the display having been enough to cause everyone to dig in their heels and stare at the spot where they had both vanished from, jaws slackened as they tried to wrap their minds around the display.

"It's a good trick huh?" Immediately every head in the room snapped up to the second floor of the dance hall where RHCP and Enigma casually stood; Enigma having supported himself on a nearby pillar while RHCP just grinned casually, leaning against one of the balcony's railings. "You all really do have to admit when you're liked; so long as Red Hot Chili Pepper here has a source of electricity it can jump to, he's pretty much untouchable. Hell, he can even transform me into a form like his own and help me slip out and away from your grasp. Your efforts are well and truly useless. So long as he doesn't keep me down there for too long… well, I'll be fine. A little shocked, but fine." Enigma shook off the shivers that went up and down his spine as the last of the electrical shock passed through him.

Everyone ground their teeth together as they watched the pair just stare down at them smugly. Red Hot Chili Pepper… this Stand was trouble. It had made even Aqua Necklace sound like a walk in the park by comparison.

" **Beacon Academy is powered by several Dust-Powered Generators spread across the campus. These generators are responsible for not only powering the lights and appliances scattered across the dozens of buildings that make up this campus, but is also responsible for, at any time, recharging any one of dozens upon dozens of out of date Atlesian training robots, powering forges for young huntsmen and huntresses to maintain their weapons and the entire CCT. It's a lot of power… and I can draw upon it all at once with only minimal effort.** " With that, Red Hot Chili Pepper just cackled and laughed maniacally as it glared out at the gathered students and Glynda, his grin crooked and malicious as his beady red eyes focused in on each and every single one of them. " **You all really don't understand. When I say that if it was within my desires that I could cut you all apart with just my pinkie finger, I mean it. I could kill you all right now if I so chose… but I don't. I rather like having this sort of power over people; call it an artifact of my Stand User.** "

"What a load!" Red Hot Chili Pepper's amused grin fell as it turned its gaze over to Okuyasu, the scarred teen having ground his teeth together in frustration as he summoned forth The Hand. "If you really could pull all that shit off, then you wouldn't be leaving any of us alive. Josuke and I have been trained to deal with pieces of shit like you, and everyone else here has chewed on Stand Users who've actually tried to fuckin' fight them rather than piss off and away anytime they actually tried to get to them. All of us could probably kick your ass if you stood still long enough, you just can't fuckin' handle it!" The Hand squeezed the two lumps on its hands as Okuyasu just glared up at him. "You ask me, all these threats and theatrics are you just bullshiting us; you're a Stand and a long-range one by the looks of it if your user isn't anywhere nearby. You have a weakness. So how about instead of throwing out all that pompous bullshit, you get down here and let me scrape you away!" With that The Hand's right hand glowed with its distorted power as it made to swipe at RHCP.

Chili Pepper just glared down at Okuyasu before an amused grin formed on its lips. Red Hot Chili Pepper raised its left hand and extended its pinkie and, as it did so, everyone noticed the lights in the dance hall go down to just a bare shine, as well as the lights in several surrounding buildings, as a shower of electrical sparks began to form around the Stand's pinkie. His time, The Hand wasn't interrupted; it completed its swing and, as it did so, RHCP was brought face to face with The Hand much to everyone's surprise.

The next thing that happened had only caused further horror for the gathered huntsmen and huntresses. Red Hot Chili Pepper didn't pause in its motions as The Hand brought it in, instead, it rushed forward towards Okuyasu and his Stand. With its pinkie finger extended RHCP rushed forward and, with a loud cackle, swiped at The Hand. Slowly but surely Okuyasu's Stand stood back up, The Hand ready to continue its own onslaught and attempt to scrape away RHCP.

Only for its signature right arm to be cut off right in the middle of its forearm.

Soon followed by Okuyasu's; the scarred teen's right arm had been left as little more than a stump, sliced off cleanly halfway up the forearm by RHCP.

"Okuyasu!" His friends and comrades called out for Okuyasu as he bent down onto his knees, his face turned down towards the floor as he gripped at his heavily bleeding forearm with his left hand. His gravely voice cried out in great pain as he practically rolled on the ground, but soon found himself stopped in his efforts as RHCP grabbed him by his small pompadour and held him still. Soon enough the lights in the dance hall and surrounding buildings came back to full strength as the energy around RHCP dissipated slightly.

" **So tell me, does that look like a bluff you idiot? Does that look like I can't tear you to pieces without even trying? I just cut through your Stand's Aura with nothing more than my pinkie finger and a little chunk of the power that Beacon can provide me! You aren't dead because our employers want your Stand… and you're friends aren't dead because I haven't had my fun yet! YEAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!** " RHCP once again cackled as it shook Okuyasu by the pompadour, several of the students immediately reaching into their pockets to pull out their scrolls.

" **Oh what, gonna summon those rocket lockers of yours to try to bring your weapons? Fat chance that I'm just going to let that happen. Go on, do try it; I'll just drain this entire campus dry of power before that signal even gets a chance to go off… or, better yet, I could just go ahead and maim Okuyasu here a little bit more before handing him over to Enigma. Wouldn't that be nice?** " It wasn't the fact that Red Hot Chili Pepper had been right that caused the gathered Four Kingdom huntsmen and huntresses to glare hatefully at him.

It was the readily apparent joy in the power that he held over them at that moment that made them hate this fucking Stand's guts.

" **Speaking of… come on now stupid, let's go ahead and show Enigma that face of yours. Gotta be feeling like a load of shit without that right arm of yours. After all, without it, your Stand is useless.** " Red Hot Chili Pepper grinned maliciously as it knelt down, tilting itself away slightly so as to give Enigma space to see Okuyasu's face, the white haired Stand User equally pleased as he still held Koichi's paper just above the flame of his lighter. RHCP pulled up and forced Okuyasu to look at both himself and Enigma.

Both were immediately caught off guard when, rather than the face of terror they had expected, a furious expression met their gaze.

" **Are you kidding me, you're really that-GAH!** " Before RHCP could further taunt Okuyasu, the scarred teen had one more surprise for him; out from his chest The Hand's left fist had flown out, forming out of thin air and striking Red Hot Chili Pepper across the face. However powerful RHCP was, it still had been caught off guard by the sudden attack so close to it and found itself stumbling back. The Hand fully formed behind Okuyasu and, with a quick jump, pulled the scarred teen back away from RHCP and towards his friends.

"Nijimura Okuyasu is a lot of things." Okuyasu spoke harshly as he looked over at RHCP, a hateful tinge to his eyes as he spat off to the side. "I am pretty fuckin' stupid."

 _Eyes wide with horror, he watched as his own father seemed to burst apart at the seams; his skull exploded out of his head, the gore and remains of what was once his face having surrounded ahd engulfs the skeletal remains, eyes hanging just behind the bones that now served as the Grimm-like mask of this monster that stood before him as the rest of his body convulsed, skin turning black and bumpy._

 _More Grimm than man now stood before him and his brother, a monster that they had both once known as their parent._

"And I'm fucking stubborn like no one else here, not even Weiss."

" _Okuyasu… you were always holding me back." Keicho gargled out amidst a spray of blood, the claw of an Ursa Major having been struck through his chest._

"But if you think a little pissant like you and your boytoy up there are going to scare me, if you think you're going to make me go down like that… then you can keep fucking dreaming. Nijimura Okuyasu's seen a lot worse than the pair of you."

"Oku, you alright?" The pompadoured teen almost felt stupid for asking, up until Okuyasu just lightly grinned over at him.

"Well I could be better… mind fixing me up Josuke? One thing that rat bastard's right about is that I am pretty useless without The Hand's right arm." Josuke just nodded as he placed his hands on Oku, the scarred teen's right arm immediately flying back into place on Okuyasu's stub, which caused The Hand's own right arm to fully materialize. "Josuke… be real with me, is this as shitty as it looks?"

"... If you mean that right now we have one Stand that's taking our friends and almost everyone here at Beacon away, another Stand User who'll do the same to us if we flinch too badly and a third that's effectively overpowering us without much effort, then yeah, it's as shitty as it looks."

"Gotta agree with JoJo on this one… this sure as Hell isn't a The Lock or Surface. Hell, these guys make Sticky Fingers look pleasant by comparison. At least Bucciarati was polite." Yang cracked a small joke as the others nodded in more solemn agreement as Glynda readjusted her glasses. For the professor, this was the worst case scenario; her own abilities when matched against either this Harvest or Enigma would be more than enough. However, Red Hot Chili Pepper's presence effectively left her wide open anytime she tried to use her abilities on anything other than protecting herself. Even as they spoke, her students, her charges, were being carted away… and yet more had their lives threatened right before her.

Glynda Goodwitch carved out the image of a stern, strict professor because that was what the young needed from time to time. However, that had not meant she didn't care about her students. The fact that all this was going down and Glynda's own years of experience were failing her… it was a nightmare.

"Pyrrha, do you think you can magnetize the electrical wiring underneath the floor? At least try to take away some of RHCP's mobility?" Ren asked as he looked over at the Stand, while Pyrrha just shook her head.

"No… electrical wiring is made up of copper for the express purpose of it being a non-magnetizable metal. You'd need extreme amounts of magnetic force to manipulate it… and I'm not yet capable of exerting that kind of force." Pyrrha, at the moment, had wanted little more than to run off after the Harvests for the rest of their friends, students and Jaune, but knew that an attempt to do so would land them in the same position it had landed Sun earlier when he had managed to close the doors; separated from each other and ready to be attacked by RHCP.

If it's current display had shown anything, it'd shown that they were barely even safe while huddled up together.

"We can't just stand here though. Josuke, you can fix things, can't you manipulate something to deal with Chili Pepper?" Weiss asked, her posture defensive, as Okuyasu nodded in agreement. Josuke's eyes glanced around… in his immediate vicinity there were the cloth curtains, the wood floor, the copper wiring and the plastic vinyl that surrounded that copper that, admittedly, had been destroyed. The last he could probably do something with if he could get his hands on enough…

"I don't think so. There is material here that I might be able to fix together into something, but it's all scattered about… the moment I try to reach around and get it…"

"Red Hot Chili Pepper will just start beating on you." Blake said with a sigh as she looked over at the electric Stand.

"And if Ms. Goodwitch here starts trying to use her semblance to pull it over, he'll come over and exploit that opening." Sun commented shortly thereafter as Josuke just nodded.

"If we could ground Red Hot Chili Pepper somehow, that'd leave us with a lot more openings to get to Enigma or deal with Harvest before it gets away with all of our fellow students…" As Josuke spoke, Nora absent-mindedly rubbed at her cheek, a thoughtful expression on her face. She'd tried it a couple times now, purposefully exposed herself the second time… maybe, just maybe…

"Oi, you all coming up with a little plan down there?" With that all attention was pushed up towards Enigma who held in his hands a… molotov cocktail and his lighter, the latter used to ignite the cloth on the former. "Well, you see, I have a little plan of my own. Seems like my judgement of Mr. Nijimura was right; he's a little bit too braindead to actually give a tell… and Mr. Higashikata, well, despite his friends being in so much danger, he's putting up an amiable effort in keeping his tell from slipping out again." Everyone just glared up at Enigma as he spoke as the Stand User just grinned. He dropped the lit molotov from his hand and, soon enough, produced a folded up piece of paper from his jacket, from a different pocket than the one he had produced Koichi. He promptly tossed it down to follow the molotov.

When the molotov hit the ground, a light flame scattered across the dance floor. When the paper hit and was allowed to burn for a few seconds the flame erupted, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. The smell that reached their noses soon after alerted them to just what Enigma had dropped into the fire.

Fire Dust. The flames that roared several feet beneath him were fueled by a sudden influx of dust that he had dropped from the sheet of paper, but to what end…

It soon became clear as he pulled Koichi's piece of paper back out.

"So I've decided I'm done playing games Mr. Higashikata… or at the least, I'm changing up the game." A crooked grin formed on Enigma's lips as he stared down at Josuke, whose eyes had gone wide with horror. "Let's play chicken, Mr. Higashikata. First person to flinch loses."

And with that Enigma dropped the paper, sending it cascading down towards the Dust-fueled flames. The reactions were almost immediate, but their thoughtlessness would cost those who took part in them. Several pairs of eyes went to Okuyasu and Glynda; Okuyasu's left hand remained wrapped around his right forearm, his teeth grit in frustration; phantom pains of RHCP's assault had still rung out clearly in his mind. Okuyasu knew that if he leveled The Hand again, then Chili Pepper would just waltz on over and repeat his past performance.

On some level, Glynda understood this as well yet, still, readied her riding crop. Perhaps somewhere in the back of her mind she was confident that her own Aura could stand up better to RHCP's assault than The Hand could, that her experience and strength could see her through an assault just long enough to keep the enemy Stand at bay. However, these thoughts were distant; Hirose Koichi was a student at Beacon Academy for all intents and purposes now, transfer or no. It was her duty to keep him safe, and she intended to see it through.. However as she did, Josuke's own eyes looked forward; he saw RHCP's body glow slightly, the telltale sign of its Stand ability. If Glynda tried to act then… then…

With Koichi and Okuyasu's lives on the line, the lives of his best friends, and with Glynda herself put at risk because of this, panic finally overtook the pompadoured teen. His mind pushed and stretched by the continuous assault of Enigma and RHCP, the hostage holding and threats against his life and the lives of his comrades, Josuke's infamously strategic mind went blank.

The young teen bit his lip in fear as he pushed Glynda and Okuyasu back to focus them back on their own protection as he ran forward.

"Josuke! It's a trap, you have to know it's a trap!" Blake, out of all his friends, had been the one to scream out as everyone just stared in horror. Glynda and Okuyasu's attention snapped back as RHCP immediately rushed the two of them, the Stand just grinning manically as it ignored Josuke; the boy's fate was sealed.

"I know! I know it's a trap and I know he's baiting me but… even if there's only a one percent chance that's Koichi then I can't take a chance that he's not in there!" Josuke screamed out as suddenly Crazy Diamond formed. Enigma was patient. Enigma waited. If he did this while Josuke was still close to his friends, then they could secure him and just unfold his paper.

No. He let Josuke play the hero. He let Crazy Diamond rush forward amidst the flames and bat away Koichi's paper, sending it flying off to the side and away from the inferno.

Meanwhile RHCP was right on top of the gang again, though this time there was murder in its eyes. Okuyasu's swing, his assault against RHCP, wouldn't go unanswered. The scarred teen had just ensured his friends would pay… but he was valuable to White Snake.

So this interfering bitch, Glynda, would do.

"GET AWAY!"

"MISS VALKYRIE!"

"NORA!"

"JOSUKE!"

"JOJO!"

In one moment, everyone's expressions dropped as they all screamed varying cries, their various worlds falling apart.

They watched as, all at once, Higashikata Josuke was swept up by Enigma. They watched as Red Hot Chili Pepper buried its arm into Nora's torso, all the way up to its elbow, as the orange-haired young woman stood in front of Glynda Goodwitch.

* * *

"Dio…"

Jotaro stared down the figure of one Dio Brando, the monster of a man standing proudly at the opening of the alley, a sly grin on his features as he, in turn, stared Jotaro down. For decades now, Jotaro's primary concern hadn't been Dio. Of course, the man haunted his dreams and every now and again his thoughts would drift to that climactic battle, reliving it as a waking nightmare… but Jotaro had, for the most part, put it behind him. He'd killed Dio. He'd burned his body to nothing but ash with his grandfather and Polnareff. Dio was dead and it was only his followers that Jotaro now had to be concerned with.

So the sight of Dio Brando standing before him… it surfaced many different emotions in the twenty-nine year old Stand User. Painful memories of loss. Hateful memories of this smug asshole and how much he wanted to brain him.

Anger. Pure, raw, anger.

"You were perhaps expected some meager peon, attempting to draw you out Jotaro? Well, I'm sorry to say that you will not be so lucky for it is I, DIO!" The pale skinned man flourished his arms out to the side as a wide, prideful grin stretched across his face. "I must say Jotaro, I am quite pleased to see you first among everyone else. After our battle all those years ago, I stewed and waited for my opportunity to strike back at you, waiting quietly, like a rat holding up in its nest waiting for the cat to become distracted so that it might slip away."

A snarl formed on Dio's lips as he formed that metaphor. "Yes, a rat. That is what you made of me, Kujo Jotaro!" With that, Dio Brando brandished a knife from his jacket, that frustrated scowl still on his face. "I, DIO, was forced to cower and hide like a rat burrowing itself into a pile of shit to hide from a predator! I, DIO, who should rule over all of humankind with an ironfist as their superior, as their better, as their master and God, was forced to scurry away from a pathetic member of the Joestar Bloodline!"

Jotaro lowered his head slightly, the rim of his hate obscuring his face in shadows as the moonlight overhead shone down directly on top of the pair, scattering their shadows. After a moment Dio just chuckled, slow and low at first, but then picking up volume as he cackled.

"Yes, but that 'was' what I had to do. That 'was' what was necessary for I, DIO, to reemerge into this world. A world that has changed even less than the world I encountered when I was first dredged up from the bottom of the ocean. A world where you still live Jotaro. A world that, now that I have returned, I can no longer abide." With that, Dio flipped his knife into the air and grinned, catching the blade in between two fingers. "So now prepare yourself Jotaro, for this will be our-"

" **[Star Platinum: The World]**!"

 **THUU** UUuuumm….

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

" **Yare yare daze**. I'll at least give them credit. They certainly got how much of a blowhard Dio was down to the last detail." Jotaro readjusted his cap, his eyes still obscured by shadow, as he slowly approached the form of Dio. It was time to do a little investigation; approach Dio while he was frozen in Stopped Time to see how this was working; if it was a mere illusion pulled over a solid form that he could beat the everloving shit out of and end this stupid fight already, whether it was a phantom form and he'd have to seek out the true Stand User or if it was some kind of disguise.

Jotaro hoped for the first… this was some bullshit he didn't want to deal with, now or ever.

Still, as Jotaro's thought ran through his mind and as he, minorly, strategized… he couldn't help but feel just ever so slightly off. It wasn't that he felt sick or nauseous, but… there was something wrong. Something he couldn't quite put exact words to. It was like… he felt dizzy. But the dizziness was kept to the back of his head. Like an itch that he couldn't quite reach. An itch that didn't form on his skin, but one that felt like it was coming from the inside. As if a rash had spread across the surface of his skull and now caused severe discomfort.

Jotaro did reach up for the back of his head to ensure there was nothing there and, indeed, felt nothing out of place; there was no malformed lump on the back of his head nor a Stand that had grasped on and was filling his mind with these visions. Whatever this feeling was, it wasn't coming from anything physical.

It had to be the effect of a Stand or semblance then, one that was enforcing its will from a distance. He'd be able to get more information on this by inspecting Dio's form, he was sure. As the white-wearing huntsman approached Dio, Jotaro prepared to reach out his hand to physically touch the form in front of him… when he noticed something. When he had stood where he Stopped Time, he hadn't been able to see it because of how Dio's body was angled; Jotaro could only see what he could see from that angle. However, as Jotaro got closer, he began to be able to see Dio's form from a new perspective and, therefore, began to see around what he could have seen before.

As Jotaro stepped behind Dio's form to take everything in, his eyes widened slightly.

There was nothing there.

And not a metaphorical nothing either. Behind what he could have seen of Dio from where he previously stood in Stopped Time was nothing. A void where space should've been. It hadn't completely eclipsed where Jotaro could see the ground or buildings, it didn't fully obscure them, but there was… it was hard to put words to it, but the 'idea' of something taking up space there. The idea that there should've been a three-dimensional being in that spot that just wasn't there.

Which left Dio's actual form. It was almost as if it was a plastic mold; the part that Jotaro had seen from his position pre-stopped time was fully colored and looked like a living, breathing thing. It looked like it had depth and it appeared as though it had an actual weight and form.

But from the back? There was a pit that pushed into Dio, one that further gave off that impression of a 'mold' and all along the back of the mold was just a pure white coloring. It was nothing, absolutely nothing. Jotaro's eyes narrowed slightly; it was some kind of illusion then, he surmised. Rather than being someone who had first disguised their form as Polnareff to drag him away from the Dance Hall and then disguised themselves as Dio so as to gain some sort of mental advantage against Jotaro, it was an illusion; an incomplete one at that.

But… something about that didn't make sense. Why would you create a half-finished illusion? Why would you risk opening yourself up to this kind of discovery? Jotaro thought back to Dio's movements and realized that, amidst Dio's flourishing, he had seen these 'unfinished' portions of Dio before. When Dio would run his arms up and down his body or quickly snap his wrists to retrieve the knife from his jacket, Jotaro would see glimpses of the back of his hands and arms and… they didn't look like this. They didn't appear undone or half-finished. They looked as real as the front of Dio looked to him from his position in the alleyway.

Eyes narrowing and realizing that three seconds had already passed, Jotaro relaxed and allowed himself a slight breath. There was no point in pushing his Stopped Time past the point of easy comfort if he wasn't going to beat the everloving shit out of someone. Best to cut it off here so that he could easily dip back into it when he needed to punch the shit out of this bastard. So, taking several steps away from Dio, Jotaro stood some odd feet behind the illusion and, his eyes still obscured by shadow, he spoke.

"Time resumes."

… thuuUU **UUUM**!

… tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK**!

"-true final battle, Jotar-what?"

There was a moment. A brief moment where there was hesitation. Where Jotaro could still clearly see the empty, mold-like form of Dio's back. However as soon as that moment was over Jotaro watched in some mild fascination as the illusion corrected itself; Dio's back filled out into a three-dimensional form and color washed over it. Dio immediately snapped around to look at Jotaro, a frustrated scowl on his face as Jotaro just shook his head.

"An interesting way to craft yourself a little illusion there, though not one I would've used myself." Jotaro tipped his cap down as he scoffed, Dio having just scowled over at him. "I don't understand why you'd leave such an opening for someone to figure you out so quickly, but I don't really give a shit. You've shown your hand by being so fucking lazy; I don't have to worry about this doppleganger. I can just take my time, find you and then kick your teeth in. I can't imagine you're actually all that tough if you've got to resort to scare tactics and half-baked illusions in order to try and win a fight."

Dio just stood there and Jotaro expected a lot of things; he expected some curse filled rant about how the Hell he could have possibly done this. He expected some false bravado about how it didn't matter and that Jotaro would never be able to find them. He even expected Dio to just suddenly vanish as his would-be assailant made a break for it.

Jotaro got none of those things.

Instead Dio laughed. Jotaro scowled deeply as the all-too familiar, wicked laughter of that monster filled the air, a mad howling as Dio just leaned his form back and laughed to the stars and the broken moon, holding up a hand to his head as he shook his head.

"Well, I suppose I really should've expected this. We weren't warned about Kujo Jotaro and his ability to stop time for nothing." Jotaro's scowl deepened as Dio spoke, in words that weren't his own, as he looked back over to Jotaro. "I have to congratulate you Mr. Kujo; I have to admit, I was always a little bit skeptical about the claims of your abilities; could you blame me? After all, Stopped Time sounds like a load without having witnessed it first hand." It was an odd dichotomy; the body language and expressions of this Dio were all still on point. He leaned back, practically floating in the air, as he gave a sarcastic clap while congratulating Jotaro. He shrugged dismissively as he spoke so calmly about his abilities and, as ever, there was that pride, that self-assured self-confidence, that nearly always marked Dio Brando's face.

However, the words were wrong. They were spoken in Dio's voice, but with someone else's inflections and vocabulary.

"If you knew to expect my power to stop time, then why even bother?" Dio's form relaxed as it looked back to Jotaro who just pointed accusingly towards it. "If you knew it was going to be a waste of time, effort and your ability to ever walk again, why challenge me like this with such a pathetic Stand or semblance? Do you have some kind of deathwish?" Dio momentarily scowled as Jotaro insulted his ability, but just grinned again as he shook his head.

"Mr. Kujo. I have to admit, you pieced together a few details about my abilities… but you really don't seem to grasp the full extent of what you're up against here." As Dio spoke he again positioned the knife for a throw. Jotaro just scowled as the knife was thrown directly toward him. What was this person expecting that Jotaro would fall for this parlor trick, having already seen through it quite plain-

"GAH!"

The knife buried itself in Jotaro's shoulder, the blade sticking in quite deeply into his right shoulder… far more deeply than a knife should have. Unless it were thrown by Dio. Jotaro's eyes went wide as Dio produced several more knifes, six in each hand, as he cackled loudly at him, throwing the assortment of blades Jotaro's way.

It hadn't even taken a second for Jotaro to trigger Stopped Time again as he ducked out of the way of the knives. Even out of danger, Jotaro kept Stopped Time going as he glared over at Dio. From his new position away from the knives and to the side of Dio, Jotaro could see it once again; that incomplete space that hid just outside of his vision from his previous spot. The portions of the illusions that had been obscured previously, now presented as unfinished husks.

Jotaro's thoughts were interrupted by a shock of pain from his shoulder as he brought his hand up to the knife. Jotaro hesitated for a moment before he pulled out the blade… and didn't feel the pain he would've associated with such a gesture. Yes, he still felt the pain of having been stabbed, he felt blood lightly escaping the edges of his wounds where he'd been struck before…

Yet where he had pulled out the knife, where he had expected to see a huge, bleeding gash, he only saw a white hold. This one seemed to mold to where his jacket would have ordinarily been, rather than the empty pit he had seen with the other knives and Dio. Hell, looking over to the knife that had just been in his shoulder, any part that had been buried in his shoulder out of vision was gone, again leaving only that general void that 'suggested' that something should've been there but wasn't.

Confused and curious, Jotaro let go of Stopped Time and allowed the flow of time to resume. A move he would come to immediately regret as, again, after a second's pause, everything filled back in. The knives that had been thrown fully formed and clanged against the wall and Dio's form refit itself to Jotaro's vision, now seemingly full and steady once more.

But it was his shoulder that presented Jotaro with the most regret. The empty patch of white that seemed to just layer over his jacket previously became a pit of blood and gore as a deep knife wound formed where he had pulled out the knife, the blade itself having returned to form and being covered in his own blood. Jotaro practically choked as the pain hit him all at once, his teeth ground together as he brought a hand up to his shoulder…

Wet.

It felt wet. Jotaro's eyes went wide under his hat as he brought his hand away from his shoulder and rubbed his fingers against the blood. It was wet and sticky, much like he would've expected from real blood. When trails of it ran down to the edge of his hand, lumped up and then dripped onto the ground, he heard it splat. Drip, drip, drip, he heard each droplet of blood hit the ground. He brought two fingers up to his face and, at once, licked them and gave a quick smell. It was a familiar taste and smell to Jotaro; with as many wounds as he'd had in his life and as much blood as he'd been forced to spit out of his mouth during his battles, he'd known the smell and taste of it all too well.

And here it was again. A metallic taste, an odd, indecipherable balance between either being iron-like or coppery. He looked at it at it dried out, slowly but surely. There was no way. There was no way this was all possible, but-

"It's amazing isn't it?" Dio asked with a smug grin as Jotaro turned his gaze to glare at him, the form of his greatest enemy just grinning smugly at him. "You can taste it. You can smell it. You can feel it, you can hear it.. .and you can most definitely see it. Despite what your mind is telling you, what you logically know to be true… your subconscious mind is telling you otherwise. You know it's fake, but each and every single one of your senses is telling you that it's real. That you've been wounded grievously and that you're bleeding quite profusely. You know it's a trick and you know none of this is real, but it doesn't matter."

Dio Brando just laughed and cackled as he crossed his arms, a vague shadow of a form beginning to take shape behind him. "You see, Kujo Jotaro, truth doesn't matter to someone like me. To someone like me, what is real and what isn't real is irrelevant… or, should I say, it's irrelevant to my victims. Because Mr. Kujo, it doesn't matter what they might know to be true… I can change the truth, right in front of their eyes. I can change their world in ways that they can only imagine in their worst nightmares. I don't craft simple tricks and conjurations of the mind. I take control of its subconscious, I take control of those senses that tell us about the world around us… and I bend them to my will. I make people, like you, hear and see and feel and taste and smell whatever it is that's convenient for me…

"You can Stop Time, Mr. Kujo. You even know that this Dio Brando isn't the real deal. That he's… well, fake." Jotaro's eyes went wide, his teeth grinding hard together, as the form fully materialized behind Dio. A giant of a man, even taller than Dio Brando, floated just behind him. It's skin an odd mix of gold and grey while the armor that covered its body was just pure gold. Clock faces dotted several spots on its body, most notably on the back of its hands, while on its knees, its belt and its chin heart shapes were quite prevalent.

Its eyes, golden-red, an almost coppery color, stared down at Jotaro as it's face remained blank and expressionless. An enemy Jotaro had vanquished as well and one that, like Dio, he had never thought he would see again.

 **[The World]**.

"But that doesn't mean anything now! It's as inconsequential as a pile of rat shit in a public restroom!" Dio called out as a maddening glint formed in his eyes as he placed his hands on his hips and posed with The World. "It doesn't matter that I, DIO, was killed by you Jotaro! It doesn't matter that my body was burned and destroyed! That you've done everything in your power to assure, to the greatest extent possible, that I was dead and gone and could never return! It doesn't even matter that you know all of this to be true! What matters is what I can MAKE you think is true! What I can FORCE you to think is true! What I can CONTROL you to think is true!

"And do believe me, Jotaro. Right now, it doesn't matter how much you're screaming on the inside. It doesn't matter how, like a child, you're screaming to yourself about how this is just a dream so that you might awaken yourself from a nightmare. None of that matters here and now. Because here and now, to you, I'm as real as real can be… and I'm going to make you hurt Jotaro. I'm going to bury you." Dio laughed maniacally as he grinned. "I was only instructed to keep you busy… but I have to wonder how many more wounds like that you can take before your mind just shuts down from the shock of it all?"

As Dio cackled loudly, Jotaro just ground his teeth together, his fists clenched tightly as he stared over at this illusion made real. All the while, this entire time, Jotaro only had one thought on his mind. One thing that rang out, loud and clear to him.

'Bastard…'

 **-To Be Continued- Dance Battle (Act 2)**

* * *

 **Stand Master: ?**

 **Stand Name: [Red Hot Chili Pepper]**

 **Destructive Power: A**

 **Speed: A**

 **Range: A**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: A**

 **[Red Hot Chili Pepper] is a long range Stand based on electricity whose dangerousness increases dramatically when it is near electricity. Not only does its range and ability to pass through electrical systems make its Stand User impossible to find, when powered-up, it can physically overwhelm and outpace other close-range combat Stands. On the other hand, it is very dependent on its power source to act.**

 **Electricity Absorption: [Red Hot Chili Pepper] is capable of absorbing electricity to increase its raw strength and speed and heal its wounds. The limit of which it is capable of absorbing electricity is unknown and, as a known feat, it is capable of absorbing the entire electrical grid of city. .**

 **However, the downside of that ability is that these power-ups consume a lot of electricity and [Red Hot Chili Pepper] must remain near sources of electricity to keep its stamina. If [Red Hot Chili Pepper] ever falls into water, its electricity will also disperse and disable it.**

 **Upon depleting the electricity it has absorbed, it will weaken and take upon a rusted look instead of its shiny gold coat and slowly begins to vanish, threatening its User's life.**

 **Electrical Transfer: [Red Hot Chili Pepper] can persist inside and pass through flows of electricity, and thus is able to hide inside power wires or batteries and move at light speed from one position to another through electrical cables. If [Red Hot Chili Pepper] holds on to an object, it can turn it into electricity and move it where it desires and if this move is used on a living person, they are also dragged inside the electrical system, electrocuted, and eventually killed.**

 **Also Known As: Like, legit guys, fucking terrifying.**

 **Also Known As: Does this golden duck have a giant dick? That makes it even scarier.**

* * *

 **A/N: Typically in a lot of fights, you go through a few phases; How Fucked Are We, How Are We Gonna Unfuck Ourselves and, finally, Unfucking Ourselves.**

 **You see this a lot in JoJo's, but it's typical of a lot of fights and battles in fiction. The enemy will appear and they'll be established as a credible threat; their powers and advantages are shown off, how exactly they fuck our heroes is put on display and their general attitude is given to the audience. Tension in most media is fake because most of the time we're well aware that characters aren't going to die; that they'll win each fight and continue on. However, we can be fooled into thinking there are stakes in fight; we can be fooled if the villains are established as credible and threatening.**

 **Next up is our heroes figuring out some strategy, some weakness or some exploitation in our foes that gives them the opportunity to succeed and finally following through. Some Shonen manga especially forgo these and go for a sudden boost in power or transformation. The Super Saiyan, The Nine Tailed Fox, some new Bleach thing that I don't know about because I didn't read that much Bleach. This is the problem of escalation in the end because after awhile you stop thinking of how to creatively defeat foes and just depend on levels of power.**

 **What makes JoJo's great is that there are few times in the series where some bullshit power just gets introduced to solve the plot. Yes, Star Platinum getting Time Stop was kind of bullshit and yes, Gold Experience Requiem is basically the 'click here to win plot' button, but generally clever tactics and the clever use of abilities is what wins the day.**

 **So in this chapter, this is pretty clearly the 'how fucked are they' side of things. When designing this encounter I pretty much had to account for the sheer number of people present. Either I needed an A Team of Stands who could beat up 100+ people all at once or I needed a team of Stands who, with their powers combined, could effectively cut that number down and then use their combined skill to put pressure on the remaining heroes.**

 **Red Hot Chili Pepper, Enigma and Harvest were chosen for the reasons you just saw; RHCP shocks them and takes out Ozpin, Enigma awes them and puts most of them into paper and Harvest applies the pressure on our heroes by introducing a ticking clock element; they can't just take their time to beat up the baddies because their friends and fellow students are being taken away by Harvest.**

 **Then there's Emerald; like I said, I played with some of the semblances and powers across RWBY to give them more of a 'JoJo' vibe. You've seen that a lot already and with Emerald it's probably at it's most obvious; we don't know for certain if Emerald can control all of a person's senses, as we've only seen her manipulate sight and sound. However, by taking it to its JoJo extreme, we can take it to a logical conclusion; if Emerald can fuck with your two most useful senses, she can fuck with them all to devastating effects.**

 **And because it's not just crafting a simple illusion, it's reaching in and fucking with a person's perception of the world, it's not so easy to unfuck, even for Jotaro** **and his Stopped Time. Not to say that there aren't weaknesses to exploit but hey, that's for next chapter (as it is for everyone).**

 **Then there's the Stand of this chapter who I did the end-note Stand Stats for, Red Hot Chili Pepper. Red Hot Chili Pepper was a broken as fuck mess in DiU. Its only weakness was exposure to water/salt water, being grounded by stuff that wasn't conductive to electricity (and even that it could just punch its way through) and being in an area that had no electricity.**

 **Hard weaknesses to find in an Urban Setting or in the middle of a sprawling castle complex like Beacon. Several times RHCP nearly kills multiple members of the DiU cast, but only ever fails for one reason;**

 **RHCP is extremely cruel even by the standards set by someone like Angelo and extremely prideful. He will play with his food rather than kill an enemy he has dead to rights. Hell, he could've murdered Okuyasu during their fight and been done with it; Okuyasu only lives to the end of DiU because RHCP decided to drag him away rather than kill him immediately. The only reason he does this is because he is so powerful; unlike Kira's declarations that every iteration of Killer Queen's abilities has no weaknesses, RHCP is a truly oppressive and powerful Stand with amazing potential in a fight and insane mobility when surrounded by electrical wiring and equipment.**

 **Look at those Stand Stats. A in everything except Precision… INCLUDING AN A IN DEVELOPMENTAL POTENTIAL. Star Platinum only beats out RHCP because Star Platinum can actually go places that RHCP can't (provided that RHCP doesn't bring a battery) and can Stop Time.**

 **RHCP is fucking nuts. Without some kind of direct counter or clever way to beat him or both, you are fucking dead.**

 **Also yes, I know that isn't Cinder's disguise from canon.**

 **Cinder's disguise from canon was ridiculous.**

 **Hope you guys are looking forward to the next chapter! This one will be coming in 10 days because, on the 8th, I'll be uploading the usual Chibi Update!**

 **Hope you all have a good week!**


	32. Dance Battle (Act 2)

Two scenes played out before them, both having shaken all the gathered huntsmen and huntresses to their very core.

On one hand Josuke, having attempted to rescue a piece of paper that had, potentially, contained Koichi soon found himself assaulted by the Stand, Enigma. Having turned Crazy Diamond to attempt to stop the Stand's assault, Josuke soon found that it was no good. Enigma locked its hands with Crazy Diamond and, soon, the Stand's very body was surrounded in a kaleidoscope of colors that collapsed into a square sheet of paper which Josuke and his Stand were soon dragged into. Josuke reached with Crazy Diamond, grabbing onto several of the holes that Harvest had made for Red Hot Chili Pepper in a bid to try to stop itself from being dragged in. This effort was for naught, however, as all that happened was that the floor was torn open as the wood splintered under the combined pressure of Enigma's pull and Crazy Diamond's strength. With little more than a scream, Higashikata Josuke was pulled into the paper and disappeared.

The other scene was no better; one of the Four Kingdom's very own had been seemingly gutted by Red Hot Chili Pepper. The electric Stand had rammed its fist into her stomach and its arm had disappeared all the way up to the elbow. Nora gasped and grunted as her body practically bent in half from the force of the blow, her eyes wide as she ground her teeth together under the severe pain. Ren, despite his own semblance, seemed to be close to breaking; his hands twitched and his eyes sparkled with threatened tears. Nora, his best friend for all these years… she was going to die. Despite her Aura, despite the strength he knew she had, Red Hot Chili Pepper had done to her what it had done to Okuyasu; just effortlessly destroy her. They had fought Stands before, seen them close up and survived so many… she just couldn't be dead. Not like this. Not without a fight.

Everyone had these immediate reactions save for the villainous Stand User and Stand, Enigma and RHCP just pleased as punch that this affair had gone so smoothly so far. This entire night had gone exactly as Cinder planned and it seemed they were now heading for the coup de grace, ready to end this once and for all and force Beacon Academy and its most stubborn students to its knees.

Still, there was something happening. Something only a few eyes caught because of their intense focus and because of where they were looking and looking from. Glynda and Yang had been the one to notice these changes, these subtle shifts… both had been the ones to feel the tension in the air shift. From Glynda's perspective, she had known there was something wrong from the beginning, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Couldn't quite focus on what was wrong when the horror of one of her students dying to protect her was on her. For Yang, seeing Josuke, a guy who had helped save her ass from Bruno, a guy she considered to be so well put together and strategic, brought down by a Stand User like Enigma… it just didn't add up. Josuke was smarter than that, right?

But they both noticed something unique. Glynda's eyes went wide as she realized that, for as deep as RHCP's arm went into Nora's torso… it hadn't produced an exit wound. Yang's lilac eyes narrowed when she noticed that, even as Enigma approached Josuke's paper to collect it, that it had begun to glow gold.

But everyone had seen what happened next.

As Red Hot Chili Pepper moved to remove its arm from Nora's gut, it realized two things; one that it… it couldn't quite feel its arm. It wasn't completely gone but it felt… numb. The second thing it realized was that, for someone who should've been in shock over having someone's fist shoved into their gut, Nora had been surprisingly… lively. Especially as she grabbed Chili Pepper by the arm and tightened her grip on him, a spark of pink electricity dancing up and down her arm.

" **WHAT**!?" Red Hot Chili Pepper's eyes roamed upwards till they met Nora's, turquoise eyes full of black rage glaring back at him as she ground her teeth through the pain. This miserable Stand had tried to kill one of her teachers, had tried to kill someone here at Beacon. That just wouldn't do. So, Nora reared back her right fist, aglow with the same pink electricity that danced up and down her left arm, and roared.

"ORAAAAAAAAAA!"

Red Hot Chili Pepper had been stunned by the blow dealt to it by The Hand. However as Nora's fist plowed into RHCP's face, aglow with that same energy from before, the Stand found its neck snapping back. Nora had quickly let go of RHCP as its arm exited from her torso, the orange haired girl barely able to stay on her feet as the Stand flew back. After skidding across the ground and coming to a halt, RHCP still felt the numb feeling in its right arm and chanced a look at it just as Nora collapsed onto her knees.

The red eyes Stand's gaze went stock still, its eyes wide, as it saw its right arm practically reduced to nothing but rust. As Nora collapsed onto her knees, she shooed the others around her away and, with a violent scream, shoved her hands into the floor. With a explosion of pink light, electricity shot down the lengths of Nora's arms and into the copper wiring she'd wrapped her hands around, sweat having absolutely covered her forehead as her turquoise eyes went unfocused.

"Holy… that was… that was too much… I feel like I'm gonna… gonna…" And Nora proceeded to hurl, her body having been thoroughly shaken up by having taken in so much electricity at once.

As Ren and the others immediately fell upon Nora to check her over to make sure that the bubbly bomber was alright, others soon found their gazes wide with shock, up to and including Enigma, as something unexpected had forced itself from the paper.

"Josuke!" Okuyasu cried out as Josuke's arm, surrounded by Crazy Diamond's, forcibly dragged itself from the paper. Eyes narrowed in and grins were abound as they realized what Josuke had done; he'd fixed the section of the floor he'd torn up being dragged into the paper so that it would help him drag himself out! Josuke hadn't gone in half-cocked after all! He'd had a way out!

That hope slowly dimmed, and then died, as everyone began to realize that Josuke wasn't dragging himself out of the paper anymore. Indeed, whatever further effort Josuke gave seemed to be nullified as the pompadoured teen was seemingly dragged even harder into the paper. Josuke had just bought himself some time and that was it.

Still, from what had been an act of admittedly fruitless rebellion, they had seen in Josuke's features something they hadn't expected. Something that had caught them, and Enigma, off guard.

Resolve.

"That paper there… I know it's probably not the paper Koichi's trapped in." Josuke growled as he did his best to dig Crazy Diamond's arm and the torn floor into the wood beneath him. "I mean, the only reason a coward like you was even confident enough to show yourself was because you could hold Koichi up as a hostage. If you lost that, then Glynda and the others would just kick your fucking ass. If he died, then you'd be dead in a flash. I'm not stupid, I realize that…"

"Heh… if you're so smart to realize that Mr. Higashikata, why bother then? Why did you practically throw yourself into the arms of my Stand?" Enigma asked, his right eye threatening to close, as he tried his best to sound as boisterous as before. The fact that Higashikata Josuke had somehow managed to drag himself from his paper… it had unnerved him, to say the least.

"Because… there was a chance. There was a chance that you thought you could replace Koichi with me. There was a chance that you thought you could get away with it… there was a chance that one of my best friends was in that paper." Josuke glared up and everyone flinched back; a look of raw determination and grit had formed on Josuke's features. "Even if there was only a 1% chance that Koichi would be in that paper, then the only choice I could possibly make was to save him!" Josuke's body slowly relaxed as he sunk back a bit into the paper, his friends and onlookers had their eyes locked on him as he glared up at Enigma.

"Enigma… you win. However strong Crazy Diamond is, it isn't enough to overcome your Stand's power. However… let me give you a word of advice. Once I sink back into this paper, you'd damn well better tear me up. Because I promise you, I _promise_ you… if I'm able to come back from this I will kill you." With that, Josuke unmoored himself and Crazy Diamond from the floor, tossing the chunk of it they'd torn out towards Enigma. The Stand User flinched once again as the section of floor just barely scraped by his face, tearing out portions of his hair as it flew back into position. All the while Josuke just sunk uselessly back into the paper.

Everyone might've expected some reactions out of Enigma and RHCP. Expected some kind of comeback. What they'd hoped for was for them to be shaken; that Josuke's show of personal strength and Nora's semblance having saved her from RHCP's assault would have shaken them and their confidence.

Instead, what they heard was laughter. From both Stand and Stand User.

" **I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to suddenly take a bite out of my power. I would've liked if that bi-... if the boss would've told us about more of your semblances, but hey, what she deems as 'unimportant' I guess has to stay that way**." Red Hot Chili Pepper stood up, its rusted arm hanging somewhat limply from its side. " **Before you get too excited about this though**..." The bird-like Stand grunted as the lights in the dance hall and several surrounding building dimmed again and, before long, Red Hot Chili Pepper's arm was sparking with electrical energy. Before everyone's eyes the golden sheen of Red Hot Chili Pepper returned back to full force, its arm aglow again with power as RHCP casually flexed its fingers.

" **That's a nice semblance you have… but it's still just a semblance. Beneath that you're just a flesh and blood human being… that much electricity in your system looks like it'll mess you up nice and good**." Red Hot Chili Pepper laughed as it flexed its right arm. " **I, on the other hand, am pure electricity. No amount of the stuff can hurt me… and even if you drain me, I can turn around and take power from Beacon Academy and use it to heal myself! I have to wonder which battery would last longer; your Aura or Beacon's generators**?"

"Y-Yeah… you give these guys even an inch and they start talking big and acting like they've got this situation back under control. Did you see the relief in their eyes when Mr. Higashikata popped back out or you failed to kill… the orange one? Hahaha… pathetic." Everyone's eyes narrowed; despite the cocky facades that RHCP and Enigma put on, it was more clear that before that it was a facade. Enigma's right eye was wincing as sweat had begun to form on his forehead and RHCP, though it taunted them and laughed, was no longer madly cackling. Furthermore, RHCP hadn't taken its eyes off of any of the group ever since Nora managed to force him off with her semblance.

Despite how much the two wanted to make an appearance of strength and being in control, there was a definite sign that even they realized that the footing they had in this fight before was no longer there. Josuke may have been taken out, but a new element had been introduced; one that could ground RHCP. As Enigma looked about he saw the paper that had Koichi in it. With a grunt of frustration the Stand User stamped on it, digging his foot into the piece of paper. Despite a show of initial horror, those feelings of terror soon morphed into frustration and anger as Enigma removed his foot to reveal just what had been in that paper the entire time.

Josuke had been right; it wasn't Koichi. It was a can of milk.

"You bastard… you have Josuke and Koichi now…" Okuyasu growled out underneath his breath as he stood up. "Well game's up now you shitheads. As soon as Nora gets back up, we're gonna kick your fucking asses, get those two back and then we'll grab up all the Harvests and get everyone else back. After all, you two ain't acting so cocky now that Nora and Josuke have shown that you guys aren't all yer cracked up to be." RHCP glared angrily at the scarred huntsman; a man whom he had quite literally disarmed not even a moment ago was already taunting him… and not wrongly.

RHCP knew there was something to Okuyasu's words. With Nora's semblance revealed, the Stand realized that the name of the game had changed. Now all these twerps needed to turn the tide of the fight was for the orange haired bomber to grab him and ground him so that Goodwitch could grab him up and let everyone else beat on him. The fight's placement had shifted; these punks had a way to fight back now. Worst part was that now it wouldn't be guaranteed that he could easily counterattack.

Which left even further problems; the second Goodwitch would realize all of this, she'd just have Nora stand practically right on top of her while she assaulted Enigma from afar. Her semblance could potentially nullify his ability to hold Josuke and Koichi hostage by effectively paralyzing him with her own power. It was frustrating; so long as they couldn't assault Enigma he could hold their friends hostage, but the only reason they couldn't assault him before was that they couldn't protect themselves from a counterattack from him.

Now they had that avenue. Now they had that opening. The only thing they needed to do now was realize it so that they could exploit it.

Which caused RHCP to just grin maliciously.

" **Enigma, get out of here, your work's done**." Everyone's eyes snapped over to RHCP as the Stand spoke, even its own 'partner' as Enigma just blinked in confusion.

"What? Oh, I get it, trying to get yourself the last bit of the glory by bringing in Mr. Nijimura yourself eh Chili Pepper?" Well, it's not-"

" **You're not going to be able to bring Okuyasu in with your Stand. The idiot's already proven all but invulnerable to your method of spooking and trapping him already. No further threats against either his person or his friends are going to make him crack if having his two teammates hostage hasn't already.** " Enigma flinched as RHCP laid this all out, the avian Stand just 'cracking' its neck as it smiled. " **Furthermore, your presence here just presents a threat to us; if they somehow manage to get their hands on you, that's two Stand Users we've managed to capture that they'll get back. It's best if you withdraw now and use that opportunity to get as far away as possible before they find out how.** "

"... I mean, I'm not opposed to leaving your ass behind to cover my escape Chili Pepper, but are you sure? These guys-"

" **These guys need that orange haired ditz to grab onto me if they want to have a hope of catching me which, I'll remind you, is almost impossible to pull off if I don't want them to get me. I can keep dancing around them like it's nothing… meanwhile, if they choose to put all their eggs into the basket of catching me and dealing with me first, then that gives you and Harvest plenty of time to get away**." Enigma's eyes go wide with realization as RHCP spoke, similarly to the rest of the group. However, unlike the group of huntsmen and huntresses, Enigma's expression soon shifted into a cocky grin as he looked over at them.

"And if they decide to try and split up, that splits their focus… which would make it easy for you to pick off whoever stays-"

" **And will make it easier for you and Harvest to pick off whoever decided to try and follow you… assuming they can even get away from me in the first place.** " Red Hot Chili Pepper chuckled in a low tone as it stared off after the group of huntsmen and huntresses. " **Given the performance they've put up so far, I very much doubt that. I should be able to keep them busy long enough for the boss to give out the signal and for us to get the hell out of here… after all, there's nothing they can do to stop me from leaving.** " While RHCP was no longer as obviously proud or megalomaniacal in these declarations, it was still clear that the Stand felt that it had the upper-hand in this fight, something that few of the other huntsmen and huntresses felt that they could easily counter.

"Alright RHCP, I do like that idea. I guess the boss put you in charge of us for a reason after all." RHCP just chuckled darkly as it nodded its head back to Enigma who, after folding up Josuke's paper and placing it into one of his pockets, gave the group a deep bow. "Well everyone, it's been fun but I think I'll go ahead and take my good friend's advice and dip out. I can't say that I'm not disappointed that I failed to paper more of you, but I think I'll take those that I did manage to paper as a rousing success and move on with my life." Enigma offered a slight wink as, much to the horror of the group of Beacon and transfer hunters, Enigma seemed to start folding in on himself like a piece of paper. "Until next time, my friends."

"NO! I refuse to let this end like this!" Glynda declared loudly as she snapped her riding crop and glowed with a strong flow of energy. Nora, still gasping on the floor, could only grunt as she tried to stand. This had been all the incentive RHCP needed as it turned itself into pure electricity and flowed into the holes in the floor. To her shame, to her eternal shame, Glynda saw that Nora still hadn't completely recovered and watched as RHCP flowed into the floor…

And she flinched. Having born witness to RHCP's strength and having felt the sting of his fists herself, Glynda Goodwitch, an experienced huntress, flinched. When RHCP appeared in a random spot in the room, not having yet dared to go right up so near to Nora yet, Glynda had realized her error.

However, by the time she had it was too late; Enigma had completely folded himself up into a piece of paper and then, promptly, slid himself out through a crack in one of the nearby windows that had been produced by the extreme heat of the fire he had set.

Now on top of Harvest getting away, Enigma was now getting away.

What had previously been a background element to the fight soon come roaring to the foreground as everyone realized the ramifications of their continued dallying. If they couldn't get through RHCP here and now, Harvest and Enigma would get away. They'd find a way off Beacon, likely arranged ahead of time by whoever their mysterious benefactors were, and then they'd likely never be seen again.

Along with all of their friends and fellow huntsmen and huntresses in training.

"We can't just sit here and keep doing nothing, we have to find a way around RHCP. He doesn't have any of our friends, he's just here to distract us! If we can force our way through-"

"Then he'll harry us every step of the way Weiss." Ren answered as calmly as he could as he helped Nora to her feet, the magenta eyed young man's gaze falling upon RHCP. "The dance hall isn't the only part of the building with a great deal of electrical wiring for him to travel through… the halls are lined with lights and lines for the intercom system. Chili Pepper could follow us all the way no matter where we go, at the speed of light, and attack us however hard we try to get away from it in order to get to Enigma and Harvest. We need to think of a way to take it down first before we move on."

"But Ren…" Ren's eyes turned down to Nora, the bubbly bomber breathing deeply as she spat the last of the bile out of her mouth and found her footing again. "What Red Hot Chili Pepper said was right… I have to be right on top of him for me to be able to use my semblance to ground him. I can't afford to try to absorb enough electricity to keep him exposed in this entire room… that'd be too much for me, especially if he went in himself or moved power into here. I still have my limits." Nora ground her teeth together as she wiped her hand across her mouth.

"If we spent all the time we'd need to try and corner him, then we'd have no guarantee that Enigma and Harvest wouldn't escape." It made a lot of sense. Which was especially scary considering it had come from Nora. However, as ditzy as Nora could be, she was never stupid when it came to fighting. When it came to doing the one thing she herself said she was good at, you could count on Nora Valkyrie and her normally crazy mind to come up with something…

If Nora herself said that the feat Ren was proposing was difficult and unlikely to be pulled off then you really did have a tremendous problem on your hands.

"Professor, you gotta have some kind of idea of what to do right? You gotta have a plan, right?" Sun asked Goodwitch as the monkey faunus just grimaced, looking over at the blonde professor who glared over at RHCP.

Yes, in fact, she did. She had multiple to be honest. It was easy enough to come up with their options in this scenario, after all. Option one was that they focused down on RHCP together and then went after Enigma and Harvest. This plan… this plan would keep these children safe. It'd keep them from harm. All of them together could manage to keep RHCP from doing too much damage, especially now that the full extent of Nora's semblance and its possible uses against the electrical Stand were revealed. Before there might've been worry about whether it would've even been possible for Nora to handle all the electricity that RHCP could bring against her… and while it seemed there was a limit to which her body could handle it, she could. If they stuck together, they'd beat RHCP…

At the cost of other Beacon and transfer students. The longer they stood here, the more time they wasted, the more time they spent fighting RHCP, the more students would slip out of their grasp… including, potentially, Josuke and Koichi.

On the other hand they could attempt to rush past RHCP, stick together and gather up as many students as possible. It'd be a considerable risk; they'd be sandwiching themselves between two different Stands no matter who they went for first and RHCP would always be nipping at their heels. Even outside there were electrical wires running just underneath the surface of the school. Heck, there were a series of wires going out which powered the water pumps which made the various fountains across the school possible. They'd be able to save some of the papered students to be sure. Who knew, maybe they'd even be able to save all of them…

But their split focus would cost them. And it would most likely cost them members of this very group. Some of them would surely die if they didn't take care of RHCP and just hoped that it wouldn't hit too hard while they were chasing Enigma and Harvest.

Now, Glynda Goodwitch, in either scenario, was more than ready to lay down her life. She was a teacher of Beacon and had signed up for the job because she wanted to help guide and protect the next generation of hunters. Part of that job, part of the expectation, was that should something, anything, happen… then she could very well give her life. She could very well have that taken from her.

Despite the uncaring facade Glynda put up… that was fine by her. These children were the future. They were the faces and spirits of those who would go on to defend Remnant for another generation to inherit. To give her own life to protect that? That was the highest calling, in her mind.

But… but she wasn't Ozpin. She wasn't Ironwood either. She couldn't just see these children as chess pieces, sometimes necessary to be sacrificed. They were her students. They were the future. They were those she had sworn to protect…

If she decided to focus on RHCP to save those students now with her, she'd be sacrificing those caught in the paper. If she decided to give chase and rescue those in the paper, she'd be sacrificing these students…

And that? That just wasn't in Glynda to do.

The very visible conflict that danced across Glynda's gaze sent the rest of the students into uncertainty as well. After all, their entire leadership structure had just been shattered; Ruby was nowhere in sight, likely papered herself right alongside Jaune and Josuke. Ozpin was down for the count and Beacon's staff likely shared their team leaders' fates. Sun was the only remaining team leader left among them… and honestly, the monkey faunus found himself in a similarly unsavory position to Glynda. Sun Wukong was still inexperienced as a leader and, at heart, an optimist. The idea that he'd have to sacrifice anyone among his friends rocked him to the very core.

Weiss, as much as she claimed to have wanted to be leader to Port before, had come to realize just how solid a leader Ruby was in this moment. Without some off-the-wall plan made simple, it seemed like this was a lose-lose situation in front of them. They could go with either of their options or… or play right into their hands. Okuyasu didn't have the brains for it and Blake… Blake didn't want to be responsible for the death of her friends. Ren and Nora, having already lost so much, couldn't dare to sacrifice more willingly.

The world was falling apart around them and no one among them wanted to make the choice set out before them. .

Least of all her… but that was her life, wasn't it? When everything fell apart, when she had to step up… she wouldn't want to. Whether it be her father and her sister or trying her best to help Ruby when she was coming to Beacon, she didn't want these responsibilities. It wasn't in her as a person to make these choices. She didn't want to. She wasn't ready. It wasn't anything she was suited for.

But, then, Josuke's words rang through her head.

'There's no other choice if our family or people we care about are on the line… just another way I guess we're similar, JoJo.'

She'd taken the position of raising Ruby and maintaining her home when her father had fallen into that pit of depression, whether she had wanted to or was ready for it at all.

She had tried her best to try to guide Ruby along at Beacon in her own way, whether she thought she could handle this new stage in her sister's life or not…

If she had to, for the sake of her friends and family, she'd step up again. No matter how poorly prepared she was or how badly she didn't want to be in this position..

"We're splitting up. That's our only option."

Because this was Yang Xiao Long's only choice in this moment, when everything she cared about was on the line.

"What? Yang, you can't be serious! You heard Chili Pepper, that's playing exactly into their hands! If we split up then it'll make it easier for them to pick us off by themselves…" Blake spoke with urgency, yet without a great deal of steel. She, like the others, had run the numbers in her head; none of the choices were appealing ones. But this one? It seemed to most unappealing of all.

"And you're right. It is what they want us to do. It gives each of them a chance at more even numbers… but like I said, it's our only option." Yang's demeanor seemed to have shifted and, for most people gathered, it would've seemed like an entirely different Yang Xiao Long. The hard partying, hard punning girl had shifted, changed. The demeanor she had brought into a fight, one of a hard focus, had now been pushed to the forefront as she pressed her case.

The only one among her immediate circle who would've recognized this Yang was Ruby. Ruby would have looked at this and seen the Yang who, essentially, raised her for all those years. Who stepped in when both of their mothers either left or died. Who took care of her when Taiyang's despair overtook him.

"Either we go after them and let Red Hot Chili Pepper nip at our heels or we take care of him and let the others get taken away. Frankly, I hate both of those options. If we're going to make sacrifices, we're going to do it in a way where at least we stand a chance of doing everything we need. It's risky, but it's the only way we're going to take care of both Chili Pepper and rescue our friends. We just have to play it smart." Yang took a deep breath as she spoke the last part. Yeah, smart. No rushing in without a plan. No letting the enemy Stand cripple you before you can even get a punch in. Show that you've learned from Sticky Fingers, not that you're ready to repeat those mistakes. Play this like a Stand User, like Josuke, and think of a plan that works around the enemy.

Think of a simple plan that'll work out like Ruby.

And, finally, just push this plan with the force and confidence to have others fall in behind you. Didn't matter who they were, your own age or just two years younger than you; if you spoke with confidence, they'd fall in.

"It's a risk, but if it means saving as many lives as we can, maybe saving all of them, then it's worth it. Playing into their hand just means we get our own chance to play them." It was odd. Despite how suicidal everyone considered it, despite how even Red Hot Chili Pepper itself had described this as their best bet for individually picking them off… there was a certain confidence that began to spring up in all of them. Yang's words resonated; the other options were horrible. Called for sacrifices none were willing to make, that none of them wanted to make. Sacrificing the lives of others, whether it be their own group of the captures students, didn't appeal.

In light of that and in light of Yang's own forced confidence, sprung up from between ground teeth as the blonde forced herself into this role once again, it… it inspired something in them all.

A belief that this was indeed their best chance.

"If it is any consolation." Everyone turned their heads over to Penny as the redheaded girl spoke up. "I have… thought about the scenario and I do believe that Yang is right. This is probably our best option."

"Well hey there see, got me a vote of confidence from someone who isn't even on my team." That seemed to partially seal the deal at least. Now all that was left was to put a plan into action. Keep it simple, but confident. "A good chunk of us are going to need to split off and deal with Harvest. There were a lot of it and dealing with small groups of them like Pyrrha did didn't seem to do much. If we're going to round up everyone, we'll need to grab as many as possible."

"You need extra hands, I'm definitely your man for that." Sun grinned as he cracked his knuckles, the ethereal spark of his clones momentarily shining.

"... As much as I'd like to stick around and help Yang…"

"You're in no condition to Blake, I know." Yang nodded firmly as she turned to look over her shoulder at Blake and grin. "You have a good time relaxing with hundreds of Stands swarming about, I'll do the heavy lifting with the one guy here."

"... When you put it like that it sounds like I just volunteered for the hard job." Blake spoke somewhat sarcastically with a small grin. Despite the circumstances, having a plan and people being slotted into place within it was already lifting the group out of their earlier grim demeanor.

"If I can get my weapon I'd be able to freeze a large number of them in little time at all. If Nora grounds Chili Pepper long enough for us to get away, I think we'd be able to call our lockers." Weiss offered as the rest of the group nodded.

"As much as I'd like to help… I think I've already shown that I can't get to Chili Pepper when he dips into the wiring." Pyrrha admitted with some frustration. "Also…"

"It's cool Pyrrha, just get Jaune and the others back." Yang said with a determined nod as Pyrrha momentarily flinched, before she returned the nod.

"The Hand is way too slow to deal with this asshole. Those Harvests though… they don't seem like fast bastards." Okuyasu grinned as he brought out The Hand. "I think I'd be able to snatch the papers away from them before scraping them out of existence."

"Sounds to me like we've got our squad to deal with Harvest then." Yang kept up her confident facade; she had partially planned some of this out but allowing the others to slowly but surely build on the plan themselves had taken at least some pressure off of her.

"In that case I'll go off and deal with Enigma." Everyone turned to Ren as he said this, pointing to himself. "My semblance makes it all but impossible for his Stand to work on me. I'll be able to approach him without fear of that ability of his at least. If I can get my weapons on hand, then that should make it even easier."

"Kick his ass Ren…" Rather than Yang having spoken up, Nora had been the one to offer the encouragement to Ren, who just smiled and nodded.

"You do the same Nora."

"In that case, the teach here, Nora, Penny and I will deal with-"

"Actually Yang, I think it would be a better idea if I went with Ren to deal with the Enigma." Penny offered up and, despite her voice carrying its usual cadence, there was an… odd undertone to it. Something that could've been mistaken for nerves.

"You sure Penny? I saw what you did at the docks on the news. You kicked some major ass. We could definitely use that against Chili Pepper." Even as Yang spoke, Penny's eyes darted over to the form of Red Hot Chili Pepper as the Stand crackled with a burst of electrical energy. Penny's irises shifted oddly as they looked at RHCP, before she turned her gaze back to Yang.

"I am quite sure. I do not think it would be a good idea for me to fight him. It would go… quite poorly."

In truth, Penny had been running the numbers and scenarios through her head this entire time as she gathered data. Yang's plan was solid: while the Stand that had been named as " **[Harvest]** " were indeed numerous, the individual Stand seemed to be quite weak on its own. Even a small group of hunters, provided they didn't face the full force of the swarm, might be able to deal with them.

The Stand " **[Red Hot Chili Pepper]** " was another matter entirely. It wasn't a matter of the size of the group you threw at it, but the quality of that group. In fact, a large group was to your disadvantage in this scenario; the more people Nora had to keep her eyes on to protect with her semblance, the more opportunities RHCP had to fake you out and do damage elsewhere. The Stand needed that sort of confusion because, otherwise, the combination of Glynda's and Nora's capabilities would prove a hassle. Again, she had to agree with Yang's judgement…

Though not on Penny fighting RHCP. While Penny could see the logic in it from an outsider's perspective, RHCP was capable of putting out thousands upon thousands of volts… and at the peaks of his power, far, far more. RHCP would fry Penny's internal machinery before she even had the chance to act, which had been why she was playing this entire scenario so passively up to this point. The less attention she drew on herself, the less likely it would be that RHCP would turn his focus on her and destroy her.

Then there was the human who called himself Enigma and who, given previous records of how the naming conventions had changed amongst their enemies, likely also meant his Stand was designated as " **[Enigma]** ". His Stand's abilities were useless against Penny as the girl, despite having a soul in the form of her artificial Aura, at least according to her father, could not actually process 'fear' as a human would. She was likely as good a person to go against Enigma as any, though if Ren's semblance did as he described then he was a good partner for this. It was far better for Penny than fighting RHCP, at the very least.

"Well… alright then. Ren, it looks like you've got backup." Ren nodded in agreement as the group seemed to settle on a course of action. Yang, having said her piece, turned her gaze back towards RHCP. She bit her lip slightly as she rolled her left shoulder; RHCP was fast, especially if it expected your movements or saw your attack coming. She, Glynda and Nora could consider more serious plans after everyone got away… for right now, they just needed to think of something sneaky.

All the while Glynda Goodwitch looked on. She had known and said herself that these children were the future of Remnant. That it was on their shoulders that would ride the fate of humankind. Huntsmen and Huntresses all of them. Furthermore she was surprised when Yang turned her head to face her, her lilac eyes shining with determination.

"Professor… I've been thinking this through and Nora can't quite get up on Red Hot Chili Pepper by herself I don't think. I think she might need a hand if you get me."

To see how far they'd come, to see how the challenges they'd faced already had made them grow… it did make her proud.

"If that's the plan we're going with, then Nora, get ready. You and I are going to ground Red Hot Chili Pepper long enough for everyone to make their escape." At this, RHCP actually flinched a little; the confidence in Glynda's tone of voice, the direct nature with which she spoke, having actually surprised the ordinarily cocky Stand. Still, RHCP could only laugh afterward as it quirked an eyebrow.

" **Oh, is that so? Seems like you've already forgotten your lesson Glynda. While that's a nice little plan you all have going, none of you are getting away without taking a beating… if you get away at all! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA**!" Nora just looked over to her teacher and, seeing her nod, the bubbly bomber just grinned as she got the picture.

"Right… I think I see what you're saying teach." Yang herself nodded along with Nora and Glynda as the blonde bombshell pulled out her scroll.

"Everyone get ready to call your lockers. We've already seen that Nora can't handle too much of Chili Pepper for too long. You'll only have one shot to call your lockers and one shot to get away. Don't waste it." Everyone nodded at the lilac eyed Huntress as, indeed, the Four Kingdom Hunters and Huntresses produced their Scrolls.

"Mr. Nijimura, a word?" Okuyasu blinked as Glynda called out to him, the teacher adjusting her glasses with the end of her crop as she kept one eye on RHCP. "If you can, I'd like you to take Ozpin with you. In his current state he'd be vulnerable to Chili Pepper and I have no doubt that the Stand will use that in order to put us at a disadvantage. If Miss Xiao Long's plan is to work, Miss Valkyrie, myself and her shall need to be able to keep our entire focus on Chili Pepper." Okuyasu just nodded as The Hand floated on over to Ozpin, picking him up with its left hand and hefting him over its shoulder.

"No problem. After all, so long as I keep my right hand free, I'll be useful."

"Okuyasu, you don't have a Scroll so stick with Weiss, let her cover your left side in case Harvest tries to go after Ozpin; the rest of you going after Harvest keep yours on so you all can stay in communication." Yang's directions were met with a series of firm nods as RHCP just ground its teeth together.

" **Oi, I was talking to all of you. It's horribly impolite to ignore someone when they're speaking with you**!" Red Hot Chili Pepper's body sparked with electricity as Nora turned her gaze over to the Stand. She hadn't pulled out her own Scroll and, instead, just cracked her knuckles with a grin.

"Right then, sorry about that Red Hot Chili Pepper. Let me get right with you!" With that Nora empowered her legs with Aura and charged forward, much to RHCP's initial surprise and then immediate amusement.

" **You're kidding me right? You're kidding me! There's no way you-** "

"Yes, there's no way she can." Red Hot Chili Pepper flinched as suddenly a new aura surrounded Nora, one that immediately lifted her off her feet without interrupting her momentum. Red eyes darted over towards Glynda Goodwitch who had snapped her riding crop and focused in on the bubbly bomber. "But I do believe that 'we' can." With that Glynda once again snapped her crop and, with that little bit of effort, Nora Valkyrie was sent rocketing toward RHCP like a bullet freshly shot out of a muzzle of a rifle.

RHCP loudly cursed as it cloaked itself in lightning, ready to disperse itself into its electrical form in an attempt to get away. However, Glynda's semblance had thrown Nora with such speed and had taken RHCP by such surprise that even this fast maneuver hadn't been enough. Nora rugby tackled RHCP, grabbing it about the waste and, taking in a bit of power from him, brought him into a bone-crushing grip, one that even caused the Stand to gasp in pain. The electricity around RHCP dispersed and was soon replaced by a show of pink sparks that emanated from around Nora and surrounded the pair. The turquoise eyed Huntress ground her teeth together, her vision already swimming form the sheer amount of power that she was being forced to contend with as Yang slammed the last button in a sequence on her Scroll.

"EVERYONE! Scatter!" No questions were asked as immediately everyone did just that. Sun Wukong summoned two clones that immediately rushed for the exits that Harvest had squeezed past and kicked them open, allowing himself and Blake to escape down one of the routes. Pyrrha, activating her own semblance, brought as much metal as she could with her as she ran down another. Weiss and Okuyasu, the latter having Ozpin slung over The Hand's left shoulder, immediately went down the next.

Ren and Penny, meanwhile, made for the window that Enigma had slipped out of in his paper form. Ren had brought his fist back, ready to focus Aura into it so he could quickly shatter the glass and make their escape easier. However, this gesture was made unnecessary as Penny produced from her back a pair of blades that rushed forward and broke open a wide hole in the window, causing Ren to blink a bit.

"I… what was that?" The magenta eyed young man asked as Penny brought the blade back to her, a slight blink to her green eyes as she thought for a moment.

"Uhhh… my semblance?" A hiccup quickly followed that sentence. Though Ren was curious, time was of the essence and he just shook his head.

"You know, considering everything I've seen, I'll take that answer." With that the pair jumped out of the window and immediately pursued Enigma. With the coordinated actions of the group, they had all managed to scattered with space to spare from any retaliation on behalf of Red Hot Chili Pepper.

This fact, this mere fact alone, had been enough to cause RHCP's to glow a slight red in its frustration. It hadn't expected their only chance at grounding him to be LITERALLY THROWN right at his face. However, now that she was right on top of him, RHCP was going to punish these bitches for their arrogance. He'd make sure this orange haired Huntress was going to die, nice and slow and painful.

"Professor, quick, pull Nora back!" Yang shouted as Glynda nodded her head, snapping her crop as Nora's body was physically pried from RHCP, the bubbly bomber in question coughing out a bit of blood as her body was, once again, pushed to its limit in trying to contain Red Hot Chili Pepper's power.

" **You idiots! Do you really think I'm just going to let her get away after that?! I'm so much faster than your ability, I can just-** " The sound of the roof caving in under some great force interrupted RHCP's rant as everyone, save for Yang, looked up. Red eyes went wide as RHCP watched one of the rocket lockers plow through the ceiling… and head straight for him. " **SHIT**!" RHCP's curse was the last heard before the locker plowed into the ground he had previously been standing in, Nora taking deep, gasping breaths as her Aura went to work fixing her body up.

"Do you think that got him?" Nora asked, attempting to sound hopeful but with a deeply sarcastic tone on the side, as a flourish of electricity arced out and away from the rocket locket and off to the side of the dance hall. RHCP's body was incomplete at first as it returned to its physical form, a furious, heated glare aimed at the three huntresses as the Stand drew upon the local electricity to reform its body, fixing itself up just like new.

"I wouldn't have bothered asking myself. Though it did give us time to pry you away from him." Glynda spoke calmly as she readjusted her glasses, Yang having nodded from all the way over at the locker as she kicked off her high heels and slipped her gauntlets on.

"Yeah… I think we can also count out Red Hot Chili Pepper falling for that trick again. It was a one time thing to let everyone have a chance to get out. Judging by how pissed he is, he's not going to let it happen twice." Indeed, the look of pure frustrated anger that had slipped onto RHCP's features was, even to Glynda, slightly intimidating. The incredibly powerful Stand now not only wished them ill because it was its job or because it loved being a sadist. Now, to it, this was personal. "We're going to have to think of something smart if we're going to want to kick this rat bastard's ass." Yang spoke with an almost calm serenity as she loaded some shells into her gauntlets, cocking them as she cracked her neck.

"I assume you have something in mind…" Nora asked weakly as she got back up to her feet, cracking her knuckles as Glynda looked to the side.

"Miss Valkyrie, perhaps you should call your locker…"

"Magnhild would act as a good lightning rod… but for actual lightning. Red Hot Chili Pepper can control the flow of its own electricity if I'm not grounding it… that's what I've figured out from getting up close and personal with it so many times now." Nora stretched out her fingers. "Plus, I'd really not have the grenades blow up inside of my baby. That'd do it a lot of harm… it'll be better for me to go in this barehanded. That way if I do get a grip on him I can immediately get to grounding him."

"Figured as much myself." Yang commented as she walked back over to rejoin Glynda and Nora. It seemed that, despite its rage, even RHCP respected the new ground the fight was being fought on as, rather than rushing them immediately, the Stand seemed to stop and think over its options, trying to plan around the three young women and their, so far shown, abilities. "As far as plans go Nora…" Yang bit her lip as she rolled her left shoulder again. "Give me a minute… I'm really not good at this…

"Even so, I'll come up with something. After all, we gotta beat this asshole and then his 'friends' into the dirt for what they've done here."

* * *

The World and Dio Brando. Two things that Jotaro had hoped to never see paired together ever again.

Yet here he was; face to face with… something not quite an illusion but not quite real. Dio Brando, laughing maniacally, as The World floated ready behind him, its fists raised and its eyes glaring down at him. Jotaro ground his teeth together as he forced himself to his feet, holding onto the… the 'wound' on his shoulder. This was a conundrum; this… he was fairly certain it was a semblance now though he couldn't say entirely for sure, was rather powerful. It gripped him in an illusion of someone's creations where he couldn't very well trust his own senses… even when faced with something he knew wasn't real.

There were moving parts to it; the only things that were actually 'there' were the parts Jotaro could see right in front of him. Anyone else would either see the hollow shell that actually was or, more likely, would see nothing. It was an illusion born entirely of his own perception and senses and one that could make him feel any one of the five. This told Jotaro one thing; this was a complex semblance or Stand, whichever it ended up, with a few moving parts. To be so utterly locked into his perspective that moving away from it in Stopped Time broke the illusion temporarily or, at least, exposed its falsehood meant that there was more to this than what he could plainly see right now.

Problem was that he couldn't see it right now; for right now he was trapped in it. So as Jotaro considered his options, the experienced huntsmen just grunted. For now, all he had to do was survive Dio's assault long enough to put together what he could on whatever this illusion was. Once he figured it out, he could plan his counterattack. Same as before, just gotta fight this smart.

And not either pass out from or die of shock. That was also going to have to be a consideration he'd keep in mind for this fight.

"Now then, Jotaro… let's cut with the dramatics, shall we? As fun as they are, I really would like to get this evening going. Once everything falls into place, we'll finally be set in a position where nothing you, Ozpin or anyone else tries will shake us. Our plans, our vision, will come to fruition… and it will be glorious." Dio chuckled as, again, Jotaro noted that his diction and word choice shifted. It was clear that whoever was pulling the strings was manipulating the illusion themselves… had they met Dio Brando? Or had they known someone who had who could transcribe him?

It was a question he'd have to save for later as The World floated in front of Dio, its fists at the ready as Dio reared back.

"THIS WILL BE IT JOTARO! FACE YOUR DEMISE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

"Star Platinum!"

As Jotaro summoned Star Platinum forth, his mind was already whirring with possibilities. What if this person affected his senses so that Dio moved faster than he could even in life? It'd been hard back then to keep up with Dio and, while Jotaro had improved, if his senses were…

Jotaro's train of thought and Star Platinum's battlecry were both immediately cut off as both Jotaro and his Stand's eyes went wide. No… no that couldn't be right.

"Now die, Jotaro!" With that, The World and Dio rushed forth, Jotaro grunting as he braced himself. Rather than having rushed forward to meet him, as Dio might've expected, the illusion presented a shocked expression as Star Platinum instead fell back to Jotaro and picked him up underneath the arms. Jotaro winced as his shoulder was forced to shift by Star Platinum but, thanks to his Stand's efforts, both Jotaro and Star Platinum were able to back up and away from Dio and The World before they could make contact.

"What's the matter Jotaro? Giving up already? One wound enough to make you surrender yourself to me?!" Jotaro's mouth creased into a tight frown as both he and Star Platinum looked towards Dio and The World, Jotaro's gaze narrow and focused underneath the rim of his hat. Before either could act, Dio brandished several pairs of knives and tossed them around Jotaro while The World rushed forward in an attempt to cut off his routes of escape. Again, Jotaro acted quite oddly as, instead of sending Star Platinum forward, the Stand melded into Jotaro, its arms forming around his own as Jotaro brandished his fists.

" **ORA ORA ORA**!"

" **USELESS USELESS USELESS**!"

A series of quick, powerful blows were exchanged as Jotaro worked in tandem with Star Platinum to punch into Dio's fists. Jotaro had felt nothing, like he had expected, as Star Platinum's fists… no. No that wasn't right either. Or at least, not entirely right. Was this what he was seeing? Was this what… what 'it' was seeing?

Before Dio could renew his assault Star Platinum's leg formed underneath Jotaro's and the pair kicked off the ground, sending them flying back. A trick that Jotaro hadn't used in quite sometime… not since his fight with Kakyoin, he thought. At that Dio just ground his teeth together as he flourished his hands.

"Come now Jotaro, you can't tell me that you were… that you've become this cowardly since our last encounter!" There was a trip there. There was a definite sense of control. It'd been somewhat apparent before; when he'd laid bare that he knew Dio's illusion wasn't real before, his diction and style had changed, even if his physical mannerisms had remained.

And then there was when Star Platinum's fists met The World's. It was almost imperceptible… but Jotaro felt it and saw it. Or, Star Platinum saw it through his own eyes.

Before the illusion met Jotaro's fists, it had met Star Platinum's… there had been a moment where the illusion seemed to give.

When Star Platinum's perception was missing something compared to Jotaro's…

Star Platinum hovered forth from Jotaro's form as the Stand stood proud, Jotaro standing straight up as he dusted off the shoulders of his coat and looked straight on at Dio.

"No, I haven't. However, I guess you could say that as I've gotten older I've gotten less hot-headed. I've learned to cool my temper… keep my head under control. It's a rather painful lesson I learned from my fight with Dio Brando; when I got so pissed, so angry, that I acted out without thinking I made an opening for him. After all, if I lost my cool here, I wouldn't have my head in the game. I wouldn't see anything that was going on right in front of me."

"Oh? And tell me Jotaro, do you think you've learned something? That, like-"

"You're reaching for a metaphor now, right?" Dio grunted a bit as Jotaro interrupted. "I have to admit, I didn't notice it before because I was so in shock over everything that happened… or, at least, I didn't pay close enough attention before. There was a moment after I realized what happened and revealed that where you stopped 'acting' like Dio Brando. Yeah, the physical characteristics were right and even the way he moved, but everything else was off. His attitude, his vocabulary, the way he'd speak. It was almost as if you were able to keep some of these things in mind but left the others to the side so that you could 'speak' with me. It's interesting; it's almost like you're reading from a script, something you've carefully prepared to keep the part right. Only you didn't have material for a moment like that, or for me avoiding you. It was off."

Dio just scoffed as he placed his hands on his hips. All while this conversation went on the pair circled each other, Star Platinum's eyes constantly facing forward as Jotaro kept his gaze locked with Dio's.

"And this is some big important discovery, I take it?"

"On it's own? Probably not. On its own it just says that you don't know everything about Dio… which would be impossible unless you were him. However, combined with what I saw in Stopped Time, how your illusion hitched for a few moments after time resumed, it tells me a lot." Jotaro reached up for the rim of his hat and ran his finger across it as he and Star Platinum came to a very sudden stop, one that Dio soon met.

"You have to maintain your illusions yourself. You aren't just pulling from my own senses to make something real, you're crafting it yourself. You need to know things in order to keep up the trick… and most importantly, you need to know my perspective. You need to know where and how I'm seeing a thing so that you can either project something on top of it or to create something out of thin air. If I move or you stop having that information, then things like the white spaces or the lack of sensation appears. They're flaws that are exposed because you haven't created something to fill them yet."

"And what, exactly, does this tell you Jotaro?" Dio asked, obviously annoyed, as Jotaro just shrugged his shoulders, Star Platinum raising its fists.

"How about you get yourself ready for a rush of blows and then I'll tell you?" Dio just growled for a moment before a grin crossed his face, a slight shrug in his shoulders as The World stepped forward.

"Very well Jotaro, that's a request I'm all too happy to oblige!" With that The World rushed forward, fists reared back as it readied itself to launch a barrage of punches at Kujo Jotaro. Star Platinum, similarly, rushed towards The World and Dio, however, it only had one fist reared back in comparison.

And it let that fist loose far too soon; The World was quite a ways away to be hit by a punch from Star Platinum.

"STAR FINGER!"

However, that wasn't nearly as true when it came to Star Platinum's fore and middle finger that were propelled from its hand by the force of the faux-punch. The two digits launched forward and missed Dio and The World by a large margin as they sped up and away from Star Platinum.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Only for two sets of screams to fill the night sky. One had been Dio's; a loud, horrific roar that screeched out as the immortal being grabbed onto its shoulder. The other had been distinctly feminine when it reached Jotaro's ears and came from the roof where Star Platinum's attack had aimed for. The sound of crashing in a nearby alley could be heard to Jotaro as he looked on at Dio, who just sat there for a brief moment, grasping at his left shoulder before… well, no other word for it but dissipating into nothing. Like dust in the wind, the visage of one Dio Brando, along with all the knives he'd thrown, vanished. As Jotaro looked down to his right shoulder, he sighed in relief as the wound, too, disappeared. As suspected, it left only his jacket, completely undisturbed, in its wake.

"It means that you need to see me to keep this all going… and unless you had a decidedly unusual Stand or semblance… though, I think I can rule the former out now, you'd need eyes directly on me." With that Jotaro readjusted his cap again as he walked up beside Star Platinum, the Stand tensed and ready to fight as Jotaro looked to it. "Now then… let's see what exactly just landed."

* * *

What the fuck just happened?

Those were Emerald's thoughts as she sat up in the passage between two of Beacon's buildings, sitting up next to a trash bin placed for the sake of ease of Beacon students meandering around campus, as she cradled her shoulder. One moment she knew Jotaro couldn't see her and that she had him effectively trapped within the power of her semblance and, the next, Star Platinum had shot its fingers out at her and… and…

From behind thick goggles that hid her eyes she looked down at the shoulder of her full-body suit, similar to Cinder's, which hid her identity almost completely. Even without direct sight of her shoulder, she knew there was bound to be heavy, heavy bruising there now. Hell, it felt like… it felt like it was dislocated. An experimental shift in her shoulder confirmed this as she felt pain shoot through her body. This was nuts! This was fucking nuts! Even through her Aura, which tanked so much of that hit, just two fingers from Star Platinum had been enough to dislocate her shoulder.

As she forced the joint back into place, a hitched cry barely escaping her lips as she did, Emerald's ears perked up to the sounds of footsteps as a momentary panic overtook her. Jotaro. Without direct eyes on him, he was out of her illusion… he probably heard her land or, if not that, heard her cry just now when she popped her shoulder back into place! It was fine though, this was fine! She could just hide behind this bin, wait till she had eyes on him and then put him back under. Just enough for her to slip by him unseen. She could find a better position somewhere, find someplace where Jotaro wouldn't be able to reach her easily and then set this all back up. She hadn't failed entirely, not yet.

Still… the question of how the Hell he'd seen her in the first place still weighed heavily on her mind even as Jotaro entered the some passage she had been hidden in. As she thought, it was a simple affair; she caught a glance of Jotaro before he could her and she put him back under. When Jotaro scanned the alley as he walked down it, he hadn't even spotted her as she stood up. Emerald allowed herself a slight sigh of relief as she walked towards Jotaro. She'd keep her eyes on him at all times of course, never letting him out of her sight. She's circle around as she passed by him to make sure and… and… and…

Emerald was met with a horribly bizarre and altogether unsettling sight as she circled about to face Jotaro's back as the two passed each other by.

Star Platinum's face floated just off the back of Jotaro's head, the Stand's gaze intense as it stared right at her from the back of Jotaro's head.

"... What… what the fuck?" Emerald actually vocalized unknowingly as Jotaro stopped.

"Ever hear the phrase eyes in the back of your head? Mine are a little more literal."

" **ORRRRAAAAAAAA**!"

Before Emerald could blink, before she could even think to run Star Platinum phased out of Jotaro's back and rushed her, drawing one of its mighty fists back as Emerald, in a panic, drew her arms across her body to block it.

The pain was intense. Two fingers from Star Platinum had hurt like hell. A full punch felt like she was practically breaking under the full force of this Stand. Star Platinum had finished the motion of its punch in an uppercut, which launched Emerald back and up into the air, sending her ass over teakettle through the air. The red eyed young woman winced deeply, feeling like her forearms had practically bent under the pressure, before she hit the ground, skittering back from the force of Star Platinum's blow before she finally came to a stop.

When she had her eyes were immediately up and back towards Jotaro and Star Platinum who were now charging her. But how? She didn't understand! Having eyes on Jotaro again she could see his gaze go unfocused, see that her power was having an effect on him again. He couldn't see her! He shouldn't be able to figure this all out? But there Star Platinum was, still charging her! Not just charging her, but charging right at her! Eyes locked on her firmly and without a trace of doubt! It was almost like… like…

Emerald's throat went dry.

Jotaro couldn't see her.

Star Platinum could.

"STAR PLATINUM!"

Immediately Emerald's focus reached out for a second mind, for a second set of senses and, low and behold, she found them. As Jotaro called out the name of his Stand, Emerald focused her semblance and, within mere moments, disappeared.

"THE WO-" Jotaro's battle cry hitched as suddenly Emerald disappeared from Star Platinum's sight as well, Stand and Stand User drawing to a halt as both took a defensive position. He had held back on using Stopped Time before because he couldn't be entirely sure if that was actually her or just a trick of her semblance. While Jotaro could comfortably activate Stopped Time in short bursts, doing so again and again in quick succession left him pretty well exhausted.

Still, this was a good sign. It told him more about her semblance. He was really starting to get a full picture of-

"Mr. Kujo!" Jotaro's gaze snapped back behind his shoulder to meet the sudden cry, eyes focusing in on the two Atlesian soldiers he'd left behind at the dance hall. "We heard the commotion and rushed over here sir! Sorry for not being here sooner, we just were worried!" The two soldiers panted and heaved breaths as they spoke, clearly having sprinted all the way over here as fast as possible. Jotaro eyed the two soldiers carefully as he nodded.

"It's fine. I told you guys to be over here in ten minutes if I didn't come back… if you came here sooner because you heard something, that isn't a problem." The two soldiers nodded firmly as they both set down into business.

"It's a good thing too. A lot of chaos is breaking out Mr. Kujo. If we'd left you for the full ten minutes then who knows what might've happened if we couldn't reach you." Jotaro just nodded as the two Atlesian soldiers spoke.

"Yeah, a good thing." Jotaro nodded in agreement as her nodded for the two Atlesians to go on ahead. The soldiers nodded, albeit hesitantly, and moved forward towards another building. As they did, Jotaro spoke. "By the way… you're slipping. You made a lot of mistakes rendering these two."

The soldiers paused, however briefly. They then attempted to turn on Jotaro, pulling out their guns, before Star Platinum reached forward and demolished the pair, its fists busting the two constructs up so that they could 'realistically' barely move. As they fell to a crumpled heap, their gazes still locked on with Jotaro's.

"You're wondering what exactly it was that gave it away. What 'mistake' you made that made these obvious." Jotaro reached a hand up for his cap as her placed his finger on the edge. "In all honesty, you didn't. These look exactly like the soldiers from the dance hall."

"What?! Then, how-" The two soldiers gasped out as Jotaro shook his head.

"You showed your hand again; because you don't know things that these people would, you can't create a perfect facsimile. Furthermore… you really are under some kind of pressure, right? That's the only reason why I'd think you'd take the threat of making a mistake with these so seriously."

Emerald's eyes went wide momentarily from her own hiding space, before she reached a hand up to cradle her head. Gods, her head was fucking killing her. Maintaining an illusion on a single person was an easy enough feat for her. It was what her semblance was made for. However, two people? Two people… it gave her a terrible headache. And maintaining this on both Jotaro and Star Platinum had made her head feel like it was splitting in half. In the midst of that pain… she had worried that perhaps she had made a mistake, that she had missed some detail.

"How… did your Stand see me in the first place? I've been told that Stands can only see what their Users see…"

"In a lot of cases that can be true. Stands that don't have a great deal of autonomy are linked to their User's own sight. My friend Polnareff is a prime example; Silver Chariot is entirely directed by his own vision. Without his eyes, Silver Chariot can only guess at where a target is." Jotaro scoffed slightly. "Star Platinum's a little different… it's capable of seeing and hearing things that my senses would never be able to hope to catch. It's part of one of its less flashy abilities; it automatically protects me, even from something that's moving as fast as a bullet. Hell, it's a pretty autonomous Stand even beyond that; I used this excuse a lot when I was a shitty teenager, but my Stand really is a lot more brutal than I am. Star Platinum's got a bit of a mind of its own.

"So imagine my surprise when I could see the illusion of Dio you created but Star Platinum couldn't. Hell, that's why I brought its fists to me; I was a bit worried about whether or not Star Platinum would even be able to defend me from your Dio if it couldn't see where The World was heading. All of this made me come to a realization. You're right; you're able to control my senses, but that's it. You aren't creating a field where that control exerts itself over multiple people. You're actually individually controlling mine… but with that comes the need to see me directly. As soon as I broke your line of sight or you couldn't focus on me, your little trick gave way. Plus, seems like you actually have to focus in order to grab up more people like Star Platinum." Emerald's red eyes went wide as she bit her lip. This guy, he was-

"Something else has been bugging me… if you really can control my senses, why bother with all this? It's been on my mind ever since you said it; if you can make me see and feel and hear different things, then why not just make me experience so much pain that I can't stay conscious? Why not make me deaf or blind? It's be a lot easier to deal with me if I couldn't see or hear shit at all than if you just kept making tricks to try to distract me…

"That's when I realized the core fundamental of your semblance; you don't control, however much you'd like to put it that way. You trick. You use images and sounds and feelings to coerce a person's mind into believing that there's something there when there's not. If you're good enough about it, consistent enough, you can even pull this off when a person consciously knows that what they're seeing is impossible. It's a neat trick… but if you don't have that and if you don't have direct eyesight, then you can't control my senses. Otherwise, Hell, why not make me blind and deaf?"

"How!" The guards called out, echoing Emerald's own frustrated cry. "How are you putting this all together?! How have you already puzzled my powers out?!"

Jotaro scoffed as he brought his fingers across the rim of his hat, bringing his eyes, finally, back into vision. Emerald flinched back when she saw them; angry, frustrated and ready for a beatdown.

"I don't know how old you are or how much experience you have… but I'm guessing it's 'not too old' and 'not a lot'... so I'm going to tell you what a friend of mine would have in this situation. 'You're twelve years too late if you think you can pull the wool over my eyes'." Jotaro pointed out towards the guards and, though Emerald wasn't in that direction, she could feel that this was being directed at her.

"Though I do have to give you credit; like I said, I've developed a cooler head over the past twelve years since I fought Dio. After all, I'm a dad now, so if I lost my shit in front of my daughter I'd be some kind of scum. So I'm actually going to give you credit for managing to piss me right the fuck off. It's not an easy thing to do, but throwing Dio, Dio Brando, in my face? In an attempt to scare me?! Congratulations, you won a prize."

With that, Jotaro's pointed finger flexed into a fist. Jotaro's knuckles went white with the pressure he was clenching his fist as he held it out, Star Platinum copying Jotaro's gesture and expression.

"Now that I know how your semblance works I'm going to break it… and by 'it', I mean your face."

 **-To Be Continued- Dance Battle (Act 3)**

* * *

 **Stand Master: Kujo Jotaro**

 **Stand Name: [Star Platinum: The World]**

 **Status: Matured Stand**

 **Destructive Power: A**

 **Speed: A**

 **Range: C**

 **Lasting Power: E**

 **Precision: A**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Self-Preservation: [Star Platinum] possesses the awareness and reaction speed to protect Jotaro in many instances that he himself seems unaware; halting a bullet he experimentally shoots at his own head; protecting him while frozen by DIO's Time Stop; reviving him from near-death by directly pumping his heart.**

 **Enhanced Eyesight: [Star Platinum] utilizes eagle-like eyesight throughout the journey of The Stardust Crusaders. Jotaro has used [Star Platinum's] eyes to see four kilometers across a desert, as well as identify meaningful details, such as a specific type of fly in high-resolution images. It can also follow a card shuffle performed by a professional gambler, subsequently recounting the entire new order of the deck.**

 **Time Stop: Discovered during Jotaro's climactic battle with DIO, like [The World], [Star Platinum] is able to stop time within, compared to other Stand abilities, limited periods. Jotaro describes the execution of this ability as exhausting, and he requires a varying length of rest before he may freeze time again depending on the length he had previously froze time and the frequency within a period of time he had done so.**

 **Also Known As: The original overpowered Stand.**

 **Also Known As: The Stand you have to write around if you want tension in the plot.**

* * *

 **Semblance User: Emerald Sustrai**

 **Semblance Name: Individual Mental Hallucinations**

 **Destructive Power: C**

 **Speed: D**

 **Range: B**

 **Lasting Power: A (So long as Emerald has direct eyesight of her target)**

 **Precision: A**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Individual Mental Hallucinations: Emerald's Semblance is individual mental hallucinations - the ability to modify the sensory information in a person's head while their brain is processing it. She can make one (or more) persons see, feel and hear things that aren't necessarily there. In other words, instead of generating an illusion that everyone nearby can see, she causes her target to hallucinate.**

 **Her Semblance is shown to have its limits. Whilst she seems capable of easily controlling a single mind, controlling any more than that seems to tax her own head severely. In addition, the use of her Semblance requires direct eyesight of her target: meaning that should she cross a distance threshold to where she can't make out her target or should her target force their way out of her vision, the hallucination ends.**

 **In addition, Emerald's hallucinations by fooling the subconscious mind. While this means that even if her targets are aware that her illusions aren't real that she can still exert some manner of control, that control is entirely dependent on being able to 'fool' a person's mental processes rather than directly taking charge of them. Thus, blinding or deafening her foes or causing extreme physical discomfort without an illusion is impossible.**

 **Also Known As: Better get good at staring contests Emerald**

 **Also Known As: She's probably going to get her ass kicked now**

* * *

 **Semblance User: Nora Valkyrie**

 **Semblance: Channeling Electricity**

 **Destructive Power: C - A**

 **Speed: C - A**

 **Range: E**

 **Lasting Power: D**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: B**

 **Channeling Electricity: Nora's Semblance is the ability to produce, direct, re-direct and channel electrical energy from any source. Most often she uses this to channel electricity into her muscles, which lends to her absurd strength and speed. Furthermore, she's practically immune from taking electrical damage as she simply absorbs any electrical current to fuel her strength. However, as this ability is a Semblance and is powered by her Aura, the use of it is draining to her. In addition, electrical discharge in sufficiently extreme amounts can overwhelm Nora's capacity should it exceed the strength of her Aura.**

 **Also Known As: Villains run from the static shower**

 **Also Known As: What? You try coming up with a reference or some witty banter about a semblance this dirt simple**

* * *

 **In the RBWY fandom a lot of the characters get screwed over when it comes to portrayals of their characters. Usually this involves reducing them to simple caricatures of their full selves and the oversimplification therein. Weiss Schnee gets reduced to being a simple rich bitch, Blake's entire character is made to revolve around The White Fang without anything else, Yang is made to be a pun machine who'll jump on the first guy or girl the author wants to pair them with and Jaune, well, Jaune's either made into wish fulfillment or loathed to an almost irrational degree. God help you if you get shipping involved because then that usually makes it even worse.**

 **And Ruby? Well, Ruby will get her own Author's Note, don't you worry.**

 **However, given the events of this chapter, we're going to focus in on Yang Xiao Long who, while what I described may not have sounded so terrible, is quite a sad state of affairs. Because quite honestly, between Barb's performance and the writing that gets put into Yang, she's probably one of the best realized characters in the show, and that's saying something.**

 **It's a weird thing because it's not like the show is incredibly subtle about the intricacies of Yang's character or what makes her so fleshed out. Yang's motivations, as at odds with each other as they can seem at times, are fully visible for the audience to explore and in the end tell us a lot about her character. At one time she's shown to be this wild and free spirit who'll knock down bars and usually hollers the loudest, but at other times she seems oddly put together and, dare I say it, responsible. Hell, sometimes she puts Weiss and Blake to shame in this regard as she had during the end of Volume 1 when it was Yang, of all people, who put Weiss in her place about how she was behaving and she's the one who puts Blake on the right path in Volume 2. Sure, that moment ends up not happening in this fic but 'I was a teenage terrorist and I hate myself' is a bit of a bigger issue than 'I'm obsessed with this and I'm ruining my physical health over it'.**

 **At one time her dream is to go off and be a huntress on her own so that she can see the world and yet at the same time she can come off as extremely doting and, if her and Ruby's past are any indication, even downright motherly. She'll abandon you on your first day of school and try to suggest that maybe you should be on different teams but seem like she's perfectly fine with it when it does happen. There's so many things and so many ways you can take this all in that it's a shame that it often gets reduced to 'lol, she's a party girl'.**

 **A lot of this we've been exploring already; starting with her confrontation with Sticky Fingers and peppered throughout various points even as recently as the last chapter of Dance, Dance, Dance, we've been setting up Yang both for this fight's payoffs and for the character arcs that will come after. The fight here with RHCP is, at one point, meant to be a payoff of her abrupt near defeat at the hands of Bucciarati, a sign of how far she's come as far as fighting Stands go (a point that was brought up and shown to be a point of frustration for her as recently as the encounter with Tonio) but it's also meant to be a payoff as far as the discussion of her past and her views on it are concerned. The fight, in addition to being payoff, is further set up for what is the first leap in her character arc.**

 **I won't get into spoilers because, while I hate teasing, I hate spoiling more, I will say that a lot of you seem to have been keying in to these moments. One of you asked if this'll end up like Couer's One Good Turn, and I'll say no. Not that I have anything against the portrayal of Yang in that fic, it's actually quite good in my opinion, but there's a different vision here based on a different take of what we've seen. I imagine a few of you have already pieced together what I have in mind but for the rest, well, get ready.**

 **It also brings up a pretty core point; while the excitement of the fight here is one thing, I'm also very careful to be sure that the character's emotional states and what development they get out of the fight is as important. Yang's is a little more obvious as this chapter was meant to be 'her' moment in this overall brawl, but you'll see it more and more with other characters, especially Penny. So look forward to that.**

 **The above is just the reason why there's more focus put on the characters, what they're thinking and what their emotional states are rather than the pure balls-to-the-walls fighting, which is more in line with how JoJo's handles the better of its fights (and especially those fights that come after Stardust Crusaders).**

 **This also includes the villains and, well, there's payoffs for them too, even when things go to shit.**

 **Hope you all have been having a good week so far and I'll see you all on the 18th!**


	33. Dance Battle (Act 3)

The three women, huntresses all, stood opposed to Red Hot Chili Pepper as the electrical Stand glared hatefully at each of them. Nervously, Yang lightly banged her two gauntlets together in thought as she looked RHCP up and down, a gesture matched by Glynda as she pulled her riding crop tight and Nora as she cracked her knuckles.

The fight wasn't like many that the three huntresses had to plan around before. In most fights, three versus one odds would've been considered a fantastic advantage and easy to exploit. All you would've had to do to win was to split yourselves up and attack all at the same time, overwhelming your opponent by coming at him from all sides and then just beating the ever living tar out of them. However fast a Grimm or person may have been, being attacked from three different angles simultaneously wasn't going to be an easy thing to overcome.

Red Hot Chili Pepper wasn't some Grimm though and it certainly wasn't some random criminal or rogue hunter that the three had to deal with. This usual strategy, one that would guarantee victory on so many other accounts, would prove lethal to the three women if they tried it here. Splitting up, getting themselves separated, would have only served to create openings for RHCP. Without Nora around to body block the worst of his blows using her semblance, RHCP would easily chew through Glynda and Yang with his superior speed and his insane maneuverability. In this one scenario, despite having the number advantage, it was the three huntresses who had to be extremely careful of their one foe.

None of which was to say that the three women were completely at RHCP's mercy or had no avenue to attack him. Indeed, Nora and Glynda had just proven that just the moment before… but now RHCP was on to them. He wouldn't fall for the same trick twice and he was certainly, almost absolutely certainly, going to look to kill them before they got the opportunity to get the drop on him again. What they needed was a plan. What they needed was a way to get this asshole to stop hopping around so much. What they needed…

"We need to deal with the wiring under the floorboards. So long as Chili Pepper has those he can pretty much dance circles around us whenever he pleased. If we're actually going to lock him down and kick his ass, we need to get those out of his reach." Yang spoke clearly and calmly as she rolled her left shoulder, Glynda and Nora nodding in agreement as they all kept eyes on Red Hot Chili Pepper.

"If I had a minute that task would almost be too easy for my semblance. The problem is getting me time in order to pull it off. While I'm doing so I won't be able to maneuver Miss Valkyrie here into position to protect us from Chili Pepper and he'll be much more free to attack. Even if Miss Valkyrie were to hover over me to ensure my own safety, I'd have no doubt that Chili Pepper would take the opportunity to turn his assault on you Miss Xiao Long." Yang ground her teeth a bit.

"Yeah. If he couldn't get to you he'd try to draw Nora away from you or break your focus by attacking me. It'd be a smart ploy on his part… we can't depend on Nora just protecting you. If we try that then he'll just break that focus. Nora and I need to get on top of him and distract him while you tear up his little arena teach." Glynda let the name go for now as it was clear that they all needed to focus on the battle at hand rather than the formalities of their ranks. Glynda could always give Yang a good slap across the back of the head after everyone was safe and sound, after all.

"Yeah, that's definitely our best shot but that's not going to be easy to pull off." Nora spoke with a firm resolve, her eyes shining with that dark intent as she glared at RHCP. "Miss Goodwitch and I blew our surprise attack giving everyone an opportunity to run. We'd need to be able to catch him out in some kind of different way if we were going to get this just right…"

Yang frowned slightly as she gave a slight nod, the blonde bombshell chewing on her cheek as she looked out at the battlefield before then. An idea crossed her mind.

"Nora… I know staying near Red Hot Chili Pepper and grounding him takes a lot out of you while he's plugged in… but what about the electricity flowing through the floor in general? About… about how long do you think you could make a dark spot?" Nora's turquoise eyes glanced over for a moment before she went right back to RHCP, the Stand having not heard Yang's whispered question. With some amount of guile and grace Nora slipped her back foot slightly behind her front foot and slipped off her high heel, digging one of her toes into the holes Harvest made in the floor. An experimental tap or two later and Nora's eyes momentarily sparked with a shine of pink electricity.

"... I'd probably be able to handle this for a while if I was just lightly draining it… but I'm guessing for what you have in mind you need a big one." Nora chewed on her cheek as she thought over her semblance in her mind, thinking out her limitations and abilities. "I could make one four meters wide for maybe ten seconds at a time before I'd need to let go for a moment and let the electricity run out of my system. I wouldn't need too much downtime before I could do it again though."

With that, a small smile formed on Yang's face. "Nora, you don't know how much I needed to hear that from you. That's great… really great." Yang's mind turned as the idea slowly came together in her mind. "Teach, I'm gonna need you to start tearing apart as much of the wiring under the floor as possible, preferably doing it in spots where Nora isn't doing her little stunt. Nora, your job is to follow Chili Pepper's moves as closely as possible and make these dead zones right on top of him. If his power works like we've seen it that should force him out of the floor and out into the open again.

"After that I'll rush in and put the beatdown on him. Whenever you need to dip out and recharge I'll do my best to keep him engaged so that you have time. Wash, rinse, repeat." Yang laid this all out for her fellow two huntresses in a whisper, all the while each side remained on guard for actions from the other. Nora and Glynda had to admit… this idea at least sounded like it could work. Hell, it sounded like if pulled off extremely well that it would work. If Yang could put the beats on RHCP while Glynda rendered his arena useless to him, then they would be in a much better spot in the fight. All Nora would have to do was keep on top of RHCP's movements and ensure that it couldn't use its insane mobility and power from the floor to put a huge beatdown on Yang or to get to Glynda… still.

"While I commend you for the directness of that plan Miss Xiao Long, especially given the short period of time you've been allowed to think it over, there's just one hitch; even when not empowered we've seen what Chili Pepper is capable of. He's fast and strong even when he isn't super charged by gathering in electricity and even when he's not traveling through the copper wiring. His ability to duck in and out very quickly would mean that you'd have to get in a good solid punch very quickly before he just moved to avoid Miss Valkyrie's dead zones. I don't quite see how you'd manage it…"

"Her semblance!" Nora whispered excitedly, despite the fact that Yang's expression had remained down from Glynda's dose of reality. "If Yang triggered her semblance that could give her enough speed and power to go toe to toe with regular Chili Pepper long enough for me to get cooled down and ready to set up another dead zone! That's the idea, right Yang?" The pair could see that yes, that had been Yang's plan… but the remainder of RHCP's power had seemingly dimmed her view on this part of the plan as, once again, she rolled her left shoulder.

"Yes, with her semblance active Miss Xiao Long would have the speed and power necessary to keep up with RHCP provided he didn't have access to Beacon's power… but the problem is building her semblance up to such a point that she'd have that necessary boost to speed and power. Chili Pepper isn't going to fool around anymore; it's clear that he now considers us a threat. The fact that he hasn't jumped for our throats recklessly proves how seriously he's taking this fight now. If Yang tries to engage he won't play around with her; he'll kill her rather than give her a chance to pull anything off. We've seen how capable he is of cutting through Aura by gathering electricity from his surroundings… all it would take is one of those blows and I doubt even Miss Xiao Long's semblance would let her get back up again."

"It's not even just that…" Both pairs of eyes fell to Yang as the brawler bit the knuckle of her thumb slightly. "If I concentrated most of my Aura into one spot then sure, maybe I could hold off Chili Pepper's blows long enough for me to not die and let him get some good damage in… but that's still me spending a lot of Aura on defense. It wouldn't exactly leave a lot leftover for me to put into my semblance afterward or give me a good foot on the offense. He'll kill me if I don't, but if I do… then I don't have a good offense going in, even with my semblance."

Dammit. She was sure she'd had an idea all wrapped up this time. Sure that she'd had a plan, that she'd managed to think her way through something. As much as she had talked up her catastrophe handling before, it had for the most part been instinct. It was natural, the way she had helped and treated Ruby during childhood. It'd been natural that she'd tried to let her sister blossom on her own during her first day. Acting confident, bring her friends together and inspiring them to come up with an idea together, it'd been natural.

But Yang Xiao Long in her heart of hearts knew herself. She was sure she did. And she knew she was a fighter. A straight up brawler. Plans, strategy and leadership… no, that really wasn't her deal. No matter how many times she'd take up such a mantle, take up responsibility, that wouldn't be her.

'But I have no choice here. I have to think of something. With everything on the line, I have to think…'

If RHCP's blows would almost certainly kill her or drain her Aura far too fast for her to turn around and then use it in her semblance, she'd need to think of a way to trigger it. She had to get creative. She had to think around her abilities and plan for them, use them in ways she hadn't considered before. Think like Josuke and Crazy Diamond…

As ridiculous as that sounded. Crazy Diamond was an amazingly versatile Stand with a lot of uses. What was her semblance? Anytime she took damage from anything she could convert that to power. That was it. About as straightforward as you could get.

… Anytime and anything…

"You know, it's a shame." RHCP, Glynda and Nora looked in in slight confusion as a bold and brash smirk crawled its way onto Yang's lips, the brawler chuckling slightly as cracked her knuckles. "I actually really liked this dress. Spent a lot of lien on it too. Ah well. Can't keep nice things forever I suppose." Yang turned her gaze over to Glynda and Nora and offered both huntresses a confidant smile. "When I go in, I want you both to be ready. If Chili Pepper tries to go in on me, I'll need that dead zone… if he tries to go for a teach here, you'll need to intercept them Nora. Teach, as soon as I go in, I'm gonna need you to start tearing the floor up."

"... Once again Miss Xiao Long, while your confidence is appreciated, I don't-"

 **KER-BLAM!**

Three sets of jaws practically hit the floor as all gathered watched as Yang Xiao Long, thought of as having, if not a totally there mind thanks to her love of puns, at least having a healthy one, drove her gauntleted fist into her ribs and, with a cock of her shotgun, blasted herself.

They were further surprised when she did it several more times.

By the time Yang Xiao Long was finished her ribs on her left side were deeply bruised and her white dress was, indeed, ruined, the torso of it having a huge hole blown in it from the repeated shotgun shell blasts. The blonde took deep, steadying breaths after she finished, a slight cough having sent a small spray of blood out from her mouth as it hit the floor. The most insane thing out of all of it had been how obvious it was that she had held back her Aura. From the bruises on her ribs to the blood that pooled at the corner of her mouth it was quite clear that she had held her Aura back in protecting her. Not enough that her own attacks would kill her but clearly enough that they hurt her quite a bit.

At this, RHCP couldn't help himself; he just started to laugh.

" **AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! What the Hell is this? Don't tell me she's gone mad realizing how utterly fucked she is in this situation? Or is this some fucking stupid hunter bravado? That she thinks she stands such an amazing chance against me that she's giving herself a handicap? Either way, I don't mind! Watching her blow the shit out of herself was hilarious! Ahahahaha… haha… haaa**?" RHCP's laughter was cut short as it took in Nora's and Glynda's reactions more fully. Nora, after having gotten over her shock, grinned a bit as the bubbly bomber seemed to catch on. While the blond professor, far from looking angered or otherwise worried for her student, seemed… annoyed.

"Miss Xiao Long… while I'll commend you this one time, I am going to give you a warning." Glynda's words caused Yang to smirk slightly as she shook out her hair, her lilac eyes staring back into RHCP's as Glynda rubbed the bridge of her nose. "If you EVER try this stunt in combat practice, I'll flunk you out for that class immediately. Do you understand?"

"Oh yeah teach, don't worry. It's just, well, given the stakes this time," Yang began as she drew her fists up and parallel to the ground, her knuckles facing each other head on as she pulled her shoulders back, "-I think I'll take the failing grade if it means we all survive the night."

With that, Yang Xiao Long slammed her fists together.

And RHCP had to watch as the young woman's Aura positively exploded with energy. The electrical Stand had to guard its eyes as what seemed like a gout of flame burst forth from the blonde brawler, the Stand's red eyes narrowing in focus to try and see past the light show and, when they had, those very same eyes went wide. Yang's hair was floating just behind her, the already voluminous glow of her well-treated locks now shining bright and strong as it seemed flames flickered from them. While Yang's bruises were still deep and visible the way the young woman carried herself came with the impression that she seemed hardly bothered by these injuries at this point.

The last straw came from the eyes; brimming with confidence and an inner strength and glowing red from the power that flowed through her.

Without even wasting a moment to shittalk or otherwise psyche him out Yang Xiao Long dipped down, bent her knees and made a mad dash for Red Hot Chili Pepper. The Stand just grimaced in annoyance as the fiery blonde made a break for him; sure, she was fast and probably had a lot of strength to back up that speed, but this bitch was still nowhere near RHCP's level. The Stand took notice of Glynda activating her powers and, considering that he couldn't see her actual energy anywhere on him or nearby, it didn't take a lot of imagination to think of what she was using her semblance on.

Well, RHCP wasn't going to let her even this out anymore. The Stand quickly turned into a beating flow of lightning and flew down into the floor and followed the electrical currents moving through the wires towards Glynda Goodwitch. The trio, having had Yang whisper her plan to them beforehand, only nodded in stark determination as RHCP made its move. Nora soon followed, the bubbly bomber charging forward and, with zero hesitation, punched into the floor of the dance hall, shattering the wood, and grabbed onto bunches of the electrical wiring. Nora ground her teeth together as she put her semblance into overdrive, drawing in as much electricity from the surrounding wiring as she could and draining it dry by pulling it all in towards her.

As soon as the dead zone was complete, Yang's plan met its final piece; almost as if having been forced out of the wiring RHCP popped out from the floor, a stunned expression on his face as his solid form now hanged uselessly in the air. His jaw slack and his eyes wide as he could practically feel Yang Xiao Long's presence behind him. Considering he had left her in the dust earlier, he should've had more time to move away, to get out of this dead zone before she caught up.

She was just that fast under the influence of her semblance… and RHCP was just that slow without the source of his power right under his feet.

"YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Before RHCP could focus himself on dipping out to the outer radius of his personal range in an attempt to zip out of this dead zone, a powerful fist was driving down into the top of his skull. Yang's punch followed RHCP's head through all the way to the ground, her gauntlets cocking and letting loose a barrage of bullets as his head, and her fist, made contact with the floor.

The sheer force of the hit made RHCP's head bounce off the floor, the Stand practically right back up on his feet as the energy from the blow made its full round. The Stand cracked open its eyes as it tried to regain its bearings, only to be met with Yang's red eyes as she smirked at him, having already repositioned herself so that she was in front of him.

"I just want to let you know… that while I'm kicking the shit out of you, I'm thinking of someone else. Nothing personal, but you're no Bucciarati." The fact that this verbal jab was immediately followed up by a sharp punch to RHCP's gut just added insult to injury. Now, RHCP might've hoped that this bitch, this brash, stupid little shit, would've knocked him out of the radius with the force of her blows. That this deadzone that the orange haired little shit had made would be left behind as tits-mcgee here blasted him out of its radius. Yet, despite Yang's usual style of combat, despite her energy and despite her power… Yang Xiao Long held back.

Yang Xiao Long had learned her lesson.

Even in this moment where they finally had gotten an edge, she hadn't stopped thinking, hadn't stopped working her mind. She wouldn't, she wasn't going to let up now that she'd gotten this far. Not when she'd already learned from her examples.

While Yang's blows were forceful and powerful, the blonde brawler was always careful; she either positioned her blows so that the angle of the force would always aim down, so that RHCP would be sent bouncing off the floor rather than skidding across the room and away from Nora's dead zone. Whenever she did have to punch him in such a way that it would, ordinarily, send him flying the blonde made sure to keep a firm grip on the electrical Stand, never once wanting to give him a chance to slip away or to slide close to the edge of Nora's dead zone. Still, even while holding back like this and even while thinking this through carefully, the beating that Yang was delivering to RHCP was savage. Blow after solid blow landed across his body, short, powerful shouts erupting from Yang rather than quick, successive yells as she focused on strong hits rather than quick, short ones.

"Yang, it's getting a bit much, I'm going to have to pull back!" Nora could already feel her hold on the electricity slip out of her grasp as RHCP could feel the distant tingles of it returning, a callous smirk forming on the Stands lips. This coming moment of triumph was quickly dashed, however, as Yang appeared before his vision again with that same, irritating smirk of hers.

"Well then, guess it's time to see if good old Chili Pepper here can pull of his little trick ten feet in the air." Before RHCP could even react he felt Yang's knee drive itself into his back, the electrical Stand gasped in pain as he was shot up into the air. "Recharge your batteries Nora, I'll try to keep him hanging." Nora immediately let go of the electrical grid and sighed as she shook out her hands, a layer of sweat having gathered on her brow as she attempted to recuperate. Glynda just kept up her work as she tore apart and then pulled back various bits of wiring underneath the floor. Electrical appliances and little devices scattered across the room began to fail as Glynda went about her business as quickly as she could, chunking out the areas that RHCP could reliably draw power from as she did so.

Yang, meanwhile, swiftly jumped up into the air to follow RHCP, the Stand floating at the height of the blow's energy before Yang reached him and, following up with the momentum of her jump, plowed one of her fists into his back before firing off another shotgun shell into him. The energy of Yang's jump and the beatdown she was putting on the Stand had been enough to keep the both of them airborne for just long enough for Nora to feel the static in her fingers dissipate, a wide grin forming on the bubbly bomber's lips as she waved Yang down. The blonde brawler just nodded and, clasping both hands above her head, slammed her fists down into RHCP. The electrical Stand practically choked as the blow broke through its steadily waning Aura, left uncharge from Nora's dead zone and Yang's vicious assault. As it plummeted to the ground Nora followed RHCP and, just before it hit, she dug her hands into the floor again, grasped the wires where it would land and immediately drained them dry again, creating another dead zone.

Chili Pepper took long, steady breaths as it tightened its hands into fists, attempting to drag itself over to the edge of Nora's dead zone in an attempt to get back some of its power and recharge.

That had been the plan at least, up until Yang Xiao Long plummeted down right on top of him, driving both her feet into his spine, the Stand couldn't help the cry of pain that ripped from its throat. A confident smile was plain on her face as she reached a hand down and grabbed RHCP by its beak, yanking the Stand up to its feet as Yang glared into RHCP's red eyes with her own.

"Nu-uh Chili Pepper. Not gonna be letting that happen. You took my friends, you helped get a really cool guy papered by holding one of his best friends hostage and you fucking taunted us this entire time. You see, I'm afraid you shoved your hand into the fire one too many times… now it's time you get to burn."

* * *

" **Gotta make a break for it! Gotta make a break for it! They got past Chili Pepper somehow! If we don't get out of here, we're going to get caught!** "

The group of Harvests ran, three with pieces of paper held in their hands while a small entourage surrounded them running down one of the halls of Beacon. They'd already witnessed other groups of Harvests being ambushed by their foes and had seen them be destroyed with extreme prejudice. While their ranks were being replenished as their master created new Harvests to rejoin the fight and help them get out, it was clear that these hunters weren't anything to laugh at. So the little Stands ran as fast as their stubby little legs could carry them, hoping to avoid more of the hunters so that they could keep their prizes.

That had been the hope up until the black haired cat faunus had walked out from one of the halls out in front of them, her gaze meeting the Harvests as she glared down at them.

" **AAAAAH! RUN AWAY, SHE FOUND US**!" The Harvests immediately turned heel, or at least, those that had paper did. The paperless Harvests were under strict instruction to act as a distraction for those that had paper in their hands so as to give them a better chance to get away. So, while the paperless Harvests stood in front of Blake ready to defend their brothers, the rest turned to run.

At least up until the blade of Gambol Shroud cut through them like a knife carving through cake… from the direction they were turning to run to. The Harvests stuttered as their gazes looked back, seeing Blake Belladonna as she whipped her weapon through the air as she cut down the trio of Harvests with a single swing.

The Harvests looked back to the other Blake and were momentarily stunned when that Blake gave way to nothing more than a shroud of Aura; a clone. The Harvests attempted to regroup as a few out of their number reached over to grab the paper and make a mad dash away from the cat faunus.

"Nu-uh, not letting you guys get away with that!" Only for the group of tiny Stands to be further flummoxed when, swinging down from the ceiling, Sun Wukong and a trio of clones pretty much crushed the remaining members of this particular group of Harvests. Either with the ends of a staff, their fists or their sneakers. "Ahahahaha! Team Clone gets another group! Pretty sure we're on fire at this point." With that, Sun Wukong grabbed up the three pieces of paper with his prehensile tail and threw them over to Blake, the black cat faunus having nodded as she unfolded them.

"Mmmhmmm, sure are…" Despite the even, focused tone she tried to keep, a certain amount of Sun's enthusiasm had pierced through Blake as a small grin was clear on her face. "Keep moving ahead while I get these guys out, see if you can spot another pack." As Sun's clones dissipated and rejoined him before he sprinted forward Blake immediately set about working on unfolding the paper and finding out just what students were inside. As this particular batch fell out Blake Belladonna couldn't help the grimace that crossed her lips as she brought her Scroll up.

"Blake reporting in; Sun and I just rounded up a group of Harvests that had most of Team CRDL in their mitts. I'm gonna shove them into one of the nearby rooms before following Sun for back up."

"Sounds like a plan Blake, I'm just… continuing my own work here." Pyrrha's voice came from another end of the line as the black haired faunus just nodded. "Okuyasu, Weiss, how are you two holding up?" Silence. "Guys?"

While this was going on a group of Harvests had tried their damndest to save themselves. So many had fallen already and this particular group of them had just about gotten ready to run past another roving band of paperless Harvests in order to toss their cargo off.

" **[The Hand]**!" As the paper hit its mid-air stride, the Harvests were shocked to suddenly find the pieces of paper, rather than following through into the hands of their fellow Harvests, flying through the air over into the hands of one Nijimura Okuyasu, a wide grin on his face as he grabbed each individual piece of paper. At his side was his Stand, The Hand, with Ozpin carefully slung over its left shoulder while it squeezed the lumps in its right hand. "Sorry fellas, looking for this? Think you should be paying better attention to yourselves!"

The Harvests jittered for just a moment, the swarm Stands attempting to consider the orders that their Stand Master had given them for this situation, before they ultimately found that they couldn't think at all. With just a flash of white light as a warning a frost wave fell over the floor and, eventually, covered the group of Harvests in a layer of thick ice. Down the hall Weiss Schnee just sighed as she plucked an empty Dust canister from Myrtenaster, soon filling it up with yet more Ice Dust as she looked over at Okuyasu.

"You'll need to be a little faster on the draw; rather than wait for them to pass them off, just get the paper out of their hands. That way I can definitely make sure that by the time I'm finished with my Glyphs that I won't accidentally freeze the paper over." Weiss commented seriously as Okuyasu just nodded.

"I know, I know. Just a pain in the ass; these little rat bastards are so small that The Hand ends up dragging them along with him if he tries to swing for the paper in their hands. Kinda defeats the point of you doing your thing if I end up moving them out of the way." Weiss bit her cheek slightly as the information was passed along.

"And I can't very well hold off for much longer than I do; the second they notice my Glyphs they start to scatter and, well, that's wasted Dust if I miss…" Okuyasu just barked out a bit of a laugh as he unfolded the paper.

"Guess we'll just have to keep cutting it close then." As Okuyasu said this Weiss rolled her eyes a bit, a handful of students plopping out of the pieces of paper that they'd managed to collect.

"You could at least sound a little bit bothered by that fact." Okuyasu just chuckled slightly.

"Hey, we've done pretty well so far. Only managed to catch one person in a bit of your magic so far and we managed to thaw their paper out."

"Like I said, you could stand to be more bothered by that fact… and it's not magic." But Weiss relented; The Harvests were rather tricky and slippery targets. Too small to not be pulled in by The Hand and with their eyes always keeping a lookout for trouble, specifically in the form of her own Glyphs. As it stood Okuyasu and her combo of cornering various groups and setting up to ambush them while they passed of paper was working… but.

"Jeez, you'd think with all the Harvests we've been taking care of that we'd be at least some way through with dealing with all of them. But they just seem to keep popping up." Weiss brought up her Scroll to finally report in, the other members of the group sighing in some relief as they heard word from Weiss and Okuyasu.

"Tell me about it. I've already taken care of so many and they just seem to keep coming."

"... Pyrrha. Darling. How many Harvests have you taken care of at this point?" It was clear that this had been a bit personal to Pyrrha, having watched her team leader get papered and then dragged off by these Harvests right before her very eyes. The silence on the end of the line was telling and all could imagine the slightly sheepish expression that crossed her features before she spoke.

"Uuuhh… a… a lot?"

From the Harvests' perspective 'a lot' was more akin to 'a slaughter'. As Pyrrha passed by hallways in Beacon her semblance allowed her for a little more freedom in dealing with the tiny Stands than others. The sheer amount of metal she had brought with her to help her carve up the ranks of the Harvests on top of the metal she could pull from walls or around the building to assist with her assault had turned her into a veritable tornado of whirling, metal death as far as the Harvests had been concerned. Magnetized metal fired off like bullets, up to and including the javelin form of Pyrrha's weapon, had been launched into various Harvests. Many were pinned to the wall before they dissipated while others were just torn apart.

Yet still…

"Have we found any of our key targets yet?" Pyrrha asked with some slight trepidation, it having been clear she hadn't quite yet.

"No. Sun's teammates haven't been found, we haven't come across Ruby yet and Jaune's been a no show too. Unless Weiss, Okuyasu, did you two just pick any of them up?"

"... Actually yes. It appears we have Scarlet and Sage here in this group. The only member of Sun's Team left to round up is Neptune." Weiss commented over the Scroll as Sun's own minor sounds of celebration could be heard….

Followed by the panicked screams of Harvests he'd found.

"Just a moment, gonna take care of these guys." A round of sighs echoed from the teens as Sun's Scroll went down for a bit, the teen having obviously jumped into a bit of a scuff up with the Harvests.

"I'll go join him, make sure that multiple groups of the little bastards don't jump on him." Everyone nodded along with Blake and, though her line didn't go dead, everyone took it as her having decided to focus back in on her own chase.

"Weis does have a point though. For all these groups that we've managed to run into and… subdue, we don't seem to actually be denting their numbers. In fact, it seems like the more papered folks we get out, the more Harvests that just seem freed up to harass us without having to worry about their cargo.

Indeed, it had been a bit of a slip up for the group at first when they had first gotten a group of students in the papers. The group of teens had initially thought that if they carried the paper around then they could make sure that they got a firm count of the number of students left without worrying about where to put them where they could be safe. As it turned out whenever the Harvests would come by in any numbers they'd, first, prioritize getting ahold of the papered students again rather than attacking before running off.

So a change in plan; they'd unfold the students and place them in either dorms, if found in that area, or random rooms if found anywhere else in order to make sure they'd be out of the way. The only reason why Okuyasu had insisted on keeping Ozpin on hand had been first off that it was Glynda's request and, secondly, that Ozpin seemed to be a bit of a bigger fish as far as someone like RHCP might've been concerned. Finishing him off would've probably been higher on his priorities list than going around dealing with random students.

The group had agreed with this well enough.

"I guess you guys haven't been taught about these yet, but it actually isn't that unusual for Stands like this." Everyone paused as Okuyasu spoke, the scarred teen and Weiss, who had watched The Hand's left side as instructed by Glynda, ran along. "This whole Harvest thing is a swarm Stand by the looks of it and this is just how they tend to operate."

"Swarm? Oh right, Jotaro covered a bit on those a couple weeks ago." Blake's voice spoke over the line as she re-entered the conversation. "Picked up a few more students, Sun almost got swamped by a large group of these guys… they really do just keep coming."

"It's out of the woodwork too. They seem to be getting smarter; when I'd jumped on a group I thought I could handle with my clones more dug themselves out of the nearby walls and nearly ambushed me."

"... That isn't right. Swarm type Stands aren't terribly clever or strong on their own. Individually they're pretty weak and can be taken out." Weiss glanced over.

"But these are in a group, so shouldn't they be stronger and smarter?"

"Stronger but not smarter. They don't operate like that; Swarm Stands get their orders and are formed by their Stand Users. When they pop out he gives them instructions that they pretty much automatically fill out without his knowledge or without him being harmed if they get destroyed. They're like tiny automatic Stands." A small series of hums came over the line as Weiss just blinked in surprise.

"I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be our expert on this Stand Okuyasu."

"How could I not? Keicho's Bad Company was a swarm type Stand and Harvest is acting a lot like it. I'd have to be really thick to not see the similarities." Okuyasu knocked on the side of his head with one of his free hands as a small grin crossed the Schnee Heiress' lips.

"Wait, so the point of origin for these guys and their orders is their Stand User, right?" Pyrrha's voice came over the line as Okuyasu looked down at Weiss' scroll.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Then we just need to keep destroying them." The sound of some metal flying and the cries of dying Harvests came over the Scroll from Pyrrha's end before she continued. "Their numbers aren't dying down and, like Sun said, they seem to be coming out of the woodwork and getting better organized. That must mean that their Stand User is making more of them and then sending them out with new orders on dealing with us. If the point of origin for both these Stands and their behaviors is one and the same-"

"Then if we keep killing them and follow the stream back to the source, we'll find the Stand User!" Sun called out excitedly as the plan clicked in his mind, Blake having smiled lightly as she looked into her Scroll.

"Not a bad idea there Pyrrha." A soft chuckle came over the other end of the line, one that sounded ever so slightly off given the level of violence that Pyrrha was obviously inflicting on the Harvests.

"Well all those years being a tournament fighter didn't go to waste when it comes to strategy and planning at least." The sound of paper unfolding caught people's attention as Pyrrha just sighed irritably. "Found Cardin."

"Well that's all of Team CRDL at least." Weiss muttered as everyone just rubbed their eyebrows. "Still no sign of Ruby, Neptune or Jaune."

"If I had to guess by our bad luck, I'd wager that if they knew they'd be that important to us that the Stand User already has them in his grasp." Blake's voice came over the line as everyone just groaned.

"Fan-fucking-tastic. So we'll have to deal with another friggin' hostage situation? Bad enough with that bastard Enigma and Red Hot Chili Pepper." Okuyasu groused as they all continued running.

"Much as I'd prefer you to word it differently, I have to agree with the sentiment…" Weiss muttered darkly. She had just about had enough of this back when it was just some very close friends in Josuke and Koichi being threatened. If Ruby, her partner and… friend, they were not besties contrary to what Ruby would've wanted, were held against her then… oh yes, the Schnee Heiress would be 'very' annoyed. "I have to 'deeply' agree with it." Weiss was already grinding her teeth together at the thought as Okuyasu just grinned confidently.

"But no worries. Without Chili Pepper around there ain't a thing that's gonna be able to stop The Hand from scraping this asshole up to us. Once we get him and if he tries any of that bullshit, I'll pull him in so you guys can beat the everloving shit out of him."

"You know what… the sounds like a plan to me." Pyrrha chimed in with her agreement, soon followed by everyone else, as they pursued the various Harvests.

"We're just gonna have to be careful; the closer we get to him and the more of his Stands that end up getting freed up just to harass us, the more dangerous this is going to get. Everyone keep your eyes open." With that, the group of teenaged hunters nodded as they continued their work.

Unbeknownst to them, from his hiding spot on campus, a small, round boy sat by an increasingly large stack of folded up pieces of paper, counting them out as he licked his lips a bit. Everytime he'd feel a Harvest go 'pop' he'd concentrate as hard as his head would allow for and pop out ones to replace them.

"Hey, hey, you guys go out and help the others Harvests. If these guys keep doing this then no one's gonna be happy." The Harvests nodded and immediately ran off, their arms up above their heads as they… jumped down from their hiding spot. The little rotund humanoid chuckled to himself as he rubbed the spikes on his head. Boy oh boy, that nice lady was gonna be happy.

It was kind of scary at first, getting hit by that arrow out of nowhere. His mama and papa had told him about how dangerous Vale could be nowadays and that he needed to be careful, especially with the White Fang causing so much trouble for faunus families in the city with their naughty behavior. He hadn't understood much about it but if mama and papa said to be safe, he'd be safe.

So he was relieved when the arrow just plopped right on out and, after a while, it seemed like he would be just fine. Getting hit by the arrow must've been a sign of good luck too, like getting pooped on by a pigeon, because not only did he suddenly develop Harvest that day, a few days later he met some new friends! They were wearing lots of clothes and didn't show much of their faces, but they said they were from Atlas and that everyone dressed like that because of how cold it was.

Mama and papa did say that it almost always snowed in Atlas, so it made sense to him!

The women, he could tell that much from their voices, talked about him and his 'Stand'. That's what they called Harvest at least. The taller lady said that he didn't show the mental apti- apto-apta-aptitude, yeah that was it, to help her out with much, which he couldn't say was too wrong. Mama and papa said that while he was a very special boy that he needed to think a lot about his decisions before he made them, just in case he was about to make a bad decision because he didn't think too much about it.

But she did say that his Harvest would be useful for helping out with something else. She told him about Beacon and how much the kids here hated being in school, which made sense to him. School always gave him a headache and he didn't have a lot of friends there, so it wasn't fun. She said that the students needed to get away so that they could become her friends, which sounded awesome!

The nice lady then said that if he helped her out with this, that she'd give him the money so that he, mama and papa could move to Menagerie to be safe. Which sounded awesome! Mama and papa were talking about moving there because of how bad things in Vale were getting and that it'd be really safe for them to live there with other faunus! If he could help mama and papa get the money together so that they could move, they'd probably be really happy!

So the nice lady would be happy, the kids at Beacon would be happy, his mama and papa would be happy and he'd be happy!

Like the nice lady said, everybody would be happy!

The only thing he had to worry about were these bullies. According to the nice lady, they were actually Grimm dressed up as people and wanted the kids at Beacon to stay miserable. That sounded weird to him, he'd never heard of Grimm coming up with smart plans like this before… but then she said that these were super old Grimm, and that they were smart because of that. Which immediately made it all make sense to him again! Because mama and papa were old and they were really smart! So it'd work the same way for Grimm!

These guys acted the part too; especially the red head. He'd lost count of how many Harvests she'd popped and he could count pretty good. She was just doing it too fast for him to keep up. For some reason they stopped carrying the paper around with them according to Harvest, which… not good, because that was the easiest way of getting it back but, hey, he'd make it work out.

After all, everybody deserved to be happy!

* * *

"Well, I have to say, this was a rather fantastic evening."

Two out of the three marks he could have reasonably gotten were secure, RHCP and Harvest were handling the rest, he was getting away safely and, best of all, a handsome reward had been promised to Enigma for doing a job well done.

And, well, he wasn't one to brag but he considered this evening a 'very' well done job on his part. His Stand had been a natural fit for him; his talent before even getting it had been to watch and observe people for their ticks and strange behaviors. And while Enigma didn't like to brag… oh who was he kidding, he loved it, he was quite the performer beforehand as well. Sleight of hand and tricks of the eyes were his forte. That he got to employ both talents that he had carefully cultivated and adored quite a lot was just… mmm, icing on the cake.

So as Enigma floated listlessly through the air, barely a care in the world as it concerned this evening… well, to say he was in for a shock was quite the understatement.

"OH GODS, SWORDS!" The floating paper that Enigma had been riding in stopped suddenly under his Stand's powers as a veritable wall of metal suddenly flew in front of his path. Even from inside the paper Enigma could make out the metal wiring supporting these weapons and it appeared that, whatever manipulated these, they had taken care that the wiring nor the swords would damage the paper he was in.

Nor would either get in the way of that magenta eyed kid as he made a mad dash for the paper was currently in.

"Dammit, Chili Pepper fucked this up, didn't he?" Enigma cursed to himself, maneuvering inside his piece of paper in order to get one of his traps ready. On the outside, Ren was charging; this was their moment, the paper had stopped moving and was just floating in the air. If he grabbed it and unfolded it, he'd expose Enigma and force him out into the open. Penny's swords were already in place to secure him, or worse if he tried his schtick with holding Josuke and Koichi hostage again, and so all Ren needed to do was get him out. Penny's swords could have cut open the paper… but there was no guarantee that their friends would survive the experience.

And so with practiced agility and great haste Ren soon fell upon the floating piece of paper, snatching it out of the air and immediately setting to unfolding it. What the young Mistrali man had not expected to come out of that paper was the barrel of a gun pointed directly in his face.

Which then fired from point-blank range.

"Ren!" Penny called out, clearly worried about one of her acquaintances as the force of the bullet sent him flying back a little ways. While this was going on the paper proceeded to float a bit again, the robot girl having to grind her teeth a bit as she allowed her sword to move away from the piece of paper so as to not accidentally damage it. Ren groaned slightly as he sat up, the young man holding a small bleeding wound on his forehead as he glanced over to his, temporary, partner.

"I'm alright Penny. My Aura tanked most of the hit. I'll be fine."

"You know, I do have to own up to some level of jealousness I have toward you folk with physical Aura." Ren and Penny snapped their heads over to the piece of paper as its floating slowly ceased, Enigma having pulled himself out from the folded up piece of paper as he stepped onto solid ground. There was no point in continuing to float away; Penny and Ren were more than fast enough to catch up to him while he was traveling like that. He'd need to take another approach when it came to dealing with them. "If I, a Stand User, were to take a bullet to the face like that, well, I wager I'd be quite dead without the right Stand. We just can't take the sort of hits that you all can.

"I mean, just look at you; you got shot in the face by a bullet at point-blank range and all you've got is a little bleeding wound. No massive damage to your brain, no wound going straight through your skull… you're not even remotely close to being dead. You just tank it and I'm sure that here in a moment you'll be back on your feet ready to fight. Like I said, I have to admit some level of jealousy when it comes to this." Ren just kept his neutral expression as he slowly stood up to his feet, though this very fact seemed to annoy Enigma greatly.

"But while I am jealous of that, that's not what's annoying me most about you and your friend here at the moment. You both have physical Auras… but I have a Stand. If it were just that, I could easily find a way around your superior strength, durability and speed and win this fight. No, what annoys me, what is making me rather angry, is this; for some reason, you two are offering me no physical tics." Enigma sneered slightly as he ran a hand up through his white hair.

"I've been keeping my eyes on both of you and neither one of you have spared even the slightest sign of fear. Hell, you've barely let lose any emotions or signs of them at all! Or at least, genuine emotion; Mr. Lie, at least Mrs. Pollendina here is trying. At least she can fake her emotions well enough, though why a pretty young woman like her would have to I have no idea."

"Flattery will get you… nowhere. That is the saying, right Ren?" Penny blinked her green eyes at Ren as she stumbled over the saying, which Ren just nodded in response to. "Excellent!"

"I can tell. Point is that I can't pick up any genuine sign from you. It's all bullshit… or at least, it's very misguided bullshit." Enigma then turned his gaze over to Ren. "He's even worse though; I can't even pick up bullshit from him! He's just sitting there, blank as chunk of marble before it's been chiseled into a statue! He'd might as well not have emotions or an Aura and just be a thing. At least that'd make this easier on me." Penny's eyes narrowed slightly as Enigma spoke. "I can bundle up things and objects quite easily, I don't even need a tick from them. But you both are human beings… I need your signs of fear if I'm going to get either of you." Penny seemed to stiffen for the briefest of moments as Enigma spoke but this movement was gone so quickly that neither he nor Ren had noticed it.

Ren, for his part, just shrugged.

"Maybe you're not as good at this as you thought you were."

"... Excuse me?" Enigma snarled ever so slightly as Ren removed his hand from his head, his Aura having mostly patched up his wound.

"No matter how little emotion I show or how few 'tics' as you like to call them I have, Nora has always seemed ready and able to pick apart my mood and figure out what I'm feeling and what I'm thinking… and Nora can be a bit dense sometimes when it comes to these things." Ren said with a small, almost imperceptible, smile before he looked back to Enigma. "For all your talk about how you need to gather these tics and how good you are at it, perhaps you should consider that it's not our problem that you can't use your Stand on us, it's yours."

For the briefest of moments, Enigma's right eye squinted as he stared back at the pair, his annoyance with them, with this situation, obviously growing. However, there was something else there too, something Penny herself couldn't pick up on and something that Ren could only wonder if he'd truly seen in that squinting eye. After but a brief moment Enigma just chuckled, running a hand up into his white hair as he looked across at his two opponents.

"Trying to use my own tricks against me, huh? What, you're hoping that I'm going to get so worked up that I'd end up just falling into whatever trick you had in mind? You didn't think I'd so easily fall for my own favorite trick, did you?" Ren's lips quirked a bit at the corners as he shrugged.

"Well, there was no harm in trying." With that Ren produced his weapons, StormFlower from his sides, Enigma just chuckling as he produced several folded up pieces of paper.

"Come now Mr. Lie, you and Miss Polendina over there have already showed your hands. While I have Mr. Higashikata and Mr. Hirose in my possession, you two aren't going to risk attacking me lest it do damage to them. Put your little guns away, there's no need for them." At that Ren just shrugged while Penny drew her swords back into the ready position.

"True, using StormFlower to attack you head on isn't a good idea while you have my friends in your possession… but you've also showed your hand. They're too valuable for you alive for you to actually kill. So long as Penny and I don't do harm to them ourselves, we can snatch them away from you. In the meanwhile, we can at least defend ourselves."

Ren's own visage was notably shaken by the wicked grin that crossed Enigma's face.

"Ah, is that what you believe? A fair enough assumption under most circumstances I suppose." With that, Enigma produced the two slips of paper containing Koichi and Josuke, which caused Ren and Penny to flinch slightly. With practiced ease Enigma slipped the pieces of paper into another one. "Insurance, just in case…" With that, Enigma juggled the remaining bits of paper, a casual smile on his face. "Now then, if you are so very sure of what you need to do to win then, by all means, come at me. I don't have all day to be wasting on children."

Ren started off the fight by charging forward, his weapons at the ready to defend himself. The idea was simple; grapple Enigma into submission and force him to give up the pieces of paper. He had expected Penny to follow up but… no, the orange haired girl seemed to be hanging back. There was a look in her eyes, a cross between analytical and… worried was perhaps the best word as she looked over the battle scene.

Ren had simply assumed that, with her sword, Penny preferred to stay at range rather than approach a potentially dangerous foe.

What had actually been on Penny's mind were Enigma's words. A worry had developed in Penny's… well, she didn't have guts, but if she were a human being she would describe the place this feeling was coming from as her guts. WIth Enigma's own words on how his powers worked out in the open, Penny's fears about how his Stand Power worked were confirmed. Enigma only needed a tic or a show of fearful emotion from human beings; everything else he could paper without much worry or effort.

Penny Polendina wasn't a coward by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't the threat to her life in such a situation that caused her to hang back. It wasn't even the threat that the battle might be lost if Ren were forced to fight this Stand User with so many tricks up his sleeve that caused her to hang back.

Penny… Penny was alive. She had Aura, which meant she had a soul. Her father had said as much. That had been his intention…

Yet there was an ugly little voice that hung around in the back of Penny's mind. One that screamed and hollered in fear and worry that if she stepped up, if she tried to engage Enigma and he figured out what she was… that he'd prove her father wrong.

That he'd prove that Penny Polendina was just a thing; an object only pretending to have a soul.

So she'd hang back and support Ren from afar. It… it would be easy with her swords to do so. Ren would be fine with just her support. If it kept her away from Enigma, then… then it'd all be safe.

As Ren ran forward Enigma just grinned as tossed a piece of unfolding paper right at Ren. The paper's hold on itself failed and completely flipped open, causing the contents shoved within by Enigma to come spilling out. Lie Ren's eyes went wide as they did; several Fire Dust canisters like the one he'd previously sent tumbling down into that little fire before came flying out from the piece of paper along with a lighter that flipped on as it popped out of the paper. What Ren took immediate notice of as these Dust canisters came flying was that, unlike the one that Enigma had previously produced, these Dust canisters hadn't been structurally sound; the glass on all the canisters was heavily cracked, to the point where a significant amount of the Fire Dust was spilling out.

Into the air.

Near the lit lighter.

Ren crossed his arms across the front of his face as he braced himself, the lighter having fallen into the trail of spilling Dust. Within seconds a chain reaction occurred as the flame ignited the Fire Dust that had spilled into the air, igniting the trail that lead back to the various canisters. Green eyes went wide as Penny herself flew into action, her swords immediately flying in front of Ren. The flying swords came together into a pattern that mimicked the spokes on a wheel, the handles of the swords touching each other as the blades formed the spokes. This makeshift wheel of blades spun as fast as Penny could allow for as the trail of ignited Fire Dust eventually reached back to the canisters.

The heat from the explosion was intense. Immediately a fine sheen of sweat formed on Ren's face as he could feel the wave of heat and the shockwave hit him all at once, pushing him back and nearly knocking him on his ass. The only thing that protected him from the flames themselves were Penny's blades, the spinning wheel of them having diverted a good deal of the fire and the flames as the Dust combusted.

"Thanks for the save Penny." Ren commented calmly as he regained his footing, patting a small scorched part of his suit that seemed to threaten to catch fire as he did so. Penny just nodded as her green eyes scanned past the fiery explosion, trying to pick out Enigma's place in the entire affair as she did so.

"That was extremely dangerous! What if he had gotten caught in the blast?" Penny commented urgently, her eyes growing wide as she and Ren spotted the same thing at the same time.

"You've got to be…"

The burnt out remains of a taxi had been placed in between Enigma and the explosion, the fire from the Dust going to work burning the vehicle down as Enigma emerged from the other side, seemingly perfectly fine.

"Like I said, I can turn any object into paper given enough time and effort. Even something as large as a car is easy for me to pack away… speaking of, do watch where you're stepping Mr. Lie." Ren's eyes narrowed for a second before they went wide with realization, the young man immediately jumping away from his spot as a mailbox suddenly fell from the sky and struck near where he'd been standing. Penny and Ren immediately went into action as they looked up to see the sky practically choked full of random, large and heavy objects. A few pieces of paper, having been thrown similar to that containing the Fire Dust from earlier, had unfolded to produced this makeshift barrage.

While Ren artfully dodged out of the way of much of the potential harm, Penny's blades went to work slicing and dicing the material that got a little too close to the huntsman for comfort. Ren, getting rather annoyed, used one of his dodges as an opportunity to try and close the distance against Enigma as the well dressed Stand User just grinned and, as he ran back and away from Ren, unfolded several pieces of paper. Tacks, nails, broken pieces of glass and caltrops fell from these papers and scattered onto the ground between Enigma and Ren as the former just grinned in amusement…

Amusement that rapidly died as Ren just ran right over these obstacles without a care in the world, Aura focused into his feet allowing him to effectively bypass these otherwise crippling items as little more than uneven ground.

"I am seriously quite jealous. That is annoying to deal with." Ren kept a focused expression even as Penny grinned at his casual disregard for Enigma's attempt to cripple him. Despite his seeming annoyance, Enigma still seemed quite eager to go as he produced another folded up piece of paper. "Still, that pesky Aura only protects you from direct physical injuries." Before Ren could think to question what Enigma meant, the white haired Stand User produced from the folded up piece of paper a pair of extremely dark pair of welding goggles which he placed in front of his eyes before he tossed the unfolding paper at Ren.

The several flash grenades, the charges and explosives powered by Lightning Dust, that effectively went off in Ren's face caused the young man to cry out in severe pain as his vision immediately went white.

"Ah! Where are you even getting all of this?!"

"You'd be surprised at how well connected my benefactors are."

Enigma kept it vague as he blinded Lie Ren and, more than likely, that Penny girl as well. With a flick of his wrist Enigma pulled from a sheet of paper stuff up his sleeve a rather large knife. After all, it wasn't everyday where you managed to blind a huntsman using a flash grenade. He had a free opportunity to inflict some serious harm on Ren while he was essentially incapacitated, and-

"Get back!"

Enigma choked as Penny's swords came at him with a laser-like precision, the girl's green eyes focusing in on him dead on as her blades sliced at his hand. Enigma yelped as he dropped the knife and pulled his hand back, just barely avoiding losing some fingers, as Lie Ren jumped away from him and closer to his little friend. Enigma's right eye squinted as he glared over at the girl. Yes, she had some distance on the flash grenades so yes, he supposed that her vision wouldn't entirely be compromised… but still, BUT STILL, they should've at least forced her eyes off and away in order to preserve her vision or, if she looked directly into them in order to keep her eyes on Ren, they should've distorted her vision enough that she couldn't so directly target Enigma.

Something was wrong with this girl. She shouldn't have been so resilient; Aura shouldn't have protected her eyes like that, her semblance producing those strong, resilient blades was beginning to get on his nerves and her reads and emotions irked him to no end. If it was just Lie Ren Enigma knew that he could keep on pulling things out of his bag of tricks that could eventually force the Stand User down. He'd just proven that well enough just now and when he'd nearly forced Lie Ren to eat a face full of Fire Dust; but so long as this bitch kept getting in the way, then Enigma was going to have problems. The well-dressed Stand User glanced down at Ren and nodded to himself; the boy would be down for a few ticks while he tried to get his eyesight back. If there was anytime where he could focus down on this bitch and try to force her to submit, it was now.

Either she'd show her tic or she'd be so distracted that he'd be able to land a serious blow. In either case, Enigma could deal with her and then move on to the other brat.

Now, he needed to be careful about this gambit. He couldn't keep spending his supplies like he had so far; even with his paper even he had limits to what he had in his pockets that he could use. If he was going to get Penny and then deal with Lie Ren and then escape, he'd need to be frugal to start with…

It was a good thing that then, as ever, Enigma had already prepared a little something in advance at the start of this battle. As Penny ran over to check on Ren, Enigma just chuckled darkly as he pulled out the folded paper he had slipped Josuke's and Koichi's papers into. Time to put his talent for bullshit to work.

"Well I have to admit, I hadn't expected Miss Polendina here to still have her vision. I rather expected her to be as blind as a bat, as you are Mr. Lie." Ren just growled slightly as his vision remained clouded over, Enigma just waving the paper in his hand for good measure as he took notice of how Penny's green eyes focused in on the little slip. "Still, I can't say that she's made this all too hard. I mean, look at the game so far; I've very nearly severely wounded you multiple times now Mr. Lie and you two have gotten no closer to getting your friends back. Who knows, maybe I didn't even need Red Hot Chili Pepper after all; if you all have been so utterly blown back by what I can do with my Stand, then perhaps I very well could've handled this all on my own." Ren, having had more experience with people, could already tell what game Enigma was playing at. Much like he had before and, much like Ren had tried at the beginning of this fight, Enigma was egging them on, trying to get a reaction out of them.

For Ren and Penny, this was a non-issue. Ren's semblance kept his mind clear and focused. Penny's processors and sensors allowed her to evaluate the situation and realize when an attempt at a play was being made…

However, those sensors also told her of the opportunity that Enigma was just letting out into the open.

Enigma had expected Penny to go for some overly dramatic sword slash at his hand in order to separate it from him, giving her the opening she'd need to go for the paper. What he hadn't expected was for one of Penny's blades to immediately vault itself right towards his torso, flying to impale him. With a choked gasp Enigma jumped back, just barely avoiding the blade as he stumbled on his feet. This move was immediately followed up by Penny grabbing onto Enigma's hand and, rearing back, delivering a powerful punch to Enigma's face. The Stand User felt the full force of the robot girl's punch and his hands immediately flew open, releasing the piece of paper.

Her objective secure, Penny Polendina immediately snatched up the paper and began to unfold it…

Whereby several thousands of volts worth of electricity immediately shot through her system.

"Fucking bitch… I wasn't expecting you to go so hard… fuck, my face." Enigma squinted his right eye for a moment before the cocky grin returned, both eyes opening as they watched Penny's body writhe with the electricity. "You like it? What you have in your hands there is a little thing called 'resistance paper'. You see, while I hold the right to burn literally any of my paper with the flick of a switch, there are some things I'd prefer to boobytrap. What's in that folded up paper alongside Josuke's and Koichi's pieces of paper is an electrical generator that, as we speak, is pumping your body full of electricity. Not quite the amount of Chili Pepper can produce but still, quite painful even to those with Aura." Penny's body just continued to writhe as her dress began to catch fire in some places.

"Now, resistance paper is paper impregnated with a conductive substance so that it ends up attaining its own degree of surface resistivity, not too unlike conductive ink. That means that even while you're being burned alive from the inside out by having your insides overcharged by this generator that the paper is conducting it without burning or being destroyed. Ever since I learned about this stuff, I've been making it a part of all my designs… make it so easy to boobytrap sensitive items without having to destroy them, I'd say.

"I'll give you some credit; your move was bold and you very nearly impaled me… but I'm afraid that bold moves don't carry the day in Stand battles. Now then, you go ahead and keep smoking and I'lll… I'll…" Enigma paused as he watched; yes, Penny was smoking and yes, that should've been expected of someone who was being electrified to some degree. However, he would expect that to come from her hair or her skin… not from bits of her visible through growing holes in her skin.

Penny Polendina was practically burning away under the force of the electricity, her skin peeling and burning back to reveal a metallic surface underneath. Even with all of this going on, Penny ground her teeth together and, despite the sparks flying across her skin and the increasing stress her body was falling under, the robot girl kept trying her best to dig through the paper to find Koichi and her friend, JoJo. She was already this close so she had to try, she had to get them…

"Hahaha… Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA! I knew something was wrong with you! I knew that all your oddities had to have some explanation! Of course your eyes wouldn't be blinded by a flash, of course your semblance would be so odd and of course I couldn't find a tic on you that I could use to paper you… I was looking for these things as part of a who!" Penny could practically sense it, a dark figure looming just over her shoulder as Enigma spoke. Even as she struggled against the flow of electricity, even as she tried to save her friends, she risked a glance behind her.

Only to see the black and purple form of Enigma's Stand hovering right behind her.

"When I should've realized they were part of a 'what'."

With that, Penny could see the kaleidoscope effect from before surround her. Only this time instead of being safely ignored thanks to Enigma's ignorance, Penny felt herself slowly but surely flattening out and folding up.

As Ren's vision slowly returned, he watched as Penny Polendina was in the process of being papered by Enigma.

 **-To Be Continued- Dance Battle (Act 4)**

* * *

 **Hunter: Yang Xiao Long**

 **Semblance: Drawing Strength From Hits**

 **Destructive Power: C - A**

 **Speed: C - A**

 **Range: E**

 **Lasting Power: C**

 **Precision: D**

 **Developmental Potential: B**

 **Draws Strength From Hits - Yang's Semblance is the ability to absorb energy from the damage she's taken, and redirect it twice as hard at her opponent, effectively making her stronger with each hit. Her ability also causes her eyes to change color from lilac to red, which is a "side-effect" of her Semblance. However, Yang's Semblance does not grant her invincibility, and she does take damage from her opponents. Should her Aura or body be overtaxed, her Semblance will give out right along with them.**

 **Also Known As: Rubber, glue, you know what to do.**

 **Also Known As: Takes a lickin' keeps on tickin'.**

* * *

 **A/N: Fun fact, resistance paper is a real thing. It's more commonly known as Teledeltos paper in our world and it, along with conductive ink, is actually real stuff. Is it as strong as it would be implied in this particular bit of the fight with Enigma? No, probably not, but I'm taking slight liberties because Remnant seems to be on a bit of a different technological level.**

 **I've honestly not got much to say this time around and no, that's not just cause it's High Summer and my building's AC is broken. This chapter was relatively straightforward; breaking up the action at roughly the 'halfway' points of each fight and for now skipping over Jotaro's bit because his fight is very close to its end. I tried to leave off each at either a climactic moment or a pretty good line, but otherwise I just wanted to make sure they each got a roughly equal amount of attention before moving onto the next bit. That won't be as much of a concern next time as some fights have a little more juice in them than others but, hey, it is what it is.**

 **See you all on the 23rd and enjoy yourselves!**


	34. Dance Battle (Act 4)

"Hahahahaha! I can't believe it! I just can't believe it! This is why you were hanging back despite you giving me no visual tells? This was why you had hidden yourself away? I guess it's true that even machines dream of electric sheep; you were incapable of showing it, but you were afraid this entire time! It's a rather delicious treat for one such as myself!"

Ren ground his teeth together harshly as he glared over at Enigma, both the Stand User and Stand, as his hands continued to press in and around Penny, folding the poor… machine girl up. The girl's eyes seemed somewhat vacant, or at least far more so than usual, as she stared back at Enigma's Stand, her bolding in the process of folding and refolding as it fell in on itself. Enigma's tricks had proven quite the hassle for Ren; the versatility of what his Stand could put away made him dangerous given that he could reach so many sundry items with just a flick of his wrist and the pull of some paper…

To say nothing of the fact that he was currently folding what had been his backup into a piece of paper. As the electricity continued to spark off of Penny and Ren's eyes came back into focus, the magenta eyed young man could only snarl in frustration; he hated this. Penny was trying to back him up and had risked a considerable amount to get their friends back. Meanwhile here Ren was, undone by the fact that his own eyes had betrayed him at a crucial moment.

He forced himself to his feet, ready to get back into the fray… though now he had no support and Enigma had yet another friend of his group in his clutches. All of this was proving a considerable weight on Ren's mind… Penny had been excited and exuberant in the dance and her eyes had been hard focused on their foe. But here and now she just seemed so detached, especially under Enigma's mockery.

RHCP had been cruel and savage, but that had been a function of its pure strength. Enigma, it was clear, reveled in his cruelty like few others Ren had ever met.

"Come on now, where's that 'spirit' you showed when you rushed me? Where's that soul that you put into your little performance? I saw how you were acting in the dance hall, how happy you tried to appear with your 'peers'. Does it sadden you to have this thrown in your face? To know just how miserably fake it all is? That, for all intents and purposes, the universe itself acknowledges you as little more than a thing? Is that what you were afraid of deep down? Is it? Do tell me, I'd love to know. It's a hobby of mine, after all!"

Ren was about ready to charge and silence Enigma himself, if he could. However both Ren's charge and Enigma's boasts were cut off by the very same thing.

A small smile that had formed on Penny's face.

"Yes… that is what I was afraid of. I was afraid that something like this would happen; that if I fell into one of your traps and it exposed my nature, that your Stand would activate and the nature of my Aura would be tested… that I might fail that test." Penny shook her head as the red haired android looked over to Enigma himself. "When I reached in for Josuke and Koichi and felt the shocks… part of me begged to draw my hands back and away before the voltage would expose my systems to you, before you would know the truth."

"Heh, too bad you were too late for it. Guess the shocks were a little much for your gears huh?" The white haired Stand User taunted with a wide grin as he cackled, only for Penny to shake her head.

"No… that's not why I kept my hands in. When I had gotten so close to getting Josuke and Koichi, I couldn't just stop. I couldn't just back off when I'd gotten so close to getting my new good friend and his teammate back. Then… you kept… oh, how would normal people put it? You kept… running your mouth, I think is the phrase." Penny smiled a bit more genuinely as she spoke which, on some level, spooked Enigma. "You revealed a part of how your paper worked. It makes sense and I give you credit for the use of it; trapping your paper like this would make it a lot easier to ensure that the actual important captives or items are not discovered or destroyed when the trap is deployed. My combat sensors appreciate this as a tactic…

"But I'm afraid it's also going to be the source of your undoing now." As Penny spoke, the papering effect finally reached her hands. "Because now… you've turned me into your paper." Suddenly, the shocks and arcs of electricity flowing up to Penny stopped, the smoke in her body subduing without the constant voltage running through it, as Penny Polendina looked up at her would-be captive. "Because now that I am your paper… I CAN SAVE MY FRIEND!" With a violent pull Penny managed to force from the folded up piece of paper Josuke and Koichi's papers, a great smile on her face as Enigma's right eye practically squeezed shut under the shock.

"WHAT?! DON'T PULL THOSE OUT!"

"When you told me how this all functioned, I knew the only way I could save JoJo was by letting you paper me, by letting you think that you had won unconditionally and that I would simply surrender to you and your Stand Power as others were forced to. That I was done the moment you used your ability on me, when truly, it was quite the opposite!" With a look of pride shining in her green eyes, Penny unfolded Josuke's paper ever so slightly as Enigma reached his hand forward to try to stop the robot girl.

Only to earn a fist to the face from Crazy Diamond for his troubles, blood spurting from his mouth and nose as the force of the blow caused him to drop Penny's paper just as the machine girl finished unfolding Koichi's as well. With just enough room left for the two to escape their prisons, a warm smile, if one marred by some sadness, was on Penny's lips as she slowly folded up.

"Even if it means that I'm a just a machine… I'll gladly turn to paper for my friends." With that, Penny Polendina completed her transformation into a piece of paper…

Just as Hirose Koichi and Higashikata Josuke finished escaping theirs, the pair posing quite proudly as they stared over at Enigma.

"Penny Polendina… that was way too cool." Josuke muttered to himself as his and Koichi's eyes shined with… something. Appreciation, a genuine warmth and, in Josuke's case… anger.

"H-Higashikata Josuke… H-Hirose Koichi!" Enigma's right eye was firmly squinted shut as he stared in horror at this development, Josuke slowly beginning his approach towards Enigma as the white haired Stand User almost immediately panicked, reaching over for Penny's paper as he placed it between his hands. "STOP RIGHT THERE JOSUKE! If you take another step, you know what can happen to your friend here! This, this right here is Penny's paper! If I tear this, it'll destroy her! She'll die and you'll have been the root cause! So stop moving and let me escape or I will kill her! Unlike you and Koichi, I have no reason to keep her!"

For a moment, just the briefest of moments, Josuke did stop. He did halt in place as, from underneath the shadow of his pompadour, the young team leader glared hatefully over at Enigma. In the end the teen just spat in disgust before he continued his solemn march over to Enigma, his hands clenched into tight fists.

"I said stop Josuke, you'll make me-" A bullet wound delivered right to Enigma's right elbow had silenced the Stand User before he could make any further threats. A horrific cry of pain escaped his lips as he practically dropped onto his knees, his left hand immediately letting go of Penny's paper as it went to hold his wound and stop the bleeding, only realizing his mistake in the moment as Josuke immediately reached his hand forward and grabbed Penny's paper from the air. From his spot behind Koichi and Josuke Ren just smiled a bit, a relieved expression on his face. He had quickly maneuvered himself onto Enigma's right side, an effective blind spot now that the Stand User had effectively shut his right eye completely.

"So it turns out I ended up as Penny's backup for this fight… can't say I'm too upset, considering. Should've kept your eyes on everyone in the fight Enigma… though I suppose that can't be easy when you're so busy squinting one eye the entire time." Ren nodded his head in satisfaction as Josuke reached his hand back to hand Penny's paper to Koichi who just took the paper from his team leader.

"Good aim Ren… now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to deal with our friend here." Josuke spoke very, very evenly as he walked up towards Enigma. The Stand User, for his part, wasn't going to take this sitting down; he reached both hands into his jacket and prepared to unleash more Hell out of the papers he had stuck in many of his pockets. However his move was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Crazy Diamond as Josuke's Stand immediately reached forward and punched both of Enigma's hands with its full force, the white haired Stand User crying out again as it felt like all the bones in both of his hands shattered from just that one blow.

When Enigma tried to pull his hands free his left eye went wide in horror.

"W-W-W-W-What? W-Why can't I move my hands? They feel like they're… they're stuck to my chest!" Enigma cried out as he tried in vain to remove his hands from his chest as Josuke just sighed and tapped his forehead.

"But you see Enigma… I seem to have forgotten how I'm going to deal with you. It must've just slipped my mind while I was waiting in that paper."

"Correct me if I'm wrong Josuke, but I believe you mentioned something about killing him if he ever gave you the opportunity to free yourself." Ren offered helpfully as he walked over to Koichi who had just finished unfolding Penny's paper.

"Why Ren, I do believe you're exactly right. Yeah, it's all coming back to me now. I said I'd kill him if I ever got back out." With that Enigma just stared up at Josuke with his left eye, horrified as the pompadoured teen turned his full attention onto him. "I said I'd kill you Enigma… do you want to know why? It isn't even that you're a cruel bastard. I can deal with cruelty, Hell, the Grimm are cruel, unfeeling monsters too… no, that's not why I'm going to kill you Enigma. I'm going to kill you because you're the sort of bastard who'll take advantage of people by stealing away their loved ones and using them as leverage to get what you want… threatening the lives of the people that a person might care about just because you're a heartless, selfish coward. I can't forgive people like you… it's just not in me."

When Josuke was right in front of Enigma, his foot slamming into the ground in a stomp with his final word, Enigma finally fell backward in an attempt to get away from Josuke, a look of contrition on his face as he seemed to change tactics from manipulation and terror to simple begging.

"W-W-Wait Josuke! You don't understand! I-I'm not usually like this! I'm actually quite the nice guy! It's just, I, I got this Stand only a few days ago and it made me cocky! Made me think I should and could do things that I can't! Please, my hobby before this was only to watch people, I didn't actually want to hurt anyone, you have to believe me I was coerced by my boss!":

"Do you want to know what I've noticed about you Enigma?" Josuke interrupted the white haired Stand User as Enigma finally choked on his words, watching as Josuke wordlessly raised his pinky finger to his own right eye. "You squint your right eye whenever you're scared… that's a habit, right? A tic that shows when you're afraid, right?" When Enigma didn't answer, instead cowering in fear of Josuke, all the while he squinted his right eye the pompadoured team leader just summoned forth Crazy Diamond, the pink Stand having moved its fist threateningly into Enigma's face.

"But you want to know what else I noticed? When you're even more scared, you close both of your eyes."

As Crazy Diamond pressed his fist closer and closer to Enigma's face and as he closed both eyes, the white haired Stand User only uttered one last cry of desperation, a scream for help, before Josuke pulled the trigger.

And then, it was over.

" **DOOOORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA-DORAAAA!"**

Josuke had put the beatdown onto Pyrrha before in their numerous spars. It was the way he most often finished a fight; with a barrage of punches that left his foes with little room to counter against Crazy Diamond. What he'd sacrifice in pure force he'd make up for in Crazy Diamond essentially locking the enemy into position, unable to respond. Ren had come to theorize that Crazy Diamond just couldn't hit as hard as it could while also punching as fast as it could, given the number of times he'd seen that against Pyrrha.

He realized how naive that assumption was in the moment.

Enigma was being positively cratered by each and every single one of Crazy Diamond's punches, his skin and body flexing and shifting around each of his fists as they connected. The look of pain and anguish in Enigma's eyes was readily apparent as the beatdown tore open his jacket and hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of paper flew out into the air around him…

That's when this got well and truly bizarre.

Crazy Diamond seemed to make a conscious effort to punch the pieces of paper onto Enigma, each one sticking to him one by one with each blow as Crazy Diamond kept up its assault. At first this had the appearance of the pieces of paper being stuck onto Enigma with a bit of glue or tape… but then the entire scene became much more macabre. Ren's magenta eyes widened as he watched the paper fuse with Enigma's skin, the normally tan boy's skin turning sheet white as the paper was stuck to and fused onto his skin by Crazy Diamond's repeated blows. When it seemed like Enigma had been entirely covered, when there was not one bit of his original body left, Crazy Diamond pounded him with one last punch, turning the entire mess of human and paper a glowing gold as Crazy Diamond dispersed and Josuke took a step back.

"So you like to observe people huh? That's been your hobby? Fine. Then you can just go ahead and do that for the rest of time Enigma!" Ren's magenta eyes watched as the glowing gold form shrunk and shrunk right before his eyes, the Mistrali huntsman was aghast as he watched the form take the shape of… of a book.

And as the book flipped its pages, a single voice rang out; the strained voice of Enigma.

"I-I… I'm a book?"

 **Terunosuke Miyamoto, the Enigma Boy, has been converted into a book and is unable to continue his work with Cinder Fall and the others. Upon being read once by Ironwood and Ozpin to ascertain what he knew, Terunosuke was filed away in the Beacon Library. Students interested in the formal study of Stands and the effects unique Stand Powers can have are allowed to check the book out, but must not listen to anything the book requests nor take it out of the library. Until further notice, both Ironwood and Ozpin agree that this should keep Terunosuke secure.**

 **TERUNOSUKE MIYAMOTO - RETIRED!**

* * *

Emerald was hyperventilating.

In her time working with Cinder Fall, under that wing of safety that saved her from her pathetic excuse for a life, she'd never once felt so in danger or so afraid again. Cinder thought her plans through to the last detail and always made sure to manufacture them in such a way that she'd come out on top.

Cinder never failed to come through on those plans and, thus, Emerald never had to worry about her own safety when going through with them.

But here and now? Emerald could feel that familiar fear and terror welling up within her, choking her breathing. Kujo Jotaro and Star Platinum didn't have eyes on her like she did them; down the walkway between them with several meters separating them, Emerald had her eyes locked on both. Despite the pounding, mind-numbing headache she had roaring in her head, she was keeping up her trickery. She was, essentially, invisible to both Stand and Stand User. She didn't have to worry about her safety, she knew. She knew Jotaro and Star Platinum couldn't see her.

But Gods. The looks in their eyes, the intensity… the hatred and anger. They may as well have been staring right at her for how palpably those looks were affecting her. Emerald had fucked up and fucked up hard, she knew. She was only meant to distract Jotaro; if she had wanted she could've just turned this entire part of the school into an illusory maze, sending the giant of a man on a long walk around campus while the other participants in the battle going on here at Beacon would win their rounds and come for her.

But she didn't. Part of it was because Cinder's plan had called for her to do something big. The simple maze might've been overcome; after all, Kujo Jotaro was experienced and deadly and had dealt with numerous Stands across his lifetime. A simple maze would've been easy to overcome, especially once he realized the nature of it. No, Cinder had suggested using Jotaro's emotions against him; she had suggest showing him a visage of Dio Brando in order to cloud his judgement and force him into an ill state of mind. They wanted him angry before. They thought he'd be easily containable if he was angry. After all, angry people did stupid stuff, they made big mistakes, they were easily lead around by the nose.

But, apparently, none of this was true of Kujo Jotaro. For Jotaro, making him angry just made him a deadlier and more dangerous opponent… not just mentally but, likely, physically as well.

That is what well and truly terrified Emerald; the idea that Kujo Jotaro might get Star Platinum's hands on her. That she'd be beaten to within an inch of her life and then dragged before Ozpin and Ironwood for interrogation. Unlike the Stand Users they'd employed, who knew absolutely nothing about Cinder or Salem… Emerald knew almost everything. She knew where the base was, she knew the plans, she knew the people involved and she knew a lot of connections. If she was grabbed the information they could force out of her could potentially flip the script on this entire operation in one go. The devastation is could wreak on their plans would be massive… CInder would likely never recover.

It wouldn't even be because of her enemies either… if Emerald failed in such a way, Salem would take it out on Cinder for choosing such an unreliable subordinate.

Salem would do terrible, terrible things to Cinder.

Screw Red Hot Chili Pepper, screw Harvest and screw Enigma. Emerald had to get away.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, the red eyed young woman slowly but surely walked backwards away from Jotaro and Star Platinum. They couldn't see or hear her so, as long as she kept them within her vision, she wouldn't have to worry about them spotting her out. Once she was actually outside of their range of hearing and sight… which would be difficult for Star Platinum if his senses were sensitive, but not impossible, she'd make a break for it. While Jotaro might've been fit, he was no Aura User. There was no way he could keep up with Emerald if she ran at full blast, using the most of her speed in order to get away from the giant of a man.

A small smile crept its way into Emerald's lips as she laughed a bit, wincing to herself from her monstrous headache. Yes, this was how easy it was to use her semblance to get away from a man like Kujo Jotaro. He'd threatened to break her face with all the bravado of a gorilla, and yet here he was, eyes glancing about and unable to even so much as locate her. She'd made a big mistake in engaging like she had, one she'd have to fill Cinder in on later, but still, this was the full strength of her semblance. As much as Jotaro belittled it as a simple 'trick' and how he'd circumvented it, she was still going to-

 **THUU** UUuuumm…

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

… thuuUU **UUUM!**

tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK!**

An explosion of smoke and dust promptly filled Emerald's vision, though her goggles allowed her to get away with looking right at it without having to flinch. She watched as a pile of rubble flitted up into the air followed rapidly by the aforementioned cloud of smile and debris. Emerald's red eyes blinked as she tried her best to look through this cloud to see what had happened. It didn't take much imagination to consider 'how' Kujo Jotaro pulled this off. He obviously stopped time again with his Stand. The question was why? When she took a very close look to the ground she couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her lips.

It was a perfect radius around where he had been standing, going out several meters away from his position with most of the ground utterly pulverized. So what? This was Kujo Jotaro's gamble? To just pound the ground with enough force during Stopped Time and hope that she ended up caught up in it.

"Was that your plan? Just keep punching and hope you catch me? Kind of barbaric, don't you think?" Emerald spoke mostly to herself as she said this, not quite being able to help herself. These guys, their enemies, they were all a bunch of-

"I wouldn't say that. Though I'm not surprised you don't see the point of this."

Emerald's thoughts stopped dead in their tracks when Kujo Jotaro responded to her from somewhere in the thick cloud of dust and smoke… somewhere…

Somewhere she couldn't see him.

Emerald's red eyes went wide as the green haired teenager immediately double-backed, panicking overwhelming her. Jotaro hadn't been trying to pound her into the ground with that maneuver, he was throwing up a veritable smokescreen! One that he could hide himself inside and reposition as to try and get her! Without the ability to have her eyes directly on him, she couldn't force him under one of her illusions. Without that, she was essentially powerless over him! A thick lump formed in her throat as she turned around and prepared to sprint off; to Hell with subtlety, she just needed to get out of here!

She had thought that up until she almost ran into a shadow that had taken shape in the smoke and stood directly in front of her. Emerald, fast on her feet thanks to her Aura, immediately turned on her heel and made for the opposite direction. Though, despite her efforts, she was once again met with another shadow in the smoke.

Kujo Jotaro and Star Platinum had surrounded her, their shadows cast against her on either side of the smoke. The Stand itself was probably ready to collapse on her in a moment's notice if she made an opening. Emerald was in deep shit at the moment; she was effectively surrounded by her enemies. Had they both been Aura Users, Emerald might've thought her luck completely out.

However, in truth, Star Platinum was the only 'true threat' out of the pair. Jotaro, as she had said, was physically fit but, hey, this would do him no good against someone with physical Aura. She could more than likely overpower him quite easily with her innate physical abilities and then make her escape… so long as she kept her eyes on Star Platinum. If she could keep Star Platinum out of this fight by throwing the Stand's senses for a loop, then she could still yet make it out of this in one piece and without being captured…

Emerald, however, was not one to take a fifty-fifty chance on her odds. No, she wanted to be sure of her decision, wanted to know for certain she was making the right one. She had to look for a sign, any sign, that one of these shadows was Star Platinum and the other was Kujo Jotaro. She eyed both silhouettes warily, looking for signs of which one was the Stand and which one was Stand User. Both of them had their feet on the ground and both of them were standing in neutral, defensive postures. Jotaro had apparently thought this through; he was putting as much effort as he could into making both shadows look as close to each other as possible.

Still, Emerald couldn't help but crack a smile; Jotaro had made a critical error. He had left something behind in his silhouette that showed that it was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, him. The shadow cast just in front of her had a cap on the top of its head, the rim stretching out in front of it as the shadow just stood there. There was no mistaking that cap and therefore no mistaking the owner of that shadow.

Therefore…

Emerald quickly sprung into action, turning around and punching her hands through the smoke to part it, her red eyes focused hard on the source of the shadow behind her. Just as she thought; those piercing eyes, that mane of black hair, that strong physique and… and… the white… coat.

A hatless Kujo Jotaro stood before Emerald, his eyes narrowed down at her for but the briefest of moments before her illusion took hold and his eyes went unfocused. The large huntsman sighed as he ran a hand through his own slightly disheveled hair, an annoyed look about him.

" **Yare yare daze** … I'm going to have to apologize. You see, I promised I'd break your face and I meant it… but considering you have physical Aura, it's going to take a little bit. I'm sorry that I'm about to take up so much of your time and mine." As Jotaro spoke, Emerald didn't even need to turn around to 'feel' the air shift behind her, to practically feel the pressure as Star Platinum reared its fist back in preparation for a punch.

"I promise I'll make this go as quickly as I can."

" **ORRRAAAAA!** "

Emerald tried her damndest to move, tried her damndest to reposition herself. She was desperate as she moved as quickly as she could on her feet in an attempt to catch Star Platinum before its blow could connect, so that she could take away its ability to see her and then move on out of the way.

The only thing her movements earned her was that Star Platinum, instead of slamming its fist into the back of her head, now practically broke her jaw as its punch connected with the side of her face. At least now Emerald could say she no longer had a headache from her semblance; how she just felt like her head was about to split open thanks to Star Platinum. Kujo Jotaro cooly stepped forward as Star Platinum leaned into its punch, the man of twenty-nine years reaching up to pluck his cap off of the top of Star Platinum's head. With his finger and his thumb holding the cap by the leftmost part of its visor, Jotaro slipped the half-ripped cap onto his head, covering up his wild hair save for that tuft of hair that came out from the back. When he was sure he'd secured it, Kujo Jotaro ran his index finger across the rim and looked up.

With a simple turn and a flick of his wrist, Jotaro faced Emerald's limp form as it began to stumble through the air, his index finger arced from the rim of his hat to point directly at Emerald.

" **RAAAAAAAAAH!** "

And at that moment, Star Platinum: The World was let off its chain.

" **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~"**

Emerald hadn't known quite what to expect from a shower of blows from Stands like Crazy Diamond or Star Platinum. She expected it to hurt, sure, but she didn't think about how badly it would or how prolonged the assault would be. She'd heard tales but then, tales tend to be over exaggerated when it comes to 'figures' like Kujo Jotaro. However, in this moment, as her Aura was almost immediately drained, her bones beginning to crack and flex under the strain of Star Platinum's assault and her body feeling like it was being born down upon by hundreds upon hundreds of sledgehammers all hitting her at once, Emerald realized now that the tales of Kujo Jotaro were nothing like Port's tales of self-aggrandizement.

Kujo Jotaro had earned every last ounce of reputation. She felt it in her bones now… quite literally. Her body was being thrashed around like a ragdoll, with only 'gentle' pulls from Star Platinum here and there keeping her within his punching range. She was lucky that this suit was covering her, otherwise the roadmap of bruises and bleeding, broken skin would probably make even her own mother wince and look away.

" **OOORAAAAAAAAAAA!** "

With one last solid punch to her jaw, Emerald was sent spiraling away from Star Platinum, her body skidding and skipping across the ground multiple times as the sheer force with which Star Platinum sent her flying carried her across several meters and, ultimately, left her in an inglorious heap on the ground some odd distance away from Jotaro and his Stand.

" **Yare yare daze** … this was a complete and total pain in my ass. I really have to wonder what made you think you'd come out of this without me beating the everloving shit out of you, but I suppose that's besides the point now." With a quick flourish Jotaro readjusted his cap once more as Star Platinum faded back into his body. The experienced huntsmen strode forward towards Emerald, ready to unmask her… before he stopped for a moment, collapsing onto one knee with his hand on the other. Jotaro took deep, somewhat labored breaths as he stopped there for a brief moment.

"... Though I do have to hand it to you. You made me used Stopped Time more in a short period of time than I'd ordinarily like to. Congratulations, you at least managed to tire me out a bit." With a few more solid breaths Jotaro forced himself back onto his feet and, after a few shaky steps, managed to regain his normal gait. As Jotaro approached Emerald he looked over her body… with the thickness of her suit it was hard to tell if she was a man or a woman, though her voice throughout the fight gave him the impression of a relatively young woman, perhaps a teenager. As Jotaro kneeled down he reached his hand forward and grabbed the end of Emerald's mask, ready to rip it of her head and expose her.

With one hard gesture he did so…

And the body of Emerald Sustrai promptly exploded into a shower of shattered glass.

"What?!" Immediately Jotaro was back on his feet, Star Platinum out and ready to defend him, as his gaze carefully took in his surroundings. He'd already heard reports of a semblance like this; Josuke and Team RWBY had reported a short girl with Bucciarati and Torchwick whose semblance had the ability to make constructs or illusions like these, seemingly with ease. It wasn't even that hard to imagine when she had found the time to do so without him noticing; when he'd collapsed just a moment ago from his overuse of Stopped Time, she must've snuck in, swapped out his combatant and then snuck back out. According to the others, she seemed to be able to turn herself and other invisible during this entire process, or at least, that had been their best explanation for her, Bucciarati and Torchwick's escape after the battle under the highway. Jotaro ground his teeth together as he spun in place, attempting to look out for any sign of his would be attackers or get aways…

And yet he was left with nothing. Jotaro just scoffed as he clenched a fist.

"Dammit, can't believe that I just let that bitch get away after all the trouble… whatever. The state she's in she probably won't be in much of a condition to mess with anyone else. If they've also got that girl on rescue, then that means she's not gonna be busy hurting anyone else… speaking of." Jotaro's eyes, clear of Emerald's illusions, turned his gaze back towards the main dance hall. A small light show was going on in there, a flare of yellow fire shining out of the windows every now and then and a spark of electricity being easily seen as well. "Looks like there's still a fight going on…" With that Jotaro took one last deep breath and made a mad dash for the Dance Hall. Whatever they had planned while he was under the influence of that girl's illusions, it couldn't have been good.

* * *

Red Hot Chili Pepper didn't understand.

One moment, he had this fight in the bag; he had an entire group of huntsmen and huntresses completely at his mercy, unable to do much more than watch as he tore their worlds and bodies apart, beating them down with his superior speed and strength. He was on top of the world, the most powerful thing in the room and, with Enigma at his side, able to force whatever threats did pop up to cower before the threat of ending their friends lives.

"NOW HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF THIS!"

But as another fist and shotgun blast struck him about the face, RHCP couldn't help but feel like that momentum had been turned around, dramatically. It all started with that orange-haired bitch using her semblance. That was the big turning point; while it alone couldn't derail him, it had given these bitches their opening. It had let them slip past his defenses and find a way to actually get at him. Without a direct conduit of electricity under his feet or very much nearby, his speed and power were diminished. He could still feel electricity in the air from the wall outlets, the hanging lights and the variety of electronics Beacon had built into the ceiling and wall of their dance hall, but this was ambient electricity at best. It was nothing compared to actually directly plugging into a source of power right at his fingertips or under his toes…

Which was a problem. Because these bitches had their power source built right into them and this blonde bimbo was giving it her all to pulverize the everloving shit out of him. Now, RHCP was a Stand, a being of pure Aura given form. He could take a lot of punishment even separated from electricity as he was. Hell, he was still being healed, very slowly, just by the ambient electrical currents in the room. However, what healing he was doing and what power he was drudging up wasn't quite up to snuff with Yang Xiao Long's semblance. This much he could accept; just as Kujo Jotaro was too much for him on his own and Glynda Goodwitch would be a real bitch if he couldn't just turn into lightning at a moment's notice, Yang Xiao Long was faster and stronger than she appeared to be at first glance thanks to her semblance.

What RHCP needed was to get back to a source of flowing, manipulatable electrical currents. What he needed was to get close to one of the walls…

Yes, the walls. He'd had a little… stash put there. Something to act as a bit of 'in case of emergency, break glass' back up. If he could get to it then he'd be able to summon up enough power to be able to bounce these huntresses around the dance floor, irrespective of how much of the wiring in the floor they tore up or how large of a dead zone that Nora Valkyrie could create. Of course this was far easier said than done; Yang wasn't doing her nature as a blonde proud, she was actually fighting quite intelligently. She made sure her blows never knocked him out of one of Nora's dead zones and made sure that he never even got close to one of the walls or the sources of power therein. She just beat him to a bloody pulp, this time by grabbing him about his neck with one hand while savagely beating his face in with the other, before she'd inevitably knock him up into the air to give Nora some time to rest while Glynda kept tearing up the floor.

Something she was doing right fucking now!

" **I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU**!" Red Hot Chili Pepper cried out, the anger in his voice clear and easily heard as he glared down at the floor. However, he found that only two of his three sources of complete, righteous fury were down there for him to see. The third, he soon felt, had again appeared behind him.

"Ah thanks tiger, we feel exactly the same way about you." With that, Yang Xiao Long grabbed his tail and began spinning in mid air, the Stand crying out as he could feel the momentum kick up and his tail be pulled far, far, far too hard. "Alright, Nora, set me up for-"

"Miss Xiao Long!" Glynda's voice called out as Yang risked a glance down to her, a small, rare smile on Glynda's lips as she pointed out to a section of floor.

"Are you serious?" Yang asked, seemingly incredulous, as Glynda Goodwitch just nodded. "Alright! Good stuff!" With that Yang kicked her semblance into gear just a little bit more and, with a powerful toss, bodily threw RHCP into a section of floor, the floorboards crashing up as the Stand made impact. RHCP coughed violently as it forced itself to its hands and knees, its red eyes blearily looking out. Its skin was covered in scuffs and scratches, signs that it was taking very serious damage for a Stand… the fact that his skin had also lost a considerable amount of its sheen and, in some places, had even begun to turn brown had given him further cause for concern.

However, as far as RHCP was concerned, there was a bright spot to this. A very, very bright spot that immediately brought a smile to his lips. Nora Valkyrie, that cheating bitch with the semblance, was too far off to actually make a dead zone large enough to contain him. She just stood off to the side, her knees bent and breathing heavy, as she stared after him. She must've been too exhausted to actually get her powers going back up in time! RHCP chuckled darkly as Yang landed some odd feet behind him, the Stand turning its head to look at the blonde.

" **You dumbasses… you just let me hit the floor without actually setting up your little ploy? How fucking stupid of all of you. I can't believe you'd just leave open a chance like this. Yeaaahahaha...hahaha...haaaa** …" RHCP's laughter died down as it realized that it wasn't actually feeling an electrical current underneath it. Quite the opposite in fact, the floor behind him felt pretty much completely deadened of any and all electricity. As RHCP's red eyes turned down to look, it nearly choked; there was none of the electrical wiring underneath it. Looking up to Glynda he saw the vast majority of the wiring that had been underneath the floorboards now floating above her head, more and more of it being torn out from through the holes Harvest had set up as the Beacon professor just glared at him.

"Yeah, Nora gets to take a break now because teach over there's actually torn up enough of your little arena to make this a whole lot easier." Fear reached into RHCP's eyes as it bodily flipped itself onto its back to look up at Yang, her red eyes narrowed slightly and a confident grin on her lips as she stalked over towards him. "Now I actually have some space to move around… which means I don't actually have to hold back against you. With all the punishment you've already taken, I have to wonder if you can actually handle me going at full force for too long. Hopefully not because we've got some friends to catch up with." Yang slammed her gauntleted fists together, causing a momentary spike in her Aura as she looked at him. "And you, Chili Pepper, have cost us enough friggin' time."

RHCP groaned as it forced itself up onto its feet, its eyes wide and somewhat delirious as it stared on at Yang. It… it needed to get over to one of those walls. It just needed to get away from Yang for long enough that he could slip away and there'd be nothing to be done about it. He just… he just needed a little distraction, just a little bit of a shock and he could get to his win condition. Red Hot Chili Pepper ground its teeth together as Yang slowly approached, the blonde wench clearly taking her time. Partly out of a desire to be cautious, he was sure. She didn't want him to get the jump on her. But he was also very much certain that she was enjoying his panic, the worry that was clear on his expression. She had gotten him into a corner and she was going to milk it as much as he milked his own time on top.

But RHCP wasn't a Stand that was idle. It was slippery… and he was about to show off how slippery. As Yang was not but a couple inches from him, she reared her fists back and get ready to get back to pummeling him. In a blur, RHCP drew the remaining residual energy from around him into his body, causing him to shoot a lot of live sparks into the immediate vicinity. Yang flinched, only for a moment, but that flinch was just long enough for Chili Pepper to take advantage of her uncertainty.

Red Hot Chili Pepper reached forward and, with the power concentrated inside of him, blasted Yang with a live charge of electricity. It drained him a good deal, to be certain, but it'd be worth it. The blonde brawler cried out in pain as the shock sent her flying back, more of her dress burnt up and a lot of her body smoking as she stumbled backward across the ground. RHCP cackled as it forced itself to its feet and immediately sprinted for one of the wall sockets. Yes, this was it. This was his opportunity. He'd grab this and then he'd be in control of this fight again, he'd be able to kill them no problem, he'd.

"And just where do you think you're going Mr. Chili Pepper?"

He'd get tackled by Nora Valkyrie, the bubbly bomber putting him into a full nelson as she forced his arms back against his body.

" **Let go of me you bitch before I electrocute the shit out of you!** " Red Hot Chili Pepper called out his threat and, with some focus, attempted to do just that to Nora. However, to his own dismay, his sparks of electrical energy were weak and they seemed easily absorbed by Nora.

"Afraid that you already spent a lot of energy doing that to Yang. Bad call I'd say but it was probably the best of a bunch of bad calls… that's how Ren would put it, I think." Nora growled to herself as she tightened her full nelson on RHCP, the Stand attempting to bodily force himself out of the tired girl's hold… up until he felt a foreign energy collapse around him, forcing him to stay put.

"And while Miss Valkyrie makes sure you can't electrocute any of us while you're grounding, I'll help her hold you in place… as for actually dealing with you. Well, I do believe you've just given Miss Xiao Long all the reason she needs to pummel you into nothing, Chili Pepper." Glynda spoke calmly and coldly as RHCP blinked, its eyes turning back over to Yang as the blonde brawler forced herself back up to her feet. Yang's dress was a mess, not just from her own beating of herself to pump up her semblance but now, thanks to RHCP's shock, even more of her midsection had been destroyed. A light burn had joined the deep bruises next to her ribs though, thanks to having spared her Aura in her own assault, she'd had enough to keep RHCP from doing serious damage. In fact, most of her body was not even smoking all that bad now that RHCP took a good look at it.

No, what was smoking badly were the ends of Yang Xiao Long's luxurious locks of hair, most of which had been singed badly at the tips from his electrical shock. RHCP, not having known Yang, wasn't even remotely aware of what this would mean…

For Nora and Glynda, they knew that there was nothing they could do to stop Yang from taking it upon herself to beat Red Hot Chili Pepper into a pulp. They watched as the blonde brawler slowly stalked her way over to Nora and RHCP, her eyes obscured by her bangs as she reached up and cracked her knuckles, her hair glowing with the power of her Stand as her Aura seemed to just shift wildly around her. The lightning Stand swallowed a large lump in his throat as Yang walked right up in front of the two of them, her eyes still obscured as Nora just grinned.

"You know Yang, you should try the 'Ora Ora' thing. Makes me feel a lot less stressed whenever I just need to beat something up." Yang seemed to pause for a moment to consider Nora's words, before she just blew a few of her bangs out from her face.

If RHCP had any blood running through its systems, it's turn ice cold from the look Yang Xiao Long was giving him.

"You know what Chili? I take back what I said… when I'm kicking the shit out of you, I'm not thinking of Bucciarati anymore. I'm thinking about turning your head into a crater." And with those words Yang's Aura flared violently, her eyes practically glowing red as her hair flowed up. She reared back both of her fists, tightening her muscles like coils as she glared over at RHCP.

Chili Pepper could only close its eyes as it prepared for the barraged.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA-ORAAAA!"

Nora stood her ground valiantly as Yang pummeled Red Hot Chili Pepper, the Stand's head snapping back and forth with each blow and its body being positively cratered by the number and force of the blows being inflicted on it. Still, the fact was that Yang had spent a great deal of her energy on the fight earlier, dealing with RHCP while there was still so much electricity around for him to escape to. As Yang pummeled him as hard and as fast as she could with her semblance, she found her energy burning out. Her eyes returned to their lilac coloring, her hair stopped glowing and floating and, eventually, Yang reared back for one last powerful blow landed to RHCP's jaw before she stepped back, breathing deep as she felt herself be, essentially, completely spent.

Red Hot Chili Pepper may as well have been rusted over now for how dark and brown he was, the Stand having flinched and twitched several times as it was held in Nora's arms and by the force of Glynda's semblance. The Stand choked and coughed from its beating, Yang at first quite pleased to have reduced the Stand to such a state.

That amusement quickly died when the choking coughs turned into choked laughter, as Red Hot Chili Pepper turned its red eyes over to Yang.

" **So… ya finally tired yourself out you blonde bimbo? Good… maybe now we can get things done and over with**." Yang growled as she glared at RHCP, pounding her fists together as she did so.

"Big talk for someone who just got friggin' thrashed. Faced it Chili, it's over. You have no nearby source of electricity to jump to and its clear you're down and out. Just tell us who your Stand User is and maybe I'll forgive you for frying my hair… after I beat you up a little more, of course." Yang spat off to the side as she glared hatefully at RHCP, who just chuckled remorselessly as his eyes glanced over his shoulder.

" **Oh… you stupid, stupid girl. I do have a source of electricity to jump to… I just didn't realize it till it was literally right in front of my face.** "

With looks of horror on both Glynda's and Yang's faces, Red Hot Chili Pepper somehow, somehow, converted itself into its electrical form. From there, the Stand pulled yet another surprise out of its hat; it jumped into Nora. The orange-haired huntress stood there for a brief moment, surprise and fear having overcome her expression as she looked at her hands, not believing what she'd just seen herself. Soon though those turquoise eyes went wide, her hands reaching down to grip her torso, as suddenly Nora Valkyrie was blanketed in a shower of electrical sparks and light.

Her screams soon followed the show.

"NORA!"

"MISS VALKYRIE!" Both Glynda and Yang prepared to run up to her as she seemed to go taught, her muscles contracting and relaxing in rhythm with the electricity, before Nora reached a hand out to stop them.

"No! Stay back! I can… I can feel him!" Tears streamed down Nora's cheeks from the pain as she bit the insides of her cheeks. Soon enough the sparks of electricity surrounding him converged on her back and, much to Yang and Glynda's further enragement, formed the vague shape of Red Hot Chili Pepper.

" **I should've realized it sooner. When I had embedded my hand into her I had thought that she was just fully absorbing me into her body. I should've realized that wasn't the case when I managed to actually pull my hand out of her; it wasn't that she was absorbing me, but that I had actually melded into her like I would a piece of electronic equipment. Her semblance makes her a terrible foe; with sufficient focus and Aura she can create dead zones where I can't power myself up and she can ground my electricity…**

" **But this battle has exhausted her and her body, and she has so much excess electricity running through her she'll probably spend days trying to work it all out of her system without retching. Her semblance while fully charged makes her a dampener for myself and my powers… but when exhausted, it turns her into a veritable lightning rod for myself and my power! YEAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!** "

Nora's body shifted in place, taking a step away from Glynda and Yang and towards one of the walls. Both women ground their teeth in frustration as they prepared to approach Nora and RHCP, before the Stand just wagged a finger.

" **No no no! Like I said, Nora has quite a bit of excess electricity in her at the moment. If I were to, say, manipulate it into attacking her brain stem, I doubt she'd have the energy to resist me after having spent so much of her Aura in this battle already!** " Glynda and Yang froze in place as RHCP dipped back inside of Nora, the girl's movements towards the wall speeding up as it seemed she was being dragged along by an outside force.

In truth, RHCP wasn't nearly as in control as he'd lead them to believe. It was taking A LOT of his own power in order to drag Nora's body around, power he was using from all the electricity she'd built up. Even with her semblance as exhausted as it was, the second he ran out of juice Nora would be able to force him out and there wouldn't be much he could do about it…

But that didn't matter. There was at least enough power in this bitch to force her over to the wall. RHCP stared through Nora's eyes as he cackled; yes, as soon as he dragged her over there he'd be able to draw upon Beacon's full power and fish out his stash! Once he did that, he'd be able to just shock this orange haired bitch to death and then turn on her friends!

Yes! Red Hot Chili Pepper would finally win! He'd kill this bitch and then he'd turn this all around!

He'd kill…

He'd…

H-He'd…

Why was such a terrible shiver running up and down his spine?

RHCP turned his head away from Nora's eyes, looking deep back into their recesses. That's… that's where he felt it. Where he'd seen that black flame before, that Dark Will that seemed to drive her to protect her friends. This feeling… this foreboding sense of doom. It was coming from somewhere back there. Deep in her eyes. But… but what… wait, what was that? There, in the very back…

RHCP's eyes went wide as a choked scream ripped from the Stand's voice. Immediately the Stand turned back towards Nora's vision and saw that he was close enough to the wall to make it the rest of the way on his own. With little hesitation RHCP turned back into his electrical form and proceeded to nope the Hell out of Nora Valkyrie's body, away from her eyes.

For in the very essence of that Dark Will, in the far back reaches of Nora's own eyes, two red eyes peered out, staring out after RHCP as it left. Soon enough, when the intruder had left, when the threat was gone, they closed once again as it returned to its slumber.

Glynda and Yang reacted with surprise as RHCP jumped right out of Nora and immediately landed very near one of the wall outlets. The pair immediately ran forward and caught the bubbly bomber as she prepared to collapse onto her knees, her body jittering and shaking as Nora herself seemed to fall into a state of unconsciousness, fading in and out as she mumbled a few things under her breath. Professor and student turned their gazes up to RHCP as the Stand stared back at the group of them, a careful look in its eyes before it snarled as it jammed a hand into the outlet, turning into lightning.

Glynda and Yang each grimaced as Red Hot Chili Pepper grinned at the pair, the lightning arcing up his body as, slowly but surely, the golden sheen of his skin returned and his wounds healed.

" **You know, I really didn't want to have to reach this deep into my bag of tricks to kill you all. I wanted this to be easy. To save this for something that really called for it… but I see now that I was being a bit conceited**." A harsh bark of laughter escaped RHCP's lips as it slowly pulled something from the sparks of electricity, some indistinct shape that caused the Stand to grin nice and wide.

" **Yang's spent and Nora appears down and out for the count for now… but you've done a very good job of tearing up my arena, Goodwitch. If I try to approach you now, I'll run out of floor long beforehand and you'll end up using your semblance to pin me down and finish me off. That just won't do… so I'll have to go ahead and really charge my battery for this next one. Don't blink or else you'll miss it**!" Glynda readied herself as RHCP cackled and laughed, its body poised to rip whatever it had hidden in the wall's electricity out and into the open…

Up until a bright flare went off from the top of the CCT. All three combatants turned their gaze to the sudden light show as Red Hot Chili Pepper's jaw dropped, a brief pause in its movements as it ground its teeth together.

" **No… no no no no! Not when I'm just about ready to go off! Not when I'm ready to put these bitches in their place! It can't be time yet! It just…** " RHCP's grousing was cut short as the Stand noticed from the window it was standing near that Kujo Jotaro was running as fast as he could back to the dance hall. Red Hot Chili Pepper let out a growl of frustration as it shoved its fist back into the outlet, turning its gaze to glare hatefully at Glyna and Yang.

" **Enjoy your reprieve… it ain't gonna last long. Trust me, we'll be back**." With that RHCP turned into lightning and drew itself into the outlet, disappearing before Yang and Glynda's very eyes into the maze of circuitry and electronics that was Beacon Academy. At once annoyance and relief flooded the two blonde's persons. On the one hand, Red Hot Chili Pepper had just escaped despite their best efforts to pin it down with Nora and now the Stand, the most dangerous of the enemy Stand they knew of at this point, was at large.

On the other hand, with no casualties save for Nora passing out, they also both considered themselves immeasurably lucky. If Red Hot Chili Pepper did have an ace up its sleeve, that could have very well been the end of this fight.

As Yang slid down to the ground and practically collapsed under her own exhausted weight, she slid her gauntlets off of her sweaty, lightly burnt fists. Now all the last-minute leader had to worry about was whether or not the other groups were going to make it out okay… God, she hoped they would…

If any of them died… she knew she wouldn't forgive herself.

* * *

"What's that… what? Oh no!" The rotund young man sat up from his hiding spot as he looked out the small hole in the wall that Harvest had made for him, seeing the nice lady's signal go up in the night sky. "Oh… oh dear, that's the signal for us to leave. But… but I haven't gotten anywhere near all the students that they said I'd need to! They took so many back from my Harvests! It's inconceivable! How could they manage to take on so many at once…" The little faunus stopped to think for a moment as he scratched his chin.

"I suppose my Harvests said that some of them could split themselves up a lot, one of them was able to make a tornado of metal pointy things and the last two were just wiping frozen Harvests out of thin air… so I guess it is conceivable, if you think about it." The boy shivered slightly as he gathered up as much of the paper as he could into his fat arms, a nervous swallow following this gesture as he nodded to the Harvests he'd kept with him. "Harvest, let's get going. This will have to do. I'm sure the nice lady will have another plan to get everyone else out before something bad happens to them." The Harvests nodded and, with little effort at all, slid underneath their rotund Stand Master and lifted him up, the little Stands working as a team as they guided the boy out from his hiding spot.

As they scurried away from the hiding spot, the spiky-headed young man could only sigh in relief. Sure, he wasn't getting everything he was supposed to, but he still thought he put in good work. Hopefully the nice lady would be happy and she'd still give his mama and papa the money to get to Menagerie. He could keep trying to help get the other kids away later, but for now, he just wanted to make sure mama and papa were-

"Well well well, looks like we found our Stand User."

The young boy practically jumped out of his skin as two figures jumped in front of him; the black faunus cat lady and the blonde monkey one, two clones of the latter surrounding the pair as they blocked off his escape route.

"You were right Weiss, all we had to do was keep destroying his Stand and follow the trail of newly created ones and they'd take us right to his hiding spot." The rotund boy shifted in the grip of his Harvests as he saw the scarred, scary voiced huntsman and the white haired Schnee girl suddenly pop in behind him.

"Well, now that we're finally here, we might as well deal with him. He's put so many of our friends lives in danger, we can't just…" The last of them, the spooky red head who could destroy so many of his Harvests in such a short period of time, jumped in soon after, a flying battery of metal objects floating just behind her as, slowly but surely, everyone got a good look at him.

"... Is he… I think he's actually just a kid?"

"Oh wow were we actually about to beat up a kid? That would've kinda sucked."

Blake and Sun had spoken those lines respectively, as the child just looked up at all of them with fear in his eyes. Their guards were dropped, these people who were trying to make these kids stay here had their guards down. If that was the case, then maybe…

"Harvest!" The pile of Harvests that were just underneath him immediately jumped out from under him, ready to leap out at the rest of the group to try and defend their Stand User. This effort was quickly put on ice, quite literally, as a few rapid rapier slashes empowered by just the smallest amount of Dust froze many of the Harvests either together or entirely. Okuyasu then had The Hand reach forward and scrape them all out of existence.

"Kid or not, brat's still a Stand User and a swarm type at that. Don't let your guard down or you won't exactly live to regret it." Okuyasu muttered as Weiss nodded in ready agreement, everyone's tension suddenly back up as they stared down at the kid…

Just in time to see him start to cry a bit.

"Please… please, I'm sorry. Just let me go! Don't make me go to your scary school where you send kids to get killed my Grimm!"

"... Uh… Excuse us?" Pyrrha asked, honestly bewildered, as the boy nodded his head.

"Mama and Papa always told me to never become a hunter. They never told me why, but they always did say that it was just very dangerous and that I shouldn't! That if I did then I'd get killed by Grimm, because that's just what happens to hunters! Then the nice lady came around and told me that these schools are meant to take kids away and send them off to be Grimm food! It made sense to me!" The boy cried out as he looked at five teens, each of whom looked at each other and grimaced a bit.

"Yo, little man… that's, uh, that's not exactly what's going on here." Sun said as he scratched his head. "I mean, we'd know, we actually attend Beacon ourselves."

"You would say that! You're disguised monsters who're running this! The Nice Lady said so!" The boy pointed out with a shout as Blake just blinked somewhat.

"Yeah no, sorry kid, no monsters here… just people and faunus like you." The boy seemed to blink in disbelief as she said this and Blake, sighing in some annoyance, tugged at her cheek a bit as if to prove her point.

"AGH! INCONCEIVABLE! Why would you willingly go someplace that Mama and Papa said was so dangerous?!" The boy seemed quite shocked by this sudden show of humanity, as Pyrrha just glanced back at the school and thought for a moment.

"... Because we want to help protect people from Grimm. Even if it means risking dying to them, that's a danger we're willing to stomach if we can save other people's lives." Everyone looked over to the redhead as she spoke, a soft grin on her face as the boy looked over at her. The gears seemed to be slowly turning in his head as he worked over what she was saying.

"... Oh. That's completely conceivable." The boy nodded in some understanding as the teens let out a sigh of relief. "But wait! Why would the nice lady lie to me! She's my first ever friend, and she said she'd never lie to me." Okuyasu frowned as he crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head to the side.

"... Dude, do you even know her name? You've just been calling her 'Nice Lady' this entire time. If she's your friend, you'd know her name right?" The boy opened his mouth to counter, as a slightly thoughtful expression crossed his face.

"... Now that you mention it, I guess I don't know her name. I don't even know what she looks like, she was wearing a mask and everything." The group just stared, slightly dumbfounded at the kid. "She said she had a good reason though! She said she was from Atlas and that everyone dresses like that cause it's so cold!"

"I'm from Atlas and do you see me dressing like that? You even seem to know I'm a Schnee so you know I'm not lying." The rotund boy once again turned to look at Weiss, the light blue eyed Schnee Heiress just staring down at him with some disbelief.

"Hey yeah, you're right… but then if that's the case… Oh! She was lying. I get it now." Everyone resisted the urge to slap their hands to their forehead… save for Weiss, who seemed to slap hers very, very hard.

"... Someone who's even thicker than Okuyasu. Oh do the wonders never cease?" The scarred teen in question just shrugged his shoulders as the young boy seemed to be in a bit of a panic.

"Oh no! But if this is all true then she wasn't probably gonna give me the money to go to Menagerie! That also means that I really very nearly did something really, really bad! Mama and Papa are going to be so upset!" The little boy waved his arms around as the thought caused him to panic, as Blake just reached her hands forward to put them on the boy's shoulders.

"Calm down. What do you mean Menagerie? What money?" The boy looked back to her and reached into his pocket.

"My name is Shigekiyo Yangu, but Mama and Papa call me 'Shigechi'. We're a faunus family, see here?" Shigechi pulled a picture of his mother and father out from his pocket, the group of five teens just gathering around to take a look.

"... Wow, your mom's actually kind of hot." For his trouble, Okuyasu got an elbow to the ribs from Weiss.

"Not something you should be saying in front of the girl who danced with you Okuyasu…" The white haired Heiress muttered under her breath as Okuyasu nodded.

"Right, lesson learned…" Okuyasu chuckled a bit as Sun just shrugged.

"I mean he's not wro-oof! Right, okay, sorry Blake." The black haired cat faunus rolled her amber eyes as she pulled her elbow from Sun's ribs. Indeed, Shigechi seemed to be speaking the truth; it was pretty clear that his mother and father were faunus, Shigechi seemingly having inherited his own odd, spiky-headed traits from his father… maybe some kind of snapping turtle faunus?

"We understand that Shigechi, but what about Menagerie and this money?" Pyrrha asked, her hands on her knees, as Shigechi looked around.

"The Nice Lady promised that if I helped get these kids out of Beacon, she'd give my family enough money to move to Menagerie. Mama and Papa have been talking about how scary Vale has been getting lately and how that it isn't safe around here anymore. But… we don't have the money to actually make the move to Menagerie, so we can't go. I thought that if I could get the money myself and save kids too, then Mama and Papa would be proud and then we could leave... "

"Man, didn't they teach you about stranger danger?" Sun asked, his tail looping up to rub his chin as Shigechi paused to think for a moment.

"... Oh. They did… oh no, now they're going to be really upset!" As Shigechi panicked for a moment, the five teens all took a step back and looked at each other, though each were careful to keep an eye on Shigechi just in case.

"... So what are you guys thinking? The kid seems a little too dumb to pull off a lie like this…" Okuyasu muttered flatly as he rubbed his chin.

"While I'd rather not use such a… blunt descriptor, Okuyasu does have a point. He doesn't seem to have that much guile in him. I doubt he's trying to trick us." Weiss muttered as Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

"Still, that doesn't leave much; if the situation is as he suggests then Ironwood and Ozpin probably won't put him into security with the other Stand Users… but that means that he'll be out in the open for whoever hired him to track him down again and punish him for failing… maybe worse if they somehow find out he actually spoke to us." Pyrrha spoke worryingly as she shook her head.

"Much as I'd like to help out a fellow faunus, I'm afraid I don't actually have much to help the little guy out. My team and I get our meal and board paid here but that's about it. Not exactly much money to be made for a student." Sun spoke somewhat sadly as they all watched Shigechi. Blake just stood there, her amber eyes watching over Shigechi as the little faunus panicked and whined about how upset his parents would be…

She sighed. Well, he wouldn't be the first faunus to be bought in on a false premise because he thought he was supposed to be doing something good. Admittedly, he was pretty gullible but…

Well, glass houses and throwing stones, Blake would remind herself.

"Shigechi…" Blake knelt down to the young boy as he looked up to her, a gentle smile on Blake's lips. "How about this; you have your Harvest help us get everyone to a safe place, give us back all the papers with our friends and fellow students in it and turn yourself over to let Ozpin and Ironwood ask you questions about the Nice Lady… and I'll… I'll put in a good word for you at Menagerie so that you and your family can get there." Shigechi's eyes went wide as Blake said this, the rotund little boy turning to face her with an amazed expression.

"Really, you'd do that?! How?!" Blake's smile took on a slightly sad dimension as she shook her head.

"Let's just say I know a couple people… if I write them myself I'm sue they'd be pretty happy… to bring in a desperate family of faunus to our home island, I mean." Blake scratched the back of her head as she thought of her parents, the rest of the group tilting their head to the side as Blake's parentage remained a mystery to most. Shigechi beamed for a moment… before his eyes narrowed.

"Hey, wait… if I was being stupid for trusting the Nice Lady when I didn't know who she was, then wouldn't I be making the same mistake doing the same with you?" Shigechi asked, suspicious, as Blake just grinned and nodded her head.

"You would." Blake agreed as she extended a hand out. "My name's Blake Belladonna, it's nice to meet you Shigechi." Shigechi's eyes went wide as this transpired, before a wide grin stretched across his lips.

"Shi shi! It's nice to meet you too Blake!" The fat young man laughed excitedly as he energetically shook Blake's hand. "Well, Harvest, get on it!" With a flourish of his hands Shigechi brought more Harvests into existence, the swarm Stands running off back to the campus as some remained behind to hand the various papers to the group of huntsmen and huntresses.

"... Man why can't more of these fights end like this?" Sun asked with a smile on his face as the monkey faunus, finally, began to relax as more and more of their friends and classmates were released from their prisons.

"You should've come with us to Tonio's, then you would've seen another fight end pretty well too." Weiss said, somewhat warmly, as the group watched Shigechi excitedly talk with Blake, the young faunus quite happy to have made his first, legitimate, not-stranger friend.

 **Shigekiyo Yangu turned himself over to Ironwood and Ozpin for questioning. Upon the review finding that the young man knew no information that could assist in their efforts, he was let go for not having joined the enemy organization legitimately and for his assistance in cleaning up Beacon after everything had been said and done. With a letter on its way to Ghira Belladonna, hopes are high in the Yangu household that a journey to Menagerie may well be in their future.**

 **Shigechi was still grounded for a month for being naughty and not listening to his parents' lessons on stranger danger.**

 **SHIGEKIYO "SHIGECHI" YANGU… RETIRED?**

 **-To Be Continued- Dance Battle (Act 5)**

* * *

 **Stand User: Terunosuke Miyamoto**

 **Stand Name: [Enigma]**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: E**

 **Range: C**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: C**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Paper Seal - [Enigma] is able to transform objects and people, including the user, into pieces of paper.**

 **For simple objects and animals, [Enigma] can simply apply its ability. However, to trap a person in paper, the user must discover the habits the target displays when afraid. Once he has witnessed them display their habit enough to be 100% sure it's their "tell", the Stand can capture the target the next time they display their "tell".**

 **When its ability is activated, part of the object is literally transformed into paper and the rest of it is slowly but inexorably absorbed. The patterned design produced is reminiscent of the works of M. C. Escher. Once transformed, Terunosuke must keep the paper folded to keep the item inside but is free to unfold it later whenever he needs the trapped object or person released. Anyone is free to release something by unfolding the piece of paper.**

 **There is no restriction to what [Enigma] can transform. Terunosuke may seal anything ranging from fresh noodles to taxi cabs (including the driver), fire, guns about to be fired. The condition of the object or person trapped in the paper remains the same as long as the paper is kept in one piece but damaging the piece of paper results in an equivalent damage on said object or person.**

I **n addition, Terunosuke himself can transform into paper. The transformation is instantaneous, allowing him to evade attacks, and he can freely undo it as well. When as a piece of paper, Terunosuke can hover around to reposition himself.**

* * *

 **Stand User: Shigekiyo "Shigechi" Yangu**

 **Stand: [Harvest]**

 **Destructive Power: E**

 **Speed: B**

 **Range: A**

 **Lasting Power: A**

 **Precision: E**

 **Developmental Potential: C**

 **Durability: Each of [Harvest's] 500 units can be destroyed with ease, but with little to no effect on Shigechi himself, as damage is divided by 500. It makes him more resilient than average in a fight. Shigechi himself would have to be directly damaged or all 500 units would need to be destroyed at once.**

 **Strength in Numbers: An individual unit of Harvest is fairly weak, although its fists have enough power to punch a correspondingly small hole through human flesh. In addition, Harvest's units are quite fast, able to outpace an athletic runner. Working together, the units can carry Shigekiyo faster than a man can run and even scale the side of a building like a tank thread.**

* * *

 **A/N: Like I said in an earlier Author's Note, part of the cuts made to the JoJo's side of the equation was that some of the tertiary cast who didn't get much development at all were either downgraded to full villains (see Toshikazu and Tamami) or were outright dissolved and had components added to other characters (see Yukako and Neo). For Shigechi, while the little twerp could be a pain, there wasn't much in his character to make him a villain per say. I won't elaborate on the question mark too much except to say that while Shigechi's current role is done and we might not see a lot of him, that doesn't mean he's gone from the series as a whole. Who knows, maybe we'll see him again.**

 **We also see more of that setup, talking it out and pay off with Blake and Shigechi. The logic in Blake's decision here is hopefully illuminated thanks to the previous chapters, in Dance, Dance, Dance especially, as her conflict reaches a new point of expression here. Things aren't great and her letter home will probably be very sparse… but it's baby steps.**

 **Next chapter's gonna be the aftermath of all of this. Everybody settling in and getting their bearings, the gang grouping backup to make sure everyone's okay and some resolutions to those plot threads in the dance that got so rudely interrupted. If you all hated Cinder's guts for cutting in your Arkos, or other, shipping then the next chapter will be a bit of a treat. Plus we got our villains who… well, for Roman and Neo, a bit of failure is nothing new.**

 **For the others, well, it'll be interesting look into the dynamic I think.**

 **We'll also see more with Penny as next chapter opens and as we begin to delve into this. I gotta say, looking forward to it.**

 **Hope you guys have had a good weekend and I most assuredly look forward to seeing you all on the 28th.**


	35. Dance Battle (Act 5)

Josuke sighed slightly as he leaned down to pick up the book that had once been the Enigma Boy, the pompadoured teen placing it in one of his dress suit's pockets for safe keeping before turning around to the others. "Ren, Penny… I'm guessing you two might need some fixing up?" Ren smiled slightly; of course this would have been the first thing on Josuke's mind as soon as he was broken out from having been paper a minute ago.

"My eyesight is already returning quite fine enough Josuke, thank you. As far as this scratch goes it really isn't much of anything…" A silence fell upon the end of Ren's sentence a she, Josuke and Koichi looked over to Penny, the girl's exposed wires and metallic bits sparking here and there as she just looked off to the side in her best attempt to avoid eye contact with any of the three young man.

"I… believe I might be in need of… fixing…" Penny's voice sounded flat, flatter than usual, as she spoke, knowing exactly where the eyes of the three young men were falling. She had meant what she had declared to Enigma and meant it well; even if it meant revealing herself as a machine, to her friends and… to herself, she would do it to keep them safe. However, she was under… well, few illusions. There was always the chance that these three would be like Ruby and that they'd find her appearance, rather than off putting, 'awesome' as Ruby would like to say.

However, a chanced glance over to Ren and Koichi with her green eyes showed that the two looked… mystified. Ren's confusion seemed to stem from a combination of doubt as to what he was seeing and some rather dubious expression that her own processors couldn't place. Which was better than what she could say about Koichi's look; the young boy looked like he was about to have an aneurysm as the look of reluctant amazement crossed his face. He had probably never heard of a robot before, much less imagined that one could be dressed up in the skin of a girl.

And Josuke. The boy she had just made friends with earlier this night. He was from The Frontier too, so he had just as little capacity for understanding what he was seeing as Koichi. Heck, the fact that she was able to be dragged into Enigma's semblance so easily was proof enough that, despite the fact she had Aura, she was just a thing and Josuke was a perceptive guy like that if reports about his strategic mind and intellect were to be believed. There'd be no way that he'd-

"Here Penny, let's get you patched up." Penny rotated her head to face Josuke as his hands were placed on her shoulder, the telltale golden glow of Crazy Diamond's fixing powers washing over her. While her systems at first had no idea what to make of the various moving bits again and, indeed, at first registered alarm at the forces acting on her body, soon enough various systems and backup systems that had been badly damaged by Enigma's shocking trap were coming back online. Her skin seemed to come back from the ashes where the burns had been too deep and even her dress, which she had thought was quite nice looking, was being patched up before her very eyes.

Penny blinked, somewhat lost, before she looked down to the side. Her friend was still fixing her up, even though she was clearly not even human. She at least owed him an explanation.

"JoJo… I do not quite know how to explain to you what I am. The reports from Ironwood and your own people about the state of technology in The Frontier leaves little for me to use as a basis of understanding for you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this before, but this is just-"

"Penny, you just saved myself and Koichi's lives at the risk of your own. I'm not about to hold it against you just because you had your own secrets you wanted to keep." Josuke's words were firm and direct as Penny's eyes narrowed a bit, drooping down as she looked at her shoes as they were fixed up.

"'At the risk of my own life'... for what little that might mean. I am not sure if you heard Enigma while you were inside the paper Josuke, but the only way his Stand worked without needed a sign of fear was if they were an object. I may have an Aura, but his Stand-"

"Stands are funny things Nora. You never know how they're going to work under certain, odd circumstances. Hell, we can't do much to ask him now, but the way it sounds like that Enigma only ever tested his Stand on people. For all we know he could've shoved birds, dogs and other animals in there without needing a sign of fear." Penny looked over to Josuke, a slightly amused smile coming to her face.

"That is a rather weak excuse, I believe most people would say, JoJo." At that the pompadoured teen just grinned as he looked up at Penny.

"Look… all I know is that I heard a girl give one of the coolest speeches about how she was going to risk everything she thought about herself and her own safety to save her friends. If that doesn't show your alive, then to Hell with it." Josuke finished fixing Penny up, but kept his hand extended to help pull her up off the ground. "I'll be honest Penny; I have no idea what the Hell you might actually be. You're more made of metal than even Stroheim or Joseph Joestar and yet you act very much like a living person. I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit weird… but where I'm from, we're brought up to be prepared for the weird and bizarre.

"There's just one thing I'm sure of right now; I gave you permission to call me JoJo and you just risked everything to save myself and Koichi. Far as I'm concerned, that's all I need to know about how alive you are." Green eyes opened up as Penny Polendina smiled up at Josuke. A glance to her side would've shown a still dubious look on Ren's face, the analytical and logical young man still not entirely sure what to make of Penny and a nervous look on Koichi who.

However, as Penny grasped her friend's hand and lifted herself up, more of her own volition than with his help, she found that she could stomach those kinds of looks in front of a good friend.

"JoJo… thank you." Penny gave a bit of an awkward shrug. "If my mechanisms were capable of crying, I think I might at this moment. But I can't be sure, because I've never done it before."

"Well, I guess this would be a good moment to cry? Maybe? I dunno, I mostly do it while not thinking about it… not that I cry often, mind you." Josuke blushed slightly as he scratched at his cheek, much to Penny's own amusement.

"... JoJo, Koichi, Ren? I'm… I'm sorry to ask this after having just revealed it, but might I ask that you keep this a secret? I am not yet ready for other people to know… the people who do already know were more accidents in the first place or were my creators and knew by virtue of knowing about my project." Penny's long-winded explanation cut Josuke and the others off a few times, before Josuke just shrugged.

"Like I said Penny, I'm not about to hold it against you for wanting to keep secrets. I'll keep quiet about this and I know for a fact that Koichi's good at keeping secrets." The grey haired young man looked over at Josuke as the pompadoured teen spoke, the unspoken significance of that sentence clearly registered in both of their eyes before Koichi nodded slowly.

"Yeah, definitely. I won't tell anyone Penny. We kind of weren't supposed to know like you said… and we only know because you took such a big risk for us. Least I can do." Everyone turned to Ren, the magenta eyed teen clearly still rolling this around in his head. Still, the group of three eyes on him caused him to just sigh, smile and shake his head.

"You're lucky it's me who's catching onto this and not Nora. You'd be in trouble there. But… I am quite capable of keeping a secret. I don't say much to begin with anyway." The, mostly, black haired teen stood up after a moment as he rubbed at his eyes one last time.

"I am quite sorry if this will cause either of you two discomfort… not just the secret keeping but also the knowing about what I am. I do appreciate the former though, truly." Koichi just nodded his head while Ren shrugged slightly.

"It is… odd to know that Atlas has been making such strides in developing artificial life. Odd and… something that I'm going to have to think on. Still, I do have to congratulate you Penny; of the many things I might've suspected that would have explained your behavior 'secretly a robot' didn't even register." Ren's usual tone didn't betray any intention in the phrase one way or the other, which seemed to slightly confuse Penny for a moment.

"... My processes say that I could have either taken that as a compliment or insult. JoJo, Koichi?"

"Take it as a compliment. It's fine, Ren can be a bit hard to read at times with that monotone of his." At that Penny just beamed brought as she gave a short bow to Ren.

"Oh! Thank you Ren, that is actually quite flattering of you to say!" The Mistrali teen just smiled lightly as he bowed his own head.

"Consider it nothing Penny."

"In the meantime." Josuke broke in, a slightly more serious look on his face. "Now that we're all free and fixed up, we'd best get back to the Dance Hall and make sure everyone's alright." Ren and Koichi nodded almost immediately as they sprinted off for the Dance Hall. Josuke was soon following behind them but not before Penny grabbed his sleeve to stop him for a moment.

"I do not mean to halt our process Josuke but there was… something I was vaguely aware of while I was in the paper that I thought I would ask you about?" To that Josuke just nodded as Penny's foot dug into the ground a bit. "You didn't hesitate when Enigma threatened to tear up my paper… it would've destroyed me and very likely my systems and that would be quite… quite hard to… to fix." Penny seemed to hesitate here and there as Josuke's nodding slowed considerably.

"I did not wish to put you on the spot in front of the others Josuke but… well… did you only not hesitate to approach Enigma because you were confident that Crazy Diamond could fix me? No matter what?"

'Were you confident that I wouldn't be considered dead to Crazy Diamond?'

That undertone sat just beneath the surface of Penny's question. Unspoken for the cheery tone that the two friends had set earlier in that conversation but easily read into the conversation nonetheless. Josuke couldn't bring people back from the dead. No matter what, Crazy DIamond couldn't fix a corpse so well that it'd reanimate. Once something died, it died and there was no bringing it back.

It made sense to ask; if Josuke was so sure of approaching Enigma, was the reason because he knew Penny 'couldn't die? Because there was no way she, as a 'thing', could be considered dead to Crazy Diamond?

That she didn't actually have a soul.

For a moment Josuke's face was unreadable as he looked down at Penny, his blue eyes just staring back into her green ones as the little red headed robot stood her ground. After several seconds Josuke just smiled and pat her on the shoulder, shaking her head.

"Course not Penny. Enigma was just a normal Stand User. There was no way he'd be able to act faster than Crazy Diamond. I wasn't confident that you could be fixed; I was confident that I'd easily be able to beat him down if he even tried anything." A wide, toothy grin filled Josuke expression as he pat Penny's shoulder reassuringly. Though the robot girl couldn't feel it, she understood by the gesture and Josuke's expression that he was reassuring her and that he did not appear to be lying. With those two things in mind a genuine smile returned to Penny's face as she nodded firmly.

"I am sorry for asking Josuke, but I just needed to know. Thank you for entertaining these concerns of mine. Now, let us make haste!" With that Penny darted off after Ren and Koichi, leaving Josuke behind as the teen stood still for a moment.

Josuke allowed himself a moment to drop his well-crafted poker face before he followed after his friends.

* * *

"Dammit… I can't believe this happened right from under my nose. I was so distracted with my men going silent at the CCT… I should've been where the threat was. This was so close to being a disaster…"

"You were where the threat was James. Don't beat yourself up over this."

James Ironwood crossed his arms as he looked out over the gathered children. Roll calls were being made again and again to ensure that everyone who had been present in the Dance Hall before Enigma and Red Hot Chili Pepper struck were still there. As people were pulled from paper and allowed a chance to stretch and breath fresh air, early signs pointed to the evening having been a resounding success; everyone had been accounted for. Enigma and Harvest hadn't gotten away with anyone and, despite Red Hot Chili Pepper's best efforts, no one had died.

"Oz, you can't just look at what nearly happened and say that I shouldn't have been here. Rose would've been-"

"Would have been dueling a very dire threat by herself, potentially to the death, if her testimony is anything to go by. She said you scared the intruder off Ironwood and, though she might not know it, you could have very well saved her life. You did your part James.. Or at least more of a part than I did." Ozpin smiled lightly as he shakily took a sip of his coffee, his nerves still jittering from Red Hot Chili Pepper's assault.

"You can't blame yourself; an Enemy Stand User decided to use his ambush to take you out first. But I was still up and ready to fight… there are Atlesian Students here Oz that depend on me and, more than that, I'm here to give the people a sense of safety and comfort. The idea that our enemies could strike us here and at those of us most vulnerable… that's a tremendous failure on my part." Ironwood shook his head as he spoke, Ozpin eyes blinked a couple times before he smiled.

"James, your concern for the wellbeing of those you place under you is admirable… very well. Let's say that it was both of our faults then. We should've been more careful and mindful of possible threats." Ironwood turned to argue further but seeing the look on Ozpin's face… well, he chuckled.

"That's all I'm getting out of you, isn't it Oz?"

"It is indeed James." The two turned back to the student body. "Jotaro has some interesting information on one of our assailants as well. We should consider this night a success in a way; our enemies hit us quite hard but came away with nothing and meanwhile we've managed to take away two of their own agent and get a lot of intel on a third. All things considered, tonight could have gone worse." James relented slightly as he reached a hand around to take a sip of his own coffee.

"... True enough. I just wish it hadn't come to this."

"That is something we can both agree on James… and something we will all talk about later in a more private setting." A nod of understanding was shared between the two Academy Headmasters as they watched their students find their friends or search out for others, silently keeping an eye on their charges.

"Once again I have to give kudos to your students and the Frontier children Oz. Along with Glynda, they pulled off quite the little miracle." Ozpin smiled at this as he took a long drink from his cup of coffee.

"Indeed… I think I feel more secure about the future each passing week, James."

As the two Headmasters spoke of better things, the various students were looking around for friends and teammates who had been pulled out of the paper. After having ensured that all of his own circle of friends were safe and sound Koichi had wandered off, promising to return as quickly as he could. He had made sure that all of his friends were okay and that they'd made it out fine…

It was probably silly to worry about Neopolitan… but he couldn't help it. No one had seen her after Enigma made the scene which would've meant that she got papered in the first assault. It was something that seemed so bizarre to Koichi; that Neopolitan, who he saw keep her cool when face to face with Angelo, had broken a sweat against RHCP's show. Had allowed Enigma to spot out a tell that gave him the power to paper her.

Perhaps she had her own tells that he couldn't see? Maybe she considered RHCP to be even more of an intense threat than Angelo, considering that his first act had been to, effectively, incapacitate Ozpin of all people? Whatever the answer, now that Koichi was sure his friends were alright he wanted to check in on his… dancing partner, he guessed.

Koichi scanned the room and immediately perked up when he spotted Cinder, Mercury and Emerald. Cinder seemed to be off to the side speaking with Emerald in hushed tones while Mercury stood off to the side, in between most people in the Dance Hall and his two teammates. As Koichi approached, Mercury looked over at the sound of his footfalls and grinned to himself as he stepped off from the pillar he was supporting himself on to get between Koichi and the other two.

"Hey there little man, what can I help you with?" Koichi glanced over to Cinder and Emerald as she two conversed, still unable to hear them, as Mercury snapped his fingers. "Sorry little guy, but Emerald's a bit… shaken up by this whole thing. Cinder's doing her best to get her back on her feet but right now she's really sensitive. Running bodyguard duty for the two of them while Cinder helps her out."

"Oh! Well that's nice of you! Sorry, I won't bother them then." Koichi understood completely the idea of feeling overwhelmed by the events. His time in the paper had been… unpleasant in a sense. He'd come out of it relatively okay, mostly because he was more angry at Enigma for what he'd done to everyone than he was scared by the end of it, but still, it wasn't an experience he would ever want to repeat. "I-I was just wondering if-"

"If I knew where Neo was, right?" Koichi nodded resolutely as Mercury grinned. "You know how she is little guy, independent as all Hell. Second she got out of the paper she was off like a rocket. Probably hanging out somewhere on campus considering they've closed the airbuses down for a bit to make sure no one gets out. I think I saw her heading out to the courtyard, maybe you can catch her there?" Koichi nodded appreciatively as Mercury directed him, the short young huntsman scurrying off as Mercury just grinned, shook his head and walked over to Cinder and Emerald.

"Your date was asking after you, ice cream." At that, Emerald turned her head over to Mercury with a frown, Cinder's mouth movements ceasing as she just continued to stare on straight ahead. If anyone had ever gotten too close, sound would've been thrown in to make the illusion more convincing…

But as it stood, Neopolitan had already split her focus between disguising herself as Emerald and making a simulacra of Cinder Fall. Adding more to it would give even her a headache. Neopolitan glared with Emerald's red eyes as Mercury just chuckled.

"Hey, don't get made at me for calling him your date. Pretty much everyone saw you dancing away with the little guy. I was just calling it like I saw it." Neo just rolled her eyes as she looked back over at Cinder, though her attempt to get back into the act faltered as Mercury's Scroll rang. Plucking it out of his pocket Mercury took a good look at it and, with a slight grin, looked back over to Neo. "Cinder and Emerald made it back to the dorm. Cinder's going to do what she can to patch Emerald up before we sneak her back out into the city tomorrow. We can do more for her with Roman's resources at our disposal than we can here with just myself and Cinder to patch her up." With that Mercury scratched at his chin. "Now… I'm pretty sure that if you were a good girl and hurried up and got myself, you and 'Cinder' here to our dorm then if you hurried you might be able to catch Koichi~"

It was funny in a way; despite them being two different people if it weren't for the fact that Mercury knew for a fact that this Emerald was just Neo with her semblance active, he would've swore he was talking to his actual partner. The glare and the annoyed huff was spot on as she stood up along with the simulacra of Cinder as they walked off in a group. The only thing that might've even remotely given away her identity was the… rush to her footsteps. A rush that Mercury noticed and was infinitely amused by.

While 'Cinder's Team' made to leave the Dance Hall to return to their dorms, the general remains of Team JoJo, RWBY, JNPR and SSSN gathered around. Most looked absolutely exhausted but all clearly felt accomplished; after everything they'd done that night, it was a well-earned feeling. Of course, not everyone was there; Pyrrha had almost immediately dipped out upon making sure Jaune was alright, the only thing keeping the blond Arc boy from following after her having been a note she had left in one of his dress pockets to meet her at the usual spot later. Blake had gone off with Shigechi to help smooth things over with Ironwood and Ozpin and to start writing up her letter to Menagerie and Yang, after having practically choked Ruby Rose in the tightest hug she had ever giving followed by the loudest, most embarrassing cries of 'I was so worried about you, how could you just wander off like that, don't you ever make me so worried again' the blonde had also disappeared.

"Swear to God those two really do just need to get over themselves and say it already…" Okuyasu muttered as he watched Ren continue to fidget with Nora, the girl's burn wounds and general battle damage fixed up by Crazy Diamond. However, this left her tremendously exhausted still, a state that few of her friends had ever seen her in. Judging by Ren's reaction, it wasn't one the girl fell into often.

Still, if Nora had any problem with Ren's attention, she certainly didn't seem to show it.

"They both probably have their reasons. Best to just let it happen." Jaune muttered slightly as Ruby and Weiss snorted derisively.

"Mmmhmmm, says the authority on dating who just let the girl he dressed up in… THAT attire for walk off." Jaune blushed heavily as he dusted his hands on his skirt, the pretty, pretty dress that he had worn before being papered still having been on.

"Yeah I really could've gone without seeing that again, but I guess no one gets what they want tonight…" Josuke muttered to himself as the group of friends chuckled amongst themselves.

"You're telling me. 'Stand Attack' is probably going to go down as one of the worst ways that a party can get interrupted from now on." Sun bemoaned slightly as his tail reached up to scratch his cheek. And, indeed, for most of those gathered the night had turned out far better than imagined… before the Stand Attack. While Josuke could've still given the whole night a pass, there was a distinct sense among the others that despite whatever expectations they might've had going in, what came out was pretty nice. Again, Stand Attack pushed to the side.

"Finally get a friggin' dance and then a Stand jumps out of nowhere to crash the party. My luck really does suck." Okuyasu groused as Weiss just shook her head.

"Probably for the best; the way you were dancing you were either going to kill me or force me to hurt you very, very badly." Okuyasu snorted slightly as he crossed his arms.

"Ah come off it Weiss, you were having fun." A small grin crossed Weiss Schnee's lips as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Perhaps… but you're definitely going to need to learn how to be a better dancer if that's ever going to happen again. I am NOT putting myself through that again." With that, a wide grin crossed Okuyasu's lips as the scarred teen tilted his head to the side.

"Oh? Are you offering Weiss Queen?"

"... So long as you cut down on the puns with Yang, yes, I'd be willing to offer." Weiss turned her back to Okuyasu. "... Tonight was fun, after all. More fun than I had thought to expect. Once again, thank you Okuyasu." With that, Weiss turned her head towards Ruby. "Now then Ruby… let's go find Yang and get back to our dorm… it's been a long, long day and I'd like to just lay down and rest." Ruby agreed quite enthusiastically as Weiss spoke.

"You're telling me…" The young girl sighed slightly as she stretched out her own back. As Weiss walked off, Neptune and Jaune could only watch after Weiss, the blond just turning his head over to Okuyasu.

"... I still don't understand how you, out of all three of us, managed to dance with Weiss. Neptune and I…" Okuyasu just grinned nice and wide as he stretched out his back.

"Yeah I really don't know what happened either." With that Okuyasu belted out a laugh as he walked off. "I'll meet you at the dorm later Josuke. While you and Koichi got to be cozy in that paper, some of us actually had to work to help save students. I'm turning in… if you see Koichi before he comes back to the dorm, tell him to find someplace else to take his girlfriend!" At that Okuyasu belted out a nice, loud bark of laughter as he walked away, a small grin on Josuke's face.

"Well he seems to be in high spirits. Guess he's earned it though." With that Josuke stretched out his back as he looked towards the others. "Anyway, Neptune, Jaune, Su-... huh, that's odd, Sun and Blake have gone walkabout." Neptune just shook his head as he grinned.

"Blake was pretty much wiped entirely. Only got one night's worth of good sleep so that's no surprise. Sun said he'd be a 'gentleman' and walk her back to her dorm. Weiss and Ruby'll probably run into them on their way back." Neptune sighed as he shook his head. "Man tonight was not my night… guess I really only have myself to blame for that though." Neptune yawned a bit as Jaune and Josuke nodded.

"Well… it's good that you're handling it so well Neptune." The blue haired young man just waved the two off with a smile.

"Come on. I turned her down for a pretty crap reason. No point in being bitter about your own mistake. Just gotta learn from it." Neptune walked up to Jaune and clapped him on the shoulder. "Speaking of Jaune-"

"Oh Jeez, yeah, I should get going. Later guys!" With a quick bolt Jaune immediately ran off, his skirt billowing in the wind as Josuke and Neptune watched him go.

"... Jaune, for the Love of The Brothers, CHANGE OUT OF THAT DRESS!" Josuke called after Jaune though if the blond knight had shown any sign of hearing him, he didn't show any of it as he sprinting out the dance hall's doors. "... I swear, you guys have managed to outweird anyone I know in The Frontier, and we aren't exactly a boring lot either." Neptune let out a bit of a laugh as the blue haired young man stretched himself out.

"Can't say that the feeling's not mutual Josuke… but given what all happened tonight, I think I'll go ahead and say that 'weird' in this case is very, very cool." Josuke grinned a bit as Neptune spoke. "Well I'll talk to you later Josuke, for right now, I think I've going to go back to my own dorms while the getting's good. The rest of the team is probably going to be wondering where the Hell Sun wandered off to… probably good to tell them that our dear leader is being a 'gentleman' right now." Neptune snorted a bit as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked off.

As Josuke watched as his various friends, teammates and allies wandered off the young pompadoured man just stretched his arms out above his head again. In all honesty, he wasn't that exhausted. Like Koichi, he'd spent most of the night inside a piece of paper, so he hadn't actually ended up doing much except taking one or two of RHCP's hits before being slipped into Enigma's trap. Honestly… he could go for a walk. So, shoving his hands into his pockets, Higashikata Josuke wandered off to do just that.

* * *

"Come on… not this again. Not after I spent so much time looking for her. Don't tell me that she's off and vanished back into… wherever the heck she hides." Koichi sighed slightly as he ran a hand through his hair, sitting on the fountain's edge in the courtyard. After a goodly amount of time spent looking where Mercury had directed him, the young man was left with little option but to assume that he had, once again, lost track of Neopolitan and that she had slinked back off into her usual pattern of behavior. Before tonight, this would've been perfectly fine; after all, it was the norm and sure, Koichi wanted to see her but… well, not seeing her and just communicating through pieces of paper had been fine.

But tonight? Tonight was a blast! He had a lot of fun, more than he would've ordinarily expected. Well, of course he didn't mean the turning into paper part, that was pretty crappy and put a pretty definite dead-end on the evening but before that? Jeez, it was a night and a half. Neo's calm, cool demeanor just lent her this air of cool and confidence that Koichi, even after his personal growth following Angelo, could only dream of attaining. Being around her, it felt like that aura of self-confidence and self-worth just kind of rubbed off on you. Being around her, knowing that she was letting you being around and just having fun? It… it made him feel more confident.

The dancing was great, the jokes… well, the jokes at his friend's expense weren't… okay some of them were pretty funny. Somewhere deep inside of him, some as of yet unexplored aspect of his soul, would even say they were hilarious. Something that'd say that he found that s-h-i-t greatly amusing. Sure he chided her to be a bit more polite but between her knowing look and his own internal amusement… they just let the night roll on.

The dancing was great too. A few slow dances and then a couple of fast ones before RHCP interrupted everything. She actually got along reasonably well with Okuyasu despite his teasing… or maybe because of it? She seemed entertained. And her friends thought she was nice enough and she seemed to be trying to put her best foot forward.

When Koichi had thought about just enjoying a dance with her or her company… this was kind of what he was hoping for. It was fun. He enjoyed himself. He felt good about it all..

And now he couldn't find her. Again. And that… yeah, that seriously bummed him out. He wanted to hang out more, to crack more jokes to just have fun. He… well, he guess it wasn't quite so complicated anymore.

Hirose Koichi had himself a little crush on his stalker.

That… that was fine. More than fine really.

Except for the part where she'd disappeared into thin air again. That had been less cool. As Koichi sighed as he placed his chin in his hand and thought about where else he could look, he felt a slight breeze tickle the hair by his ear. Brushing it again he felt something tap him on his shoulder. The grey haired young man turned his gaze around to look and finding nothing but the fountain water behind him just sighed and turned back forward.

Only to be greeted by a pair of green eyes.

"WAGH!" Koichi's arms flared out as the young man jumped back in his seat, his arms waving about as he tried to balance himself to no avail. Just as he was about to tip and fall back into the fountain water he saw Neopolitan silently chuckle as she reached out and grabbed him by the lapel of his dress suit, pulling him back to a more solid seat as she grinned smugly at him. "Neo! Hey! I've been looking for you." Koichi said with some excitement as he slip off the fountain and stood up straight, the short young man looking up to Neo as she mouthed a silent 'oh' before she tilted her head to the side, an amused grin on her face.

Koichi, having realized how unabashedly enthusiastic he had sounded at the moment, quickly blushed in embarrassment as he sought to reel it back in. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he averted his gaze, another silent chuckle forming on Neo's lips as she pressed a finger to Koichi's cheek and forced him to look back up at her. She tilted her head to the side a bit and Koichi just nodded, though still a bit embarrassed.

"R-Right… I was looking for you because I was a bit worried. I didn't hear the others talking about how you were anywhere near the fight so I knew you must've gotten papered. I just… I just wanted to check in." Neo smiled slightly as she nodded, pulling out her Scroll and quickly typing out a message as she did.

" _The lightning Stand, Red Hot Chili Pepper everyone's calling it? Yeah, seeing it take out a famous huntsman like Ozpin gave me a bit of a spook. The paper guy must've caught me at the wrong moment and captured me._ "

Complete and utter bullshit of course and Neopolitan knew it. She had just used her semblance to disappear the moment the action went down like the plan said. Still, this was as good an excuse as any and she was fine with. Before she put her Scroll to the side, Neo bit her lip. It was a stupid question; he was right in front of her! He was perfectly okay! No injuries done and, if there were, Crazy Diamond would've fixed them…

" _What about you little guy, you doing alright?_ " Still, despite her better reasoning, she couldn't help but ask. Seeing the little guy get papered… well, it was a bit of a spook. She hadn't expected to be so close to him when it happened and… well, watching his horrified expression as he was pulled into a piece of paper, unable to fight back… it wasn't a pretty sight.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, I'm totally fine! Don't worry about me, my friends got me out before anything serious could happen! I'm glad you and your team are alright too! I heard about how spooked Emerald was so… well, wish her well for me?" Koichi offered in as polite a tone of voice as he could muster, to which Neo just responded with a nod. Honestly, Emerald would need WAY more than that to deal with the utter beatdown that she'd gotten from Jotaro…

A beatdown that Neo was not at all ashamed to admit she had enjoyed watching.

After Koichi said that the young man seemed to pause and blush against as he scratched at the back of his neck. To this, Neo just smugly smiled as she placed her hands on her hips, a look that clearly communicated 'Was that 'all' you wanted to check in on' delivered to the young guy.

"... No. I… look, Neo… I had a lot of fun tonight." Koichi admitted as he glanced up to Neopolitan's green eyes. "Like a lot of fun. More fun than I thought I'd have had before I found you here. I had a great time and.. I-I wouldn't… I mean, I'd like it if… I dunno… maybe we could do this again sometime? Maybe somewhere off campus?" Koichi's face got progressively more and more red as he said this, a wide smirk forming on Neo's face as she plucked away at her Scroll.

" _Ooooh~ You mean like a date?_ " Neopolitan wished she had the ability to laugh as Koichi went wide eyed.

"I-I don't, I mean, it doesn't necessarily, I mean, I just… I thought it'd be fun and, and, and I'm shutting up now!"

Neopolitan shook her head slightly as she watched Koichi's display. Welp, this was the moment then. Koichi was going to die here in a few days and she'd had her fun. Now it was just time to let the guy down gently and, in a way she guessed, let herself down gently. After all, it'd be pretty cruel if she put the idea in his head that Koichi had anything to look forward to after his 'mission'. She'd played fast and loose with the rules tonight as it was and gone against Roman's request to not get near this guy and to just observe him. Neopolitan had her risky, rules-free fun with Hirose Koichi. Now it was time for her to get serious, do her job and just tell the little guy it wasn't going to happen. It'd spare him some stress and it'd spare her some disappointment…

…

Aaaaanytime now.

…

" _Hanging out outside of campus huh? Well, that is one of my favorite things to do… alright Koichi. I'll take you up on your not-dates._ " The message was typed in quickly and almost as soon as Koichi had finished reading it, his face absolutely lit up like a festival tree. It was completely and utterly adorable...

But if anyone asked, that flutter in her chest was Neo's consummate disappointment in her ability to just do what she was supposed to do.

"Sounds great! We have those missions coming up and everyone's going to want to prepare for them so… how about after? Does that work for you?" A quick nod from Neopolitan and Koichi barely withheld the desire to hoop and holler. After he managed to calm himself down Koichi seemed stuck between reaching out to shake Neo's hand or give her a bow so the young man offered an odd mix of the two which had greatly amused Neopolitan. "Alright, well, I guess I'll let you get back to your team then Neo! I'll… I'll see you around!"

Neopolitan watched as Koichi ran off, waiting for the young man to be far, far out of line of sight. When he had crossed that point, she sighed wearily and ran a hand through her hair. Smooth Neo, very, very smooth. You had a simple request from Roman; don't get near Koichi. Then you had a self-made rule that, because of this Breach stuff, you weren't going to bother getting too close to him. What was the point? It'd just make his last moments sadder and it'd make the entire ordeal sad.

Two for two on breaking rules there. Ordinarily this would be something Neo would find amusing. However, at this moment, it was anything but amusing.

Still, she couldn't have helped herself. She shook her head as she set her face against her hand. She knew she was impulsive and knew that her interest in Koichi would be… weird. Now here she was, indulging in it. Hell, her heart actually 'fluttered' at the idea of hanging out with Koichi more.

Nothing about Neopolitan, assassin for Roman Torchwick, was supposed to friggin' flutter.

Just as Neopolitan was about to ream herself more, her Scroll rang. With an annoyed grimace as she expected Cinder or Mercury to be on the other end she popped it out and took a look. A slight grimace reached her face, one born more of some worry rather than annoyance, when she saw who the message was from; one of Roman's dummy phones.

" _Cinder messaged me about tonight. She said you performed admirably and helped them get out of a tight spot. Good work Neo, knew recommending you go would do good_." Honestly, Neopolitan sighed in relief. No sign of any annoyance or hint of knowledge about what else she did tonight. She could very well go without having to hear Roman be as disappointed in her as she-

" _Mercury also tells me that you were dancing with Koichi tonight. I find that interesting._ "

She was going to fucking gut that loose lipped bastard, she swore. She waited for a few moments, hoping that just ignoring the message would leave Roman to just pass on sending her another. Said hopes were dashed when Roman sent a 'Well' message in the next few moments. With a weary sigh Neo typed in that yes, she had in fact danced with Koichi that evening.

" _Fuck's sake Neo, I specifically asked if you wouldn't…_ " Neopolitan winced. She could deal with Cinder, the walking talking bitch incarnate, being upset with her. She could care less about Mercury or Emerald thinking little of her. And Koichi she'd kill if Roman asked.

But to have Roman, her… her dad be upset with her, that-

" _Did you have fun?_ "

Neo blinked as the message popped up, her green eyes wide with curiosity as she looked at the message. Was this… was this a trap? Was he testing her? Well, if he was, he'd probably ask her again in person anyway… and if there was one thing Roman Torchwick was good at, it was reading people… even her.

The guy had a gift.

" _Yeah. I had fun._ "

" _Did he keep his hands to himself?_ "

Neopolitan couldn't help but snort as Roman asked, rolling her eyes as she typed a message to the affirmative. Now she knew he was messing-

" _Did you two use a condom?_ "

Neopolitan very nearly tripped over her own two feet and fell into the fountain. Eyes wide with frustration and embarrassment she sent a barely comprehensible message back to Roman, whose texts consisted of just lines of laughing as she tried her best to strangle him through her Scroll.

" _Haha… ha. Neo, you are who you are. You don't take directions well… except when it comes to your job. I pretty much expected you to ignore me the moment I let you go off to this stupid dance._ " Neopolitan winced a bit at this, before the next message popped up. " _But I also knew you'd do your job no matter what and you'd do it well. That's just who you are; I can't depend on you to behave for shit but I can damn well expect you'll do your work. At this point, I'm fine with that. I'm glad you got to have some fun_."

… It was an odd relationship Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick had.

Taken in at a young age when she had been left behind by the world, Roman Torchwick had turned a little mute girl into a killer, a machine of death and destruction who gladly partook in her work. She was ready to do whatever job he handed out and do it without remorse. It was who he had helped shape her into… it was an extremely fucked up relationship, that was for certain. Whoever her real parents might've been, they probably would've been disturbed to see what happened to her.

"... _Thanks Roman._ "

But those assholes ditched her. Roman Torchwick took her in and took care of her.

As far as she was concerned, he was more parent to her than anyone else.

" _No problem kid. Just be sure to get back once Beacon drops their security, alright?"_

" _Will do."_

With that Neopolitan closed her Scroll and slipped it back into her pocket. A small smile now graced her lips as she wandered on back towards the dormitories of Beacon Academy.

Hey, like Roman said. She'd done her job well and had a little bit of fun while she was at it. Sure, maybe she made a couple missteps but… well, they were fun missteps.

Now she just had to remind herself that they'd be her last missteps.

* * *

She should've been with her friends and her team. She knew this on some level. Tonight was a big night and… well, she had been a big part of it. Even as she had slowly wandered her way over to the edge of her circle of friends so that she could slip out and clear her head, she could hear them.

'Yang did great tonight. She really beat the crud out of Red Hot Chili Pepper.'

'Yang really stood up and took command when things looked like they were falling apart. I was surprised.'

'I mean, she REALLY beat the tar out of Red Hot Chili Pepper.'

In truth, this should've been something that relaxed Yang Xiao Long. The three-way fight was everyone's moment, everyone had done their part to make sure that things went well. That she stepped up and helped push everyone to this victory when uncertainty had gripped them, when they had the ability to win but just not the will at that moment… this should've been a moment where Yang was patting herself on the back and just hanging out with her friends and celebrating.

But the truth was, Yang was stressed out to all Hell.

She had been so worried this entire time. The moment she'd stepped forward to take up a 'leader' mantle she could immediately feel the pressure on her. Any of her friends who died or they didn't rescue, anyone that she fucked up and cost their lives or livelihood… it was all on her. Her, Yang Xiao Long, the impetuous, hot blonde who preferred thinking with her fists in a fight than strategizing. That was just who she was; Hell, she had to try her hardest to not give in to temper or her desire to just pound the everloving shit out of her enemies the entire time. She had to put her hard headedness and tendency to lose her cool aside in order to ensure that everything would be fine…

To ensure…

" _This is why mom left right? Because I'm bad?!_ " _Ruby was still crying… even after Qrow had saved them, she was still crying… and she knew it was her fault..._

Jeez… thirteen years later and she still remembered that little conversation. It was silly to hold herself by that memory, of course. Even her dad had cleared everything up… but, it wasn't the memory in particular. It was one note among many that spoke about who she was. Who Yang Xiao Long-

"Well, looks like I'm not the only one who needed a bit of a stroll to clear their head."

Lilac eyes turned to face the source of the voice, a smile twitched at the corners of her lips as Higashikata Josuke walked up from down the way. Yang had taken a seat at one of the benches around Beacon Academy while she cooled down and got her head back on straight and Josuke, without even asking, slid on the opposite end, giving her some space.

"Well howdy there JoJo. Wasn't expecting to see you out and about. Figured you'd be back with everyone else."

"Yeah well everyone else turned in and… well, considering I didn't do jackshit during most of the fight against Red Hot Chili Pepper or Enigma, I had some leftover energy to burn. Figured a walk might do it." Yang just chuckled a bit as she pushed some of her hair behind her head, a grimace forming on her lips.

"Fuck… forgot that Red Hot Chili Pepper torched some of this. I'm going to get the ends trimmed and everything. This is gonna suck."

"Man you did run off in a hurry." As Yang heard Josuke speak, a golden glow enveloped her. Soon enough her dress' tatters were being filled back in as burnt clumps from somewhere flew over, took back their form and fixed themselves. Her bruise, still visible through the mending fabric, turned from its dark purple and, in some spots, black to her normal unblemished skin and, most importantly to her, Yang's hair quickly filled back out, the burnt ends returning to life in a flourish.

"Jeez… guess I was so wrapped up with what was going on in my head that I forgot that old JoJo here can fix anything." Yang chortled as she tossed her hair around a bit, her mood already improving dramatically as Josuke just shrugged his shoulders.

"What can I say, aside from putting Enigma in his place that's my main contribution for the evening." The pompadoured teen joked as Yang nodded in agreement. The two remained in relative silence for a minute as they both looked up at the sky, each lost in their own thoughts about the evening.

"So… want to talk about what happened or something?" Yang asked with a slight grin. "Better take it up while I've still got the whole 'responsible leader thing' going for me Josuke, cause that'll be gone come tomorrow I can promise you." Josuke just shrugged as he scratched at his cheek.

"Frustration mostly. Enigma ended up having me by the balls for most of that fight by taking Koichi hostage and there wasn't much I could do. It's a pretty tremendous failure on my part as a leader of a team." Yang nodded in understanding.

"Eh, but it's not like there was much you could do about it. Sure, Enigma put you over a barrel but he did that to almost all of us. We just got caught with our pants down and we ended up paying for it a bit… thankfully none of it was permanent." Yang allowed herself a breath of relief as she nodded. "Really thankful for that one…" Josuke nodded in ready agreement but still his blue eyes narrowed a bit.

"Still, I'm not much one for just settling on excuses. I'd like to think of what I could've done better… Koichi and Okuyasu follow me because they feel like they can safely put their lives in my hands. I don't want to let them down for that." Yang nodded again as the blonde just leaned back in her seat.

"Not for nothing JoJo but aside from Ruby, there's probably not a whole lot of people our age… er, around our age that I'd stake my life on. You have the very great honor of being person number two." At that Josuke chortled.

"What, not gonna extend that honor to Jaune?" Josuke asked as Yang just chuckled.

"Look, the guy's coming up but… well, Jaune's still Vomit Boy to me. Not quite ready to stake my life on his decisions. Ruby's proven to be a solid leader and so have you, tonight's fumbles notwithstanding." Yang stretched her arms out as she placed them behind her head as Josuke just grinned a bit.

"By the way everyone was talking about it, sounds like most of them would be ready to put their lives in your hands at this point." If Josuke had expected a happy-go-lucky answer from Yang, he was quite surprised when her grin, instead, dipped a bit.

"If that's the case then… I dunno if that's such a good idea. The whole leader thing really isn't my deal." Yang answered honestly as she shrugged her shoulders while the pompadoured teen just blinked in some confusion, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees.

"Could've fooled me with the way everyone was talking about it. They were singing your praises before you dipped out and Ruby couldn't have looked more ecstatic about how everyone was talking about her big sis. 'Hah, you all didn't think Yang could do something like this? Please, Yang's, like, the second most responsible person I know'." A snort of laughter escaped Yang's lips as Josuke pantomimed Ruby's tone of voice, Yang shaking her head slightly.

"Ruby's biased. You can't trust her and you certainly can't trust those lying ears when it comes to everyone else's words."

"Well… Hell, seems like it makes sense to me. You raised your baby sister from a young age, made sure she settled into Beacon… the way Weiss tells it you talked some serious sense into her during this… dock incident with the White Fang?" Yang seemed a bit surprised that Weiss would bring that up… huh, maybe she'd melted the old Ice Queen's heart a bit and let in some of that Yangy goodness. "With tonight it seems to me that you're just selling yourself short." Josuke leaned back in his seat as he spoke, Yang's gaze still staring out at the sky.

"... I can fake it pretty well. I can put on a real tough outside shell and speak with some authority. Tell you when you're being ridiculous about how you're treating a friend, push a decision that no one really wants to make. I can get you into an outfit you friggin' hate before giving you something you'll like and… yeah, even raise my kid sister when I'm barely older than she is. I'm good at faking the whole… responsible, well-meaning person thing. I can do it… but, well. I know me. I'm really not suited for it." With that, Yang shifted up off her seat as she looked out at the horizon.

"Yang Xiao Long has to try to keep her head in a fight and 'try' to keep up that kind of authority and force. Really, I'm a pretty simple girl JoJo; I wanna explore the world, see everything there is to see, make some money and, Hell, maybe have a few fights on the way. I don't really plan or strategize too well and I had to buckle down and force myself to not mess up with Red Hot Chili Pepper. Hell, I take joy rides on my bike pretty much every other weekend just to get away from Beacon Academy.

"Authority and leading folks? That doesn't hold any appeal for me, not in a power fantasy sort of way and not in a heroic sort of way like Ruby… I like the idea of freedom better. It's… it's just who I am. Who I really am." Yang turned her head over to Josuke with a grin, noting the thoughtful look on his face as she grinned at him. "Trust me, there's no better authority on who Yang Xiao Long is out there than me JoJo. That entire time in there just sealed the deal; I was a nervous wreck. I was so worried that entire time; whether people would die because I'd make a stupid, dumb decision, whether I was being reckless with everyone in splitting them up… how many of my friends and people I knew I'd have to say goodbye to tonight if I didn't pull this through. I'm not like you or Ruby; I can't operate with a cool head under command and make all these decisions like it comes natural."

"... So why did you?" The question didn't seem to be accusatory, Yang noted. In fact, that confused her a bit. The fact that it wasn't an accusation, that it wasn't Josuke scolding her about all this and that… it seemed like he was going somewhere. It was odd but Yang just shrugged.

"... It's like you said yourself JoJo. When there's people I care about that are in trouble or need me… I have no choice. I have to do something. Even if it seems like the worst option… I have to." Yang watched as Josuke stared after her for a moment, before a grin formed on his lips.

"You know what I think Yang?" The blonde tilted her head to the side a bit before Josuke nodded. "I think you aren't giving yourself enough credit." The earnest way that Josuke said that, the way his blue eyes shined a bit as he spoke, it made Yang chuckle as she ran a hand through her hair and shook her head.

"I don't know about that there JoJo. Sounds to me like you need some sleep to get that head on a bit straighter." With that Yang let out her own yawn as she turned away, giving a wave over her shoulder to Josuke. Higashikata Josuke watched after Yang as she departed, a thoughtful expression on his face as he turned back round to face the familiar sight of Remnant's shattered moon.

* * *

The very same shattered moon that one red haired tournament fighter looked up at from hers and Jaune's usual spot on the roof. There was an… odd sort of smile on Pyrrha Nikos' face. There was a lot of thought and turmoil running through it, certainly, yet at the same time there was sense of genuine happiness and accomplishment.

Everyone had made it out alive. Despite the best efforts of their enemies, no student or faculty member at Beacon died and none were taken captive. Not Neptune, not Koichi or Josuke, not any of their friends and… not Jaune.

She'd gotten quite angry. She supposed it was a bit of a delayed reaction at the time; seeing the boy you had basically confessed a crush to and then told to stay away from you before he walked up to you in a dress to tell you that you could work through this turned into paper, with the horrified expression that was plain to see on Jaune's face…

To say that was a complicated set of emotions right there would be a massive understatement, she was sure. Yet it was what it was; just as Jaune was trying to convince her that she didn't need to worry, that this was something they could work on as partners that… in his own words, it could be okay to be selfish, he was torn away. Torn away just as her own web of emotions were in turmoil.

She had gotten very angry and very scared all at once.

And yet, that particular cocktail of emotions hadn't caused her to run or back away. It hadn't become 'too much' for her… it hadn't become something she was scared to deal with. Quite the opposite; she was quite ready to 'deal' with it. Ready to tear apart as many Harvests as she had to get her hands or semblance on in order to get her friends back. In order to get back the people she cared about.

A slightly choked laugh escaped Pyrrha's lips as she combed a hand through her hair. It… it was almost funny, in a way. The very day she confesses to Jaune and tells him that she can't, in good conscience, try to be with him is the day a Stand Attack occurs that tests her. Tests her even more harshly than Toshikazu had. Test her to the point where her life and the lives of those she cared about were in danger.

She'd almost find it funny now, given that everyone survived, if not for the fact that the experience was not yet even an hour separate from her and those emotions still burned hot in her throat.

"Hey. Sorry it took me so long just… took a stop by the dorm." That same confused smile stretched itself even further across Pyrrha's lips as she turned her head to see Jaune. The young man was dressed in his casual attire, out of his dress but not either in his formal wear or his armor.

She still found the fact that he had Pumpkin Pete on the front of his hoodie amusing. Of if anyone outside of their team ever found out about it… well, Pyrrha was fairly good at keeping secrets at this point.

"I understand… though I do feel a bit disappointed." Jaune arched an eyebrow at this though Pyrrha quickly waved it off. "It's nothing Jaune, it's nothing… I figured that after everything you'd want to talk. In fact, I knew you would, especially once everyone filled you in on what happened." After a moment, a soft smile came across Jaune's face.

"Ah, pretty predictable, huh?" Pyrrha smiled warmly as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Sometimes… but other times, not so much. I honestly didn't expect you to actually put on a dress…"

"Hey, an Arc always keeps his word." Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at that as she nodded.

"I'll have to remember that as something that makes you predictable then, Jaune." The red haired young woman brushed a strand behind her ear as she spoke, the two just laughing slightly as the sounds of the night rang out around them.

"... So… things got pretty intense there."

"They certainly did." Pyrrha responded to Jaune's opening round with a knowing smile. She knew this was where he was going to go as soon as he heard about what happened, like she said. Heck, these very thoughts hadn't been far from her own mind these past few minutes.

"I heard you got pretty ticked with the enemies… gunned right for them, even taking a hit because you wanted to get me out of there." Pyrrha nodded again.

"I suppose so… seeing you disappear like that, right before my very eyes, into a trap like that… seeing how you reacted… it made me quite angry. More angry than scared and… I acted on that." A smile slid across Jaune's face as he scratched at the back of his head.

"Yeah, things got real and… well, you didn't run." Pyrrha chuckled.

"Straight to the point."

"Well you know me… I don't exactly have a way with words." Jaune offered with a slight shrug as a small twinkle shined in Pyrrha's green eyes.

"I wouldn't say that… you have your own way with words. What you said on the dance floor it… did shake me before the Stand Attack hit." Jaune perked up a bit at that, though Pyrrha just ruefully shook her head. "Still Jaune, I'd advise caution… a datapoint of one doesn't exactly give you a picture perfect idea."

"Pyr… it isn't just the one. Like I said, you've been so good to us, to everyone… and despite what you might think, those times weren't exactly easy either." Pyrrha… actually nodded slightly.

"I know… but… it doesn't help. Knowing what I did and the reasons I did them…"

"It's okay Pyr. Like I said, I can understand doing stuff for selfish reasons." And again, Pyrrha nodded. The entire time the two slowly approached one and other, step by precarious step.

"You do… I suppose it is easy to forget, seeing how far you've come Jaune that… you did also leave your own family behind to come to Beacon. Even if for good reasons-"

"Eventually good reasons. You aren't just gonna fluff me up so you can feel easier about knocking yourself down Pyr." Pyrrha chuckled slightly as she nodded her head… though this time there was a pause.

"Jaune… when I said I think you're a good, caring person who would give something your all… who trusts people and is so kind… I wasn't just fluffing you up then. It's what I think of as the truth… and… and I am worried that a person like me could hurt you. That… that does scare me." Pyrrha admitted as she raised her right hand to her left arm, rubbing it slightly as Jaune shrugged his shoulders.

"Well Pyrrha… even if that's true, even if you're right that it could be a mistake and I could end up miserable… well, that's my mistake to make too." He offered with as sincere a smile as one Jaune Arc could muster. "And… whatever's happened, whatever either of us have done that we might think of as stupid or stubborn or selfish… we can deal with it together. After all, we already do as partners." Pyrrha smiled gently as she nodded even as a red tint formed on her cheeks.

"... What I was admitting to Jaune was a little bit… well, it's big in a different way than being your partner as a huntress." And Jaune just nodded.

"Well… I jumped off of one cliff already here at Beacon. I think I've got a landing strategy for a second if you do."

…

Pyrrha couldn't help herself, she actually laughed out loud.

"Jaune… I, Gods, it really was so easy to pick out Toshikazu's Surface as fake. Your suave-"

"Can use some work, I know. I thought it sounded cool in my head… but then I immediately regretted how dorky is was." Jaune admitted with a fiercely red blush as Pyrrha's chuckled slowly died down. She smiled warmly at Jaune before she let loose a small breath.

"I know you're being sincere Jaune… and I want to trust you on this one. I want to trust that you'd be ready and that… you really think this is worth it." Before Jaune could speak, Pyrrha raised a finger. "You just have to do one thing to prove it to me."

"Name it, it's already done." Jaune spoke with the utmost seriousness as he stood up straight as Pyrrha nodded solemnly.

* * *

Pyrrha had just finished setting up her Scroll as she heard the door to hers and Jaune's spot creak open again, the red haired young woman grinning slightly as she turned to face Jaune.

"... Please explain why I jumped back into this when we go back to the dorm, okay? Ren and Nora were giving me looks…" Jaune spoke with a red blush as he walked back out onto the roof in his stylish, pretty, pretty pink dress, a wide grin on Pyrrha's face as she just nodded.

"I promise Jaune… I just… well, you know, you promised-"

"And an Arc never goes back on his word, I know." As he said this old familiar line, a smile slowly formed on Jaune Arc's face. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, I do believe neither of us got a chance to dance at the dance before everything kind of… exploded." Pyrrha nodded as she leaned down to tap the top of her Scroll, a song beginning to play as she turned back to face Jaune.

"I do believe you're right." Pyrrha walked forward towards Jaune, meeting the young man halfway across the little corner of the roof the two had claimed for themselves. With gentle, nervous motions the two got into a dancing position and, with two billowing skirts flapping in the breeze, began to dance.

"... This is the weirdest thing I've ever done."

"Same, same." Pyrrha admitted with an awkward laugh as Jaune looked down at her.

"If anyone ever asks about this story after the fact, we're telling them that I was wearing my strapping dress suit when we danced."

"Hmmm… I'll think about it. I think it says more that you would come up here in a dress. Gods know Cardin would've never stopped laughing." Before Jaune could respond Pyrrha leaned forward and rested her head against his chest, the blonde just taking it as a sign to shut his mouth as he danced with his partner.

For though the night was long and full of peril, these group of young heroes had managed to come away with a victory. Hard fought but complete, they each earned their time to rest, to relax and to be with their friends and companions… before the next threat would arise.

 **-To Be Continued- Hermit Purple (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Relationships are a tricky thing to write in fiction, especially if you're doing a large number of them. We've discussed things like chemistry and differences in kind and a lot of this is apparent to see in this chapter; for some of the shipping we've set up, the glove slips on rather easily as it does for a lot of otherwise well-rounded individual. Getting into a place where you're loosely dating someone is quite easy for a lot of people, but maintaining or advancing said relationship is where things get bumpy. For other people the mere process of getting into that place is the difficult and almost insurmountable part, but once in things usually tend to even out…**

 **Then you got the people who're secretly your enemies and things don't really get easy. Though I doubt that most of us have been in such a spot.**

 **Course we're talking about the very early game here; really the only people who'd probably own up to 'dating' at this moment would be Koichi and Neo, and even then you'd have a hard time pinning either down on it for various reasons. There's a lot of shit to get through still and a lot of the shit is motivated and shaped by the personalities of those involved. Keeping things like this in mind'll hopefully pay benefits when we get back to these concepts and get ready to advance these particular arcs.**

 **This chapter was a mini-cooldown chapter. We just had a big fight arc and we're about ready to set up for another pretty intense fight (and another after that, as is the want of these mini-climaxes building up to the big climax of this set of chapters) and taking a moment for the characters to just interact and cool their heels after this clusterfuck is good because then we, as an audience, get that chance to breath.**

 **I didn't quite get the chance to get to the villains in depth this chapter, save for Neo and Roman, as it didn't quite flow right to get to their major character moments. That will definitely be in the next couple chapters though as we set up for the next major conflict. One that I'm sure a fair few of you are looking forward to thanks to the name of the next Arc.**

 **Till then guys, have a great day and an excellent weekend.**


	36. Hermit Purple (Act 1)

"Alright… not to undersell any of what we did manage to accomplish last night, but if I were to be frank, I think this might be our worst showing as a group to date."

No one was exactly in a rush to correct James as he spoke. As Glynda, Jotaro and Ozpin each sat in their own seats, various beverages in hand, the group of adults looked down at the desk they had all surrounded. Witness testimony, statistics that could be gathered on their attackers and a timeline of events had been laid out before all members and, needless to say, they didn't exactly look happy.

"Based on what happened, this is the best timeline of events we can assume; whoever our mystery girls were who dragged Jotaro away from the Dance Hall and who attacked the CCT to tie myself and my soldiers up, they were clearly looking to pull resources away from the vast majority of the students here at Beacon. With that accomplished, Red Hot Chili Pepper, still at large, Enigma… completely crushed-" As Ironwood spoke he picked up the Enigma Book and, with little care for what it was, let it slam onto the desk, "-and Harvest… found out to be an innocent bystander who was misdirected by our enemies.

"Their aim seems to have been to utterly cripple the Academy System; that attack last night, if successful, would've done more than just take some students away, as bad and terrible as that would have been; after all, these young people are our charges. Their parents have allowed them to risk their lives both for duty and because we've vowed that we can keep them safe till their proper hunters. A betrayal of that trust is bad enough. However, what all this would've lead to was worse; every single student gathered from every single major Academy… gone. Or dead. Or worse." Everyone nodded with grim fascination; it wouldn't have 'just' meant an end to those three years of students. Who in their right state of mind would've sent their children off to an Academy after this sort of showing? Who would risk their children's lives when they were so easily attacked while their guardians were so near?

If the Hunters Academies were on the ropes due to disinterest by the broader populace now, they'd be effectively dissolved by such a large-scale tragedy.

"My soldiers, the Atlesian Military and its mechanized divisions, have made great strides in making up for our shortfall. One day, it might even be enough on its own." Ozpin looked off to the side and Jotaro just scoffed. Ironwood, however, didn't let this derail him; he was aware of Ozpin and Jotaro's disagreement on this score and, while he did firmly believe in this fact, he didn't necessarily blame either for their own convictions.

Not after what he learned to be true.

"However, if the Hunter Academies collapse now then… well, there's no telling what would happen. The Armies of Atlas are not yet ready to completely subsume the responsibilities that long have been held in the hands of Hunters. The Queen very nearly won last night gentlemen. And it would have been a complete and total victory."

"Not total." Jotaro responded calmly, James sighing as he ran his hand through his hair.

"True Jotaro, very true. Because of how your society functions, the loss of a central Academy would mean little… but for the rest of us, that's just not an option. The cities of Vale, Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo have gotten too large, the populations of the kingdoms too great, to depend on the slow progress of the mentor-system. We can't go back. We'd be doomed." With that, Kujo Jotaro offers an understanding nod.

"It'd would have been somewhat ironic, Jotaro." Ozpin said with a wry smile as he took a drink from his cup of coffee. "You came to us because you thought we could help the Frontier… but if last night had gone horribly wrong, we'd be the ones begging your grandfather for aid."

"Which would've been hard to swing if three of our star Huntsmen had been either killed or kidnapped under our noses. Given how little I actually accomplished last night, I definitely wouldn't have been able to convince anyone to help. No one short of the old man could… and it'd be hard to figure out what he'd be thinking at that moment."

"Thankfully, this is all just hypothetical." Glynda spoke up finally, readjusting her glasses. "Our students stepped up to the plate and they managed to reverse the flow of battle last evening. Everyone is safe and accounted for. A tremendous failure wasn't simply allowed to occur." The pride that was held in Glynda's voice was buried deep but, to the gathered occupants, quite clear. A smile graced Ozpin's lips and two nods of agreement came from Jotaro and James respectively.

"I certainly won't take that away from them; they managed to succeed last night despite the overwhelming odds. However, for us to not learn from this mistake and to not change course just because we were fortunate to have the right students at the right time would be foolish of us." Everyone nodded, though some were hesitant, as James spoke, the general and headmaster sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. "I think we need to change tactics; sitting back and waiting for information to come to us is no longer viable. We were attacked… those of us most vulnerable were very nearly destroyed or taken away because of that. They hit us hard and hit us where it hurt and they very nearly won for it. Our defensive posture has allowed the enemy to act against us without any kind of retaliation. We need to push back… we need to set up an offensive."

"James, we've spoken about this. Going on the offensive now while we have no idea what the Queen has in store for us… it isn't a smart move. We need more information on their organization, we need to take our time-"

"Ozpin, I'm sorry, but this slow and steady approach has very nearly cost us two important things now; it nearly cost us the Fall Maiden who, thank the Gods, Qrow was able to save and the Higashikata boy was able to fix. Now it nearly cost us all of our students and the future of Remnant's hunters as a whole. We can't just keep sitting back and waiting for information that's never going to come Oz. We need to strike back, starting here in Vale with the criminal organization that's clearly being supported by whoever our opposing party is."

"Indeed. This attack on us last night confirms that there's something more to this than just a random criminal organization acquiring the Stand Arrow. You had your suspicions before but this… this is full on confirmation that Stands are being made to service your enemy." Jotaro sighed as he placed his cup of coffee down, his legs uncrossing and crossing again as he leaned back in his chair. "If we're going to recover the Stand Arrow, we need to hit them hard and fast… before they move on to some other step in their plan."

"Ozpin is correct though; we have no idea what the next step in their plan is or even who exactly will be carrying it out. While it's true that the criminal element in Vale has certainly been helping… well, I don't know if you noticed, but of the three Stand Users who attacked, we only know for certain that one of them was a faunus… and he was hardly a member of the White Fang like the previous Stand Users who attacked." Glynda readjusted her glasses. "In addition, Roman Torchwick has gone all but silent after the overpass incident. No one has seen or heard a word from him which is… distressing, considering how many time he had made his presence known previously during these Dust robberies. Hell, he went out on them himself on more than one occasion."

"If we cannot even ascertain the location of one of the key targets amongst our enemies then a full-on offensive really doesn't have any teeth to use to rip out this corruption within Vale." Ozpin spoke calmly as he took a sip of his coffee. "After all James, you and I both know how the people of Vale would respond if you just started marching Atlesian Soldiers through their streets in order to try to force out these criminals. They'd accuse you-"

"-Of trying to take over. Yes Oz, I know. But what choice do we have at this point? News about the attack will get out eventually; the students will tell people if no one else simply because their lives were threatened that night. Yes, the people might panic if they see my Armies marching around Vale arresting criminals and busting down doors to hide outs, but do you really think that panic would be worse than the one that would rise up once people figured out about how we were attacked so brazenly… and did nothing?"

The silence was telling; the distrust and negative emotions that would be hurled at the Academies would be quite large. They'd lose a lot of the public trust… worse than that, if the Academies lost the public trust, so would hunters. If the public lost their ability to trust in one of their protectors then those negative emotions might just multiply.

The Grimm may begin to take notice.

"I say that at the very least if we do things my way then we might be able to at least get 'something' out of all of this. Yes, maybe the people will distrust my soldiers and yes maybe that will inspire negative emotions… but it seems to me that we're at a juncture where no matter what we do, we're going to have that happen anyway." James leaned back in his seat as he crossed his arms. "At least if we take action, if we actually do something, then maybe we can have something to show to the public in order to assuage them later."

"Or we'll confirm that no one is as safe as they think they are and then they'll truly begin to panic." Ozpin sighed as he shook his head.

"Would that be so bad at this point?" Everyone snapped their heads over to Jotaro as the Stand Using Huntsmen looked back at them all. "This entire time you've been trying to keep the truth away from the people you've been trying to protect; concerned about lulling them into a sense of safety rather than telling them what kind of threats you actually face on a day to day basis. That's fine and all when everything is safe and when you have things under control… but when things start to unravel, as they are here… well then that's when the panic sets in." Jotaro pulls out a cigarette as he says this, Star Platinum quickly lighting it as the, relative to everyone in the room, young huntsman took a drag. "Maybe it's time to stop keeping them in the dark and actually start being frank with them. At least that way they can be prepared."

"And admit to them that we potentially can't defend them. That the normal lives they lead now are at stake? Jotaro, I understand where you're coming from but… the peoples of Vale, Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo… they don't feel like they have a stake in the business of Grimm and Huntsmen. They feel like it's a separate world from them. They feel well and truly safe. If we broke that illusion there's no telling what would happen. I honestly don't know if society could keep functioning the way it has been." As Ozpin spoke Jotaro looked hard at both him and James before he sighed.

"I understand that… I suppose what I'm saying is that you all have allowed it to get to this point. It didn't just 'happen' that people felt like they didn't need to worry about the Grimm. You all helped build that perception… not by actually being good at your jobs, if Mountain Glenn is any indication, but by trying to shield them from anything that might burst this peaceful bubble." Both Ironwood and Ozpin flinched back a bit at the mention of Mountain Glenn. They knew from Jotaro's story that he had passed by through that town of course, still, it was rare for anyone outside of the Councils or the Academies to speak so frankly about that failure…

And about how thoroughly it had been covered up.

"If word of what happened at Mountain Glenn had gotten out Jotaro-"

"Domino effect, I get your excuses for why you didn't try to stop this train from moving forward. I'm just saying that, from an outsider's perspective, they're shitty ones." Jotaro snuffed out his cigarette as he spoke. "It's not just the hunters you have under you that you're treating like children, I realize. You're treating everyone under your watch like they're children." Ozpin looked down at the table, a slight sigh released as he shook his head. He had long disagreed with Jotaro's assessments and, even now, still believed that his way and James' way of handling these potential disasters had been the right way…

Now though, backs against the wall and looking at the prospect of their enemies having pulled the rug right out from under them, he couldn't say that he didn't at least see Jotaro's point.

"Don't get me wrong, The Frontier has had its fair share of spies and saboteurs too. The promises men like Dio and whoever this Queen is can make can be quite… appetizing to some." Jotaro nodded in understanding. "However, by clouding your societies in so many secrets, making so many people blind, you've just given your enemies more places to hide. Hell, you didn't even suspect that this Torchwick might've been a pawn for your Queen for a long time… and that entire time he spent gathering up the resources to make these Stands and to steal a tremendous amount of Dust."

"So what you're saying is we did this to ourselves?" James asked, almost sounding amused… up until he saw the stone cold look on Jotaro's face.

"No. You didn't do it to yourselves. That'd be as unfair as saying that the Frontier earned what happened to it. What I am saying is that you all haven't exactly helped yourselves either." Jotaro took another drag on his cigarette. As much as the older men may have believed in their own justice, they couldn't deny that Jotaro had a point. Neither one could look at last night's events and feel satisfied with the work they'd put in. Something needed to change.

However…

"I still don't think going on such a broad offensive is a good idea. If we're going to do something, we need a specific target that, once we hit it, would give us dividends. Going around knocking down random thugs might be good for morale amongst our own men, but the rewards from it would hardly justify the action to the broader populace. We need to find a worthy target of this." It was hardly what James himself wanted but he soon realized that this was the best compromise he could get from Ozpin.

"That's going to be hard though; as stated, we don't know who most in this organization is, we didn't even figure out who Red Hot Chili Pepper's Stand User was and our only known target, Roman Torchwick, has gone off the grid." Glynda spoke calmly as she recounted this information. After a moment Jotaro snuffed out the end of his cigarette, a spark of an idea shining behind his eyes.

"... What I'm going to suggest is very dangerous for my own people. I want you all to know that first; that if we do decided to go through with this, then I'm putting a lot of trust in you all to make sure that this goes right. Any wrong move or poor outcome and it could mean disaster for The Frontier." Everyone at the table flinched slightly at the grave tone that Jotaro used as he readjusted the edge of his cap. " **Yare yare daze** … we really didn't want to have to do this. The dangers were obvious and we hoped that just sending us and our expertise along would be enough help… but last night struck too close to everyone. If Josuke, Koichi or Okuyasu had been taken, that would've been a heavy blow. At this point, a risk has to be taken…"

"What exactly are you suggesting, Jotaro?" Ozpin tented his hands slightly as he leaned forward, the capped man having turned his head to look over at Ironwood.

"Tell me General, what's the fastest you would be able to get out to The Outskirts?" James blinked a few times as Jotaro suddenly asked this but, regardless, answered.

"If we're talking about just getting out there we might be able to handle it in half a day… but I'm guessing you mean round-trip. In my fastest vessel which we'd need to land and have switch out with a civilian one once we reached the continent again, we'd be able to manage a one day round from here to the Outskirts and back. What… exactly are you planning?" Jotaro nodded.

"Without knowing what your Queen or her pawns look like or what their names are, this options would've been largely useless. So long as Roman Torchwick remained in the city and in the spotlight, it seemed like we could just naturally dig him up eventually. However… if Roman is our only lead and our only hope at a successful counter-attack, then we need to know where he is and we need to know it faster than what your intelligence might provide.

"I trust you all remember how we described Hermit Purple as working, correct?"

As the four adults slowly but surely began to pour over this new information that Jotaro was handing out, none of them took a moment to notice a small twinkle, a spark, that shined in the lens of the camera that overlooked Ozpin's room. Security footage for just in case something happened to the Headmaster of course and yet… now used for a sinister purpose. For as the four spoke the spark sat there and once their plan was clear, it moved on. Through the wiring of Beacon Academy all the way to the outside of the school and towards the airbus dock that took many students and guests to and from The City of Vale itself.

"Again, Beacon Academy would like to apologize for keeping you here so long Mr. Otoishi. We just needed to ensure the security of the campus before we let anyone out. We'd like to thank you for your patience and… well, we can't stop you, but we'd also like to request that you not tell anyone about the events that transpired? If news got out in the city…"

"No worries doll, it's fine. I understand; stuff like this happens when you're entertaining' for huntsmen and huntresses. It's a dangerous profession, after all. Can't say that it wasn't a little exciting though I'm sure my band and I will be quite glad to hit out apartment back in the City for some actual relaxation. Not for nothin', but being cooped up here was pretty stressful." A blue haired young man flipped his long, long locks over his shoulder as he spoke, his fellow bandmates nodding in ready agreement as the young woman just nodded understandingly.

"Of course! It's perfectly understandable and I'm sure Headmaster Ozpin would take no offense. Thank you for promising to keep this quiet though." The man, one Mr. Otoishi, just nodded in agreement as his bandmates walked on, the young guitarist just shouting that he needed to check his guitar real quick before boarding.

"Oh no worries doll, that'll be easy for me." Otoishi said, a sinister grin on his face growing as he popped open his guitar case next to one of the loading vehicles of the station. As he did so a spark of yellow electricity jumped out from the vehicle and quickly melded into his guitar, a slight whine heard from the instrument before the light died down. "After all 'my' lips are sealed… Yeahahahahaha~" The young man closed his guitar case and lifted it right on up as he turned back to the air bus, his expression schooled back into a calm demeanor as he boarded the next flight for The City of Vale.

* * *

Torchwick Safehouse, City of Vale, Meanwhile

"Aaaaah! AAAAAH! Goooods!" Mercury winced as he watched his… hmmm, technically he guessed he was her partner in their disguise, writhe and take deep, pained breaths as the various White Fang contacts and Torchwick's own 'trusted' folks got to work on her. Even after a full night's rest under Cinder's 'tender' care… or maybe Cinder care?

Fuck, he needed to stay further away from Team RWBY and their gaggle of friends, that joke made him nauseous…

Anyway, after a whole night spent building her Aura back up, having that heal her and having Cinder take care of her… Emerald was still so fucked up.

Like, amazingly, impressively, unGodly fucked up. This coming from the kid of an alcoholic, abusive assassin dad who cut of his son's feet and replaced them with robot feet. He's seen some bad shit.

But what Kujo Jotaro did to Emerald?

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Some of her bones had to be re-broken and then reset into place under guidance from others Aura because her own was just trying its damndest to stitch as much of her body back together from the hits she took from Star Platinum as it could. There were still bruises that covered her though thankfully they were no longer the pure black bruises that he'd seen spotting her entire body the night before. No, now she just looked blue and red all over instead of black and blue. She had a concussion so bad that he was certain that, if he asked, she would've said yes to a date from him last night. That's how bad out of the loop she was.

They'd heard about how strong Star Platinum could be. How utterly devastating its assault could be. The man who had once been Yellow Temperance had apparently spent well over a year eating through a straw before an odd and sudden death. That seemed to be the short and long of what happened…

But here's the thing; Mercury could accept Star Platinum pulling this off on normal people and Stand Users. After all, they had no Aura, they had no means of defending and fixing themselves from harm. They just had to take all the punishment. Surely someone who had Aura, who had that line of defense against physical attack, could stand up to it right?

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGH!"

No. No, no, no, no, no. No they could not. At least, people with Aura's only as strong as Emerald's couldn't.

The worst part about all of this was that they were warned. Repeatedly and fervently they were warned. Don't let Star Platinum get on top of you. Whatever you do, make sure you don't directly confront this fucking Stand. Kujo Jotaro is the most dangerous person on the other side you could meet in direct combat; you will break long before you can even hope to have a chance of breaking him.

They had all gambled on that just being rumor and hearsay from people too scared of the bastard to think straight. That Whitesnake was just acting on fear of his own master being killed to consider Kujo Jotaro's actual strengths and weaknesses.

No. What they'd learned from Emerald was that all the warnings that they may or may not have taken seriously were right on the money. Hell, Mercury was even the guy weeks ago who was really nervous about all of this. Back when he thought that Star Platinum might just roughly be as much of a threat as Crazy Diamond or The Hand plus its Time Stopping powers.

Now though he saw why Whitesnake suggested they might be able to take Crazy Diamond or The Hand but, under no circumstances, should they directly face Star Platinum.

This Stand was a walking nightmare that could punch the everloving shit out of you.

He wondered if Emerald was only not dead because Kujo Jotaro felt like he needed someone to drag back to Josuke to fix so that they could interrogate them…

Not exactly the most comforting thought in the world.

Dragging her all the way out here had been a nightmare in and of itself. While the process of sneaking her through Beacon had been a relatively easy process, her semblance and Neopolitan's duoing well together to keep anyone from actually figuring out what kind of state she was in, the actual nightmare was in making sure they didn't hurt her more. Even after all of Cinder's work, she was hurt and hurt bad. A wrong move and you could tell she just wanted to howl in pain. The trip all the way down to this safehouse had been a veritable game of not accidentally causing Emerald to blackout before they got there.

Despite all of this, and Mercury did mean ALL OF THIS, Cinder seemed positively calm. As she just watched over Emerald last night and watched her now, she wasn't even flinching. Her gaze was narrow, sure, but there was still that confidence behind it, that self-assuredness that she always carried…

What was even going through her head that she could still maintain that?

Soon enough the screaming stopped. Torchwick and the White Fang's contacts backed off and he could see, to some relief, that Emerald was alright. Gasping for breath and sweating like she was in the middle of a heatwave, but alright. Her skin was no longer dotted in deep bruises and she didn't look like a ragdoll that'd been thrown in a washing machine. Her red eyes were wide and her pupils were dilated as her mind seemed to be trying to catch up amidst the aftershocks of pain but… well, it seems like Roman and The White Fang had some good men on hand.

He supposed they had to when they were going up against professional soldiers and hunters, but still, it was good to see.

"Stand up Emerald. It's time we all had a discussion about last night." Emerald's gaze shifted a bit as she turned her head towards Cinder, her eyes still wide and, seemingly, uncomprehending as she took several more deep breaths. After a few of those however Emerald's gaze calmed and she seemed to bring her breathing under control. She nodded slowly as she placed her hands against the hospital bed that had been dragged in for her convenience and forced herself into a sitting position. As she did so she still winced but Cinder just nodded with a good deal of approval. "Very good. I knew you wouldn't stay down for long, dear Emerald."

Mercury frowned a bit as he saw the spark behind Emerald's eyes when Cinder spoke. While Emerald was never as bad as Tyrian was with Salem, there was a similar spirit to the way they each looked at their… superior. While Emerald would never openly espouse Cinder as a Goddess, she wasn't that far gone, Emerald did believe, quite fervently, that she owed Cinder her life. That the chances she's had to make a new living and to crawl out of the gutter were entirely Cinder's doing and that anything Cinder could have asked her to do, she'd do it.

Mercury never really got that. For him, Cinder just appeared when he finished with his… 'business' back home and basically made him an offer. Now, Mercury could've said no then and, hey, he might've even had reason to. After all, young guy with robot legs and some assassin training can have a lot of work in the World of Remnant, especially in a place like Mistral. Or who knows, maybe he would've hung up the robot legs and been a real disappointment to dear old dad and become a baker or something. Hey, you never knew, it could've happened.

However, Mercury hadn't said no… and it wasn't out of some ill-placed loyalty to Cinder or her organization. No, no, no. Mercury did it because Mercury's time with his father had instilled in him a very… delicate sense for how to figure out if a person's dangerous. It's what immediately started ringing alarm bells in his head when he heard about Crazy Diamond or The Hand and when he looked Josuke and Okuyasu in the eye… and especially whenever he had the ill-fortune to be looking at Kujo Jotaro in the eye.

There was something there that wasn't for a lot of these other kids. Blake Belladonna had this too but for many, it was missing. A sort of… experience, though that wasn't the best word for it he thought. They had all 'experienced' things like he'd experienced. Hearing about how regimented The Frontier is and how they're constantly under threat, he understood it from those three and, thanks to the White Fang, he was very much familiar with why Blake might've had it…

But what Cinder had in her eyes dwarfed what he saw in there's. There was a sort of brilliance bordering on madness, a deep-seated desire that you knew that 'she' knew she would accomplish. No matter what she had to do, no matter to what depraved depths she'd have to sink to and no matter how many corpses she'd have to walk over. She'd succeed in what she viewed as her rightful destiny…

And if Cinder dwarfed the Morioh-crew and the kids at Beacon, then Salem was bigger than any of them. There were no words for what he saw in her eyes; perhaps that was the point. The only thing he could see in that gaze was oblivion.

Not too dissimilar to the promise that underlay Whitesnake's voice.

So Mercury had said yes to Cinder. He'd said yes to Salem. He'd even said yes to Whitesnake. Not out of any misplaced loyalty… but because he knew if he didn't, they'd destroy him. It wasn't a matter of if he could get away or if he could use his skills to push them back for a moment. They'd eventually win. He saw and heard inevitability from each of them…

And as far as he was concerned, it was better to be on the winning side and uncomfortable with your company than on the losing side and comfortable while awaiting your inevitable destruction. Call Mercury a coward all you may have wanted, but at least he was a coward and alive. Which was more than could be said for anyone to crossed Tyrian's path.

"Cinder… I'm so sorry. I failed miserably. You just needed me to keep him busy and… and I overstepped my bounds considerably. I tried to do more than was asked of me… but please, I thought I could've done it. I thought I could've won." Emerald's words flowed out from her as she bowed her head, Cinder just smiling a bit as she walked forward. The smile, to Mercury, was odd; a mix of understanding and… something he couldn't quite place. Perhaps, on some level, Cinder felt a thrill at having utterly dominated someone like Emerald. Having her tow the line and follow her orders and being so visibly shamed when she didn't come through for the person who 'saved' her.

Either way, Mercury knew what was coming next; it was a favorite tactic of his dad's after all. A little bit of sweet and a little bit of sour. Just enough to hopefully keep you in while also instilling a lesson. So he watched as Cinder placed her forefinger on Emerald's forehead and slowly forced her up so that she was looking into Cinder Fall's golden eyes. Those very same eyes slowly radiated with her power and, though she winced, Emerald showed no other outward signs of pain or distress as the area where Cinder had set her finger began to smoke.

"Indeed, dear Emerald. That was what the plan had called for and, by disobeying, you put us at 'considerable' risk. Such reckless abandoning of my own vision in pursuit of what you 'think' you can do only threatens everything. It's disappointing, to say the least." Emerald winced as Cinder dug her fingernail slightly into the skin of her forehead. "But my dear Emerald, you did it was the best of intentions. You meant to serve our cause and do it a greater justice… your judgement was simply lacking. Your failing was not the worst of last night's either. I am in a mood to forgive, seeing how far Enigma and Harvest failed in our designs. So there is no need to prostrate yourself further, dear Emerald. I forgive you." A silent thank you was offered from Emerald as Cinder removed her forefinger.

This entire time the trio had more important guests than the contacts that the White Fang and Roman had brought in. Namely, Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan. The duo watched the scene with varying reactions; both were largely unaffected by the action itself, having each seen far worse acts of violence than this. Indeed, both had inflicted such acts of violence on others themselves. It wasn't something they were unfamiliar with. Still, the grimace on Roman's face and the dismissive roll of the eyes from Neo came more from the show itself rather than the actions; the words and attitude of Cinder and Emerald having done more to either disturb or further aggravate the pair. It solidified Neo's opinion that Cinder Fall was a nut and that Emerald was a complacent toadie, while this scene had only deepened the well of fear that had grown in Roman Torchwick's gut upon having met these individuals.

"Alright, alright, enough of this… passion play." Roman coughed into his fist, causing Emerald to glare over at him while Cinder just adjusted her gaze slowly. "You said we needed to talk about last night so let's get to it. We don't have all day and, if we're going to do this, I need to get to Mountain Glenn as soon as possible." Cinder Fall shook her head slowly as Roman spoke, a grin on her face as she shook her finger.

"Now, now, dear Roman, we cannot begin yet. Not everyone has arrived and our last guest… well, his information could very well be the most vital for today's meeting." Roman's eyebrow quirked up in curiosity. However, just as he was about to speak, the lights in the safehouse began to flicker on and off, the various grunts each looking up in worry as the flashing occurred more and more quickly. Soon enough a violently shower of electricity sparked from one of the nearby power outlets and, without a flourish, Red Hot Chili Pepper jumped out from the power outlet, the Stand cackling slightly as it jumped from its point of entry all the way over to the gurney that Emerald had left just moments ago.

" **Yes Roman, you should learn patience. It's rude to try to rush ahead when not everyone's showed up. You never know what you might end up missing! Yeah-hahahaha!** " Roman's lips immediately fell into a slight frown as he placed a hand to his forehead, rubbing at it slightly.

"Red Hot Chili Pepper… should've figured." The bowler hat wearing thief sighed as he put on his best fake smile. "So, to what do we owe the honor Chili Pepper? I would've figured you'd be a little too afraid to show your face around here after getting beaten down by a handful of hunters and having your end of the operation go entirely tits up." If RHCP was at all put off by Roman's statement he didn't show it in the slightest. Instead the avian-ish Stand just smiled nice and wide

" **If you really feel that way Roman, then shouldn't you be three-times as unwilling to show your face around here?! Seems to me that you've had the worse run of luck out of the two of us**!" Red Hot Chili Pepper cackled as Roman's face scrunched up into a deep frown.

"Why you little-"

"Enough Roman." Cinder's voice cut through the potential argument and, immediately, Roman was silenced. Cinder crossed her arms with a smile, lookin at all gathered parties. "Red Hot Chili Pepper did his part… the nature of the Valkyrie girl's semblance was an unknown. If that hadn't been sprung then it is almost guaranteed Chili Pepper and his User would have been successful… which cannot be said for the failings on Enigma's and Harvest's part. Harvest was going to be compromised the moment any of our enemies found him, this much we knew for certain. Which was why it was such an important part of that phase of the plan that they all remain in that Dance Hall until Chili Pepper either killed them or Enigma papered them. The fact that, in addition to the unknown that was Valkyrie, that Glynda Goodwitch remained available for combat was additionally unfortunate.

"On the other hand, Roman, I will actually give you a great deal of credit for last night; you putting Neopolitan forward to assist our efforts saved all of us… and that is no exaggeration on my part. True, Enigma and Harvest are gone but… well, they were the wink links to begin with. Regardless of how poorly other aspects of the plan went last night, our primary objective, the hacking of the CCT, has gone off without a hitch."

" **Indeed. Ozpin, James, Glynda and Jotaro are so busy looking over the assault on the dance, they've managed to convince themselves that the students were the main targets. That much of your plan was successful Cinder**." The lack of formality on RHCP's part clearly irked Cinder Fall but, whereas with Roman she would at least verbally punish his statements or show her disdain, here Cinder clearly let it slide.

"Indeed. Which brings us to the second phase of your part of the plan Red Hot Chili Pepper. I trust that your being here and already having such key information on our enemy's movements following last night means that your infiltration was successful." The Stand merely grinned as it crossed its arms over its chest, floating slightly in mid-air off the power of its electricity.

" **Perhaps far more so than even you yourself could've dared to hope for Cinder. They didn't even suspect for a second that I might've been listening in; Beacon's infrastructure, and the electrical wiring and power that goes with it, is simply too massive for them to have successfully scouted me out. As far as they were concerned I made my getaway somehow… when the truth was, as you planned, I stuck around to follow up on what their next move would be.**

" **A good thing I did too, otherwise Torchwick here would be in quite the bind.** " Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan each tensed up as Chili Pepper spoke so casually, the Stand merely continuing despite their reaction. " **Our assault has spooked them sufficiently that it's even got Ozpin to a point where he's willing to wager on an offensive action in order to disrupt our movements. Although he was hesitant on just banging down doors and arresting folks, as was Ironwood's want, because… well, I think you can surmise Cinder. It'd have done more to help us than hurt us, that much is certain.** " Cinder nodded in agreement and motioned for the Stand to continue.

" **So in comes Kujo Jotaro with a suggestion; a way to single out the one important target they know about, to get information on his whereabouts and what condition he's in. A way to follow his movements so that they can plan an appropriate counterattack.** " Red Hot Chili Pepper raised its finger as it grinned. " **I assume you, Cinder, and your toadies have heard of the Stand 'Hermit Purple' correct**?" CInder's golden eyes went wide as the name was uttered, Mercury even whistling as he scratched at his cheek.

"Wow, they're actually getting that desperate huh? Willing to bring the old geezer down and expose him to danger if it means actually getting some info on us, huh?" Roman raised his hand as all this went down, a perturbed look on his face.

"Okay, slow it down now kiddies, I haven't heard word one about this 'Hermit Purple'. What exactly is about to go down here that we should be so worried about?" As Roman asked this, Emerald turned her gaze over to Roman.

"Hermit Purple isn't a combat Stand… or at least, it isn't on the level of something like Crazy Diamond or Star Platinum. However it is an incredible Stand when it comes to information gathering. According to Whitesnake, the Stand is capable of finding anyone or anything that the User knows the name and appearance of, presenting either an image of it if used on a television or in a photograph or other various bits of information depending on what medium Hermit Purple is being used on."

"In short Roman, if Joseph Joestar does get down here and use his Stand, he'd be able to find you easily. Everyone knows what you look like and everyone knows your name. The second he invests that Stand in something, you're going to light up like a festival tree to them. They'll be able to locate you pretty easily." At that, Roman's gaze went wide with panic, Neopolitan similarly looking absolutely beyond worried as Torchwick turned his gaze over to Cinder.

"You can't be fucking serious! You mean this entire time you assured me that I wouldn't be located, that my name and face being used to headline this operation wouldn't matter and yet, here we are, some old asshole's about to come down here and use just that to rat out where I am and how they can get me? What the fuck Cinder?" Cinder's gaze moved over to Roman, a cold and calculating look to it that sent shivers down his spine.

"We hadn't foreseen the possibility that they'd get this desperate. Joseph Joestar is the Leader of The Frontier, a person of both administrative and… moral importance to that society. If he were to die then it'd mean a catastrophe for these people. We had thought this would keep him in his isolated little town while we went about our business." Cinder scratched at her chin as she thought, Red Hot Chili Pepper nodding as he placed his hands on his hips.

" **He's set to arrive by noon tomorrow if they have their way about it. They're going to send out one of the faster planes available to Atlas to pick him up from Morioh and then make a stop off the coast to put him into one of several airbuses. The idea is that they'll transfer him amidst one of these in order to try to play a shell game with him, keep us from figuring out which one he's in.** " Chili Pepper grinned cruelly as he looked over at Roman, the man practically sweating bullets as he brought his gloved hand to his lips. Fear was clearly present in his eyes; he had seen what Star Platinum had done to Emerald, after all.

" **You should probably look to getting your affairs in order there Torchwick. By tomorrow you'll probably be getting 'Ora Ora Ora'd yourself… and I doubt they're gonna let your little girl their save you like she saved Emerald! They'll be ready for it this time! Yeaaah-hahahahaha!** " Roman glared over at Chili Pepper, brandishing his cane as the Stand ceased its laughter, a far more deadly expression on his face as he saw the pressure building up in Roman Torchwick.

"This is quite the opportunity for us." The gathered group looked over to Cinder, their expressions ranging from disbelief from Neopolitan to… vain hope from Roman. "If we can kill Joseph Joestar, we'd effectively cripple the Frontier. Sure, Kujo Jotaro might have to return there and Whitesnake would lose 'this' opportunity to grab him up… but arrangements can be made at a later date. For now if we can just get these additional Stand Users out of our hair, it would be a tremendous weight off of our shoulders… and an easy path to victory would lay open before us."

"And… this plan you're cooking up, you're sure that it'd get me out of this, right Cinder?" Cinder Fall turned to Roman with a soft smile on her face, though her eyes still gleamed with her devious nature.

"Of course dear Roman. You'll be departing for Mountain Glenn tonight." With that, Roman Torchwick's brows just furrowed, an annoyed grimace on his face.

"... Okay? I really don't see how that's going to keep me safe if your plan falls through just like this one with the School Dance. Hell, if I didn't know better Cinder, it sounds to me like you're just getting me as far away from you as possible just in case your plan-"

Cinder was upon Roman in a moment, her hand violently gripping at the lapel of his coat as Neopolitan pulled out her sword. If Cinder cared about the little ice cream girl's gesture she didn't show it as that cruel smile, though tarnished with a look of annoyance, still held on her face.

"Do not throw such doubt at me Roman… after all, you and I are fated to get through this. It's destiny… so long as you go with me, that will remain true." Roman swallowed nervously as he nodded, a glow coming to Cinder's eyes. "You'll be safe no matter what happens Roman… if we kill Joseph Joestar, then there's nothing they can do. If they don't… well, all that will happen is that they will find you at Mountain Glenn, when it will be far too late for them to either stop us… or for them to capture you."

"Wha-"

"Just trust me Roman… my plans haven't failed us yet. They will not fail us now."

* * *

"What, a big mission?" Ruby Rose asked, her head tilting to the side. Indeed that look of confusion was on most of the gathered young hunter's faces as they stood face to face with Kujo Jotaro. Locked out of the adult's meeting for most of the day, Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO had little recourse but to wait to hear word afterward. They had assumed they'd hear it from either a secretary or a message on their Scroll and they had assumed that they were just going to be dismissed.

They hadn't expected Jotaro to come and gather them all up, one by one, telling them that they had important information for them that they 'needed' to know. Nor had they expected that information to be the fact that they were all being offered a mission.

"I mean, not to look a gift horse in the mouth Jotaro but… well, aren't our missions supposed to be coming later this week? Along with everyone else?" Yang asked, curious, as she crossed her arms across her chest. Jotaro just nodded, understanding their curiosity, as he crossed one leg over the other.

"It's true that your 'official' first mission is to be taken place alongside the rest of the student body… however, given what you all know and what you've been exposed to, not to mention the valiant efforts many of you put forward last night in the face of so many enemy Stands, it was decided that some… additional help would be required. Help that could only be provided by people with a proven track record of dealing with Stands, The Fang and Torchwick. Out of the entire student body, well…"

"We're the only folks who're up for that. I get that, but, what about other teachers? Surely the staff-"

"Are busy trying to keep order with all these students." Jotaro commented as he adjusted the rim of his cap, Jaune having quickly silenced himself. "Right now the rest of the student body is bordering on panic. Last night, as far as they were concerned, their lives had come as close to being over as they could've ever expected. Not at the hand of the Grimm, which they signed up for, but by beings with powers they're only just now coming to understand. The staff here at Beacon is needed to keep some semblance of order. If everyone panics now, everything we've done so far will be for naught. Not to mention how highly sensitive this mission is. Given the fact that you all have been quite… effective at keeping quiet about your escapades when it comes to the student body-" Many of the gathered hunters sheepishly scratched their heads at this, "-we decided that enlisting your aid… potentially would be of help. Especially with several teams like Team CFVY already out on their own missions."

"Potentially?" Pyrrha asked, which earned her a nod from Jotaro.

"Indeed. This is entirely voluntary. We're not going to 'enlist' you all into a mission that, by all rights… according to Beacon, you're all too young for." Jotaro sighed in some annoyance before he continued. "None of this was asked of any of you in addition to this… and you all have a right to make your own choices. All you all need to know is that this mission is quite vital to the interests of Beacon, Vale and The Frontier. Outside of that, we don't feel safe sharing much more information, lest any of you somehow be compromised." Everyone nodded in firm understanding of this. If they were going to learn more, they had to be 'in' with this mission. They had to be ready.

And they all promptly proceeded to not surprise Jotaro in the slightest as they all stepped forward.

"Come on Jotaro, did any of you actually expect anything different from my team? You can't just say that this mission is vital to the interests of The Frontier and then not expect us to jump in." Josuke spoke confidently as he, Okuyasu and Koichi stepped forward, each determined, but confident, as they did.

"We all signed up to be heroes! Wouldn't be much of ones if we backed down after what happened to everyone last night!" Ruby spoke with a cheery confidence, feeling like this moment was a dream come true for her, as the rest of Team RWBY nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Well hey, if all these Stands and stuff are just gonna keep comin' at us, not much point in hiding away… plus, I really wouldn't want to leave our friends out in the cold like this. You can count on us, I think… yeah, you can." Jaune spoke, somewhat awkwardly, as he scratched at the back of his neck. Team JNPR fell in behind him and, though Ren's nod was far more controlled than Nora's or Pyrrha's, they all seemed quite ready.

Yet, this wasn't the last Jotaro spoke of… accepting the mission. As JNPR lined up, Jotaro took a long, hard look over at Josuke, the pompadoured teen flinching slightly as he did so.

"I mean it Josuke; if you accept this task, there's no backing out of it. Once you hear what's in store, you can't back out. It'll be your duty to see this through; a lot of people are going to be counting on us." Josuke seemed utterly perplexed by this; Jotaro had never, never, doubted his resolve like this before. He may have made cautious sounds to his entire team or about his team, but he had never singled out Josuke in particular for this kind of warning. Josuke's light blue eyes blinked in confusion, a move mirrored by his friends, before he just tried to laugh it off.

"I mean… of course Jotaro. I can handle it. So what do we need to do?" Jotaro kept on staring at Josuke with that odd, focused look, before he finally sighed. He nodded his head as he readjusted his cap one more time.

"Joseph Joestar will be arriving at Beacon Academy tomorrow."

Several reactions flew through the room at once; on the one hand, Teams RWBY and JNPR were a mixture of excited and somewhat stunned. Blake and Weiss would finally see, first hand, a person they'd dismissed as a figment of an old army officer's imagination for many years. For Ruby, Jaune, Pyrrha and Yang, they'd be seeing a hero that they'd heard about from their friends and that, after all this time, had read about. As for Ren and Nora…

"YOU MEAN THE OLD MAN'S COMING HERE!" Nora's scream practically echoed through the room, Jotaro glaring harshly at her in an effort to silence her, to no avail. The orange haired girl rapidly turned on her heels and grinned nice and wide as she grabbed Ren by the shoulders. "You hear that, Renny? Joseph's coming! We're gonna see the old man again! Aren't you excited Renny?!" Despite Ren's own tendency to remain cool under most circumstances, everyone could easily see the small smile that had formed on his lips. Yes even withdrawn Ren was thoroughly excited by the prospect of seeing Joseph Joestar again.

In their excitement though, Teams RWBY and JNPR missed Team JOJO's reaction. Koichi and Okuyasu nervously looked at each other, a worried expression plastered quite firmly on both of their faces, before they looked over to Josuke. The pompadoured teen was dead silent, his gaze hidden in a shadow underneath his signature hairstyle. However, he didn't walk away and he didn't run and, as far as Jotaro was concerned, that had been all he'd asked for at the moment.

"While Nora is missing the point of discussing this quietly so that word doesn't leak out, yes, Joseph will be arriving sometime tomorrow. As we speak General Ironwood has sent one of his fastest craft out toward The Frontier. Once they land, they'll send out a part to immediately pick up the old man from Morioh and get his ass back here. However, we had concerns about the old man's safety coming in; Red Hot Chili Pepper's Stand Power is a threat and, while we've taken care of the support he used at the dance to make himself such a dire threat, there's no guarantee that our enemies don't have more Stands that could help him similarly. I'm sure it isn't too hard for any of you to imagine what would happen to Morioh if the old man were to die; the rush of negative emotions that would follow his death, especially a death at the hands of our common enemy, would surely attract the Grimm… myself, Josuke and his team would very likely have to return to see to the defense of our town."

Everyone nodded in understanding, their expression thin with grim determination. These were some high stakes, but…

"If it's so dangerous, why are you bringing the old guy here? Sounds like you're taking a big risk." Yang spoke calmly as she crossed her arms.

"It's true, this is a very big risk we're taking. However, after last night's assault on the dance hall we've determined that we can't just keep waiting and playing on the defensive. Our enemies and their Stands have infiltrated Beacon multiple times now and, last night, it was very nearly a total defeat that we wouldn't have recovered from. We need to go on the offensive; to that end, we need to know where Roman Torchwick is. In order to get that information in a timely manner, we need Hermit Purple." Everyone nodded once more as Jotaro reached into his pocket and pulled out a stick of coffee flavored gum.

"Considering the risks, we're obviously not going to just be bringing the old man in on this easily identifiable ship. We'll be having it make a stop several miles outside of Vale for the old man to be transferred into one of several airbuses. Up until the final moments of this operation, we won't know which airbus will be containing him and where it'll land… hopefully, this'll mean our enemies won't know either." Jotaro spoke calmly as he popped the stick of gum into his mouth and chewed on it.

"You all will be split up among various ports around Vale and here at Beacon. Wherever he decides to land, there'll be someone there to help protect him. Hopefully by keeping this such a closely guarded secret, we can keep Red Hot Chili Pepper from directly intervening or, at least, catch him out someplace the old man won't be. Once we have the old man safe in the city and secure, we'll transport him here to Beacon Academy, provided he doesn't land at Beacon's port before anywhere else. If he does then we'll just get him secure inside the Academy immediately. That's the plan for now… it's not perfect but we're running short on time. We can't afford to wait for our enemies to make another move and the old man is our best bet for getting the information we need." Everyone just nodded in understanding; Jotaro had been forward and his explanation thorough. It was clear that he was opening up the ground to questions and, to be frank, all of them had questions they really, really wanted answered… though maybe not mission sensitive ones. More like 'what's the old man like' or 'how is Joseph doing' or 'is he still as cool as we remember'.

"So, that's all we needed to know, right? That's all we're doing as a part of this?" Everyone snapped their gazes over to Josuke, the young man having finally brought attention to himself. Everyone flinched a bit at the near monotone his voice was speaking at, the flat expression on his face as he stared dead on at Jotaro. The older man merely nodded his head at Josuke's question, the pompadoured teen letting out a sigh as he placed his hands in his pockets. "If that's so then… then I think I'm going to head out Jotaro. I'll… I'll talk to you later."

"Josuke…" Okuyasu and Koichi muttered but a raised hand from Jotaro forestalled either of them stepping in Josuke's way. The pompadoured teen quickly walked out of the room they had all gathered in, the sounds of his footsteps clacking down the hallways ringing out in all of their ears as all ten teens and Jotaro watched him depart.

"... Okay, that got a bit heavy pretty fast." Blake spoke, her eyebrow quirked in interest as everyone nodded in agreement with her.

"Yeah, you figure Josuke would be super excited to see his leader come here to Beacon. Heck, if we had to take up a mission to protect Ozpin I know I'd be totally excited!" Ruby spoke enthusiastically as most of the others nodded in agreement. Soon enough the eight Four Kingdom teens eventually turned their gazes onto Koichi and Okuyasu, the two Frontier teens just doing their best to appear inconspicuous as they kept their gazes locked away from their friends and fellow hunters.

"... Okay, what do you two know that we don't know?" Yang asked, hands on her hips as she looked over at the two of them. Okuyasu just flinched slightly as he placed his own hands in his pockets, Koichi having scratched as his arm awkwardly as he looked off to the side.

"W-W-What are you guys talking about? We don't know anything! Right Okuyasu?" Koichi looked over to the scarred huntsman, hoping that Okuyasu would continue on with his pattern of keeping Josuke's most personal secret. Okuyasu, indeed, wasn't talking… though that fact in and of itself might as well as been as damning as anything else. He didn't blab about it but Okuyasu wasn't exactly denying anything either.

"Really? After lecturing us about keeping secrets away from friends and being honest you're going to get tight lipped?" It was clear that Weiss wasn't being malicious when she said this, sounding more entertained than actual frustrated with Okuyasu. To this the scarred teen just bit his lip slightly as he looked off to the side.

"... If it were up to me, I'd tell you all in a heartbeat. You guys are our friends and comrades and… well, you wouldn't think any differently about him if you knew this. But… but this isn't mission sensitive. This isn't going to affect anything. This is my bro's secret, and he… he's not ready to talk yet. It sucks but… but it's his secret to tell, not mine." With that Okuyasu crossed his arms as he spoke, everyone else nodding slightly as he did so.

"... But it does look like it could be mission sensitive Okuyasu. You saw how Josuke responded to all of this; never in all my time knowing the guy have I seen him so… I dunno. Despondent, I guess." Pyrrha nodded along with Jaune assessment, the tournament fighter looking over at Okuyasu and Koichi.

"Whatever this is, its eating at him… and I think all of us can agree that it isn't good to leave things like this fester. If we know what's bothering Josuke, we can try to help him… but if we don't then he's just suffering and we're being forced to watch a friend suffer." At that both Koichi and Okuyasu grimaced, especially the latter. His own philosophy and beliefs were being thrown right in his face and the worst part about it was that he 'knew' they were right. This… this was going to fucking effect how Josuke took part in this mission. Josuke would do his best to 'avoid' Joseph at all costs. He'd try to beg Jotaro to put him some place where he wouldn't have to meet the old man… not because he hated him. No, not because of that… but because of the shame he'd feel, seeing Joseph Joestar face to face.

The deep, personal shame that he knew his friend carried deep inside of him. That he pinned to his own value as a person… something he didn't deserve to carry around but did.

Something that in his time knowing the guy he couldn't help him shake it off, even with his own experience as back up.

Similar thoughts were going through Koichi's head but… but Josuke was his team leader. His team leader and his best friend. He wasn't going to be the person who exposed his deepest secret to all their new friends. Not that there was any way shape or form that any of them would take this new information and turn on Josuke, no… but… but Josuke had his own issues to wrestle with this. Things that, from Koichi's limited experience, might not have seemed rational.

But equally, thanks to that limited experience, he didn't know how to handle.

"You guys are his teammates. If it's not your place to let us in about this so that we can try and help him, whose is it?" Ruby asked, her silver eyes looking both Okuyasu and Koichi's dead on as she tried to convey her worry. Josuke was a friend… and if there's one thing Ruby Rose couldn't stand for, it was seeing her friends hurting. Especially if they were just hurting themselves. It was painful to see Blake go the way she had for so long, it stank hard to have Jaune be so down on himself or Pyrrha be enveloped by her own issues. The look of hurt on Nora's face, and the sadness in Ren's eyes, when they heard of the fate of Kakyoin, Iggy and Avdol was heartbreaking…

And the less she ever had to say about the looks she'd sometimes seen on Yang's face or, even worse than that, her dad's, the better.

"If it's not their place, then it's mine." Everyone turned their gaze over towards Jotaro as the man sat in his seat, a thoughtful expression on his face as Okuyasu and Koichi flinched.

"J-Jotaro! You can't be serious! Come on, you know this is Josuke's secret, you can't-"

"Correct me if I'm wrong Okuyasu, but I believe Josuke's secret had as much impact on my family as it did on Josuke's." The scarred teen flinched back slightly… yeah, yeah that was true. This secret, the worst kept one in all The Frontier, was one held in trust between the Higashikata family and the Joestar lineage. Everyone knew it but no one outwardly spoke about it out of respect for the Joestar family.

It really was as much their own story as it was Josuke's… but still, he knew that this went far more to the core of Josuke's being than it did Jotaro's… not to discount what his family had gone through…

"Fuck…" Okuyasu scratched the back of his head as he tried to wrap his mind around this. Whether it was right or wrong for Jotaro to be the one to get down on this. Still, if there was anyway Koichi or Okuyasu could dissuade Jotaro from speaking up it was gone the moment their friends all earnestly turned to Jotaro and, with a pleading expression, silently begged him to let them in on whatever was affecting Josuke so deeply. Jotaro simply sat in his seat for a long minute, a deeply thoughtful expression on Jotaro's face as he closed his eyes. Finally the capped huntsman sighed in irritation as he spat out his flavorless lump of gum and quickly produced a cigarette, lighting it with Star Platinum as he took a long, hard drag on it.

"... The old man… Joseph Joestar is Josuke's father."

The initial response from all eight Four Kingdom hunters gathered before Jotaro was as immediate as it was disbelieving.

"... What?"

 **-To Be Continued- Hermit Purple (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Hoo boy, we've been setting this one up for a long time. As far back as Welcome to Vale (Act 1), there's been hints and signs of Josuke's struggles with his identity and the nature of his relationship (or purposeful lack thereof) with his father, Joseph Joestar. Which makes sense; while the other characters are important to the series, and their issues deserving of their own set up and pay off, Josuke is the main JoJo. Having one of his big character arcs be a major throughline of the early part of the fic was pretty much a given. So we've had it that the nature of JoJo's relationship with his dad, his friend's willingness to keep his secret and the hints to the CRWBY have been a major resonating theme of the past few dozen chapters. As recently as the last Dance, Dance, Dance chapter did we get signs of Josuke's lingering feelings about this issue.**

 **Some people might take umbrage with Jotaro coming forward and spilling the beans here. After all, one of the things that underlay JoJo's Bizarre Adventure as a series is that its a series about men who can be manly even when they cry and talk about their issues. To have Josuke be so in deep about his own dad issues that it takes an outside source to deal with them seems like a betrayal of that. Yet I felt like that was a major part of Josuke's character in-universe, even when his whole dad thing was a smaller part of his character. Remember, Josuke was so ambivalent/mildly opposed to dealing with Joseph Joestar being his dad that after he thought RHCP was dealt with he confided in Koichi that maybe he should just get out of there. It took directly confronting his own father to get Josuke to start working his way around those emotions and they were pretty big ones.**

 **Now imagine making that part of his character ten times worse by having him not only know his dad, but know what a big damn hero his dad was, having idolized his dad in his youth and having issues of self-worth attached to all this shit.**

 **I wasn't joking in an earlier author's note when I said that I had pretty much punched Josuke in the gut before this series proper even began. Like a lot of characters whose backgrounds got changed a bit thanks to the change in setting and the ideas behind it, think Keicho, some people got off better and some people got off worse. Josuke was one of those people who got off worse.**

" **Well gorilla_fingers, why didn't his friends try and help him." Well when it comes to deeply personal issues like this, it kind of helps to have experience in the issue at hand if you want to reach out. Ask any depressed person what it feels like when non-depressed friends try to offer 'helpful' advice and you'll see what I mean. Koichi and Jotaro had relatively good family lives; their fathers were around when they could be and when they weren't working. Nothing about canon tells us that Jotaro or Koichi had especially shit relations with their dads. Okuyasu had an ideal family life before his mother died and then his father turned into a monster; sure, he can offer a validly sympathetic ear to the situation, but when it comes to understanding the core emotions behind each trauma, something's lacking. Josuke, both emotionally and in terms of what might eat at Okuyasu, can't 'fix' those problems and vice versa, even if both can understand how much these situations might hurt each other.**

 **Like with the CRWBY and their problems, no one but themselves can really 'fix' their issues. Weiss and Blake had to talk things out, Pyrrha and Jaune had to actually talk to each other, Blake had to come to terms with how she viewed herself with herself, etc. Josuke needs to have his time with Joseph to really get anywhere with 'fixing' his issues…**

 **But that doesn't mean that friends who have an inkling of what you're going through can't be there to give you the push you need and, as we see in canon, Josuke needs pushes to meet face to face with Joseph. It's just that in canon the issue was smaller and that push was 'hey, Red Hot Chili Pepper might still be around' whereas now the issue is so big that it's hitting Josuke particularly hard. But before his friends can offer any kind of help they can, they actually have to know what he's going through. Jotaro might be being a bit of a dick here, but the guy's also taking a calculated bet. The CRWBY and the Duwang Gang have formed some pretty tight bonds doing some Stand fighting together at this point. They're good friends and they feed into one and other. It's why I generally let comments to the effect of 'you're favoring one side of this crossover over the other' wash off my back; I feel like both halves of the crossover get something out of interacting with the other which I feel is at the core of a good crossover.**

 **Now it's just Josuke's turn to be on the other end of that transaction.**

 **I have to admit, I was a bit worried with this chapter; I'm in the middle of two moves, having completed the first two days ago now and with the second approaching in, ironically, five days. The place I'm currently staying isn't amazingly conducive to writing and so I worried for either my ability to get this out in the time it would be expected or for the quality. Despite those concerns, I feel like I managed to get what I wanted out of this chapter. And, thankfully, the update on the 7th is going to be an RBA Chibi chapter, so I won't have to stress about my current conditions not being optimal. Hell, just now the internet dropped out for a bit and I was worried as to whether or not I was going to get this uploaded at all or not. Thankfully, it popped back on after a bit of fiddling.**

 **So yeah, hope you all are having a better early August than I am and I'll see you guys on the 7th with a new RBA Chibi update.**

 **And I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose. I am not purposefully lining this up so we have major cliffhangers just before a 10 day pause between main story updates. It is completely coincidental.**

 **I swear.**

 **Really.**


	37. Hermit Purple (Act 2)

"... What?"

The question was posed again, though this time is had been done more insistently. The eight Four Kingdom teens had thought that they must've misheard, that there was no Earthly way Jotaro had actually said what he'd just said. Joseph Joestar, a man that according to what they knew about the guy had to be pushing into his eighties by this point in time… was Josuke's father? Sure, for many of them, there was a logical way to explain that, a very easy explanation that could be put forward… but few would hazard to do so. For Nora and Ren, Joseph Joestar was the kindly old man who, while they were alone in the world, took them in along with the rest of the Stardust Crusaders. To much of the rest of them, Joseph was a near-legendary figure; with the events of von Stroheim's biography otherwise proven, his actions saved all of Remnant…

To imagine that such a man would do… 'that' and do this to someone, it wasn't in their frame of mind at the moment.

So their only defense was to just ask again. "What?"

"Joseph Joestar, my grandfather, is Josuke's father." Jotaro repeated again, more firmly this time, as he took a drag on his cigarette.

"B-But come on… isn't his wife, like, as old as he is?" Jaune asked, reaching a bit, as slow but steady realization dawned on the group of teenagers.

"Yes… Suzy Q, my grandmother, is as old as my old man… but I didn't say Josuke was 'her' son." That cracked it. It had started with the more logical and intuitive of the group, Ren, Weiss and Blake, as their faces fell and their eyes went wide. As the conversation went forward this crack similarly ran through the rest of the teens as they all came to the exact same realization.

Higashikata Josuke, their friend, a fellow Hunter, a team leader… was a bastard.

Not just any bastard, Joseph Joestar's bastard.

"And before you ask… yes, that does technically make him my uncle." Jotaro answered the point before it could be brought up, Nora's hand slowly dipping down as her question was pre-empted. The look of disbelief on all of their faces was evident but, eventually, Weiss was the first one to step forward.

"I mean… how?" The look Jotaro fixed her with quickly got her to shake her head. "I mean, we obviously know 'how' but… how did he even get an opportunity to do this? From what you've told us about, The Frontier is a tight knit community. Something like… 'that' couldn't possibly go under the radar."

"Joseph Joestar is a very tricky man. He's remained wily even into his old age and his mind is a maze of wheels, tricks and traps. Trust me, if anyone could find a way to pull something like this off without anyone noticing, it would be him." Jotaro said, somewhat bitterly, as he took another drag on his cigarette. "Sometime a few years before The Stardust Crusade is when it happened. My grandfather caught the attention of… or who knows, maybe she caught his attention, Higashikata Tomoko. The Higashikata family was just herself and her father at the time and they were both Hunters, as you'd imagine. Her father wasn't great but he did serve admirably and kept an eye out on the wall… Tomoko, however, was a bit more of a firecracker.

"She was incredibly skilled and had a pretty strong Stand. It got a lot of people to notice her… and one of those people probably turned out to be my grandfather." The looks of disgust that passed by a lot of the girls' faces as Jotaro spoke were quite evident and, in his mind, it wasn't undeserved. His grandfather hadn't exactly done anything here to paint him in a great light… not that there would be a great light to paint him in exactly. "The affair went on for a while, how long nobody's exactly sure, but sometime later they broke it off… and unknown to them at the time, the old man had impregnated her. Eventually she gave birth and… well, that's when everyone figured it out."

"How though? I mean, so she gave birth to a kid in a city of thousands of people? Surely they couldn't just easily narrow it down to your grandfather?" Blake asked, a slight tilt to her head as she peered over at Jotaro. The white capped Huntsman just nodded in agreement as he stood up. The gesture confused the group for a bit before eventually Jotaro slipped off his jacket and pulled down on the collar of his shirt just above his left shoulder blade. The group of eight teens had wondered what exactly this was supposed to accomplish… before they all spotted it.

"What… what are we looking at here Jotaro?"

"Ever since Jonathan Joestar fought his battles way back when, the Joestar Bloodline has had its fate inseparably intertwined with that of another and his minions. Our destiny is tied to this man and those who follow him… it is our fate to battle him until such a time as either side is destroyed. This birthmark, this star, is the symbol of that fate… the seal with which our destinies are made known."

"Come on now… you can't honestly expect us to believe that your bloodline is 'cursed' with some kind of destiny right? I mean, you've shown us and said a lot of things Jotaro but… but…" Weiss' words slowly died down as she realized what she was saying and as Jotaro fixed her with a 'very' serious look. "... Oh my God, your family's cursed with some kind of destiny." With a slight nod Jotaro lifted his shirt's collar back up to cover the Joestar birthmark, soon donning his jacket again as well.

"At any rate, all members of the Joestar bloodline are born with this mark on their left shoulder from the second they slide out of the womb… and the same was true for Josuke. The second he was crying for all the world to hear, a purple star was plain to see on him. Given that I was just around thirteen years old at the time and my grandfather was the only living male Joestar alive… well, the list of suspects as to who this kid's father could be was very, very, very short. When my grandfather was presented with his bastard son and an answer was demanded of him… well, he fessed up then and there. So did Tomoko… but the damage had been done by this point."

Jotaro sighed as he took his seat again, picking his cigarette back up as he looked out at the group of teens. "Now… this next part I'm going to need you to listen carefully. I don't want you all to jump in early or shout your disgust or whatever… a lot of this has to do with the core beliefs of The Frontier. This is why we've been keeping this quiet… why not many folks exactly talk about this. Understood?" The group of eight Four Kingdom teens nodded solemnly, though it was clear that disgust and general discontentment was very well spread among them. Nora and Ren were perhaps the only exceptions alongside Ruby, all three of whom looked far more upset than angry. Jotaro just nodded as he got these looks.

"In The Frontier… The Joestar Family is respected. Hell, that's probably not even the right word for it; in The Frontier, people swear their lives and their livelihoods by the Joestar Family. Jonathan Joestar impacted the psychology of the people who lived and fought alongside him tremendously and they passed his legend on… then his son, George Joestar II, sacrificed his life in a battle that determined whether Morioh would stand for that generation or if it would finally fall to the Grimm. You already know about my Grandfather's exploits and The Stardust Crusader but, needless to say, those were BIG deals to people alive during those times as well. As far as people of The Frontier are concerned… the Joestar Family and those descended from them might as well be the second coming of The Brother of Creation. The times we've saved their lives or all of Remnant from threats near and dear to the consciousness of The Frontier… it's scarred them, both positively and negatively.

"As such, when people heard that a bastard had been born to Joseph Joestar… well, it shook a lot of people. The Joestar Family was meant to be the rock that held The Frontier together after the death of Robert Speedwagon and William Zeppeli. One of our generation were the ones who would always be there to save The Frontier from whatever threat loomed either at its borders or from across the sea in Remnant… whether that threat be The Grimm, Pillar Men or… well, it doesn't matter. Basically, Joseph wasn't just 'a leader' of Morioh… he was The Leader, and our family was viewed as paramount.

"So to have something very nearly tarnish its name was a threat to the confidence and belief of the people of Morioh. They were scarred and, for once, they couldn't turn to my family to reassure them because… well, we were the root of the problem. Or at least, half of the root. So they instead cast blame and aspersions… Joseph Joestar was had finally sullied the long good name of the Joestar Family, Higashikata Tomoko had won Joseph Joestar over through trickery and seduction… that they had both torn the paramount family apart for their own selfish reasons.

"My grandfather in the end managed to spare everyone a lot of heartache by owning up to his mistake. He admitted what he did and threw himself at the mercy of my grandmother… and Brothers know that my grandmother hadn't been angrier with him at any time in her entire life beforehand. She was furious… but she was also his wife. She had her own responsibilities to our home. Like Erina Joestar before her and, to a lesser degree, Lisa Lisa, as much as the Joestar men were rocks for the Frontier, the women of the family were the very soil itself. Supporting everything they could and giving life to our home.

"She forgave him, against her better judgement, and stayed married to him. She also worked tirelessly to remind people of just what my grandfather had done for Morioh and to forgive him for a moment of weakness… and in the end, Suzy Q was a well loved figure. Happy-go-lucky and always running around excited, asking people about their lives and how they were doing. People wouldn't forgive my grandfather for himself, though they would in time with The Stardust Crusader… they forgave him at the time for Suzy Q's sake." Jotaro let loose a long sigh as he snuffed out the remains of his cigarette, reaching into his pocket to produce another. He watched the looks on everyone's' faces carefully; Koichi and Okuyasu looked about as uncomfortable as he imagined they would be, which was certainly fair, and meanwhile Teams RWBY and JNPR all seemed apprehensive. There was some turn in this story, something that made Josuke seem so harsh and bitter towards the idea of his father coming. They knew there was something… and on some level, Jotaro knew what they were expecting.

They were expecting that Josuke hated his old man. That his apprehension was, at its core, about his relationship with his father… as much as Jotaro didn't look forward to the next part of this story, it was this thought that gave him some pause before he continued.

"Before I continue… do give my grandmother the benefit of understanding what she was going through at the time. Her marriage with a man she'd loved for around fifty years at that point was suddenly thrust into question and the life she knew was threatened… quite literally if the negative emotions this affair was raising up ended up drawing Grimm to Morioh. Her family had almost been torn apart… and she loved that family dearly. The thought that she'd nearly lost it made her very sad… and it made her very angry as well." The teens nodded hesitantly as Jotaro said this and, thus, Jotaro continued.

"While my grandmother extended this olive branch to my grandfather and did indeed work their relationship back into a normal state because of it… she was much less inclined to extend it to Higashikata Tomoko… in fact, she wasn't inclined at all." A few of the teens winced as Jotaro said this, the older huntsman just taking a long drag on his cigarette before he moved on. "My grandmother 'hated' Higashikata Tomoko. To this day she still does on some level. She understands that my grandfather was as much at fault for what happened and she'll even say she understands that Higashikata Tomoko wasn't specifically trying to ruin her marriage… but still. Tomoko slept with her husband behind her back, did so for a long period of time… long enough that a son was born out of it and then didn't even tell anyone who the father was up until it was forcibly revealed. My grandmother could think as logically as she could about the entire situation but, in the end, she is as a very emotional woman as well. She wasn't ever going to find it in herself to forgive Tomoko… and in the end, much of The Frontier followed suit.

"No one outright blamed her for it, indeed, my grandfather had taken as much of the blame as he could… but no one was exactly happy with the end result either. Tomoko was walking around with Joseph Joestar's bastard after nearly ruining Suzy Q's marriage… it wasn't going to be good times for her. About the only thing that kept her family's head above water was the fact that she was such a skilled huntress and that, after a certain period of time, no one really wanted to talk about this anymore. My grandmother didn't want to hear about it, the old man 'definitely' didn't want it brought up while Suzy Q was in earshot and most of The Frontier just wanted to move past this… so, in the end it became the worst kept secret of Morioh; everyone knew about it and everyone made sure that the Higashikata family knew that they knew… but no one openly spoke about it out of respect for Suzy Q's wishes."

"So is that why Josuke… Josuke was in such a hurry to leave?" Ruby asked, her voice quavering somewhat, as her silver eyes looked to Jotaro. "Because he knows all this and… he's bitter?" Jotaro just gave Ruby a long hard look before he lowered his eyes. This… this was always the hard part.

"... Higashikata Tomoko loved my grandfather." Everyone flinched a bit as Jotaro said this, not having expected 'that' to follow up what they had described. "Whenever I've spoken with her… Hell, to this day she still insists she loves the old man. She talks about how she never regrets the time spent with him and how grateful she is that she had Josuke to remember him buy… a piece of him to keep close to her heart that she would also love dearly as her son. Josuke didn't grow up hearing about how Joseph Joestar was a lecher, how he seduced her, bedded her and then left her with a kid on the way. He didn't hear about how he should've wanted to punch the old man in the face or in how little his reputation meant…

"Josuke heard about The Joestar Family. The heroes that they were and the feats they accomplished. When he heard about his great-grandfather, his grandfather and… his father, the stories were always told in a way that didn't convey a bitterness. She didn't hold back on any of the ill details, Tomoko loved Joseph and our family but she didn't sugar coat anything about us… but she didn't try to poison Josuke's perception of us either. She spoke highly of the entire family and… she didn't try to make her son hate his father. Hell, she pretty much did the exact opposite…" Jotaro took a hard drag on his cigarette as he spoke, blowing out a plume of smoke before he continued.

"When I first met Josuke to begin mentoring him, I wasn't looking forward to it. Nothing against Josuke, Hell, I'd heard his Stand, Crazy Diamond, was turning out to be a force. That part I was willing to put up with… what I wasn't looking forward to was having to look this kid in the eye. The ideas that I was going to meet the kid that my grandfather had left with his mother, had abandoned… well, I thought I was going to hear a lot of shit from the kid and rightfully so. Hell, I thought I was going to get a solid punch to the gut from Josuke on behalf of the old man, and I was about ready to take it…

"You know what I got instead? I got an apology." Eyes went wide as Jotaro shook his head. "Higashikata Josuke bowed his head and apologized for having been the root of so much trouble for my family and for Morioh… this kid who had every right to be angry just didn't have it in him… or at least, he didn't have it in him to be angry at either his father, Morioh or his mother." Everyone tensed as Jotaro said this, the man looking up at the rest of them. Josuke was brought up on the stories of his father's heroics and by a mother who still loved the man she had spent all that time with. He grew up in a town that venerated the Joestars… and grew up having had his life saved by them when The Stardust Crusade came about. The sickness that Josuke told you all about… it was linked to the same sickness that threatened my mother. In the end, all of this came together for Josuke to paint a heroic image in his mind…

"At the same time, his father wasn't around or near him. Didn't even try to be; one of Suzy Q's conditions for forgiving Joseph would be that he wouldn't bring his bastard anywhere near the family. That he wouldn't see him… and the old man agreed. The town was cold when it came to the affair and Tomoko's reputation was shot… no matter how good a huntress she was, anytime people saw her and Josuke walking around, it was a reminder of what Morioh had been forced to go through. The rift it had created. Josuke's always been perceptive, even as a kid… Hell, it's probably something he picked up from the old man himself.

"And what he got was simple; his father couldn't or wouldn't be around him, his mother was alone and largely derided by the town and it was all linked to him… Josuke's apology to me wasn't just some kind gesture. It was genuine; he viewed himself as a source of trouble and apologized to me for it."

"And you all just let that go on? His mom, his grandfather, you? You just… just let it happen?" Yang had spoken up, her lilac eyes locked onto Jotaro as the older huntsman just shook his head slightly.

"No… trust me, I don't think anyone would've 'wanted' Josuke to go around thinking of himself in such negative terms. We did our best, all of us did, or at least those of us invested in seeing Josuke better. I tried my best to talk him out of this myself as his mentor and Okuyasu and Koichi have again and again offered their own support to their friend and leader… Hell, Tomoko and her father always assured Josuke that, if Joseph ever met him, he'd be proud of the young man he was and the huntsman he was becoming… it just never mattered. Nothing we ever said really stuck.

"No matter what we did or tried, what anyone did or tried, there was no shaking that sense of worthlessness from him. It's why he's been so determined to be an upstanding huntsman and team leader. Why his biggest worry when he was told about coming here from Morioh was whether he was living up to the example he should live by, as set by his grandfather's ideals… why he can't stand the idea of seeing Joseph Joestar. Josuke's view of himself, of his own self-worth… it's pretty shot. He can be confident, Hell, he can seem like he's untouchable at times... but when you really drill down to it he knows he's a bastard. A kid whose father has never been around for him and was just left. A kid whose birth meant that his mother couldn't be a respected member of the community as her skill as a huntress would otherwise ensure and whose grandfather who gave him a vision of a selfless hunter, someone who could be respected even with this sort of stain on his family…

"Maybe there's a part of him in there somewhere deep down that is willing to loathe Joseph Joestar for what the old man's done… and you know what, he'd certainly be owed it after everything's been said and done. But as it stands, that isn't why he was in such a hurry to leave… he left because at the center of it all, Josuke feels like he's not worth it. That he's not worth the considerable love his mother and grandfather showed for him even while they went through all this crap, his own reputation or the Joestar lineage." Jotaro took another harsh drag on his cigarette as he spoke. He cast his gaze over the group of kids before him and, again, he couldn't say he was too surprised by what he saw.

Ren and Nora might as well have looked like he told them that Joseph Joestar had died and that someone else had spent the past several decades parading around in his skin. The two young hunters had known Joseph as the kindly old man who had helped save them again and again during their part of the journey during The Stardust Crusade. He was the old geezer who picked them out while they were alone in the world and brought them into a weird sort of family. Who, along with the rest of the Crusaders, had given them a new home before departing. To hear that someone that they must've each looked up to so much in their own ways, who Nora especially remembered so fondly, had done something like that and, worse yet, had done something so horrible that involved one of their friends and had hurt them… devastated was a word to use and it felt like the right one.

Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha just looked down with differing measures of disgust, and it wasn't hard to imagine why; what the old man had done, what his transgression had caused and the damage done… it was a lot. It was only by the good graces of Suzy Q and the reputation of the Joestar Family that the old man's name had recovered, along with The Stardust Crusade… but these three didn't have those considerations. They just knew that their friend's father hadn't ever been around for him and was part of a root cause of why the kid was hurting. Disgust was an easy emotion to reach for and Jotaro couldn't blame them for it.

For Okuyasu and Koichi, there was that characteristic mix of discomfort and worry that usually followed these types of discussions in The Frontier; the chaotic conflict between personally knowing someone involved in this and having respect for a man like Joseph Joestar, while also being hurt and frustrated over how his actions had affected their friend. This was all too common and growing more common as Josuke's reputation and star record as a Huntsman spread throughout The Frontier but it was always a small comfort to see that his two best friends, regardless of how they might have felt the need to respect their elder, were clearly conflicted in favor of their friend.

Ruby and Jaune just looked kind of shell-shocked, though Ruby's silver eyes quickly scanned about as if in deep thought, as if she was trying to think of some way of 'fixing' this. Whether that fix be for Josuke or for the situation in general, Jotaro couldn't be certain but, well, a part of him was amused at least. The girl had become known to him at this point for her tendency to come up with simple solutions to complex problems… had this become a problem too complex for her to even fathom, he wondered?

For Jaune it almost certainly was; after all, the young man had lived his entire life with a happy, loving family. He probably never even considered the idea that a spouse would cheat in his life… to be confronted with all this at once and for it to hit so close to home as a good friend… it was probably a lot for the blond knight to take in.

The one that intrigued Jotaro however was the other blonde in this group. Before she had spoken up, and even afterward, Yang Xiao Long had been rather quiet. Of all the teens here, Jotaro had honestly expected the most loud and brazen outbursts of the discussion to come from her. However, the blonde brawler had merely sat there, slowly nodding her head and taking in his information. When she had asked her question and had it answered she continued to listen, though her frown deepened and deepened as the discussion went on. As Jotaro finished up, Yang just nodded her head one last time, biting at the corner of her lip.

"Jotaro… the way you're talking about it, it sounds like Josuke was a pretty good kid." Jotaro quirked an eyebrow at that but in the end just nodded his ascent.

"Indeed. While he was a young boy and therefore got into this kind of trouble and that, there really isn't anything to say that Josuke was any kind of brat or troublemaker growing up… compared to me, especially." Jotaro admitted as he took a long drag on his cigarette. "He respected his mother and his grandfather and usually listened to whatever his elders told him. Hell, he was probably one of the easier kids I ever had any part in teaching myself."

"… _I was a fuckin' worthless son. I caused my mother and grandfather so much trouble… because of me, so much shit got thrown their way. My mom, who was the kindest woman I knew, and my granddad… the man I wanted to be so much like as a huntsman. They didn't deserve any of the shit they got… but they got it anyway. Because of me."_

"Of course…" Yang muttered to herself as she ran a hand through her long blonde locks, a clearly annoyed expression on her face. Her lilac eyes danced around the room as she seemed to think and, before she could speak up, Jotaro sighed.

"Look, I'm telling you all this because at some point, even you all deserve to know. This mission is key and anything that might affect its outcome needs to be taken into account for. That includes Josuke, if necessary. Just… try not to be hard on him with how he's been treating himself. Try not to let all this get to you all too much either; whatever that old man's done, no matter how shitty it is, he is key to getting through these next couple of days with any kind of information on our enemies. Think he's an old lech or not, just hold those off until after the mission, alright?" Everyone in the room nodded as the white capped huntsman waved them all off. "In that case, you all are dismissed. Be ready to go with your gear in the morning; we'll have a landing platform decided by then." While most of the teens had hovered around and waited for a moment, still trying to gather their thoughts on all of this, Yang was almost immediately out the door, a determined, forceful gait to her walk as she strode out of the room.

"Woah, where the Hell Is she going in such a hurry?" Okuyasu spoke up as he barely got out of the way of Yang's warpath, the scarred teen looking out the door after her as Ruby just turned her head over to it, a slight grimace on her face.

"... Oh… oh… Well, this is either going to go really poorly or… I dunno, it might help." Ruby admitted as she gently scratched at the back of her head, the rest of the group turning on the silver eyed young team leader as she looked at them all, sheepish expression on her face. "I think… I think this probably hit a pretty sore spot for my sis… I dunno what she's gonna say or what she's gonna do but, well, she's gonna do something."

"... Fantastic…" Okuyasu muttered somewhat sarcastically as he leaned up against a wall. "I'm not sure Josuke's going to be exactly receptive to anything right now. Not for nothing, but none of us could really get the guy to come over to our side of seeing things."

"Judging by the look on her face she's probably not so much interested in 'getting him to come over' then she is 'dragging him bodily across the line'." It was a bit of a surprise to everyone when, out of anyone who said this, it was Nora. The orange haired young woman looked out after the blonde brawler as she departed, Jotaro just sighing slightly as he snuffed out his cigarette.

"Honestly if she wants to give it a go, then by all means, let her. If she has some kind of insight that can break through to Josuke, then I'd be all too glad for it." With that, Jotaro just stood up and straightened out his jacket a bit. "Still, **yare yare** , I'd rather not get in the middle of that right now."

* * *

… Joseph Joestar was coming here.

That was the thought that had primarily dominated Josuke's line of thinking as he sat on a bench in one of Beacon's more open plots of land. The fountain of two hunters standing tall and proud was a ways off from him, its water sprinkling in the sunset. It'd been awhile since he'd left Jotaro's meeting on the upcoming mission… and honestly, Josuke hadn't entirely gotten over the shock of the matter.

Joseph Joestar was coming 'here'.

Josuke sighed as he leaned forward on his knees, scratching a bit at his pompadour before producing a comb to fix it back up again. The entire thing just didn't sit well with him… he knew his place in this entire affair. Suzy Q didn't want him around her family and barely tolerated Jotaro's continued interactions with him, and those of his family, because Jotaro insisted that it was going to happen. And few people got into an argument with Kujo Jotaro and won. Apparently though the same went for Suzy Q; if Joseph Joestar had ever wanted to meet with him, then he sure as Hell hadn't shown any sign of it. The guy seemed all too ready to follow that tone and just stay away from him…

Though really, could Josuke blame him? Josuke was his bastard, not his son. A sign of his infidelity and… and a mistake. Something that had almost cost the Joestar Family their own home's stability and had hit The Frontier's confidence in The Joestar Lineage. A heroic family could be sullied by common problems after all, they had said. The family of Jonathan Joestar was just as human, people whispered.

After all, Josuke himself was the proof of that, right?

Joseph Joestar was coming here.

All the while Josuke couldn't help but shake his head… it wasn't just the Joestar family he had caused trouble for. His mother was a strong huntress. A great one. She should've been a well respected member of the community. People should've been lining up to hear her stories, great stories, and to listen to her advice on how to go out and fight and kill Grimm. On how to save people. When people saw her, they should've seen someone they could respect.

They shouldn't have taken one look at the little boy following her around and remembered just what had happened. What mistakes and failings he represented.

Joseph Joestar was coming here… and it wouldn't be to see him.

Not if Josuke had a say in it.

It wasn't because he hated the man… honestly, after all the stories and all the things his mother had said about him, how could he? Joseph Joestar sounded like an amazing man… the kind of man Josuke himself could respect. Hell, he sounded like his grandfather, if a bit larger than life than his own old man had been. The thought of looking that man face to face and seeing whatever would be there, seeing whatever emotion would be betrayed by Joseph Joestar's visage… shame, derision, regret… pity. Seeing any of that in the face of a man that his mother loved, to this day, that had the respect of so many people including his grandfather… that he had grown up learning about the deeds of…

No. Josuke had already known that he was a weight on the people around him. He didn't need it confirmed by that man of all people.

Didn't need it confirmed by the man who had seen to it that he'd be born. He looked up again at the setting sun… jeez, just how long had it been since he set foot outside of that room and walked on off? The rest of the guys must've thought he'd lost his mind when he did that… would they finally figure it out, he wondered? It was always something of a worry of his; that more of his friends would learn about this little chapter in his life and he'd have to 'deal' with all of that again.

All of that being them trying to 'fix' this. Koichi and Okuyasu had done their best to assure him that they respected him deeply and that he shouldn't worry about any of this crap, that his work as a huntsman was more than enough to prove that he was good enough, that he deserved to be respected. He was proud of his work as a huntsman, don't get him wrong, but… that sense that he'd done wrong by his family would always be there.

His mother's attempts to reassure him that Joseph Joestar would always be proud of him always ended up cutting him two ways… it was nice to think that the man who could've been his father was proud of him. It was nice to think that the guy looked down on him and smiled when he saw what he'd accomplished… and it was nice to know that his mother still held such a place in her heart for Joseph Joestar, even after all this time, that she'd say so…

It didn't help when reality would set in for Josuke and that, for all his mother said that Joseph Joestar would be proud of him, that he'd still never met the man in his life. Suzy Q or no… you'd think a father who was proud of his son would come to see him.

Then there was Jotaro… Jotaro just tried to insist not to worry about it. That the past was in the past and the only way to deal was to accept it and move forward. Honestly, in Josuke's mind, this was probably the best advice he'd gotten thus far and what he'd, by and large, lived by. In a way, it was also why he just decided to leave the meeting; so what if Joseph Joestar was coming? So what if his father would be coming to Beacon? Hell, he'd lived in Morioh with the man his entire life, the two sharing a town, and he'd never seen him or never had to see him. What would change now? He'd do his part in this mission, he'd do his best to make sure that the old man would be safe… and then they'd all move on. Joseph Joestar would go back to Morioh and he'd continue to do his work here in Vale.

It'd be simple to just move on like Jotaro said. Hell, that's what he'd been doing…

But then… it was always easier said than done when it came to this situation.

Because no matter how far along Josuke could move, no matter how much ground he tread, the simple fact of the matter remained that there would always be a constant reminder of what he was. What people viewed him as. The potential he could never live up to and the family he would never have.

All perched right there on his left shoulder blade.

The pompadoured teen just sighed as he brought his hands up to his face and huffed. This was getting him nowhere… he really just needed to get back to everyone, see what happened and then move on. Tomorrow Joseph Joestar would arrive, he'd do his thing, the Leader of The Frontier would do his thing and hopefully he'd be back in Morioh before Josuke really had an opportunity to dwell on all of this.

As Josuke stood up from the bench and got ready to leave, he stopped and blinked in surprise. Just a little ways off, standing and staring hard at him, was Yang. The normally jubilant look to her lilac eyes had passed and, well, to say the very least she looked fucking pissed…

Great… just great.

"I'm guessing by your look you aren't hear to 'ask' what happened…" Yang glanced down to the side as Josuke said this, the pompadoured teen just letting loose an annoyed huff as he scratched at the back of his head. "Great. So who was it? I can't imagine it was either Koichi or Okuyasu, they pretty much never talk about it out of consideration for me so… Jotaro?" Yang glanced up at him and nodded, the blue eyed teen just sighing as he shook his head. "Dammit… I guess it was his secret to tell to but… urgh, this is going to be a pain."

The two of them just stood there for a moment as the setting sun slowly dipped in the sky. There was a certain amount of apprehension there; Josuke's from annoyance and Yang's from a certain amount of uncertainty, as if the blonde herself was gathering her thoughts on the matter. Eventually Josuke just looked up and frowned slightly.

"Well, we might as well get this out of the way… what's the angle you're coming at this from Yang?" Josuke was a bit surprised to see a slightly sympathetic grin form on Yang's face before it dipped back down, the blonde just shrugging and shaking her head with a shrug.

"Honestly JoJo, I'm more here to hear your end on all this crap." Josuke blinked in some surprise, but that quickly faded as Yang continued. "Jotaro said this and that about what you've said and what you thought… and I figure before I get into my 'angle' like you call it, it wouldn't be right of me to not hear your end of it yourself."

"... And if I don't exactly feel like talking about it, even if you know already?" Yang just looked over at him and just frowned as she looked around.

"Well what can I say JoJo, I might not look it but I can be a surprisingly patient girl when I want to."

She'd wait for him to feel like it, in other words. Though he suspected, this being Yang, this wouldn't be one of those passive 'waiting for you to want to' sort of deals. This would be more 'aggressively hovering around you until you just decided to be ready'. Really, he didn't know what else he would've expected out of Yang. Eventually Josuke just sighed and scratched at the side of his head, just wanting to get this over with.

"I really don't know what you're expecting to get out of this that you didn't out of Jotaro. I can't imagine he'd manipulate the story in any way that wouldn't be how I'd tell it to you."

"... I'd just want to hear it out of your own mouth JoJo. Just to be sure."

"... Brothers, even discussing something like this you're still calling me that nickname…" The pompadoured teen sighed in annoyance as he slowly walked over and sat back down on the bench. Yang walked over cautiously, sure to not get too close in just yet as Josuke crossed his arms in thought. Well… if she already knew and she wasn't going to leave until they had their 'talk' then fine… Brothers he didn't look forward to doing this another seven times. Maybe he'd be lucky and Ren and Nora would pair up to make it six. Still, this was going to be a hassle.

"... I'm a bastard, alright? Bastard to one of the most famous and important people in all The Frontier. Someone whose family I grew up hearing so many stories about. 'The Joestar lineage', a family who's been at the core of Morioh, protecting it from Jonathan all the way down to Jotaro… it's… it's a complicated feeling. Yeah, I feel like I've done nothing good for my family my entire life. Hell, we've talked about this Yang… I'm a kid who's only ever been trouble for his mother and grandfather. I'm the constant reminder for Morioh that The Joestar Lineage made a mistake… and that my mother was part of them making it. That the family that sits at the heart of Morioh was nearly torn apart by some poor decisions and one kid being born…

"At the same time… I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't something I wanted for myself. You don't grow up on those stories and not imagine being a part of that family. Hell, bastard or not, Jonathan Joestar is my great-grandfather… that's something I can say to myself anytime I look in the mirror and see that star on my shoulder blade. But… it's not something that's ever been meant for me or something I'll ever have. Joseph Joestar, a hero so many times over and one of the men who helped save my life, doesn't want me around and neither does his wife… and that's that." Josuke shrugged. "It really is just that simple… and, well, it's something I've gotten used to. It's what makes me work so hard at being a huntsman; that way I can at least try to pay back my mom and do my grandfather proud for all the crap they had to put up with because of me…

"At least that way I can actually be something more. Something worth while." Josuke just looked over at Yang, the young woman's eyes closed as she nodded thoughtfully. "Like I said, whatever you heard from Jotaro really isn't all that different from what you'd hear from me. It just is what it is… and I just try my best to move past it. The old man and my mom made a mistake and… well, that's me. Nothing to do but to just move forward and hope to make up for it." With that, Josuke leaned back on the bench and stretched his arms out across the back of it, looking slightly put off. "Now… let's get this over with. I really have been a part of conversations like this way too often for my liking… I'd like to just move on."

Yang nodded slightly and approached the bench where Josuke sat, the blonde young woman taking a deep breath as she composed herself. While on some level Josuke could appreciate the effort, another part of him was just rolling his eyes. Here we go; he wondered how it'd all start off? A 'I think I understand' or 'dude, I couldn't possible-'

It started with a punch to the back of his head…

What?!

"OW! YANG, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT-" Another one. "SHIT! IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF TALKING IT OUT?"

"I'm sorry JoJo, but I usually reserve talking it out for when people are actually speaking some sense about their issues. Heck, Blake and you have some seriously heavy problems but at least she was talking some sense about how she was dealing with him. JoJo, all of that and everything I've been hearing about this is the most ludicrous bullshit I think I've ever heard in my entire life! What the Hell JoJo?! What kind of stupid crap are you spouting?!"

"S-Stupid crap?" At that Josuke finally stood up and looked down at Yang, using the advantage of his superior height to try to at least gain a little bit of control over where this conversation was going. He had been pretty thoroughly been thrown on the back foot here and he was looking to try and recover. "Yang, this is-"

"A load and you know it!" But his superior height made very little different as Yang Xiao Long practically punched one of her fingers into his chest, nearly knocking him back onto the bench he had been sitting on as she looked up at him. "C'mon JoJo, you can't really be buying into any of what you're saying here? You're the mistake? You're the guy who's been a weight on your mom and grandad? That you don't deserve to be loved by them because some old fart decided he was going to walk on down and sleep with your mom? I've heard some stupid crap before Josuke, I mean, my uncle's one Hell of a sorry drunk but even at Qrow's most intoxicated I really don't think I've heard anything that was anywhere near that ridiculous!"

Josuke couldn't help but actually flinch as Yang spoke, the blue eyed teen almost reflexively glancing around as he looked down at her. "Yang, don't call Joseph Joestar an old fart, the guy's-"

"Oh please don't start. I get it, the guy saved the world, the guy saved your life, the guy saved The Frontier, Hell, he's probably saved so many things at this point that I could spend the rest of the evening listing them off. I get it, he's a great Hunter and Leader. Solid tip though JoJo; people can be good at one thing and utterly shit at another thing. My mom, great Huntress, fucking 'awful' parent." Yang stared Josuke down as she looked up at him. "And Joseph Joestar? Yeah, he's all those things. You guys have spoken enough about him and I've read enough that the guy sounds awesome. But you know what he also sounds like? An 'old fart' who one day got a little too loose and slept with your mom. He slept with your mom, JoJo. He was the one who put that burden on your mother, not you. YOU are just the unfortunate kid who ended up getting stuck carrying the bag because everyone is too up their own ass about how 'great' this guy is!

"And the thing that's just sending me for a loop here is how between you and Jotaro, I'm not hearing about how 'anyone' is saying that to you! I mean, I could almost expect it out of your mom; she honestly sounds like she loves the guy. I don't know 'how' she could possibly swing that but Hell, I really don't get this lovey-dovey crap anyway so that doesn't matter. I could even get Jotaro, Koichi and Okuyasu; the guy's Jotaro's grandfather and Koichi and Okuyasu grew up with none of the friggin' baggage of Joseph Joestar having put such a tremendous pile of crap on their lives…

"What gets me is YOU JoJo! How the Hell you can be one of the people standing around talking about what a fuck up you are in all of this! How you are such a burden, how 'you' are the core of so much pain in your family's life. I don't understand how you are looking at all this and how you, of all people, of ALL people in this, aren't tearing this guy a new asshole! I mean, seriously JoJo? You meet Jotaro for the first time and the first thing you do when thinking about 'all of this' is to apologize to 'his' family about what a mess you caused? I really just can't friggin' understand that, I really just can't JoJo.

"And I swear JoJo, if you try to answer me about any of this with something that involves how great and important the Joestar Lineage is, I will make you eat your pompadour."

Josuke slammed his mouth shut before he even got the opportunity to speak. It's not that he took Yang's threat seriously, not at all, really, as he doubted even at her most pissed off that Yang would touch somebody else's hair. It was the fact that she'd pretty much effectively cut him off at the pass when it came to what he'd answer back with. But that was the core of the issue here…

And without that, Josuke just found himself standing like a limp noodle, Yang looking him up and down before she just sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"I really don't understand it JoJo. If anyone I knew had done something like this, I'd be raging. I'd be looking for the people who did this and I'd be looking for 'answers'. That's the biggest 'what' here to me JoJo… why you aren't even trying to get an answer out of this guy. I get it, he's not supposed to see you because of this bullshit reason or that bullshit reason. But you're just sitting here, accepting some crap story about how this is somehow on your shoes instead of trying to ask 'why'. Why this old guy just slept with your mom and then left her, why he was so intent on trying to get it back with his wife if he was so friggin' bored that he decided to sleep around, why he wouldn't want to know an amazing son. I'm sorry JoJo but, amazing Hunter or not, Joseph Joestar from my end sounds like an asshole."

"Seriously Yang, stop with that! I don't even understand why you're deciding to get so up in arms about this, especially when Joseph-"

"You want to know why JoJo?"

"Stop interrupting me dammit!"

"Because as far as I'm concerned, Joseph Joestar is 'nothing' to me. Joseph Joestar didn't pop my arm back onto my body and save my career as a Huntress, Joseph Joestar isn't an amazing friend to my little sister who wouldn't do wrong by her even if he was held up at gunpoint, Joseph Joestar didn't run into an obvious trap because there was a chance, a 'chance' that one of his friends lives are in danger.

"Joseph Joestar isn't my friend. 'You' are JoJo. So when I hear how everyone equivocates this shit and how your family is getting all this bullcrap loaded onto them just because people want to do this favor for Suzy Q or don't want to go out of their way to say what a load of bullshit anything Joseph Joestar's done here is or want to preserve some bullshit involving a family name, it makes me sick. Because when I hear that even your own mother is telling you about how proud your 'dad' is of you and how much she loves him, telling this to the son 'he' abandoned, by the way… it sucks. Because the way it sounds to me is that you have 'no one' who is one-hundred percent, unconditionally on your side. Not even yourself.

"And you, of all people JoJo, deserve to have 'someone' who will be in your corner in this no matter what. You've done everything to prove that you're a top-notch hunter, you've lived and acted in a way that's even got me green with envy with how together you make yourself seem. When you have a group of amazing friends like us and none of us either have or have been able to support you in this, especially when you're doing all this to yourself… that isn't right."

The energy had died down as the discussion went on. Yang's tone having evened out from its more bombastic, energetic yelling to a more calm and collected spoken tone. Josuke, on the other hand, had turned his head away slightly, light blue eyes shifting around as a thousand and one thoughts ran through his head.

"So once again, I have to ask JoJo… aside from whatever reputation crap you can pull up, why the Hell does it seem like I'm the only one so far who's ever come up to your face and told you that 'none' of this has anything to do with you or should be your fault? That you shouldn't feel worthless just because some crummy old man decided he liked the look of your mom? Why is that JoJo?"

"... What's the story then if you're right Yang?" The blonde brawler didn't respond when Josuke said this. She had said her piece and had drilled down as far as she could. As the sun set, Josuke just shoved his hands into his uniform's pockets as he looked down to the side. "If you're right Yang… then what was any of this friggin' about. That my mom's yearning after some old geezer who just thought she looked like a nice distraction from his increasingly old lady? That my mom's held onto some shadow of a relationship that was never even really there to begin with? That I wasn't born because of 'anything' except some accident? That my mom and my grandfather… and myself… that we went through all this crap for nothing?

"That if I walk up to Joseph Joestar tomorrow and I demand answers… that there is no answer. There is no reason. Just… just bullshit…" Josuke sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. "That all of the times I heard my mom sobbing into her bed was just because of some bullshit. That my grandfather walking a tight line between his responsibilities as a Hunter and as the head of our family was him just kowtowing to someone who couldn't have cared less? That for all my friends and family really do care… that it really is only 'just' tradition and reputation that's keeping them from being unequivocally on my side. Not because there's some… noble anything attached to the old man."

"... You're afraid." Yang finally said, Josuke's head having dipped as he nodded.

"... I'm afraid that if I ever got my answers Yang, that it's all I would hear. That my mom's suffering's was and has been for nothing, that all this bullshit I've loaded onto myself has been for nothing… that I wasn't born for any reason bigger than a fucking trist… that I am just a bastard who got ditched and I've been standing up for it all because I thought… I hoped that there'd be something more to it."

With that, Josuke meandered over back to the bench and slowly took his seat again, the young man hunched forward as he looked out towards the horizon. After a moment's hesitation the blonde brawler walked over and, without much hesitation, sat down next to him. The two looked out at the setting sun, remaining in relative silence as they each waited for the other to pick up. Eventually Josuke chanced a glance over at Yang and broke the silence.

"... I thought you said your mom was great? What's this about her being crap?" Yang actually smiled a bit as Josuke said this, the lilac eyed young woman just shaking her head.

"Summer Rose was a great mom. She could bake a tray of cookies just as well as she could kill any of the largest Grimm you'd ever seen in your life… she was kind of like super mom in that regard… but she wasn't my birth mom. Birth mom was named Raven Branwen and… that's about all I know about her, to be honest. Never asked dad much more than that and where she went." Yang shrugged her shoulders as she leaned back in the chair.

"She's actually at the root my own stupid little moment as a kid… when Summer died, I thought I could go out and find my mom and get her to come back and make us all a family again. I dragged Ruby along with me because… well, I told you about how my dad was doing at the time, right? Didn't seem right to leave her with him until I'd done my best to sort things out… or at least, that was my childlike logic at the time.

"Needless to say, it didn't go well. I didn't find her and when I got back home…"

" _This is why mom left right?! Because I'm bad! Because she knew I was just gonna be a mistake?!" Ruby hadn't stopped crying, even when Qrow had managed to get them home safe and sound. She'd been so scared, so terrified… and it was all her fault. She had tears in her own eyes, tears of frustration and self-loathing, as she looked up at her father and uncle, the former having dried trails going down his cheeks, both of them staring at her with some shock and, to a degree, horror._

" _Yang… your mom didn't leave because of you. It is not your fault. It was 'never' your fault."_

"Despite how bad I screwed up… my dad still loved me. He sat me down and talked to me about it… it was the most I'd ever heard about Raven, and it still is. Raven left the day I was born… didn't even really tell anyone why. One moment she was bedridden and recovering and the next she was just out of there. I've never met her, but I'm told that I kinda look like her. The hair and my face mostly but still, it's there…" Yang ran a hand nervously through her hair as she spoke, taking a bit of a deep breath.

"For a while, I wasn't sure if I still wanted to go out and find her… after all, if what my dad said was right, she left us just… 'because', I guess? And after I'd gone out with Ruby… I was afraid that I was just going to make another mistake. That I'd do something dumb that would just end up with trouble." Yang leaned back against the back of the bench, a calm expression on her face. "In the end though… I really just couldn't let it sit like that. I wanted to see her, I wanted to meet her face to face…

"Don't get me wrong, it's not like I was holding out hope that I'd get her to come home and we'd all be one happy family. That wasn't anywhere in my thinking. I… I just wanted answers. I wanted to know why she left. I wanted to know why she just abandoned everyone who cared about her… I wanted to know if it was something more than her just being a terrible mom or… or if that really was all there was to it. If that really was just the simple answer."

"... And what if it was?" Josuke asked, his chin resting in his hands as he steadfastly continued to look forward, not even looking at Yang as he spoke. Yang turned her gaze over to him and just shrugged, a wry smile on her lips that she knew he couldn't see anyway.

"Well… then that's the answer. It'll suck to hear it… it'll suck to know just how much all this was about her and not about anything else. How little she cared… but at least I'd know for certain. I wouldn't be sitting around wondering, blaming this or that, trying to come up with my own answers to try to explain why I'd been left. It… it'd be an end to that. An ending I could move on from. Well and truly, you know?" Josuke nodded in some understanding as Yang spoke… and he finally did chance a look over at Yang. There was a slightly wry lilt to the corner of his lips as he spoke then… but there was also a kind of desperation in his eyes that betrayed that smile. A sadness that had long brewed deep down in that soul of his.

"So you're saying I should walk up to the old man and demand my answers? Try to see what I can find out? I dunno Yang, that might-"

Josuke was treated to another slap on the back of his head, the teen just flinching slightly… though it was mostly for effect. The slap had none of the impact that the blows Yang landed earlier on in the discussion had. Hell, it was almost playful.

"Dammit, I really wish people would stop hitting me when they're trying to make a point…"

Still wasn't going to stop him from griping and groaning about it. What was going to stop him, however, was the feeling of Yang snaking an arm around his shoulders, giving his far one a reassuring squeeze as she chuckled.

"Damn, you really can be an idiot when you want to be, eh JoJo? Didn't you hear anything of what I got done telling you not five minutes ago? I'm your friend… I'm one-hundred percent, unconditionally in your corner in all of this. Whatever the Hell you decide to do about Joseph Joestar, I'll support ya. You want to walk up to him, grab that old man by his collar and shake him until some answers and fake teeth fall out? Hell, I'll be rooting you on from the sideline. You want to try to see if there was ever something that was actually there? Well I'll hold out hope for you man, even if I really don't get it…

"You want to just hang back, let this all slide by and not deal with it? Because you are afraid… well, I'll support you then too. I'll give you whatever support I can and I'll hear out whatever you have to say. Because I don't care about preserving some family name, or respecting some old hag who hates you just for being born or trying to keep a community together that believes in all this bullcrap about a family lineage and what it means…

"I care that you do what you want here. I care that you get what you need. Because you are my friend JoJo. That's the bottom line for me… and that's the bottom line you deserve to hear, after everything you've been through and everything you've done to try to 'make up' for it all. Because you're a good person JoJo… and you of all people deserve someone in your corner."

There was a lull in the conversation after that, a pause that seemed to hold for all too long. The sun dipped beneath the horizon and the silence continued, unabated. For a moment, Yang Xiao Long had wondered if she'd made the right move here.

"..Yang… thanks."

The smile that graced her lips was as much relieved as anything as the blonde brawler just nodded slowly.

"Anytime Josuke."

There was a slight laugh, a hitch in Josuke's breath as she spoke. The pompadoured teen just chuckled as he slowly bent over, laughing in between breath as he placed his head in his hands. All the while Yang just grinned as she listened to Josuke's often broken laughter, patting his back as the boy's shoulders shook.

After all, Yang knew all too well; cool people with awesome hair didn't cry.

* * *

City of Vale Maximum Security Prison, Meanwhile

"Once again I really do have to apologize. I don't know how I didn't recognize you madame, please, you'll need to forgive me."

The little toady of a Prison Warden wrung his hands together as he followed behind a rather stunningly beautiful blonde woman. She was dressed in smart, sharp Mistrali fashion as she walked through the prison, her eyes glancing down through the various cell doors. The woman just smiled, pink colored lips curling slightly as she turned to face the rat-like man, her dark green eyes piercing straight through him.

"Think nothing of it… I'm just here on some business is all. I've gotten some releases for the prisoners here that need to go through… as soon as possible." The Warden seemed to flinch a bit, scratching at the side of his head slightly.

"What? Madame, I'm the warden of this prison and I haven't… haven't…"

This woman was sent from the City of Vale Council.

She was your superior and any way you displeased her would end with you losing your cushy job.

She's come with release papers for the prisoners.

"I haven't… heard anything but… but that must be my mistake again. I'm terribly sorry Miss Miuller. Tell me, which prisoners are set to be released, madame?"

Miuccia Miuller smiled as she watched Jail House Lock fade from behind this man, her Stand doing its work elsewhere to ensure that the various employees in the building wouldn't lift a finger to stop this either. After all, as far any of them would know, this was all on the level.

"All of them."

 **-To Be Continued- Hermit Purple (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, alright, alright. This chapter took a bit of work to get done; I actually only just moved into my new place a couple days ago and so I was a bit stretched for time between getting that set up and getting moved in. But I said the new update would be available on the 17th and this time I had no excuses, because my new apartment is great and amazing for my peace of mind. Therefore, I can write just fine. Therefore, you all should get your new update.**

 **This chapter is something I've been building up to for a long time; Josuke and Yang's little discussions have peppered the last fifteen or so chapters especially and their combined issues with their parentage has been the subject of discussion even going back before that. I wanted to set this up partially as a staging ground for the rest of Hermit Purple but also because, well, this was a necessary moment, in my mind.**

 **We discussed the weaknesses of the Four Kingdom societies previously and how that weakness is primarily built around their dependence on secrecy and lies in order to keep the people unaware of just what sort of trouble they're in. Well, this chapter here brings to light more fully a weakness of Morioh's structure; it's bedrock is the Founding Trio and the Joestar Bloodline. I hinted at this a few times when the ramifications of the deaths of Robert Speedwagon and Erina Pendleton came up but this chapter exposes it a bit more fully; The Frontier builds its confidence on the idea that the Founders and, now, The Joestars (as the only living family left from that trio) are pillars with which they can place their confidence in. Whatever might happen, the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Morioh can depend on this central family to carry the day… and they haven't been wrong to think that. Just as in canon, all the Joestars do these amazing things that repeatedly either save the day or save the world, sometimes without people knowing but always with the People of Morioh knowing.**

 **So anything that might shake that confidence immediately becomes a pretty big threat. When you build up your mythology to the point where it seems like someone can't do wrong… well then faults that begin to surface can start to shake the ground a bit.**

 **Anyway, good to be back you guys. I am still getting settled and classes are starting up again soon so the future is a bit shaky at the moment. But I promise if it's anything that'll affect my update schedule, I'll let you guys know ahead of time.**

 **Also, thanks for 100,000 views and 500 reviews fellas! Greatly appreciated!** **Hope you all have a good weekend! Hopefully I'll see ya'll on the 22nd!**


	38. Hermit Purple (Act 3)

The worst part was that they didn't even understand 'how' it happened.

Last night, the City of Vale had been thrown into chaos. At first, it had seemed minor; a few robberies here and there, a few stores with their windows busted down, some reports of some gangs of White Fang going around to assault a few humans who passed through some known hotspots of their activity. All simple things that had been dealt with in the City of Vale over the past few years.

Then, as if a fuse had run its course, everything exploded. Reports erupted from every single district, soldiers were being ambushed in their attempts to answer and the police had found themselves utterly overwhelmed. It was madness; the entire city had been thrown into a perpetual state of riot practically overnight as the streets were flooded with criminals and terrorists alike, the combination of the pair practically paralyzing all official responses as they tried to piece together 'what had happened'. Well… what had happened had been all too easy to figure out, unfortunately. It was 'why' or 'how' it happened that still left the majority of officials involved scratching their heads wondering just what the Hell had gone on.

When eyes of officials, soldiers and police had started to turn towards prisons, asking how many captives they could house given the chaos… well, it had been found that the prisons could easily house any and old ne'er do wells that the police or army had captured.

Mostly because the prisons were completely fucking empty and the people that were being captured were the former prisoners who had occupied their cells. Needless to say, heads were already rolling across several divisions as officials found that they needed to hold staff to account… the problem was that nobody in staff could exactly figure out 'whose' fault it was. Memories of the various officers were vague at best and the prison wardens who hadn't run off at the first sign of trouble had only said that they had been left with the vague feeling that it had been an official release from on high that had gotten them to release their prisoners…

When it came down to who gave this release order or what they looked like, vague turned into non-existent as no one, absolutely no one, could point a finger at who had done it, what they looked like or even what gender they had been. It had been as if a ghost had stalked through the prisons, possessed the staff and then gotten them to release their inmates without question.

Of course, the higher up you went, the more obvious the answer became; a Stand was behind this. Either that or someone with a ridiculously powerful mental semblance… but either way, the end result was the same.

That as Glynda Goodwitch, Ozpin, James Ironwood and Kujo Jotaro gathered in Ozpin's office at four in the morning to try and discuss what was going on and just what the Hell they were going to do to stop it, that the fires in Vale were still quite visible from the windows of Ozpin's tower.

"First attacking our school and nearly stealing all of our students and more from right in front of us and then instigating the biggest prison break and riot the City of Vale's known for several decades… I have to admit, our enemies have been awfully busy these past few days…" James ground his teeth together as he spoke, the General just running a hand through his hair. "I can't believe that this happened… my soldiers, at the very least, should have been on ground in case something happened… this just keeps getting worse and worse…"

"James, please, calm down. You're taking this-"

"Too hard, yes, I get it Ozpin. You know what else I get? We've just upgraded from us failing to protect our own students and the students of the other Academies to failing to prevent a full-scale riot from breaking out in Vale…"

"We haven't failed yet, James." Glynda spoke softly as she looked over at the man, Ironwood just chancing a glance over at her as, with a few taps of her screen, a map of the City of Vale appeared. "Yes, the prisoners and terrorists are wreaking havoc, but between the police, your soldiers and your automated soldiers, we've managed to keep it contained. People's lives are also being saved as we speak… we haven't failed entirely…"

James Ironwood chuckled slightly as he placed his forehead in one of his hands. "Yes… it could be worse. The Stand Users we've been rounding up could've also been unleashed upon the city again. Gods know I'm glad that Angelo Katagiri's been put down… Vale should've handled that a lot sooner." Everyone in the room nodded in some agreement; the second Angelo had been found to have no useful information, it was almost uniformly decided that the butcher of men, women and children needed to disappear. While gruesome, it was no less a fate that Angelo Katagiri deserved… perhaps only a fat similar to the Enigma Boy's would've been more fitting.

"If we'd put them in the Prisons, they would be out… so I suppose we can be thankful that we didn't fail at that." Ironwood sighed as he slowly but surely calmed down, running a hand through his hair. "And I suppose our only other major failing was 'letting' these attacks occur in the first place. The number of casualties has been low, only a few dead in the initial outbreak and they were officers and soldiers, not innocent men and women… this could've gone a lot worse."

"The worst of our failings is probably only that we failed to hold any of the areas where there are airbus ports going in and out of the city." Jotaro took note as he looked up at the map, Glynda just nodding cautiously as she pressed a few more buttons on her Scroll, the map was dotted with the airbus station locations. Indeed, sprinkled within the red zones where the worst of the rioting and the violence was taking place the City of Vale's outward ability to get in or get out of the city by air had been compromised. With a few more taps, the map started to move, showing an almost real-time growth of the violence from the time the riots began to the current time.

"Indeed. While the protests, riots and other violent actions started off somewhat far from these stations, the violence has all but surrounded them. According to my men I have in these ports they've managed to get people out and even evacuated those they absolutely couldn't hold but others are just barely holding out. It's a bit of a mess." James muttered slightly as everyone looked at this map, a set of curious eyes looking it over.

"... A bit of a coincidence, don't you think?" Ozpin was the first one to speak up at the other three set of eyes turned his way. "The very day that we decide on our plan to try and turn the enemy's actions back on them by bringing Joseph Joestar here, that very evening this happens? A series of prison breaks and riots that end up shattering the peace in Vale, scattered in such a way that the infrastructure necessary to bring Mr. Joestar into the city is by and large disabled or too dangerous for us to take him to. Rather… serendipitous, isn't it?" Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as he spoke, Glynda frowning as she looked back up at the map.

"James does have a point however; this is coming hot off the heels of an attack on our own students within Beacon. This could be seen as an escalation and proof that our enemies are getting closer and closer to their final plan, whatever it might be. Could be that the timing is just coincidental and that this attack was waiting for the wings regardless of our response." At first, James nods in agreement with Glynda… before the general's eyes narrow a bit.

"... No… this doesn't fit." Everyone looked over at James, Ozpin nodding knowingly as the general tapped between the various screens. "Think about it; none of the people involved in these riots are actually linked with our enemies. Some of them are Fang, sure, but they're a minority and a minority who were locked away 'before' the changes to the White Fang's structure to align them with Roman Torchwick. They wouldn't be in on the loop. Our enemies, no matter what you want to say for them, have one thing going for them… control.

"Their attacks have been precise and with purpose so far. All of Torchwick's robberies and White Fang activity in the city has been aimed at gathering prodigious amount of Dust and putting a small amount of focus into one area or another. Even the attack on the dance was very precise in its goals and in its initial attack; threats were drawn away from the Dance Hall to think out numbers before Red Hot Chili Pepper made the scene and, when he did, Red Hot Chili Pepper immediately went after Ozpin. From there, it was a carefully laid out plan, step by step, that only got shaken up when Ms. Valkyrie revealed a semblance that could temporarily ground Red Hot Chili Pepper…

This isn't like that. Random elements our enemies have no real control over are just being set loose in the city near the airbus stations…"

"That could suggest that's their target, James." Ozpin spoke and James nodded. It was clear that Ozpin knew where James was going and even agree, but the Headmaster played Devil's Advocate nonetheless in order to draw out this stream of logic, to make sure that their conclusion was ironclad.

"Yes it could, but this wouldn't be the way they'd go about it. They'd look to take care of every possible avenue of response beforehand if they had these kinds of numbers waiting in the wings. They'd hit the main communication hubs for the police, attack signal towers, cut traffic lines… they'd do something to knock us off our feet so that we couldn't properly respond…

"But they aren't exerting that kind of control here. They've just set these prisoners and terrorists loose in areas near the airbuses… look. In some areas the spread of the violence 'barely' covers the stations, it's what has allowed some of my soldiers to maintain a thin amount of control over them. The rioters don't so much care about these objectives insofar as they're loosely going for them… they're just rioting and doing so in near enough vicinity that it causes too much chaos."

"This isn't how our enemy operates." Jotaro finally comes in, his arms crossed as he looks up. "Or at least… it isn't how they operate when they have a controlling hand."

"They're responding to our plan to bring in Joseph Joestar and doing so by limiting the number of possible places where we can bring him in… down to the station here at Beacon." Glynda spoke slowly as she came to the same realization, stroking her chin slightly. "They hadn't accounted for our plan and are reacting rather than acting… but what do they have to gain by causing so much chaos? Surely they could better put our efforts down by quietly making sure the airbus stations aren't made to work? Red Hot Chili Pepper is an electrical Stand, it could easily fry the electronics in those stations with what we saw it capable of."

"... Unless Red Hot Chili Pepper isn't readily available or on hand." Ozpin spoke softly, the others turning to him to get a better ear out of him as he suddenly began to whisper. "Unless they can't reach Red Hot Chili Pepper or can't afford to use him… because they have him placed somewhere else." Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, his eyes glancing up to his cameras. "Curious that despite being in the safety of my office, with a feed closely guarded by employees I have personally screened, that they should somehow be able to figure out what our plans are as it concerns Joseph Joestar…" Everyone's eyes went wide in the room as they came to the same realization.

"Impossible. We did a check of the grid the night before our meeting after Red Hot Chili Pepper disappeared into it. We scanned the entire thing and there were 'no' electrical oddities or interferences…"

"Unless Red Hot Chili Pepper dipped out of the grid during the check." Glynda spoke, looking over to them all. "Red Hot Chili Pepper isn't just capable of jumping into electrical grids. During its fight with us, it was able to jump into Nora Valkyrie because of her ability to conduct and control electricity. If Red Hot Chili Pepper can jump into anything that can carry a charge like that-"

"Then Red Hot Chili Pepper can jump into an electronic device that's off the grid whenever it's being checked, essentially making him invisible to those means." Ozpin finished as everyone stood up.

"The entire damn campus is compromised while Red Hot Chili Pepper remains at large… dammit, how the Hell are we supposed to get anything done without it having eyes and ears on us?" Ozpin took a moment to think, his eyes moving rapidly as thought after thought passed through his mind. Soon enough, the Beacon Headmaster looked up.

"Simple; we go where there is nothing electronic or attached to a grid for Red Hot Chili Pepper to jump to or in."

* * *

"Swear, the day I have to get my own arm checked just to make sure it hasn't been infiltrated by a Stand… we really have fallen low these past few days."

The four members of group had relocated to just outside of Beacon Academy, far outside the range of any power lines or cameras that could pick them up. Scrolls and other electronic devices had been left behind as they were deemed unnecessary for the moment. Other more necessary, or at least objects that were tied to basic dignity, had been checked out to ensure no electrical oddities could be found in them that would be tied to Red Hot Chili Pepper.

Such had been the case when General James Ironwood, Headmaster of Atlas Academy and the leader of the Atlesian Military, was forced to have his prosthetic limb checked over just to be sure that it hadn't been compromised by Red Hot Chili Pepper. Despite the gravity of the situation, Ozpin and Glynda couldn't help but smile at the ludicrous nature of the situation.

Here they were, a gathering of some of the most powerful people in all of Remnant, Headmasters, trained huntsmen and huntresses all… and the man with no arm was under threat of having to have his prosthetic destroyed if indeed Red Hot Chili Pepper had taken to hiding with it. It was ridiculous to a very dark degree, but still, in these trying times you sometimes had to laugh in order to get by.

Once the tone had simmered down and James had finished grumbling about having his arm checked, the group took on a more serious visage as they looked back towards the shadow of the City of Vale.

"So, our enemies have somehow responded to our plans with a bit of a wild flail and they're looking to narrow down the possible places Joseph Joestar can land… safe to assume, I think, that they're going to be trying their best to make sure Joseph Joestar never makes it to Beacon Academy proper. On the plus side, this does mean that our plan is considered a major threat to them; we've hit upon a major trail of thought that, if they're doing this much to try and subvert it, means we could get a lot of dividends from it…" Ozpin remarked, somewhat optimistically, as the rest of the group nodded.

"Still, the problem now is actually getting Joseph Joestar on the ground and 'getting' him to Beacon without him dying. I think that's the next most important step." Jotaro responded as he placed a hand on his chin. "Given what we can surmise about Red Hot Chili Pepper and its ability, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to use the information of having successfully narrowed down 'where' Joseph Joestar is going to land in order to try to intercept him." The rest look to Jotaro with slightly curious looks as the white capped Huntsman elaborated.

"Think about it; if Red Hot Chili Pepper can attach itself to something with a charge, then it'd be beyond easy for it to attach itself to something simple and fly itself up and over to the plane that'll be carrying the old man. If he were to do that then he'd have an entire ship's electronics and circuitry to play around in while he tried his best to pick off the old man." The others nodded in understanding as James scratched at his chin.

"First and foremost, we have to spread the enemy's resources." The others look to the General as he looks up. "If the current situation stands then the only place Joseph Joestar will be able to land will be at Beacon Academy. If that continues to be the case then all our foes have to do is focus their forces here at Beacon and force a confrontation that lets Red Hot Chili Pepper slip away easily in the chaos. We can't defend Beacon either… too many of my soldiers and too many of my troops are busy as it is keeping order in Vale. If we peel any significant number away…"

"Our work to contain the riots and violence will have been for nothing and it'll spread… as much as putting Joseph Joestar in harm's way would be bad, right now the Atlesian Knights, Soldiers and Police are necessary to give the people of Vale a sense of order and hope. If the entire city falls into a panic, we won't just have to worry about Joseph Joestar… we'll need to worry about the Grimm as well." Ozpin notes as he nods his head, Jotaro scratching his chin in thought before Glynda speaks up.

"As you say, our own resources are stretched as well. We can't very well afford to spare them going after even the more available airbus ports. We can't ask any of the students either, far too many of them have had their faith shaken by the attack on the Dance Hall already…"

"Except for eleven of them." Jotaro spoke firmly as he looked at the other members of the group. They all looked over to him and, indeed, a dawning realization came over their faces. In the quiet of the early morning, as dawn approached, the two headmasters, the skilled huntress and the successor to The Frontier all crafted their upcoming battle plan. It would be a longshot but… well, if it came through, they might just pull through the evening after all.

All aspects of the plan were discussed… including a contingency. Once everything was set the four returned to Beacon… they'd need to work quick if they were going to have everything in place.

* * *

The City of Vale

"Bit of a risk sticking around here isn't it? I mean, what must Beacon Academy think of one of their teams still technically being in the city when all this chaos is going down?"

Cinder Fall smiled slightly as she looked over her shoulder at Roman Torchwick, the cane-wielding criminal overlord of Vale sweating a bit as the morning sun began to crest over the horizon. The sweat wasn't from the heat of the flames of the city, too far off from their current location in order to feel them, and it certainly wasn't from exertion. Roman Torchwick was very, very nervous. Understandably so… after all, it was dear Roman's neck that was on the line.

For the moment, anyway.

"We reported that our team desired an evening outside of Beacon Academy until things had gotten settled… a request made by many other teams. As far as Beacon is concerned, we're just a poor, innocent team, one of roughly two dozen, that has been caught in the City of Vale. We've reported in to tell them which hotel we've stayed at and, for the moment, if anyone comes by to check Emerald will use her semblance to ensure that they see myself and your little ice cream girl there as well. Do relax dear Roman, I've had this all covered from the beginning."

"Except for the prison break, I don't remember any of that being anywhere. Which I don't really get… you have dozens upon dozens of White Fang cells and my own criminal element spread throughout the city, Heck, you have Stand Users scattered throughout the city. 'Why' the prison break? Why cause that much chaos when you could've just had these cells activated to-"

"Those cells, dear Roman, were not created to save your neck from Joseph Joestar. Half were created to initiate the Breach while the other half either waited for the situation to spiral out of Ozpin's control… or wait until our backup plan." CInder fall just smiled as she looked out at the city. "Spending those resources here and now… you are valuable, my dear Roman, but not 'that' valuable." Roman Torchwick ground his teeth behind Cinder as he practically took a bite out of his cigar, the golden eyed woman just turning to look over her shoulder at him with a coy expression.

"But do relax Roman. You are still valuable enough for me to protect. That was why I had this prison break arranged… so that we could begin to cripple our enemies capabilities. Its why, even as we speak, Red Hot Chili Pepper is taking himself and… assurance to Beacon Academy. It's why you and I are going to go meet our appointment. I may not be willing to waste resources to save you Roman, but what resources can be freely spent or used again and again I will give to you. For we are fated to make it through this together Roman… and I assure you, even without the cells ready in wait, you will make it through this."

"... So, you're willing to 'spend' Red Hot Chili Pepper. And let me remind you that she isn't yours to-"

"Dear Roman… do have faith. I think we both know by now that your little protege can get herself, and most everyone else, out of just about any situation. I have no doubt that she can slip out of whatever trick or trap that she might encounter, even if captured." Roman bit his lip slightly as Cinder spoke, the black haired woman just laughing slightly as she reached a hand up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. "As far as Red Hot Chili Pepper is concerned… he's already done his part. I only didn't drop the failure in his lap simply because he remains a valuable resource… but a resource that didn't previously have a place in this plan. Honestly, Akira is an… unreliable partner. More obsessed with his own goals. Once he would've gotten his payment he would've felt more than free to run off, feeling that his Stand would put him above recrimination. That's just the sort of man he is…"

"You get what use you can out of resources like that. Then you see to it that they can't be turned against you." Roman Torchwick narrowed his gaze slightly as he looked at Cinder.

"... Where the Hell is Akira anyway, Cinder?" Roman Torchwick immediately regretted asking that question. He immediately regretted it because of what he saw in that moment. Cinder Fall's eyes went slightly wide as she spoke her next lines, a glint of madness behind them that was rare to see in the young woman. The madness… the drive that made her go each and every single day, that powered her every thought, that gave her purpose…

Seeing it terrified Roman Torchwick on two levels. On the first, because he knew for a fact that the look he saw in those eyes… that look would spend any resource, use 'anyone' to 'any degree' in order to get their way. The second… because he knew, looking into those eyes, that no one would stop Cinder Fall.

She was a determinator. She would move through any obstacle, brush it aside like it was nothing… the choice was to be on her side or to fall.

And he knew just where he was going to stand.

"Ah… that's the unfortunate weakness of such autonomous Stands, isn't it my dear Roman? While they're off doing their business… their Users have no idea what's happening to them… and the Stands have no idea what's happening to their Users. Should Red Hot Chili Pepper fall into enemy hands… should Neopolitan give the signal… well, we won't have to worry about Red Hot Chili Pepper divulging any details about our identities or our plans."

Because Roman knew, listening to this woman… that so long as you stayed on her side, so long as she thought you could be a loyal, useful piece… you'd be safe.

You'd be safe… you'd be on the side of destiny…

Destiny would finally side with Roman Torchwick.

* * *

"You're splitting us all up?"

Jotaro nodded as the group of twelve huntsmen and hunters-in-training stood before him, a serious expression on his face as he readjusted his cap. The sun had just risen and, against the worse wishes of the gathered group of students, they were awakened right here and right now rather than being let rest in their beds as they usually would. Still, when they'd been informed that they would be debriefed on their mission concerning Joseph Joestar, all of them had been up and ready to go. Sleep was a beautiful thing, but everyone gathered right then and there had sworn themselves to the duty of a Hunter. If protecting their charge meant a little lost sleep, they were all too willing to do so.

"Indeed. The staff here at Beacon's worked on a solution and decided that splitting our focus for now is the best bet. Most of the staff will be sticking to the campus proper… half of their presence there is to assuage the flock of students and transfer students who aren't in on this plan that everything is perfectly safe and fine and that, no matter what happens, that they're going to be okay. The other reason why they're being kept back is so that, once we do secure Joseph Joestar, we have a building that we know for certain has a majority of the staff in it. It's probably no surprise that the old man's ship is gonna be landing as Beacon's port… at this point, the rest of the city is just too dangerous."

"If that's the case then why split us up to begin with Jotaro?" Ruby Rose asked, her silver eyes twinkling with curiosity as she tilted her head. "Wouldn't it be better if we just all stuck around here then?"

"If that happened then the enemy would know for certain that Beacon Academy is where Joseph Joestar will be making touchdown… and they too would be gathering all of their available resources to make a strike. Their actions so far have been enough to show how seriously they take the old man's presence here at Beacon as a threat. They aren't just going to sit and let him come to us… Hell, that was probably a big part of their plan in letting these riots start in the first place." Everyone nodded in some understanding before Joseph continued. "We have to present doubt, however little it might be, that Joseph isn't going to make his landing here at Beacon Academy. We have to introduce even the smallest shred of doubt, for two reasons. One is that we don't think Beacon can handle another large scale attack like last night's. The staff and building will stand but the students and transfer students… if another big attack happens, there's no telling how they'll respond."

"Is Beacon's reputation as a safe place really so important that the threat of another battle taking place here really enough to get us to split up though?" Jaune asked and, Jotaro had to admit, the kid had a point. However, even Jotaro had seen Ozpin's wisdom in this.

"It isn't just Beacon's reputation, although that is important. The Academies are the lifeblood of the Hunter occupation here in the Four Kingdoms. If people begin to suspect that their children aren't safe at them then… well, you can imagine what that'll do for recruitment." The students winced slightly. Even for those of them who hadn't been particularly mindful of politics or image, the idea that parents and authority figures around the world might begin to think that the youth of Remnant weren't safe at Hunter Academies was easy to imagine. "But it isn't just that, it's also the Vytal Festival.

"The Vytal Festival is an important symbol not just for the Four Kingdoms, but for The Frontier as well. Everything that everyone has been working toward is represented in this Festival; peace, tranquility, equality, life and order. The Festival is what helps bind the Four Kingdoms together… and it will be what helps bind The Frontier to The Four Kingdoms. If everyone were to go home, if this entire system were to collapse… then so too collapses one of the most important symbols of modern Four Kingdom society. The negative emotions this would cause would be horrific and a disruption to order throughout all Four Kingdoms in and of itself… not to mention what it would do to the hopes and dreams of those people back in Morioh who are counting on this Festival for us to be reintroduced to the rest of society.

"The students here 'have' to feel safe from here on out. They have to feel like Beacon is… well, a Beacon. If that crumbles, they leave and our enemies win a major victory just off of that. So yes, we have to make our enemies think that we're willing to land Joseph Joestar outside of Beacon to spread their forces. If we don't then we run the risk of losing everything." The group nodded in some uncertainty as they did so. "To that end, while we can't spare more soldiers and police officers to secure landing zones… we can spare ourselves and staff. Three of you will be going with Ozpin to the landing platform just on the edge of the merchant district nearest Beacon Academy. If we were going to land the old man anywhere that would then lead to rapid transit over to Beacon, it'd be there. Another three of you will be accompanying Ironwood to the landing platform down by the docks. He'll be bringing his own personal escort and, on top of securing the landing platform, he'll be leading a personal sweet. We're hoping that him putting forward some pressure in an area where we know the enemy is highly concentrated will make them think twice about putting their full force ahead here at Beacon…

"Two of you will be accompanying me on an airbus that'll take us out to the last landing spot Joseph will be hitting before he's meant to fly to Vale. Our job will be to make sure that the old man stays safe…"

"Do we have reason to suspect that Joseph Joestar would be in danger even on his own ship?" Josuke asked in as even a tone as he could manage as Jotaro just looked over to the pompadoured teen and nodded.

"With Red Hot Chili Pepper's capabilities it'd be a simple thing for the Stand to hop aboard some battery-powered something or other and fly his way to intercept the ship. From there it'd be an easy enough job for him to hop aboard the ship and use its electronics and wiring to work its way around and attack the old man from an unknown angle. Myself and the two who are coming with me will be there to make sure that, in the worst case scenario, this doesn't-"

"REN AND I CALL DIBS!" Nora quickly shouted as she raised both her hand and Ren's, causing the magenta eyed young man to choke in a bit of surprise as they all looked at the rest of their friends. No one seemed to want to argue so Jotaro just nodded, very slowly, before he turned to the rest.

"The last group of three will be staying here at Beacon. The others are meant as a distraction so this group will be our actual frontline of defense… you'll have some special backup of your own. You'll know it when it gives you aid." It was vague… perhaps intentionally so. "Your main responsibility will be to get Joseph Joestar into the building so that he can be secured… or to prevent any attempt to intercept him before he can even get on the ground. Perhaps most importantly, we're depending on you all to make the call as to whether or not Beacon's own landing ground is too unsafe and that we do need to aim for another one of the landing platforms. It's a lot to put into one group's hands… but for that reason, I want the best of you here just in case something does happen on the landing platform… Josuke." The pompadoured team leader flinched slightly as Jotaro singled him out, the white capped huntsman turning to his young ward as he looked him dead on. "I know this is a lot to ask… but if there was anyone who I could trust to hold this position no matter what got thrown at him, it'd be you. You don't have to say yes-"

"But I'm a Huntsman of The Frontier. It's my job to be where I'm needed, no matter where that is or what I need to do." Josuke nodded his head as he looked Jotaro straight in the face. "Don't worry Jotaro. Whatever's on my mind, I won't let it interfere with my work."

"I know you won't." Kujo Jotaro responded with a great deal of certainty as he nodded firmly at Josuke, before turning his gaze to the rest of the teens. "Aside from Josuke and, I guess, Nora and Ren… I'll leave it up to you all how you'll want to split yourselves up. You all have a half-hour before you're expected to be anywhere though. I'll be back when you're all ready; I'm going to be checking in with Ozpin and Ironwood to make sure they're in position."

With that, Jotaro departed for a moment, slipping a Scroll out of his pocket as he did so. The stalwart huntsman paused as he brought out the Scroll. He curses to himself as he plugs in the call, the man clearly annoyed with the paranoia that Red Hot Chili Pepper has instilled in their group. Meanwhile the eleven teens each circles around each other and began their planned talk, everyone chatting amongst themselves as to who would go where.

"So, you two seemed pretty excited about calling dibs… or at least, Nora did." Okuyasu muttered to himself as he crossed his arms, Nora nodding vigorously and Ren nodding somewhat more slowly before either of them spoke up.

"Yeah! It's been ages since either of us have seen Joseph and, well… it sounds like it might be a while before we'd get the chance to see Polnareff, so this is our next best bet to seeing another old friend aside from Jotaro. It's… well, I'm a little excited I guess." Nora admitted somewhat sheepishly, before Ren turned his gaze over to Josuke.

"Josuke-"

"Look, I get it. The old man helped you guys along and gave you a safe place to be while you were traveling through Vale. I've heard the story, you don't-"

"We weren't just going to apologize for any sense of impropriety that this might've carried." Josuke stopped dead in his tracks as Ren spoke up, the normally quiet teen turning to the taller, pompadoured one as he looked up at him. "It's true that Joseph holds a very dear spot in mine and Nora's hearts… but you have also become our friend, and I'd like to think a close one. The fact that Joseph has hurt you in such a way is… troubling to us." Nora nods softly as she turns her turquoise eyes to Josuke.

"The old man in our heads… well, we'd never think he'd ever do something like that. That just wasn't the Joseph Joestar we remember. He was like a cool granddad, not… well, bleh." Nora waves her hands a bit before she looks Josuke in the eye. "I didn't just call dibs because Ren and I want to see him again… Ren and I have also talked, and we want answers ourselves. We want to know why Joseph would do something like this to a friend of ours Josuke… we want things to be good between the two of you." Josuke did his best not to outwardly sigh as Nora said this. He understood, he really did, but-

"I lost my parents Josuke… so did Nora." Josuke froze up a bit as Ren spoke, a soft expression on his face. "You mean a lot to us and so does Joseph… if this can be fixed, if something can be made of it… well… we'd want that for you. As friends."

Josuke's expression softened a bit as this happened and he just offered what smile he could. It was a tad forced, to be certain, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Thanks you two… I understand what you mean and… well, I just hope that your reunion goes well." Nora and Ren nod as the rest of the group slowly fades back into the conversation.

"Oooh… I'm with Nora and Ren, I really hope you find a way for this to work out Josuke! He's your dad, dad's should be there for their kids, right Yang?" Ruby turned to look to Yang, the blonde, lilac eyed brawler just sending a look Josuke's way before she made a few non-committal noises.

"Right. Whatever happened… well, family's important." Jaune spoke in agreement with Ruby. Blake and Pyrrha didn't speak up, each still having their own… odd situations when it came to their home families. Somewhat in contact without fully being back in a relationship with them, neither felt it was their place to speak up in such a situation.

"... Blood's just blood in my opinion. If Joseph's really hurt Josuke in such a manner, then I don't see why the old man should be entitled to meet him." Weiss spoke up with a furrow of her brow, drawing upon her own seething dislike, bordering on out and out hatred, she had for Jacques Schnee.

"... My dad doesn't deserve his fate, but that doesn't mean I forgive him, even to this day." Okuyasu spoke somewhat grittily as he nodded in agreement with Weiss. While Okuyasu's words seemed, at best, only tangentially related, most were able to pick up on what the normally loud and blunt teen meant; it was Okuyasu's way of throwing in his two cents about Joseph Joestar without having to directly talk bad about the leader of his city and a member of such a respected and esteemed family line. Koichi seemed to be more on Jaune and Ruby's side of this divide, trying to ease the harsher emotions down with a few, slightly stammered, words here and there while still giving sympathetic looks to Josuke.

"Everyone, please, I understand that you all are trying to help and I appreciate it, but we really should focus on who's going where. Jotaro's not going to like it if he comes back here and he finds out that we've just been sitting here gossiping about what I should do when Joseph Joestar gets here. Now let's get to making these divisions, I'd really rather not get yelled at by my old teacher." Everyone blushed somewhat as they were reminded that, why yes, they were on the clock and that the man running said clock would probably be back within a matter of minutes and be none too pleased that his hunters-in-training and huntsmen had been spending more time gawking about what Josuke should do about Joseph Joestar and his relationship with him than actually planning.

In the end it was an actually surprisingly easy split. Weiss, Pyrrha and Blake agreed to go join General Ironwood. Between Weiss' Dust capabilities, Pyrrha's magnetism and Blake's stealth, they could more easily supplant the offensive nature of Ironwood's sweep, offering him a strong amount of support, some stealthy scouting and, should the worst come, a strong fighter capable of tearing any weapons out of people's hands while also, potentially, jostling them around. Ruby, Jaune and Okuyasu would be joining Ozpin; Ruby would be able to snipe potential threats from afar and her speed would let her maneuver to help any of her friends who might be in trouble, Jaune, while not a seasoned combatant by any stretch, would certainly prove more skilled than your average Vale Prisoner rioter and his armor and large shield would give him plenty of pushing power to stop people from running up.

Okuyasu was muscle, pure and simple; The Hand there to disrupt or pull away anyone who was causing an immense amount of trouble. Which, of course, all left at the end of it…

"Are you sure Yang? Ironwood's little group sounds more like it'd be up your alley. Punching a bunch of dudes, kicking down doors. Sounds exciting! I'd do it myself if it wasn't for meeting up with the old man." Nora asked with a slight tilt to her head, the rest of the group sharing in that opinion as Yang just shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey, this is pretty strategically sound if you ask me. Between JoJo and I, there's pretty much nobody who'd be able to outpunch us if they tried to get into a fight with us so we'd be covered on that end and with JoJo around, I'd in no way have to worry about strategy, which is all good for me." Yang says as she sits on a nearby crate, kicking her boots up. "And with Koichi around if trouble comes up that Josuke and I can't punch our way around, then Echoes will be able to get us out of any particularly sticky binds with how versatile its powers are, especially Act 2. This way we keep all of our bases covered and, besides, while I do like a good brawl I do think I'm a bit more of a one-on-one girl at the end of the day. Just isn't as much fun punchin' bad guys in the face if you're too busy looking over your shoulder for the next mook to look them in the eyes while you're knocking them out." The lilac eyed brawler just grinned as she said this, knocking her two fists together as everyone nodded in understanding. Yeah, that sounded like Yang.

"Alright, if you're sure Yang, that does sound pretty good." Ruby spoke softly as Jotaro eventually returned to the little group. Upon telling the older Huntsman of what they'd all decided, he just nodded as he pointed to a nearby airbus.

"Nora, Ren and I will be taking that to the next stop over and waiting for the old man to arrive. From there we'll fly back here. Good luck everyone and put in good work. They have to believe we are keeping our options open if this plan is going to work." The group of teens nodded as they all turned back to each other one last time before separating.

"Seriously though Ren and Nora… good luck." Josuke offered with a slightly spooked expression, one that Nora and Ren each blinked in slight confusion at.

"Okay, now what's this about? I get why you don't like the old guy, but you look spooked. What's up Josuke?"

"Nora, it isn't something to do with Josuke as to why he's wishing you luck… heck, I'm pretty sure if he didn't Okuyasu and I would be wishing you good luck…" Koichi muttered as Okuyasu nodded in agreement. Now this… this had gotten everyone's attention.

"Yeah… you're about to get on a flight with Joseph Joestar… at this point you're going to need all the luck in the world just to survive." As Okuyasu spoke Ren and Nora's concerned expressions broke, a slightly amused smile on Ren's face and a wide, goofy smile on Nora's.

"Okay, I get it. You were just teasing us. A little jab between friends before we go off to meet the old man." Nora said as Ren nodded in agreement… though those certain expressions of theirs dipped when they saw that Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi hadn't dropped their worried ones.

"No, we're serious; anytime Joseph Joestar gets on a plane, an airbus… Hell, any vehicle really, something goes horribly wrong. Every single flight he's ever been on has crashed and most motor vehicles he's ridden in have something bad happen in them. You both are essentially walking toward your death warrants here." Josuke mutters as he pulls at his collar, at which both Ren and Nora flinch slightly.

"C-Come on. That can't be true. Heck, we were with Joseph for a lot of the journey, and in that time-"

"The boat we met them on did explode…" Ren muttered to himself as he rubbed his chin.

"... And the next one we got on turned out to be Strength…"

"... The cart we rented after hitting land and marching toward Mountain Glenn was torn up by Wheel of Fortune…"

"And the plane that we knew they'd gotten on crashed over the ocean." Nora finished this miniature back and forth between herself and Ren, their expressions dropping each time as they came to realize the truth of Team JoJo's worries.

"... Okay, so it looks bad, but… come on." Ren muttered to himself as a way of trying to reassure himself, the group interrupted one last time as Jotaro came to retrieve Ren and Nora.

"Oh, Jotaro, good timing! Look, what Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi is saying is just silly right? The airbus the old man's on isn't going to crash because the guy is cursed, right?"

…

The silence that permeated the air after Nora said this was quite heavy. Jotaro's eyes were obscured by his hat as the rest of the teens just looked up to him with concerned expressions, clearly trying to get a read on his emotions, trying to see if they could assuage themselves that Ren and Nora weren't walking to their deaths.

"We'll be back in three hours. It'll probably be around that time that our enemies will make their move if they've got a move to make. All of you will be in position beforehand and those of you in the City of Vale will be acting alongside soldiers, police and whoever you're attached to. Cause enough noise to draw our enemies' attention and keep them second guessing. Do that and we might just pull this off. Good luck everyone." With that, Jotaro grabbed Ren and Nora by the collars, bodily dragging the two teens behind them.

"... Jotaro, you didn't answer Nora's question…" Ren muttered weakly as Jotaro just continued to stare forward toward the airbus the trio were about to board.

"... OH MY GOD, WE'RE GOING TO DIE IN A HORRIBLE BURNING CRASH! PLEASE, SEND HELP! WITH PANCAKES PREFERABLY!"

" **Yare yare daze…** "

As the trio go off to board their own airbus, a couple more arrive in port. Likely to take the other groups to their own assigned areas of the City of Vale. Some smiles are exchanged, well-wishes and good lucks given, and eventually the teens all go their own ways, ready to make this plan handed down to them a reality so that the life of one Joseph Joestar might be spared.

As the airbuses fly off, leaving Josuke, Yang and Koichi, the blonde brawler perks up for a moment as she taps her fingers on her chin, looking over to the shortest member of this particular group.

"Hey Koichi?" The young man turns his head to face Yang as she produces her own Lien card. "We're not set to actually see action for a couple hours at least, right? That'd be when these jerks would actually try to get us is when Joseph Joestar is at least close enough for them to intercept, right? So we're just gonna be burning some time. Mind getting us all something to eat and drink in the meantime? Little early for breakfast unfortunately…"

"Oh, sure thing!" Koichi nodded as he took Yang's card, quickly running off.

"... Kid's not got much against doing what people ask him, huh?" Yang asked, a smile on her face, as Josuke just grins.

"Koichi's a good guy who likes to take care of his friends… if you're polite about it, he'll do his best to be helpful anyway he can." Josuke said as he placed his hands in his pockets, walking on over to a crate and having seat as he did so. Yang just nods as she walks over and leans against a stack of crates, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked down at the pompadoured teen.

"So tell me JoJo. Hearing any of those inspiring words from our friends give you any insight into how you're going to handle the old fart?" Yang asked with a somewhat coy grin as Josuke just chuckled slightly, shaking his head as he placed his hands behind his head.

"Not at all… I get that they're all trying to help but… well, this is kind of a big thing. Heck… I'm still not even sure of what 'I' actually want out of this…" Josuke muttered slightly as he looked out at the horizon, out toward where he knew Joseph Joestar was coming from. A thoughtful expression marred his face as he stared out, Yang just nodding slightly as she looked out as well.

"I hear ya… well, you're the one who needs to decide. Whatever the other guys think you should do, heck, whatever anyone thinks you should do, just remember…"

"You have my back no matter what I decide. I know… thanks again Yang." Josuke smiled softly as Yang nodded.

"Anytime JoJo… now, when Koichi gets back, we're going to play a game of cards to pass the time while we eat… and you're not gonna cheat this time JoJo. I'm gonna beat ya." At that, the pompadoured teen just snorted.

"What, are you going to try to cheat to accomplish that?"

"... You can't prove anything one way or the other."

With hours to go before any danger would rear its head, the two teens just laughed as they awaited the return of their third, knowing that these moments of peace would only last so long before their own struggle likely began.

* * *

An Hour and A Half Later, Miles Outside of The City of Vale

Moment of truth.

That phrase passed through Nora and Ren's minds so many times that it had practically become a mantra for the pair. They had arrived with Jotaro at the designated meet up spot first, being left with several minutes to think to themselves as the group awaited the ship that would bring Joseph Joestar. There had been some unexpected turbulence, an announcement that had brought a great deal of fear and nervousness to the pair, but the most recent communications with the ship had assured the teams on the ground that it was still flying and it was still going to make its way to the meetup.

This left Nora and Ren with only one thing on their mind; meeting yet another member of the Stardust Crusade after so many years. Jotaro had been easy; Jotaro had just walked into their classroom without even so much as saying a word, walking right back into their lives by total surprise. There had been no nerves, no worries, no… other considerations they needed to make for their meeting with Jotaro.

Here and now though, they had plenty of time to think about how this meet up with Joseph Joestar would go. To worry about how so many years may have changed him… to worry about what they would say to him about Josuke.

To worry what 'he' would say to them about Josuke. Josuke was their friend… and Joseph Joestar may as well have been their grandfather. To say that neither wished for their to be conflict between these two would be an understatement… but that possibility was there. It was unavoidable. Which was why the two wanted to meet it head on. They wanted for there to be a way for their friend and the old man to be happy. Nothing would've made the two more overjoyed in that moment, except for maybe the entire day turning out perfectly.

Still, as they saw the ship carrying Joseph Joestar finally touchdown and lower its gangplank, ready to take themselves and Jotaro on and continue the journey to Vale, the two couldn't help but swallow at nervous lumps in their throat. The three of them ascended the gangplank onto the ship and it wasn't long before it was raised up and they were back up in the air. It was all going very well, all things considered… very smoothly. The two nervously looked around the main deck of the ship, Jotaro having gone off to talk with another one of the crew members before turning to them.

"The old man is staying in a room below deck, kept mostly to himself and under guard just in case… if you two want to speak with him, go ahead." Jotaro spoke softly or, well, as softly as Kujo Jotaro could speak, before Nora and Ren turned to him.

"What about you? He is your grandfather, surely-"

"I last saw the old man just a month ago and we've been keeping in touch. I'm not practically shaking in my boots to see a man I haven't seen in over ten years. You two, on the other hand, are… and if I'm not mistaken, you have something you want to ask him about." Ren and Nora flinched slightly, abashed that Jotaro had apparently overheard their conversation with Josuke from before. Jotaro just sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "In either case, you won't see him and you won't be able to talk to him until you all actually get down there… so I suggest you stop standing around and do so." Jotaro didn't necessarily sound annoyed. Ren and Nora had been around Jotaro enough to know what an 'annoyed' Kujo Jotaro sounded like. The white capped huntsman sounded more put upon in this case…

It was a hard distinction to make given how generally monotone Kujo Jotaro could behave but, well, you learn to pick up on these behaviors.

Eventually Jotaro just went off to stay on deck and watch over proceedings, leaving the two teens to just make up their damn minds and leaving it at that. Ren and Nora, after some considerable hemming and hawing, eventually sucked it up and slowly descended into the lower deck of the ship, being sent this way and that way by various Atlesian Soldiers until they stalled in front of one of the cabin rooms. The two stayed there for a moment, nerves eating at even the normally confident Nora Valkyrie, as they just stared at the door. Eventually the pair took a deep, simultaneous breath and pushed open the door.

…

The sight that met them wasn't entirely surprising. Spry as he might have been when the two had met him, Joseph Joestar was an old man at the time of the Stardust Crusade. Even then his hair was very grey and wrinkles had been readily apparent. Joseph Joestar was an old man back in their memories, but a lively one. The Joseph Joestar they were met with now was even older and this time it seemed that any of that spry energy they'd known him to have was gone entirely. The man sat, hunched over in his seat, his back arching from the heavy weight of age. Both hands were perched on the head of a wooden cane that he supported his body on, a pair of white gloves sat at the end. He was wearing a large coat and dress pants which seemed to ill-fit him. While it was still quite easy to tell that Joseph Joestar was, and remained, a somewhat large man, it was clear that time had taken its toll on the body of Joseph Joestar.

As his eyes raised up to meet the new people who had come into his room, there was a pause in Nora and Ren's breath as they saw those blue-green eyes… their first thought was that time had begun to claim his mind as well. Behind the glasses perched on his nose and underneath a leopard skin fur hat was the much more wrinkled, much more weathered face of the old man that had once taken them in with his band of Huntsmen to keep them safe. The eyes… unfocused and lacking that spark of intelligence and drive they'd seen in them when they first met. Nora made to take a step forward at first, but Ren placed his hand in front of her, holding her back.

The magenta eyed young man took a deep breath as he slowly approached Joseph, the old man's eyes watching him come forward as the huntsman-in-training did his best to keep it all together.

"... Mr. Joestar? Do you recognize us?" Ren's question was uncertain and careful, almost afraid of what the answer would be. Would Joseph Joestar recognize them? Or had time already claimed the old man's memories? The old Joestar smacked his lips a couple times as he readjusted his glasses, getting a good look at Ren. The breath caught in Ren's throat as he swore he saw a flash of recognition in Joseph's eyes and then, the old man spoke…

"Eh? What's that sonny? I can't hear ya."

…

"Uh… I said, do you recognize us Mr. Joestar?" Ren was a little bit stunned by this, but he rolled with it. After all, if Joseph was so old, of course his hearing had gone. He'd need to speak up to-

"Eh? You want me to size ya from so far? That doesn't make any sense sonny." Ren grimaced a bit as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose… be patient Lie Ren, he thought to himself, he's an old man. No need to get short with him.

"It's me! Lie Ren, and that's Nora over there!"

"Eh? Your buy'in that door over there? Pretty sure it belongs to the Atlesians boy."

"... Nora, do you want to try, I don't think I'm getting anywhere with this." Ren turned back towards Nora, full well expecting his childhood friend to be on the verge of tears seeing Joseph Joestar reduced to this state.

"... Eh? What's that Ren? You don't think your betting the bear on this? Probably a good idea, I broke that Ursa a long time ago."

"... What?"

"What's that? Can't hear ya, speak up!"

"Yeah sonny, speak up!"

…

"Gods…" Ren put his face in his hands as he shook his head, Nora just grinning from ear to ear as she stared over at Joseph Joestar. Before their very eyes, the fog slowly lifted and a wily old grin slipped out from underneath the dull expression on the old man's face.

"Gotta say, I wasn't expecting to see a couple of brats around again… suppose you're looking for the old man to pick up on your lessons there Ren? You need some work on your enunciating so an old bag of wind like me can understand-woah!"

Joseph Joestar was interrupted when Nora Valkyrie damn near tackled him, wrapping her arms around his midsection and nearly knocking his cane away.

"Woah! Hold on now, I'm an old man, you can't just go tacklin' the elderly like that!"

"... It's really good to see you old guy…" Nora muttered into the thick material of Joseph's coat, the expression on Joseph's face softening slightly as he looked up over at Lie Ren. The young Mistrali boy had dropped his hands from his face and while there was a ghost of the annoyance that Ren had felt from Joseph's and Nora's routine, there was also a genuine smile there.

"It is good to see you, Mr. Joestar."

"... Please Ren. You're not five anymore and I'm not some damn-elder for you to go bowing your head in respect to. You're a huntsman-in-training now… call me Lord Joestar of The Frontier. Heee hee hehehe." Nora slapped at his chest slightly as a low chuckle escaped from her throat, the young woman peeling away from the old man as she wiped her glove across her eyes. While the mirth was very much in the air… Joseph's eyes did narrow slightly as he caught the expressions on Nora and Ren's faces.

There was very much that joy that the two felt at seeing him again, to be certain… but the wily trickster of the Joestar family wouldn't have earned that reputation if he wasn't smart on people. He could see the doubt that hung just underneath their expressions… the accusation that hitched itself in their throats. His smile remained, of course, seeing these two youngsters after so much time. But it dropped slightly… it didn't take a lot of imagination to figure out what exactly these two might've been upset about.

Or, rather, what 'two' things they might've had to be upset about.

"We… have a lot of catching up to do, old guy." Nora said with a slightly hoarse chuckle as she wiped her glove across her eyes again."

"... I suppose we do at that. I'm sure Jotaro's already said his piece… about both Iggy, Avdol and Kakyoin as well as Josuke. Suppose I owe you both an explanation as well." With that, Joseph Joestar brought his cane back for support. Something to keep a grip on during the next hour or so while they flew.

It was going to be a long flight, he knew it then.

* * *

An Hour and Fifteen Minutes Later, Beacon Academy Air Dock

It wouldn't be long now. They could feel it in their bones.

Josuke, Yang and Koichi watched the skies carefully, each keeping an eye open for Joseph Joestar's ship to come in. They knew that this was it, that the clock was running low now. Within the next fifteen minutes, Joseph Joestar would arrive and, if their enemies were reacting so strongly, so too would an edge. An edge that their foes would not allow them to have so easily.

So Josuke, Yang and Koichi all tensed. They imagined that their other friends, save for perhaps Ren and Nora, were being faced with their own dangers, their own retaliations. That had been part of the plan after all. Now the three of them just waited patiently for their own…

They knew it would come, that was almost a certainty.

What they hadn't known was how right they were.

" **Boy, I have to say, I didn't expect you all to play this out so carefully. You all really do want Joseph Joestar to get here safe and sound, eh**?" Josuke and Yang tensed immediately, the duo already knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt who that voice belonged to. Koichi had been a little more on edge, having never heard the voice of the electrical Stand before, but knowing that this was likely the annointed time of their conflict. The trio turned to face a stack of crates a ways off from where they had been sitting, each tensed up and ready to go as they waited for Red Hot Chili Pepper to make the scene…

Eyes went wide as a human figure stepped out from behind one of the crates, one that caused Josuke to grind his teeth and sent Yang's blood boiling. Wielding an umbrella without a care in the world and carrying a remote-control plane under her other arm, the silent assassin, the ice-cream bitch had walked right out in front of them again, that smug as Hell grin on her face as she stared down the trio. She arched a brow at the three as, without any prompt, Red Hot Chili Pepper emerged from the battery pack of the remote-control plane, its own red eyes staring over at the trio with a great deal of smug pride.

" **Well… sorry to say, but our employers have their own ideas as to what's going to happen to that old man. Just a heads up… it won't be pretty. YEAAAAAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA**!"

 **-To Be Continued- Hermit Purple (Act 4)**

* * *

 **A/N: So the last time we got into a canon fight that had very little changed about it, we largely skipped over it. The robot fight under the highway that would have been in Welcome to Vale (Act 3) if it was going to be in this fic was cut because, as I believe I've stated previously, I don't like to retread canon material with absolutely no changes. It's why we ignored Jaune finding Weiss and Neptune and then walking off discouraged… it's why a lot of already-existing content that we know about from canon doesn't exist in this story. You already have the scenes animated, I can't do much better with the written word.**

 **All of this is to say that the fight between Josuke and Red Hot Chili Pepper is going to be a bit different though not entirely. The canon aspects that we all already know, yeah, you can go ahead and just watch the episode of the Diamond is Unbreakable anime to see that stuff. The new stuff I'll include because, hey, it's new, but I'm not going to retread old ground just for the sake of retreading it. It's why I've also established a lot of these other action beats; to give the climax of this particular arc a bit more oomph to make up for the canon beats ot the Josuke v RHCP fight we'll be skipping over in favor of new stuff.**

 **Just thought I'd give you guys that heads up in case any of you would read the next chapter and be disappointed when familiar scenes weren't just rewritten and therefore done worse because the written word can't really do actions scenes nearly as well as animated works.**

 **Anyway, glad to be largely back on my schedule again, so far school hasn't been too much of a disturbance, I just need to get back in my habit of actually writing a full hour a day so that I'm not cramming more than one hour into a day to make up for lost time. Living in the old place really knocked me off my rhythm unintentionally so I'll need to get back to work on getting back on it.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all next update!**


	39. Hermit Purple (Act 4)

The tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. The energy that permeated the grounds on which they stood… well, it could be argued that this was caused by the enemy Stand that they faced, but to say that only Red Hot Chili Pepper contributed to the nervous energy of the Beacon Airbus docks, that he alone charged the atmosphere with the mutual contempt that both sides were sending each other's ways… well, that would be giving way too much credit to the sole Stand.

No, the air was charged because all five present were ready in case the other made a preemptive move. While some of their body language was relatively relaxed, Josuke having placed one of his hands in his pockets even as he leaned off slightly to the side, ready to make way for Crazy Diamond, Neopolitan still stood casually even as she leaned over to set the toy airplane down and Red Hot Chili Pepper just stood there, arms crossed with a confident grin on his face, Koichi was practically paralyzed, his body language ready for a jump at any second and Yang? Yang's body language read as equal parts eager and nervous. She'd fought both Red Hot Chilli Pepper and the ice cream bitch, as she liked to call on, her two different occasions and knew what to expect. On the one hand, she was eager to dish out more harm…

But the growing, patient half of her also knew that this wouldn't be an easy fight no matter how ready she felt.

Still, despite the confident swagger that the two villains possessed and the readiness of the Hunters, neither group moved just yet. There was a certain sense of a hold as both sides evaluated everything; the battlefield on which they stood, what advantages were held by which sides and where those advantages would be felt most strongly, the skills and abilities of their opponents and, finally, what making a move would get them. It was a game of chess that was being played out and, as of right now, neither side was ready to move the first piece.

" **You all must've thought you were awfully clever.** " The silence was finally broken by Red Hot Chili Pepper, the Stand cackling to itself as it raised an eyebrow. " **Tell me, was this really the best your bosses could think up? Import an old man from some little town halfway across the world and hope his Stand Power can give you an edge? Have you all really gotten that desperate that you're sinking to that kind of depth and, on top of that, that you thought could get away with it without us doing anything about it? HAHAHAHAHA~, You all must be going a bit mad with fear on your side, eh?** "

"And if we have?" RHCP stopped cackling and Neopolitan raised her eyebrows a bit as Josuke spoke back, the pompadoured teen pulling a comb out of his pocket as he touched up his hair a bit. "You have to admit, what you pulled off at the Dance was pretty ballsy. We'd have to be pretty overly confident if we didn't think we needed a bit of desperate play in order to get back into this game. Plus, well, the fact that you two are here tells me that we're at least on the right track." Neopolitan and RHCP clench their teeth a bit at Josuke's tone, Yang grinning slightly as Josuke put his comb away.

"Yeah, seriously. Sending two of their best in order to try to stop one little old man? Who's sounding desperate now? If you ask me, this shows that we just picked the right move to respond to your crap and you all are grasping at straws trying to stop us." Yang slammed the metal braces of Ember Celica together a bit as she gave some bluster, a confident grin on her face that, while it tried its best to match the ice cream bitch's own smug smile, belayed the nervous energy underneath her own surface.

"B-Besides… if you two are the only ones who are here, then we still definitely stand a chance of making this work out." Koichi worked past his initial nervousness quickly as he looked at RHCP and the girl. He hadn't actually seen either of them at the Dance, save for a brief look at RHCP as it terrorized the student population by attacking Ozpin so brazenly. Josuke had told him about the pink-and-brown haired girl from the underpass and only knew that she could put up visual illusions that shattered like glass on impact. Given that Jotaro described a very similar happening in his encounter with the mysterious illusionist at the Dance, it seemed more than likely that this girl was involved with that assault too.

Two secret enemies that Koichi hadn't fought directly before did make the boy nervous… but he held back those nerves and did his best to draw his courage forward. He had fought with Neopolitan against Angelo before and his Stand was stronger than ever. He wasn't helpless here, he could definitely help. This time, there would be no Enigma to entrap him… this time, he would be able to help his friends.

Still, the way the girl just smiled so smugly… it felt oddly familiar to Koichi. This feeling was shaken off when, seemingly out of the blue, RHCP just laughed in its usual, maniacal way as it looked at the group of Hunters in front of it.

" **Just because they sent their best doesn't mean they're nervous. Heck, it just means that they're confident that we're all that's needed to sweep you all up and you win this fight… and I have to say, I'm quite happy with what I'm seeing. Is this really all they left behind? Not even that orange haired bitch or that trashy lookin' Goodwitch? Hah! This'll be even easier for me that lobbing off that Nijimura kid's arm with my pinky! YEAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!** "

"Correct me if I'm wrong there sparky, but I distinctly remember kicking her ass across the dance floor a couple nights ago. Or am I misremembering? I dunno, I was kind of busy kicking 'some' loudmouth's ass to pay attention to who it was." Still, even as Yang blustered, she already knew the logical hole in her argument; she kicked RHCP's ass because Glynda and Nora were around. Nora created the dead zones that the blonde brawler could use in order to keep RHCP from zipping around and Glynda created more just by tearing the wiring out of the floor. Here there wouldn't be that luxury. Here, Red Hot Chili Pepper would have to be dealt with in his base form without either Nora or Glynda around to help.

Still… she couldn't help but feel that this time around could be different. And, judging by the way Josuke stepped forward, the pompadoured teen could feel it too.

"Koichi, Yang." Josuke began, gaining the other two's attentions. "I want you both to take on the short one… errr… the short one with the pink and brown hair." Neopolitan's cheeks puffed up slightly at this and RHCP just looked annoyed as Koichi's eyes went a bit wide.

"What? Josuke, you're going to try to take on Red Hot Chili Pepper by yourself?! Josuke, I get that Crazy Diamond's strong, but-"

"The girl is also very strong Koichi. Blake and Yang both took her on at once and even when they were working together they had a lot of trouble keeping her pinned down. The only time they had the advantage on her was when she wasn't paying attention… no offense Yang, that was just my read of the fight."

"Oh no offense taken, you're absolutely right. Ice cream bitch over there had me and Blake on the ropes anytime she turned her full attention on us." Yang answered with a calm nod as she said this. She wasn't so proud as to try to bluster and lie about her performance in a fight to one of her own friends, especially when matters were this grave. And Josuke was right; if she was going to take on the midget, she'd need a pair of hands by her side to help her keep on top of the bitch. Still… "You sure about taking on Red Hot Chili Pepper by yourself. She wouldn't be easy for me to go solo against sure, but RHCP is his own monster. It would be a lot to ask of you to try to go mano-a-mano against him."

"I understand and trust me, I know the risk of going up against him by myself… but we're in a different situation now. I think you're aware of that as well." Yang's lilac eyes glanced around the docks one last time as Josuke said this, nodding as the pompadoured teen just stared at RHCP dead on. "It won't be an easy fight… but I think Crazy Diamond might stand a chance. Honestly, I'm more worried about the little one getting a good hit on me from behind if I were to get too engrossed in fighting RHCP on my own. I need you both to keep her busy or, better yet, to knock her out of the fight. I can keep RHCP here on top of me, I think, and give you guys the space you need to fight…"

"But if Blake and I were barely able to keep little miss pink hair over there busy when we were working together, than I definitely wouldn't be able to do it by myself. Right, I hear ya." Yang nodded again as she activated Ember Celica, dusting herself off a bit as her gauntlets slid into place. "Alright ice cream bitch, how's about you and me go for round two? Don't mind Koichi here, he's just going to make sure you don't pull anything funny… or who knows, maybe you'll kick my ass and then Koichi here will come in for the beatdown. Little guy's got a lot of spunk." The midget just looks cocky as she shrugs her shoulders, producing her umbrella as she looks Yang in the eyes. However, much to Yang's displeasure, the ice cream bitch doesn't move from Red Hot Chili Pepper's side, apparently more than content to stick by the Stand's side through the fight to try to interfere.

" **Roman will get pissy if anything happens to you in this fight twerp… and with the way I'm going to go at it, that's probably gonna be what happens. Get the Hell out of my way and enjoy your play date… I'll be over to clean up as soon as I deal wit Josuke here.** " Neopolitan turned to glare at RHCP slightly as the Stand just looked at her with a dismissive, cocky grin. It was clear that he hadn't had an ounce of respect for either her or Roman, but didn't want her in his way or to hear any shit from Roman should he accidentally zap her in this entire affair. Still, even despite this, Neopolitan knew better than to just give in to her frustration with this disrespectful Stand and separate off. Higashikata Josuke, whatever else she could say about the guy with the weird hairdo, was a capable fighter, especially if you allowed him to get into a one versus one situation. He had dominated his fight with Bucciarati with clever tactics and a solid use of his Stand.

Meanwhile, RHCP had the benefits of a battlefield shaped by Harvest in order to benefit him and the constant, looming threat of Enigma hanging over the shoulders of his enemies, constantly distracting them with either his hostage or the threat of papering them while RHCP made use of Harvest's changes to the field of battle in order to move around. Here, RHCP's only advantage was that Neo herself could take on more than one person at a time herself, something she was fairly sure RHCP 'could' accomplish…

Just perhaps not against Crazy Diamond. Not without a playing field that played totally to him. He 'could' make use of the docks, sure, they'd even discussed it, but… it wasn't nearly as favorable as the Dance Hall had been. Roman's life was at stake here and she didn't want some Stand's outsized ego to be the reason why his life would be, essentially, ruined should Joseph Joestar arrived. Neo was proud and wasn't one to take insults most times, sure… but for Roman, she was willing to swallow her pride.

So Neopolitan just placed a hand on her hip as she lightly glared at RHCP, doing her best to make sure the Stand could tell that she wasn't moving an inch and that they weren't going to play to the Hunter's game.

" **Stubborn little wench huh? Well, whatever, if that's how you want to do this then I suppose I'll just have to let it stand then…** " As he says that however, both Neopolitan and RHCP find their attentions being drawn to a slightly odd sound. RHCP had moved its foot as part of its move to turn away from Neopolitan, the two having looked down to see the source of the noise by RHCP's feet.

A set of kanji that sat just beneath them was what met their gaze. While RHCP was confused at first, his expression quickly matched Neopolitan's as a sudden gust of wind blew up and over the pair of them. RHCP quickly grabbed onto a nearby crate, securing his grasp. Neopolitan attempted to do the same thing… only to feel the powerful thrust of one of Yang's fists as it collided with her face, forcing her to let go of the crate and, combined with the gust of wind, sending her flying off towards another section of the dockyard.

"I swear, these guys really do need to pay better attention." Yang said with a wide grin on her face as Act 2 quickly regathered the end of its tail and set it on the end of its limb, Koichi just nodding in agreement as they both looked over to Josuke. "Have trying to catch lightning in a bottle there Josuke!" Yang called back as she and Koichi quickly set themselves on catching up with Neopolitan, wanting to keep the pressure on the little ice cream bitch for as long as possible and as quickly as possible in order to ensure she didn't get involved with Josuke's and RHCP's fight.

"That barely qualified as a joke Yang." Josuke called over to her and she and Koichi ran off, the pompadoured teen sighing as RHCP got his bearings back. He took a hard look at Josuke and then chuckled, before that chuckle broke out into full-on laughter.

" **I have to say, you're pretty bold to be stepping up to the plate here Josuke~. You know what I can do and I know for a fact that you can't fix yourself. Tell me, do you fancy losing an arm like your friend Okuyasu? Cause I can certainly oblige."** RHCP lifted up its left hand, extending a pinky finger as it looked at Josuke with a mix of pride and self-satisfaction. " **Tell you what, I'll even do it the same way. I'll only use my pinky this entire fight… it's only fair after all, YEAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!** " As RHCP cackled nice and loud Josuke just raised his hand slowly, a bored expression on his face as he bent over slightly to address the Stand.

"In that case, I'll go ahead and do you the same honor; I'll go ahead and only have Crazy Diamond use one of its pinkies… now I have to decide on which one's stronger…" RHCP seemed taken aback by this answer, before the Stand growled in annoyance.

" **The limitation is just for me you idiot, you don't have to hold back at all! Between that slow as Hell Stand of yours, you don't stand a chance of-** "

" **DOOORA!** "

 ***SNAP** *

RHCP howled in pain as, from out of the blue, Crazy Diamond appeared, the hot pink Stand slamming its fist into RHCP's extended pinky. The electric Stand immediately backed off, holding onto its wrist as it looked at its bent and bruised digit, grinding its teeth together as it glared over at Josuke.

"What, you said I didn't need to worry about limitations. Or are you already regretting that?" Josuke pointed to himself, a hardened, serious expression on his face. "I'll hand it to you, you did deal with The Hand quickly and painfully… you even bent me over for that entire fight because of how you, Harvest and Enigma coordinated your efforts… but let me make something clear to you, Chili Pepper. Crazy Diamond is 'not' The Hand. The Hand is strong, but when it comes to speed and power, Crazy Diamond is in a different league." As Josuke said this his stand butted its fists together as if to demonstrate, its own eyes staring down at RHCP as Josuke spoke. "It gets even worse when I'm pissed off… Crazy Diamond tends to get a bit out of hand when that happens. Now, the good news for you is that I blew off most of the steam I built up that night on turning Enigma into a book, so you won't suffer a similar fate…

"The bad news? I'm still plenty pissed off. In fact, this whole day and this whole assignment has me feeling a bit antsy. So I'm going to kick your ass up and down this dockyard until you can't fight back to blow off the rest of that steam. Then we're going to 'force' you to tell us what you know about your Stand User and the organization you're working with. Do you understand?"

Red Hot Chili Pepper just glared as hatefully as the Stand could muster, a spark of electricity surrounding its pinky finger for the briefest of moments before the digit snapped back into the proper position. RHCP clenched and relaxed its hand a few times to test it out, before turning its gaze back to Josuke.

" **I do… and you're going to regret pissing me off, kid.** " WIth that, RHCP began to dissolve into living lightning and flew into a nearby power socket meant to recharge the airbuses. Josuke just took a deep breath as be brought Crazy Diamond in close, his stand tense but maneuverable as he kept his eyes open.

Now, for the hard part…

* * *

Neopolitan 'hated' being sucker punched. It was one thing if you landed a blow on her directly; getting outmaneuvered in a fight was just something you had to take into account sometime. Whether you got careless which, Neo would readily admit, she sometimes did or the enemy just got their hands on you without you expecting it, it was just a way the fight went. At least then you could look at your mistake and learn something about it. The only thing you learned from a sucker punch was to just not be stupid enough to let your attention off your enemy so they couldn't do it again…

Neo, of course, recognized the hypocrisy. She was in no way above dishing out sucker punches if she thought she could land them. Heck, she loved it even, it was just another way of pissing off her opponents. It just sucked to have them turned on you was all…

But she really should've seen it coming. She'd seen Koichi and Act 2 fight now, heck, it'd been a hot while since she'd watched how Koichi and his upgraded Stand operated against Angelo. Taking advantage of an opponent not paying attention so that Echoes could lay a trap at their feet or so that it could place a glyph or it's tail somewhere and someplace advantageous was basically how the Stand operated. It existed to punish you for not taking it into account for your actions.

It showed that Koichi wasn't above taking his shots where he could if it meant winning a fight. Sure, it was to protect the people he cared about or, in the case of Angelo, people he felt he owed protection like herself, but still, it was a surprisingly cutthroat tactic for a boy who, on the surface, was still very much prim, proper and polite.

Honestly if she had watched him pull this off against anyone else, she might've even gotten a little excited.

As it stood she just had to accept her lumps and remember, very pointedly, to 'always' keep an eye on Koichi. The second she let him out of her sight was the second he and Act 2 would find a way to screw her over and let Tits McGee over there pummel her.

Or go for the finishing blow himself. Koichi wouldn't kill her, Hell, he hadn't killed Angelo… but he would either use the explosive take on his tail or something else to try to break her down.

Point was, she was going to need to be a bit more serious in this situation. Fighting two people slower and less skilled than you in combat close up was one thing, Heck, it was almost easy because you could always keep your eye on them both while you carefully picked them apart bit by bit, piece by piece. It was a whooole lot of fun in Neopolitan's opinion, probably the most fun you could have when beating the tar out of someone or killing them… or both. Fighting someone close up while someone else stood back to take potshots at your back was a different, more dangerous matter. If you tunnel visioned too hard on who was in front of you, well, you were just asking to get stabbed in the back.

Which Neopolitan was very much looking to 'not' have happen, thank you very much. Especially considering the knife in this case may very well be an explosive.

So as Neopolitan sailed through the air she eventually popped open her umbrella and drifted down to the ground, landing on her feat as she rubbed at her jaw. She'd give Tits out there one thing, she could fucking throw a punch. Neopolitan took a deep breath as she readied her weapon, keeping her pink and brown eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. She expected it might be a little bit of time before they acted… if she knew Koichi, he was going to try to do something like-

-Like throw Act 2's tail at her from behind a corner so that it'd curve and head straight for her, yes, that's exactly what she was thinking. Neo's eyes narrowed slightly, intent on keeping one out for Yang while she readied her umbrella to slap the bit of Act 2's tail away. Her eyes went wide, however, as a very distinctive sound reached her ears; a fuse burning.

And burning 'quite' low by the sounds of it.

The tail was going to explode the second it got near her.

Thinking quickly Neopolitan snapped open her umbrella and spun it for all it was worth, pouring her Aura into the spin as she got a good deal of wind to blow off of it. The wind wasn't for the tail itself, it was going to get near her no matter what she did. However, as it exploded between the spin of the air around her umbrella, the spin of her umbrella itself and the reinforced steel and fiber that made up her weapon, she was able to keep most of the explosion off of her, only feeling a roiling heat make its way around her as the explosive kanji on the tail went off. She ground her teeth a bit as she dug in her heels and eventually she felt the bit of Act 2's tail bounce off her umbrella, her eyes following its trail back to Koichi and…

And no one.

Act 2 just grabbed the end of its tail as it began reshaping it, Koichi staring at her intently as he and his Stand stood off on their own. The only sign she got of what was coming was the fact that Koichi's blue eyes were glancing off to the side, seeing something coming.

That something took advantage of her rooted stance and her distraction as it plowed another fist into her cheek, a blast of the tall bitch's shotgun going off in her face that sent her flying into some crates. Even through her Aura she felt the force of that punch, felt the blood begin to rush to the cheek and a minor bit of bruising form. Her Aura would quickly go to work to bring the swelling down and erase the bruising entirely, Neopolitan was no simple flower ready to be bruised and beaten after two punches, but still…

She was getting 'very' annoyed.

She stood up from her position in the crates, glaring quite angrily at both Koichi and Yang. This was the second time she had been caught off guard… she was beginning to remark on just how much Koichi's evolution to Act 2 had changed his ability and his place in a field of combat. It was horrifying effective, she was beginning to see. Act 2 had the ability to float anywhere within fifty meters of Koichi and it could deploy its kanji through its tail with minimal effort. It didn't even need to be up close, necessarily, it could lob its tail and use that as a ranged option, effectively putting the Stand outside of the range of people who couldn't fire bullets at it…

Even if you had that option, it was a tougher Stand than Act 1, able to withstand more punishment. You'd either need a lot of bullets or bullets with heavy amounts of Dust, high impact or explosive, to make a dent in a Stand's Aura.

She'd already gotten a read on the blonde bimbo; a brawler through and through. That was simple enough. Act 2 was anything but simple…

And that was putting her behind in this fight.

"Gotta say Koichi, while I would definitely love to have Blake here, I'm not going to be complaining anytime soon about having you fighting at my side. This is getting pretty fun." Koichi nodded as Yang pounded one fist into her other open palm, a wide grin on her face. Neopolitan just grimaced as she removed her blade from her umbrella to give more freedom. She's keep the umbrella on hand of course, a makeshift shield would come in handy in this fight.

Her course of action was clear; she could handle Yang Xiao Long quite easily on her own. One versus one it wouldn't even be a question who'd win, she'd tear her to pieces in no time flat… or as much time as Neo would've wanted in order to have her fun. Koichi, on the other hand? Koichi was making this fight far too dangerous and difficult. If Neopolitan wanted to have any chance of winning, she needed to knock him out of the fight.

It was a shame too; he was really cute.

Taking a deep breath, Neo forced the smug grin back on her face as she twirling both her umbrella and her blade around in her hands, nodding toward Yang and Koichi as she raised her eyebrows.

"Well would you look at that Koichi, I don't think ice cream bitch over there's learned her lesson." Koichi frowned slightly as he kept his knees bent, his gaze very carefully staying right on Neopolitan as she twirled her blade and the remains of her umbrella around. Something wasn't right here, she shouldn't have been so confident so quick. "Watch my back little man and look for opportunities to get a good hit in when you can. We have her on the ropes." Still, the short Frontier Huntsman just gave a grunt of acknowledgement as Yang rushed off to charge after Neopolitan, the ice cream themed assassin just grinning nice and wide as she ran for Yang. Her footfalls echoed against the concrete as they rushed to meet Yang's, the visage of Neopolitan's smug face being all that was on Yang's mind as she prepared for a brawl. If she could draw the ice cream bitch's attention for long enough and hard enough, then Koichi could make his own move against her from range.

Plan decided on, Yang reared back and threw a powerful punch. The visage of Neopolitan shattered underneath her fist, her eyes going wide as two sounds rang in her ears; the first being of the shattered glass sound that made up the dissolving of one of the ice cream bitch's broken illusions… the other being her still continuing footfalls.

Neopolitan could've used the full extent of her semblance in order to disguise her footfalls. In order to make the sound less clear. She didn't need to time her illusion with her run so that the footfalls would match. She didn't 'need' to bother with that much extra effort. She didn't need to watch as Koichi immediately snapped his head over to her footfalls, eyes going a bit wide as Neopolitan was very nearly right on top of him. Koichi used his stance to jump back and away from Neopolitan, hoping to avoid being cut up by the young woman's blades.

She could've used her semblance's control over sound to disguise her approach too.

Why didn't she?

Why did she not use that as an opportunity to get a true surprise attack in…

In the end, these thoughts were cut off as Neo's pink and brown eyes widened into white as the end of Act 2's tail immediately fell in between Neopolitan and Koichi, a powerful gust of wind blowing the two back away from each other. She had been able to roll and flip backwards to prevent herself from falling flat on her ass, another flip becoming necessary in order to dodge the blonde bimbo's attack as she tried to blindside her. Yang growled and Neopolitan made a frustrated face, if her voice had been capable she may have very well growled back, as she finally found solid footing again. Landing with only the slightest stumble, Neopolitan held out her blade to counter any follow up by Yang, instead finding the blonde running over to Koichi.

"Hey, man, Koichi, are you okay? I'm so sorry, I-"

"It's okay Yang… I'm fine." Neopolitan's eyes didn't go slightly wide when she saw that Koichi's desperate act to save himself had launched him, quite hard, into a pile of crates. She didn't frown slightly as he pulled himself out from the crates, wobbling slightly before he found his own footing. Didn't eyes the bruises that had come from the impact.

She just watched as all this happened, a thoroughly blank expression schooled onto her face. That's what was needed here, after all. It's what she had to wear.

"Sorry Yang but I think… I might need to be a bit conservative with Act 2 here." Yang nods as she helps Koichi stand fully up to his feet, slamming her fists together.

"It's no problem… if she tries that trick again, you need to be able to stay safe. Having you watch my back means nothing if that ends up getting you killed." Yang snarled slightly as she watched Neopolitan, the odd look on her face giving her pause before she shook her head. "I guess we should've expected that she'd go after the link in the fight that was keeping her distracted. She can't fight me with everything she has if she has to keep worrying about you or Act 2 interfering… so she's trying to cut that off." Koichi nodded. It was probably the most logical step their opponent could've made. Yang was tough but, as Yang herself had admitted after the underpass, this girl was made of tougher stuff for now. Or, at the very least, she was more skilled than Yang currently was.

If it was just the two of them, there was no illusions about how that fight would turn out.

Koichi needed to stay safe long enough that he could help Yang sneak in hits or so he could sneak in hits himself.

Their opponent, realizing that, apparently decided it was high time to make sure Koichi could make 'no more such moves'.

"Koichi… I'm going to be more patient." Yang silently cursed at herself. Great, after she just got done with the responsible schtick at the dance, here she was having to pick it up again. Still, she couldn't let one of her friends die because she was careless. She wouldn't allow it. She was never forgive herself if Koichi died under her watch…

Josuke would never forgive her if he did either.

"I'm going to try to play this fight a little more slowly and a little more carefully. She can't think she can get me to overextend so that she can get to you safely… I need to be able to jump in and so does Act 2, which means you can't be overly focused on making sure my aggression doesn't end up with me getting banged up. We need to play this slow, take our punches against her where we can and then back off before she can exploit an opening to take you out. Do you understand me, Koichi?" Koichi just looked up to Yang with slightly wide eyes, eyes that narrowed with determination as he nodded firmly.

"I do." The lilac eyed brawler just smiled lightly, trying to lift the mood a bit, as she nodded back.

"Good boy." She said in a slightly joking tone as she pounded her fists together. "You have my back Koichi and I'll have yours… that way, there's no way ice cream bitch over there is going to get either of us." With a firm nod from the short Huntsman, the two got into their stances, ready to go back into the fight.

Neopolitan just observed all of this carefully. So, they were going to play it nice and slow huh? Fine by her. Sure, she'd prefer to take care of this fight nice and quick so that she could go over and take care of Josuke with RHCP, but considering the dire straits that these two together put her into, she was fine with taking it nice and slow. It'd give her time. Time to figure out the weaknesses and strategic considerations Koichi had to make with Echoes Act 2 in order to make it useful in combat. Once she had a good idea of its strengths, weaknesses and general limitations, then she could shift the tempo of the fight.

After all, once she figured that out, it wouldn't matter how ready Yang or Koichi thought they were. She'd find her opening and then she'd take Koichi out of the fight.

* * *

Miuccia Miuller, or Miu Miu as she let those she considered… friendly call her, sometimes, did love it when a plan came together. The blonde had been given joint instructions from Cinder Fall and Whitesnake. Cinder Fall had told her the plan she had behind the prison break and Miuccia Miuller almost laughed at how simple it was.

What, you needed her to use her Stand to disguise herself as some white collar nobody in the Vale administrative structure who could 'convince' the staff at Vale's High Security Prison to let go of all those prisoners? You needed her to guide them along to Roman's camp so that he could have them riot throughout various places in the city, causing the chaos that Miu Miu now watched quite carefully from a nearby rooftop, a slightly satisfied grin on her face.

She would've been insulted for being asked 'if' she could manage this were it not for how Cinder employed that usual tone of hers. That combination of an uplifting, inspiring tone combined with the distinct impression that she looked down on you for being inferior. That sort of tone that was meant to relay that oh yes, you were so very important to her and key to her plans and she valued you while at the same time destroying your own sense of self-worth.

It was amusing, Miuccia Miuller would giver her that.

When she'd gotten instructions from Whitesnake to follow those commands, she'd finally gone ahead and agreed. After all, it was a simple enough job for Jail House Lock and, so long as Whitesnake gave the go ahead, she saw no reason not to help Cinder and Roman dig themselves out of this hole. Still, as Miu Miu waited for her call, she couldn't help but wonder-

*RINGRINGRING*

Ah, maybe she could get her question answered directly rather than mutter and mumble to herself about it.

Flipping out her Scroll Miuccia Miuller was greeted with the caller ID and, as ever, blanked out camera image of Whitesnake. "Hello there boss, I have to say, I was expecting your call a bit earlier. Something keep you busy?"

"Giving hope to some Atlesian Elite about the promise of ascending to Heaven despite his worldly sins can be quite a time consuming process Miuccia. A necessary one that will pay dividends once I get what I'm after here in Atlas, but a time consuming one nonetheless." The even tone of Whitesnake belayed a slight annoyance that Miuccia could feel at the very edge of his speech, Miu Miu just smiling lightly as she kicked her legs out a bit.

"Most people would consider rubbing elbows with and… I guess proselytizing the rich and influential of Atlas to be quite the opportunity Whitesnake." Miu Miu just smiles a bit as she hears the telltale sigh from Whitesnake.

"... 73, 79, 83, 89, 97… people would think that up until they met any of these people. Allow me to be frank Miuccia… these people have no faith in anything. They're not looking for Heaven because they can understand the bounty of our Lord, but simply because they fear for the safety of their own souls. It allows me to do my work, and The Plan calls for aligning with these faithless, unscrupulous men… but it gives me no pleasure." Miuccia just nodded slowly as she ran a hand through her hair. To be honest, she'd never understood much about the priest's devotion to this lord of his, nor could she admit to caring overly much. As far as she was concerned, Whitesnake was the guy who offered her a rather nice package in exchange for working with him; power that she had never imagined possible that could get her into positions and places that, previously, she could only dream of achieving.

Hell, Jail House Lock was worth dealing with all the crazies in all the world as far as she was concerned. So yeah, she'd stick by Whitesnake. For all his ranting and raving, the guy wasn't out of his gourd. Quite the opposite, he was quite smart… scarily so sometimes. His ability to predict events and work around them so that they would benefit his allies and himself as much as they could was rather outstanding. Weird as it was, his faith was almost admirable too; the guy never gave up and he always moved like he had some kind of higher purpose. Even to someone who didn't necessarily pray or do much of anything like, Miuccia could at least appreciate drive and motivation…

The fact that Whitesnake was so scarily strong also helped ensure her loyalty.

Speaking of strength and intelligence though…

"Whitesnake, mind if I ask a question?"

"Go right ahead Miuccia. If I can answer your curiosity, I shall do so to the best of my ability." The voice on the other end of the line entered what she liked to call 'priest mode' that… very disturbing way that Whitesnake could switch himself from a deadly, plotting mastermind to an almost fatherly, loving member of the faithful. It was eerie… but people bought into it. Hell, she knew she had when she first met him.

"It's about the current chaos we're raising up in Vale." A small 'hmmm' answered her on the other end, signaling her to continue. "I don't get it. I mean, if the point of The Breach or Cinder's backup plan was to sow chaos in Vale and force our enemies to respond… wouldn't this be a great way of doing it? Hell, we could take advantage of this riot and really start pushing our limits. People have died Whitesnake and there's a lot of uncertainty in the air. We could push that… Hell, if you sent Limp Bizkit down here and his Stand managed to effect even one corpse, that'd probably send the dominos tumbling right that second. There's no way that, between the chaos of the riot and what that asshole's Stand can accomplish, Ironwood's goons and the police could handle the outbreak. From there it'd just be a matter of time before the Grimm were at the walls. So why not just start now? Why let Cinder twist in the wind with this rather than make the final push now?" Miuccia made sure to keep her tone even.

Honestly? She wasn't even at all annoyed. Sure, making more progress than simply stopping Joseph Joestar would be nice, but still she wasn't impatient. She'd been assured by Whitesnake that things would go at their own pace and that, by the end of it all, they'd end up succeeding. She was just more curious… to her, this looked like a prime opportunity. So why waste it?

Whitesnake hummed on the other end of the line, sounding like he was gathering his thoughts on how to phrase this.

"Tell me Miuccia. The walls of Vale, do they still stand?" Miuccia blinked a couple times as she leaned back on the air conditioning unit she had been sitting on, looking over at the walls of the City of Vale.

"Yeah, sure are."

"And despite the best efforts of yourself and Cinder Fall, are there still points of escape for our foes?"

"... Yeah, plenty. Even if seaborne Grimm did come, they have control of a few airbus ports still. Even if the roads got clogged to the brim with Grimm, they'd probably just get people out that way." Miuccia could practically hear the nod on the other end of the line before Whitesnake continued.

"Miuccia, our enemies are indeed pressured at this moment. If I were to unleash another one of your colleagues… like you say, Limp Bizkit would do marvelously in this situation, we could force our enemies to withdraw completely and totally from the field. However, that's just it; they'd be able to withdraw. No amount of chaos Limp Bizkit could cause would keep Atlesian drones from being able to single in on his Stand's… creations using thermal detectors. No amount of chaos would bring the Walls of Vale down without the considerable resources we've gathered. No amount of chaos would stop our enemies from arranging an evacuation… and then either leaving themselves or regrouping at such a time when they'd be able to take back Vale. They have too many options, too many paths open to them.

"What we need is to force them to stand there ground. To force their backs to the walls so that they may not be 'allowed' to retreat. Jotaro must be in such a position that he cannot abandon Vale lest he leave thousands of people destined to die without his aid. The Fall Maiden must either be forced to give up her powers to another or forced to go out into the field herself. The only way this happens is if our enemies feel like they have no other choice.

"Here and now, they have plenty of choices, even if I threw as many of my resources behind Cinder as I could. Her plans require all the pieces to come together… and even then, The Breach is doomed to fail."

"What?" Miuccia asked, sounding genuinely surprised, as she looked down at her Scroll. "Whitesnake, what do you mean? The Breach, you said-"

"I had said previously that it would be a solid plan… that was before Cinder and her crew got impatient with the dance and forced our enemies to call forth Joseph Joestar. The Joestars have a remarkable ability, Miuccia. The more of them gathered in one spot, the stronger their ability to resist the tug of Gravity. Joseph Joestar himself has resisted the plunge time and time again… he will not fall here. Not with Jotaro around. By forcing Joseph Joestar to arrive, Cinder has surrender initiative when it comes to The Breach. It will be stopped because Joseph Joestar will give our enemies the information they need to either end it early… or force it to go off because all the pieces are in place.

"With that old man getting ready to back them up now, there is no hope for Cinder to stop the Joestars from turning destiny to their side and stopping The Breach. She will lose this round because she failed to learn from my warnings; do not underestimate the Joestar clan."

Miuccia Miuller nodded slightly. This had been Whitesnake's warning again and again… and from what she'd heard, the warning proved profound. Not only had the Joestars gotten off scot-free during the dance incident, but their allies had thus far not only managed to avoid 'any' casualties to their ranks, they'd also managed to take in several Stand Users created by Cinder and Roman. So far each and every single encounter had gone the Joestar's way…

It seemed as though Whitesnake's warnings were far more than mere bluster.

"So what's the plan then? The back-up after The Breach?" She could practically hear the nod on the other end of the line as Whitesnake continued.

"Indeed… I'll start moving my own resources into place in the meanwhile. Cinder will have spent a good deal of her own but… well, I'll give her this, the woman has a way with making plans and backup plans. While The Breach will be costly, she'll still end with the resources necessary in order to make her backup come to fruition." Miuccia nodded as she grimaced slightly.

"I've heard some of the details… I dunno, seems like a lot of variables need to go just right Whitesnake."

"True enough, however, while the Dance attack was a failure in many ways, Cinder did accomplish one of her main goals… and with that accomplishment, managing those variables shall become much easier for her. She will find her way toward her plan… and when she does, that's when I'll move in with my own. No matter what Cinder does or may be secretly scheming, Kujo Jotaro will be mind as will the other Frontier Stand Users…"

"You think she might try to pull some funny business?" Miuccia asked as she combed a lock of hair behind her ear as she heard a slight grunt of acknowledgement from the other end of the line.

"Indeed… Cinder Fall is the sort of woman whose tragic flaw is that she believes herself too clever by half. She's tasted the benefit of an alliance with me and may view it as necessary to keep it going… by whatever means. Whether that be putting off my capture of Kujo Jotaro or otherwise…

"But, as I said, Cinder is too clever by half. She will not succeed."

"You may want to be careful there Whitesnake, or else you might start sounding like the overly confident egomaniac in this alliance." Miu Miu spoke with a slight chuckle as Whitesnake just hummed on his end of the line.

"Perhaps so. Underestimating opponents is what has gotten many into such a troublesome position in the first place… still, I feel confident that, my wit matched to hers, anything Cinder will try before the final plan will not be able to stop the progress of The Lord's Plan… after all, I have a little book to ensure that." With that, the conversation died down and Miuccia Miuller closed her Scroll and looked back out at the chaotic riot consuming Vale.

Well, if Whitesnake allowed himself some confidence, perhaps she should feel confident in his plan as well.

* * *

Josuke took a deep, steadying breath. This would be the moment in the fight that would decide everything. True to its word, RHCP had shown why it was such a threat. Why its performance in the Dance Hall hadn't been a mere coincidence and why they'd been right to fear it all this time as a powerful Enemy Stand. While the battleground wasn't as 'perfect' for RHCP as the Dance Hall had been made thank to Harvest, it was still quite open to being abused by the electrical Stand. It disappeared into power sockets, rode along power lines that had drawn the power of Beacon's generators to the dockyards and then pulled itself up out of the ground through small grates that, usually, would be used to transfer water in the case of a heavy rain. Now though, they were being used by RHCP to ride the currents of the electricity of the lines so near these grates.

It was… grating. Agh, Yang was rubbing off on him with her puns. He needed to get his head checked.

As RHCP once again dipped out of view Josuke couldn't help but bite his lip in annoyance as he stood back up from a recent, heavy blow. He was bleeding from the mouth thanks to the concentrated efforts of RHCP. Crazy Diamond did what it could to protect him but, in the end, the electrical Stand was just able to get around too quickly. Sometimes Crazy Diamond would catch the hits but, most times, RHCP was able to get two quick shots directly on Josuke before dipping back out of sight.

Josuke was a tough guy, he'd say. Able to take a lot of punishment and able to stand up to a lot of pressure. He could take some hits… but from a Stand as strong as RHCP, Josuke was beginning to feel the pressure. He felt his muscles ache from the sheer force of the blows, felt his entire torso shake in pain as RHCP's fists struck him again and again…

And, oh yeah, the coppery taste in his mouth was more than enough reminder that he was getting beaten down.

"Great…" Josuke muttered to himself as he wiped his mouth clean. Still… this hadn't been for nothing. The pompadoured teen had been having Crazy Diamond punch back, seemingly erratically, as the grates from which RHCP would reveal itself. The Stand laughed, assuming these were the desperate maneuvers of a man who was on his last legs, unable to stand up to the Stand's assault…

He was going to love rubbing Crazy Diamond's fist into RHCP's face. Apparently, for all the Stand was aware of conductivity, it wasn't aware of much else. Like the ingredients that went into concrete. Fascinating stuff when you read up on it. Coal tar was a base ingredient… and funny thing about coal tar was that it wasn't a terrible conductive material. Now, that wasn't to say it was zero. Just that… well…

If electricity did happen to pass through it, it'd likely be slower. Easier to predict.

Easier to hear coming as it bubbled up from right behind him.

" **DOOOOOOOOOORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARAAAA!** "

The second RHCP reared its ugly head, Crazy Diamond had been upon it. The hot-pink Stand delivered onto RHCP a vicious beating as it drove its fists into its form, the Stand having been restricted by the accumulated coal tar on the ground around the grate. The electrical Stand howled in pain as impressions of Crazy Diamond's fists were left all over its body. At the last moment Crazy Diamond reared a fist back and delivered a powerful blow, forcing the electrical Stand up out of the ground and skittering across the dockyard, the Stand taking deep, pained breaths as it looked over at Josuke.

"Well come on then, where's your speed and skill there RHCP? Could it be without backup that you really aren't all your cracked up to be? I'm not hearing you cackle or spout your crap about my friends now, am I?" Josuke spoke sternly as he glared at the Stand, Crazy Diamond floating in between RHCP and the pompadoured teen as the Stand once more got into its battle stance. RHCP just ground its teeth together before a bright smile formed on its face.

" **Well… you're awfully cocky Josuke… let's see how long that confidence lasts.** " RHCP once again turned into a blur of electricity as it disappeared into a grate, Josuke just grinding his teeth together a bit as he prepared for RHCP to try something funny…

Instead, it seemed that RHCP was the one who had the trick pulled on it as, all of a sudden, the Stand popped out of the grate, a metal container in its hand as it was forcefully ejected from the ground.

" **W-What the?** " RHCP gasped as it tried to overcharge its body into electrical form again, hoping to ride the waves of electricity again. However this time its body didn't even dive into the ground, the electrical Stand just sitting there as it glared over at Josuke. " **YOU! What did you do?! How did you cut the power to these docks?!** "

"Honestly, I don't know either… wait…" Jotaro had mentioned something. How his group would get backup from… "Glynda!"

Indeed, in the underground basement of Beacon Academy, Glynda Goodwitch had put her semblance to good use. A Scroll in one hand giving her a live video feed of the dockyards and her riding crop in the other, disconnecting a large number of ports to the various generators of Beacon Academy Glynda heaved a heavy sigh of worry as she adjusted her glasses. She had been waiting for either the opportune moment to give Josuke the final advantage he'd need to put down RHCP or to save him so that he could turn the fight. Now that power had been cut to the dock, she'd need to wait to hear word on how things were going there from Josuke or Jotaro… her video feed having been cut off alongside the power to the cameras.

Still, she smiled. If Josuke's performance up to that moment had been any indication, the boy would do just fine.

Back at the docks, a smirk formed over Josuke lips as he pulled out his comb, fixing up his hair from when RHCP's assault had ruffled it as he looked at the Stand with a confident look.

"Well now, isn't that nice. It looks like we've got the playing field leveled here Chili Pepper… or, perhaps, we've just taken your advantage away. I wonder, how powerful are you really on your own without a local power source to draw from? It's a question I've been thinking on ever since I heard about your performance at the Dance hall."

If the look on Red Hot Chili Pepper's rapidly rusting visage was any indication, it was 'not very'. Still, before Josuke could move in for the kill… a wry chuckle escaped RHCP's lips.

" **I-I'll… hand it to you all. This was… pretty clever. Drawing me in only to cut me off from the source of my power… unfortunately for you bastards, this? This isn't even the best I'm capable of. Not by a long shot…** " As RHCP said this, its hand rose in time with its words. It was then that Josuke noticed that whatever the metal container was in RHCP's hand, it was… full of something. Josuke's eyes squinting slightly as it tried to make out what exactly RHCP was holding in its hands… it looks like… yellow sand…

Josuke's eyes went wide with realization; Lightning Dust.

"CRAZY DIAMOND!"

" **TOO LATE YOU BASTARD!** "

With a loud cackle RHCP quickly raised its hand up into the air and, with little fanfare, threw the metal container onto the ground, the glass that had made up the largest part of the container shattering on impact as the Dust began to fly out in a cloud. RHCP just grinned nice and wide as a few stray sparks of electricity began to arc from his body…

And then one of those sparks caught a large cloud of the Lightning Dust.

And in that moment, everything went damn near white for Josuke's vision.

* * *

"HOLY CRAP WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

"I DUNNO, BUT I CAN'T LOOK DIRECTLY INTO IT!"

Even Neopolitan had to shield her eyes as a sudden explosion of light overtook a good deal of the dock, casting long, dark shadows from the crates but otherwise illuminating the entire area is a explosion of light and sound. Soon enough the sound could be identified to all those gathered; bolts of lightning were flying about, being shot mostly upward but occasionally arcing into crates. Thankfully the trio's battleground had been surrounded by rather large stacks of these crates, allowing them to avoid the worst part of the storm of light and electricity that had subsumed the airbus docks…

It, however, hadn't made the affair any less blinding or any quieter, to say the very least.

"Shit! That can only be RHCP! What the Hell is it doing? Is this that trump hard it was talking about?" Yang shouted over the air as she tried to get a good look at what was going on, only to need to shield her eyes again.

"If it is then we need to get to Josuke right away, he might need our help!" Koichi cried out, concern for his leader clear in his voice, as Yang nodded in agreement.

"Keep your back to the lightshow! We might be able to use this to our advantage against ice cream bitch! If she can't look directly at us thanks to this, then we might be able to turn this fight on her!"

Indeed, the fight had been ponderous and slow going for Yang, Koichi and Neopolitan. The decision to take a slower approach on Yang and Koichi's end in order to ensure each other's safety, and the decision on Neopolitan's end to be careful as well so she could learn Koichi's pattern, had made ground for both parties. Yang and Koichi had actually managed to avoid serious efforts on Neopolitan's behalf to pierce their defenses, working in tandem with one another to ensure that the little ice cream girl couldn't dig her sword into Yang or dropkick Koichi into unconsciousness. This allowed them to even score the odd hit here and there, though it was all very slow going and Neopolitan was quick to maneuver herself out of a situation before she got too deeply dug into it. Still, for Yang and Koichi, progress was progress and the more they chipped away at Neopolitan the closer they were to getting Josuke's back in his fight with RHCP.

Neopolitan, however, had not been idle. She'd been learning the entire fight, taking the time to well and truly understand Koichi's own battle strategies, how his Stand worked and what its major weaknesses and drawbacks were. Koichi was very much a reactive fighter; understandably so. While Act 2 was a very versatile and powerful Stand, it often only had one shot in which to do things. This was weakness number one; once Echoes Act 2 spent its tail, that tail was spent until Echoes could gets its hands back on it. During that time, Echoes would effectively be knocked out of the fight. After all, while the Stand could take a hit and was faster than what she'd seen of Act 1, it was in no way a capable fighter in and of itself, its physical blows quite weak.

So to make up for this, Koichi rarely made the first move unless he could do it armed with the element of surprise. More often than not, Koichi would wait for your move and then have Act 2 design a sound set with which to counter your move, hopefully leaving you open for his ally, in this fight Yang, to get up on you and beat you down. It was why taking your eyes off of Koichi for any amount of time was a dangerous move; Koichi was always keeping his eyes on you looking for an opening you'd allow for. If you gave it to him, he would take advantage of it… but he would never move to create that advantage for himself.

This was because of what Neopolitan had figured to be the other weakness of Act 2. One she was now ready to exploit.

So the two sides of the battle quickly squared off; Yang and Koichi on one end and Neopolitan on the other. Neopolitan had ground her teeth together as she fought off the annoyance she was sure was coming… what she'd need to do to pull this off would end up pissing her off a bit but if it worked then she'd be ready to go. Koichi hanged back, Echoes at the ready with its hands on the end of its tail and Yang just cocked her shotgun bracers, keeping her lilac eyes dead on Neopolitan.

After a tense several second Neopolitan burst forward in a quick run, slightly surprising Yang and Koichi who had expected to be the ones to make the first move this fight. Koichi was immediately on the move, Echoes quickly reshaping its tail as Act 2 swung it forward. A loud 'hiss' was heard from the metal lump and Neopolitan knew it was another explosive. Welp, time to bite the bullet.

Neopolitan brought her umbrella up to broadly shield her from the explosion, the sound of it going off and the sound of RHCP doing… whatever the Hell it was up to nearly causing everyone in the vicinity to go deaf as the sounds intermingled. As soon as Neopolitan was done ensuring she wasn't blown right back from Echoes' interception she saw Yang Xiao Long approach her from beneath her umbrella, rearing a fist back as she tried to get a hit in. She had figured that Neopolitan, as before, would just dodge back, not wanting to press her attack any further than she had already.

Instead, Yang was pleasantly surprised when her fist met with Neopolitan's face, burying itself into her nose and mouth. The blast of her shotgun followed soon afterward and, in a matter of seconds, Neopolitan had been sent flying back away from Yang, a stream of blood following behind her.

"Alright! Nailed a good one! Take that you friggin' little-"

Yang's cocky declaration was immediately cut short by a howl of pain as she felt something 'stab' into her leg. She looked down and her lilac eyes went wide as she saw Neopolitan, mouth bleeding slightly and eyes slightly wide from both pain and wroth as she glared up at the blonde brawler. Yang's eyes immediately dipped back toward the Neopolitan that had been sent flying and watched with a combination of surprise and honest awe as it shattered into thousands of glass pieces…

She'd felt her fist connect with a real Neopolitan… but that's all that had happened to the real Neopolitan. She'd taken her punch to give Yang the sensation of having hit something and, instead of being sent flying, created an illusion to that effect. She'd kept herself under the cover of that illusion to give herself the opportunity to get down and stab Yang in the back of her leg. Before Yang could trigger her semblance in order to try to get the little ice cream bitch off of her Neopolitan reared a leg back and kicked straight up into Yang, her heel digging into Yang's chin as the taller girl was sent flying off herself.

Then Neopolitan's pink and brown eyes turned their focus onto Koichi, the young man's eyes going wide in panic as Act 2 quickly retrieved its tail.

Yet Neo was already charging him as he did this. She didn't worry about Koichi striking back. Didn't worry about Echoes and its tail. Didn't worry about an explosion or a gust of wind. Because there was one thing she had learned to be an absolute truth about Act 2 and his it interacted with its tail…

It needed time. It couldn't just instantly shift its tail into a different shape or reapply the same old kanji to it and fire it back immediately. There was a slightly time consuming process in between each use of the tail where Act 2 had to reshape the metal of its limb in order to use it again.

It wasn't long. Wasn't terribly long at all… but if you knew what you were looking for and you put yourself in just the right position, then you could take advantage of it.

And Neopolitan sought to do just that. Yang hit the ground with a vicious thud as she reached a hand up for her chin, feeling a slight puncture that was being healed with her Aura from where Neopolitan's heel had dug in. The blonde brawler turned a pair of red hot eyes down towards where Neopolitan had last been, ready to go over there and tear the little ice cream bitch apart…

Instead, those red eyes momentarily went lilac in shock at what she witnessed.

Yang Xiao Long watched, horrified, as Koichi's torso was slit diagonally across, a gush of blood following the arc of Neopolitan's blade as she sliced it along Koichi's chest.

 **-To Be Continued- Hermit Purple (Act 5)**

* * *

 **A/N: This one's coming out a little early today because there's no way I'm staying up till the usual update time and I'd rather be early than late this time.**

 **Nothing much to say here, mostly a battle chapter where we also get some insight into what Whitesnake thinks of the goings ons. Haven't heard from him in a while and I thought, given the heightened stakes here, it'd be good for me to answer the question of why Whitesnake wasn't putting more resources forward at the moment. Hopefully the answer given will be satisfactory.**

 **Have a great weekend ya'll and I'll see you lot again in five days.**


	40. Hermit Purple (Act 5)

She very nearly missed a shot for how bright it was.

Ruby Rose winced her silver eyes shut as she raised an arm to shield her vision, blearily looking out across the city-scape to try to focus on the source of the light. It wasn't that the light was 'so' intense that it had very nearly blinded her, this certainly was no sun which she learned from a 'very' early age to never look directly at… this was just like having a laser pointer waved around in your eyes.

For a moment, the fighting that had been taking place on the landing pad paused as everyone, rioters included, looked out in the direction of Beacon Academy, eyes slightly wide at the sudden light show that was emanating from the campus of said Hunter Academy. A bright, beaming white light highlighted by a small show of yellow and blue bolts that scattered about, it was plainly visible even from the City of Vale, much in the same way the flames of the Riot had been visible from Beacon the night before.

The landing pad was still pretty much clear of rioters; between the police, the Atlesian soldiers and their own group present they'd managed to keep control over this small section of the city. It had been going remarkably well and, as nervous as everyone had been, they'd all had faith that things in Beacon were going to go as well and that, soon enough, they'd hear confirmation from Yang, Josuke, Koichi or, according to Ozpin, Glynda that the Beacon pad was clear and that Joseph Joestar had arrived safe and sound.

Now those feelings of certainty gave way to doubt as Ruby vocalized the one question that most of the Four Kingdoms dwellers were wondering.

"Okuyasu… Crazy Diamond can't pull something like that off, right?" The young leader asked as Okuyasu just shook his head.

"'Fraid not Rubes, 'fraid not…" Okuyasu turned his gaze back toward a gawking thug and, seeing an opening, quickly had The Hand sucker punch several of the rioters before they could get their bearings. As if breaking a spell this quick show of force got the fight back under way, the rioters immediately going back in as the defenders quickly got back to their own work of beating them down.

"Can't be Yang or Koichi either, Echoes works with sound and Yang doesn't burn quite that hot whenever she uses her Semblance. So that… holy crap, that's Red Hot Chili Pepper pulling that off?" Jaune quickly bumped a rioter off of his shield before bopping him on the top of the head with the hilt of Crocea Mors. While he may have had difficulty against fellow Hunters and even a good deal of the Grimm, Jaune at this point had become more than capable of dealing with normal criminals and, to a lesser extent, Aura-enhanced terrorists. In the former case, his Aura was the main separating factor while, in the latter, it was training.

"We had feared that Red Hot Chili Pepper would be the one sent to intercept Joseph. It's why we had left Josuke there in the first place; Jotaro seemed confident that so long as Josuke could have his fight to himself that he'd find a way to achieve victory." Ozpin's cane flew about in a rapid flourish as he struck down several dozen rioters in a mere matter of moments, a slight sigh escaping his lips as he readjusted his glasses. "Still, this doesn't bode well. Glynda was supposed to disconnect the docks from Beacon's power supply. Red Hot Chili Pepper shouldn't be able to draw on nearly enough power to make 'that' possible. So either they aren't fighting at the docks, a problem in and of itself, or… well, our enemy has a workaround for situations where he's cut off from electricity."

"Well there goes that plan then…" Ruby muttered slightly as she noticed a particularly bulky looking guy running up. The way his body easily bounced off rubber bullets or attacks from the police and soldiers meant that he had Aura and a pretty good one to boot. Ruby lined up a shot with Crescent Rose and one pinpoint shot of Gravity Dust later, he was sent flying toward the back of the pack, more than likely knocked out by the force of the hit.

"Indeed, we can only hope that Ironwood-" Their Scrolls suddenly lit up as all the Beacon students and Ozpin were receiving a joint call, the Academy Headmaster just casually bringing his device up to his ears as he continued his fight. "Speak of the devil." With a quick beep the call was accepted by all parties, Ironwood's voice suddenly ringing out over the line.

"I guess I don't have to ask if you all are seeing that." James Ironwood's voice spoke over the line, sounds of light combat in the background of his own call, as Ozpin merely nodded.

"We do indeed see it. Afraid there's not much we can do about it for now except for hope that things will turn out fine over on that end of the battle." Ozpin batted away another criminal with his cane while he just casually continued holding the call with Ironwood. James just sighed in aggravation on the other end of the line, the sound of the stock of a gun slamming into someone's head nearby ringing out over the line.

"I'd really hoped that we could be confident this time and not have to resort to just crossing our fingers but it seems like that's just not going to be in the cards for today…" Ironwood grumbled slightly, Ozpin just nodding slightly as the two paused their talk to deal with a few somethings on each side of the call. "So tell me Oz, how're things on your end."

"Can't complain, Miss Rose, Mr. Nijimura and Mr. Arc are doing quite well and… hmmm, how can I put this gently… the rioters aren't giving me much trouble at all." Even as he said this, his attention seemingly fully on his call, Ozpin's cane swept another rioter's leg out from under them and, as they hit the ground, the end of his cane was decisively slammed into their forehead, knocking them out. "We've been rotating the police and soldiers to give them minor breaks. All told, we haven't suffered anything major on this end. I assume the same goes for you?"

"Between Miss Schnee, Miss Nikos and Miss Belladonna? Yeah, things have actually been going quite swimmingly on our end too. Miss Belladonna is able to scout ahead to get a good idea of where these guys are hiding wherein our general force sweeps in with the knowledge of their positions… you'd be surprised how hard it can be to fight back when, within the first few moments of a fight, your weapons fly out of your hand and your feet are frozen to the floor with Dust." Ironwood chuckled slightly, Ozpin nodding in understanding as the two skirmished for a moment.

"How is your plan going? Have resources been drawn into deal with you?" Ozpin asked as he batted away another rioter, James just grunting in affirmation on his end.

"Yeah. We haven't seen that many rioters but we have seen some White Fang goons… and not goons that were in prison either. Fresh ones that've been newly recruited or have been sighted in the city before. Seems like our sweep's had the desired effect; maybe we might find something, maybe we won't, but it seems like they don't like having their turf very decisively stepped on by us. They're sending resources here rather than to you or Beacon… though if that light show is what Red Hot Chili Pepper's pulling off, the fact that they're sending resources our way might not be a sign of the fact that they're scared of what we might find…"

"But that they're confident that Red Hot Chili Pepper will manage to deal with his end of the fight, therefore freeing them up to deal with other issues." Ozpin sighed slightly, his cane having founds its way upside the head of a rioter who attempted to very rudely sneak up on him in the middle of his call. "Yes that crossed my mind as well… we can't discount it either. Chili Pepper is quite the foe and, according to Miss Valkyrie, Miss Long and Glynda, it hadn't even revealed all the tricks up its sleeve. This could very well be that trick."

"You think the three we left up there will be able to handle it?" James' voice sounded uncertain and, admittedly, even Ozpin paused for a moment. Not out of lack of faith in the trio they had left behind, goodness knows they'd all shown they were capable, but… well, Ozpin would have to be a fool to not acknowledge the strength of their foe in this time. After all, RHCP had knocked Ozpin out of the fight at the Dance Hall before it even properly began. That kind of strength and that kind of wit was something you respected. You didn't just toss it to the side and disregard it.

"It will be tough for them. I'd even wager that the battle will be quite close. But… I have faith in those three. I don't doubt that they'll succeed." James just grunted on the other end of the line rather than give his own solid answer, though if Ozpin wasn't mistaken, there was a vague acknowledgement somewhere in there.

"I suppose even if it does go poorly that we have Jotaro to fall back on." Ozpin nodded, though very hesitantly, as he slapped away another rioters.

"I'd rather not think of what would have to happen to Mr. Higashikata, Miss Long and Mr. Hirose for Jotaro to have to be the one we're counting on in this case. James." Ozpin stated cooly as he quickly jumped up and away from a trio of rioters who had attempted to take advantage of his seeming distraction, only to immediately jump back in and deal decisive, stunning blows to each of them with his cane.

"Well you know me Oz, I've always been a bit more of a pessimist." James said on the other end of the line with a chuckle, a nearby crack of a rifle signaling his own had been fired. Ozpin sighed slightly as he looked back over to Beacon, the light show continuing even after all this time as the Headmaster of Beacon Academy just closed his eyes for a moment.

"For once James, I won't move to immediately correct your pessimism. For now, I'll just hope that you'll be wrong again." A bark of laughter was met from the other end of the line before the call was dropped by both parties.

* * *

She was going to watch a friend die.

She was going to watch a friend die and there was nothing she would be able to do about it.

That was the key, defining thought Yang Xiao Long had running through her mind as she watched the flow of blood that arced along with the ice cream bitch's swing. The crimson liquid shined in a peculiar way in the light of whatever the Hell RHCP was pulling off on the other end of the docks, a dancing array of blues, yellows and whites shimmering through the thin layer of the thick liquid as it followed the edge of the brown and pink haired girl's blade. The very same colored eyes of the girl locked onto Koichi as the young man just gawked in surprise. Had this been the first time Koichi had been struck a blow like this? Was this the way he was going to die?

Neither of these questions were brought immediate answers to Yang as she felt her whole body tense up as she watched the assassin reverse her grip on her blade and, in another fluid motion, swing its edge back across Koichi's torso, another line of blood being cut from across it. She could feel the wound in her leg closing up rapidly as she tapped into her semblance, felt her hair catch fire as she pushed her body and soul as hard as she could. She needed to get up. She needed to be able to walk again. She needed to be able to 'run' again. She needed to get over there and kick her sorry, midget ass across this dockyard…

Because ice cream bitch had unknowingly just given her some ammo to use, and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to use it before she killed one of her friends. Finally, the wound in her leg closed and she forced her foot to the ground, feeling her semblance flow through where the wound used to be and throughout her entire body. Her semblance pulled on the pain of the hits that ice cream bitch did land, pulled on the injuries that had been light enough for her to not heal. She did this as quickly as she could, relying more on instinct than training because of what she saw happening.

Her rapidly reddening eyes were locked on the scene as the ice cream bitch flipped her grip again, pulling her blade into a stabbing position that had, as its main aim, Koichi's throat. Yang kicked off the ground and ran as hard and as fast as she could, trying to hit the scene before she was too late, trying desperately to stop this. If Koichi or the midget took any notice of her, they certainly didn't show it; Koichi's eyes were wide and frozen in fear, looking his own death in the fact, while the assassin's seemed wide eyed and slightly crazed. Even if Yang's mind roared at her to run, roared at her to make it in time, deep down… she already knew she was too late.

The moment to do something had passed the second it had taken her till 'after' the ice cream bitch had positioned herself to skewer Koichi's throat. The second that it had taken her Aura too long to patch up the wound in her leg. The second Koichi's life was placed at the end of a very sharp blade. The moment stretched out, time seeming to slow to a crawl as Yang's feet kicked off the ground, forcing her forward, forcing her towards her confrontation. She was waiting for this moment to pass, half in desperate efforts to get there in time… and half in horrified mourning because she knew she'd be too late.

The moment then did finally pass…

And yet Yang edged close while, it seemed Neopolitan and Koichi were still frozen in theirs. What ended up moving Neopolitan wasn't her own arm or hand, wasn't the motion of her stabbing Koichi through the throat and ending his life once and for all. Wasn't the satisfying feeling of ending the life of an enemy… no.

It was a fist, followed up by a shotgun blast, empowered by… something she hadn't felt before. The shotgun was the lesser of these two at this point, pellets easily scattered by her Aura. The punch itself though? That was where the pain came in. 'That' was what pierced her Aura. That was what she thought was going to shatter her skull into a thousand pieces as it blows into her. Pink and brown eyes glanced over, blood flowing from her mouth as she glared over at Yang, whose red eyes just glared hatefully at her as she continued to drive her fist into Neopolitan's face.

"ORA!" With one follow through Neopolitan was sent flying. Her body practically ragdolled in the air under the force of the hit, skipping across the ground multiple times as she plowed through one, two, three stacks of crates before finally crashing into the fourth and stopping. A cloud of smoke and dust rose up from the sites of the various impacts, plumes of destruction following in Neopolitan's wake as Yang just stood there, breathing deeply as the panic and adrenaline still ran through her system. Red eyes turned over to Koichi, the young man slumping back onto his backside from a combination of his legs giving out from under him after that intensely stressful situation and from the loss of blood that Neo's blows had dealt to him.

For the moment, Yang's red eyes returned to their lilac shade as she knelt down next to Koichi, a worried expression on her face.

"Koichi, yo, you alright… you know what, don't answer that, it was a stupid question I know." She forestalled the look Koichi was giving her by saying this, the young man just returning to the wounds on his chest as he winced slightly. "Better question I guess; are they as bad as they look? Cause they're looking pretty bad from my end." Koichi tentatively reached a hand up, shaking slightly as he reached for the wounds and touched them, being rewarded by a sharp flash of pain and some blood sticking to his fingers.

"They're… they're not good. They're pretty deep but… I don't think she got to anything too deeply. I'm losing blood but… if I sit here and wait for Josuke to fix me, I think I'm alright. I think she just wanted to stun me with this so that I wouldn't dodge out of the way of her finishing blow…" Koichi swallowed and swallowed hard as he recalled this. The slashes across his chest, the look in her eyes as she glared down at him. This assassin, this murderer, wanted him dead in that moment, he was sure. If Yang hadn't arrived as soon as she had, he'd be dead…

Yet, a small voice in his mind whispered something. That she had plenty of time to skewer him and finish him before Yang arrived. That the murder in her eyes could have been realized if she'd just thrusted forward the very second Yang kicked off the ground and she readjusted the grip of her blade… Heck, she could've gotten him even earlier if she had just cut across his neck and lobbed off his head. As gorey as that would've been… well, Koichi didn't think she'd much mind the blood. After all, she'd already sprayed enough off it over himself, herself, the ground and her blade when she'd cut into him, after all.

Then again, maybe she did and that's why she froze up… but no, that really didn't make much sense. Then again, her not moving in for the kill before Yang popped up didn't make much sense either. Both Yang and Koichi were drawn from their thoughts and discussion when the fourth stack of crates rattled around a bit, the boxes being pushed off as if they were empty as the Aura empowered assassin forced herself to her feet. The humongous, purple bruise that she sported on the right side of her face slowly but surely faded away as her Aura brought the swelling down and fixed up major damage, her brown and pink eyes boring down into Yang as she spat a huge glob of blood off to the side. Yang, on the other hand, just glared at her as she stood up, her lilac eyes once again turning red.

"Koichi, listen to me very carefully little man… I want you to stay back, okay? In fact, I want you to hide so that neither of us can see or find you, alright?" Koichi flinched a bit as she said this, the young man stumbling forward as he looked up at Yang.

"B-But Yang, I can still fight! I'm hurt sure but Echoes is still good to go. I-"

"Am her target. If I give her another opening she'll probably just dip around behind me and go for you again… and this time we can't count on me being… fast enough to catch her." Yang stumbled around with the end of her sentence a bit, her own confusion still apparent as she spoke. "Look… I've got my semblance charged up and charged up good. Before when we fought she was careful not to feed into it… but this time she did because she had to in order to have a shot at you. I stand a much better chance now… but you're injured. Badly. Even with Echoes being held back to protect you and me right in front of her, I don't want something to happen if all Hell breaks loose and she does manage to slip by me again. Josuke wouldn't forgive me if I let you die on my watch Koichi." The grey haired young man just nodded slowly at this.

"I can't fight at my full power if I have to divide my attention two ways… and even if I focus solely on her, that just means I'm ignoring you… considering her tricks when it comes to illusions, I'd really not take the risk of trying to punch out a glass illusion while she sneaks around and guts you." Koichi swallowed nervously as Yang said this, the blonde brawler turning to give him a confident smile as she did so. "To be honest, I'd love to have you around helping me Koichi. You've really been a big help… but I want you to be safe. So please, just get out of sight and stay there. I'll feel a lot better and a lot more focused if I know that no matter what mistake I make, it won't cost me your life. Okay?" Koichi seemed silent for a moment as he absorbed all of this before, finally, he looked up to Yang with a determined nod.

"Okay Yang, I'll do that." With a signature Xiao Long grin Yang gave a small salute to Koichi, turning back to face Neopolitan who just watched the proceedings.

"Good man Koichi. Now seriously, get the Hell out of here. Boys your age shouldn't be around to watch a cat fight anyway." Despite the serious nature of the situation, Koichi couldn't help but blush at Yang's description, the blonde brawler just laughing as the young man nodded his head somewhat numbly before he summoned Act 2 forth. Supporting himself on his Stand, Koichi stumbled away, just leaving Neopolitan and Yang to rumble.

"Alright tiny, bitchy and blood-soaked. I'm sure this is something you've been wanting too. You and me, one on one, no friends or partners backing me up and… well, you still by yourself. But I guess you managed to lose the umbrella part of your little combo some time during that little flight I sent you on with a left hook." Neopolitan's pink and brown eyes narrowed dangerously as Yang spoke, the red eyed young woman just laughing as she cracks her knuckles. "What? Come on, where's the smug grin? The look of superiority? That 'higher than thou' bullshit you kept aiming our way throughout these fights… or did that go out the window when it turned out Koichi and I were a pretty formidable combo… or did it go out when I punched you so hard you got sent skipping across the ground like a stone skipping across the surface of a lake?"

Again, Neopolitan just stood there not moving and, at this point, Yang's boisterous and loud nature gave way to a bit of a growl. What, she'd finally gotten this illusion-loving bitch to take some damage, finally managed to thoroughly plow her fist right into her smug fucking head, and now she was just…

Wait, illusions.

Yang's eyes went wide as the sound of a sword slicing through air finally reached her ears, ducking back just in time to see the Neopolitan she had been goading shatter into one thousand pieces as the real one was right in front of her, scowling as her blade just barely missed severing Yang's nose from her face. Red eyes glowed for a moment as Yang dug her heel into the cement, the force of it leaving a slight indentation as Yang Xiao Long reared her right fist back and swung forward. Neopolitan grimaced, the blow coming in too fast with the force of Yang's semblance, as the ice cream-themed assassin raised a hand to try to block, or at least soften, the blow.

Her hand had accomplished the latter, although only to some degree; her own hand had been driven back by the fist and both had been plowed into her stomach, knocking the wind out of Neo as she was sent flying backwards. However, rather than fly ass-over-head like before, she managed to keep herself steady in the air, just flipping back once in order to disperse some of the energy before she dug her heels into the ground, scraping to a stop as Neopolitan turned her eyes up to glare and glare 'hard' at Yang.

Yang spat off to the side herself, frowning as she brought her hands up into her combat stance. She'd gotten careless there, let her momentary advantage in this fight and that really friggin' awesome hit go to her head. As much as shorty over there didn't 'look' like a threat, she had to remember that she was, in fact, dealing with someone who could take on Blake and herself at the same time with ease. Even with her semblance finally activated and Koichi's participation in the fight having helped to rattle her, she was still definitely dangerous as a combatant and, perhaps more importantly, a slippery little midget. Yang would still need to approach this fight with some caution if she didn't want to end this battle flat on her ass with a sword in her gut.

The stand-off continued for a few moments before, in a burst of movement, Yang launched herself at Neopolitan. Neo narrowed her eyes and brought her sword into a slightly more defensive stance. Tits McGee over there had her semblance burning and, as she saw with the Atlesian Paladin, it didn't exactly give her a 'small' boost to speed and power. No, it was rather significant. She'd have to play this fight a lot more carefully and a lot more seriously if she was going to kick the everloving crap out of this blonde and then move on to Josuke and RHCP. She'd… already pretty much taken Koichi out of this fight, right? There was no way he'd risk going back in with those kinds of injuries.

Neopolitan cursed to herself as she quickly got into a small duel of blows with Yang, hits of Yang's powered up fists and bracers dashing off against the flat of her blade as she danced around her empowered opponent. She should've skewered Koichi then and there. She should've been done with it and then just moved on to Yang. She could've done it. She could've just stabbed him through the throat and been done with it. She could've done that and then ducked around Yang's hit in order to get away and move on to her next target. She didn't have to 'just stand there' and take the blonde bimbo's hit.

She cursed at herself again and again. Koichi had gotten in her way and was stopping her from getting back to the fight with Josuke and RHCP. The fight that would determine if Roman was going to get to safety. It didn't matter that Roman hadn't told her to kill Koichi, just to support RHCP. It didn't matter that she, as ever, had been given leeway by Roman to fulfill her duties in the manner of her choosing. In this situation, Koichi had been in the way and she needed to do something about it.

The wounds that would scar on his chest, presuming Josuke wasn't alive to fix it, were weak excuses for what she could've done to ensure Koichi wouldn't be a threat in this fight again. They weren't definitive ends to his involvement, even as the blonde bimbo sent him away so that he wouldn't get in the way or be in danger.

She could've killed him and she didn't. She'd hesitated. She'd gotten sentimental.

Now the only thing left to do was to use all the pissed off energy she was currently aiming at herself and throw it back at Yang. She might not've killed Koichi but fuck her if she wasn't going to kill the blonde here and now and be done with it before moving on to sever Higashikata Josuke's head from his shoulder. If Koichi was smart, then he'd stay out of her way…

She scoffed mid-combat as she just barely avoided a blow from Yang, the glancing nature of it still leaving some light bruising on her cheek. After what had just happened, could she really own up to that level of dedication? Hell, she'd been avoiding keeping herself quiet under her illusions just to hide the fact that she could manipulate sound. Why? Everyone here was going to be dead soon. Who cared if they pieced together that the Neopolitan they knew and the ice cream assassin were the same person? Who gave a shit!? It wouldn't have fucking mattered…

Except it would've mattered to Koichi.

Neopolitan let out a silent scream of frustration as she managed to bounce a hit from Yang off her blade, knocking her arms away for a moment as she stabbed for Yang's torso. The blonde dodged, but barely, a deep, rapidly healing gash being left in her side as her red eyes commenced to glowing even hotter.

She knew this would fucking happen. She fucking knew it. She kept saying that she should stop playing around and just back off. She was prone to just doing whatever she wanted, she was prone to just having her way. She got lazy, she got careless, she got 'comfortable'. She got sentimental.

She allowed a slimy little voice to climb in her head. One that said that Roman hadn't ordered her to kill him. Kill Josuke, yes, but he hadn't cared. And she'd let that slimy voice into her ear when she was ready to skewer Koichi like a stuffed piglet. It allowed her to hesitate for just long enough to let Xiao Long get on top of her.

So where was the meat in that threat? That's what made Neopolitan silently laugh at herself as she went for another killing blow against Yang, only to have her dodge it. If she couldn't skewer him when he was practically on his knees just waiting for her to do so, where was the actual power behind the threat that, if he showed but up, she'd kill him?

What the fuck was wrong with her? She'd kill his friends, kill the only hope his side had of victory, kill everyone innocent in the City of Vale, doom humanity to whatever the crazy shit Cinder and Whitesnake had under wraps all so that she and Roman could live comfortable lives in the new world… and she wouldn't kill some little sh-... little…

Fuck. It was moments like these that really crystallized for Neo the fact that she was well and truly fucked in the head. Thanks dad.

Soon enough the fight between the pair became a dance; Yang would knock a stab or a slash aside from Neo and move forward to try to drive her fist into Neo's face. Neo would duck underneath the hit and try to kick Yang's feet out from under her, which Yang would respond to by jumping up in the air and lashing out with her own kick. It'd land, or maybe it wouldn't, and Neo would lash out with the tip of her sword. It might not connect, but sometimes it would, and a fountain of blood would follow from it before Yang's Aura would patch her back up.

The battle went on like this, neither side giving an inch even as wounds were inflicted. Here and there Yang would land a few solid semblance-enhanced blows that would very nearly knock Neopolitan off of her feet, while Neo would turn the favor around by delivering a vicious wound to Yang, hoping to at least slow the juggernaut down by completely exhausting her Aura. Neo knew that this would have the simultaneous effect of making her stronger and faster in the short run but, at this point, Neo knew she didn't have options. The only option for taking down this beast without getting a beating yourself was to either be so much more skilled than her that her semblance didn't matter which, while Neo was far and away better than Yang and they both knew it, they also both knew that to not be the truth.

Or it was to whittle Yang down slowly but surely with light injuries, never giving her semblance enough to get going. It was Neo's strategy of choice in their first bout underneath the highway system as she traded light blows with Yang. Partially because it worked and partially because it pissed the blonde bimbo off to not have a straight up fight…

Now though with Neo's desperate gambit to kill Koichi having effectively failed and leading to Yang being able to activate her semblance, Neopolitan was left with one choice; pour more and more damage onto Yang until eventually her Aura would give out. In the end, all semblances were powered by Aura, as were the defenses and strength of a person. If you could take that down to zero it wouldn't matter what ludicrous bullshit someone had as an Aura, they wouldn't be able to fight back. It was a simple fact… and it was also on Yang's mind.

She didn't have infinite time here. Yes, her semblance could last a while, but eventually it would burn itself out once she started recovering from her injuries… or, worse, until it got to the point where her Aura could not longer support her fighting body. She had a time limit and the more wounds the ice cream bitch managed to inflict, the shorter and shorter that time limit ran. The glow of her hair was already, slowly but surely, dying down as the fight dragged on, Neo and Yang trading blow for devastating blow as they just wanted to knock the other right out of this fight and get on with the more important parts of their mission…

And also to score some petty revenge points by knocking the other out. Yang had a score to settle with Neopolitan for having bested her and Neo at this point had a score to settle because Tits McGee over here had scored so many sucker punches on her. She couldn't let that stand.

Yang's strength was waning… Neopolitan's wasn't. Yang ground her teeth together as her mind raced for an answer, raced for a way to beat this little punk down before she could just finish her off and move on. She… she needed a desperation play. Something that would throw Neopolitan off of her feet and give Yang enough of an opening that she could just pound her into the cement and then not have to worry about this bitch… but what? Yang went over her resources, mentally counting them out… honestly, besides Ember Celica, she didn't have much aside from her Aura and her semblance… maybe she should've taken after the rest of her team's example and started to implement Dust in somehow. Sure the Fire Dust Rounds in Ember Celica were a start, but she could go through them so quick in a fight it wasn't even funny. By her reckoning she had one round left in each bracer and only one reload left… and Hell, as if the little ice cream bitch would let her just… reload in the middle of a… fight…

Inspiration struck Yang as one of her bright grins crossed her faced, filled to the brim with confidence as she just shined that smile Neo's way. Neopolitan, initially confused and immediately distrustful of this turn in Yang's behavior, watched as the brawler… backed off. She didn't try a new offensive and she didn't try some new maneuver, she just backed off. More concerned about her trying some trick than worried that she had found a way to win the fight, Neopolitan just watched in silence as Yang reached into the pockets of her shorts and produced… ammunition.

Yang Xiao Long just smirked at her, Neopolitan, the assassin who under normal circumstances could kick her ass in about twenty different ways without breaking a single sweat as she tossed the ammunition up in the air in preparation for reloading her bracers.

Right in the middle of the fight.

And she had her eyes locked 'right on' Neo's as she did this.

Neopolitan was mad before. Frustrated about the lack of progress, insulted by how easily this blonde bimbo had been landing her sucker punches and absolutely furious with her own hesitation in being able to kill Koichi. This however? This made her absolutely fucking livid. It boiled her blood in a way that was plainly obvious as her narrowed as she glared as hard as could muster at the blonde brawler who just… laughed. Laughed at her, as if she had this fight wrapped up, as if she was walking away the winner. Laughed as she pulled her gauntlets open to pull out the empty shells from her bracers.

Neopolitan was going to shove her sword so far up her ass that she was going to cut her tonsils out.

With that Neopolitan rushed forward; Yang had almost dropped her stance entirely, even with her semblance active she wasn't in a fit position to fight back. With her bracers open like that her punches, while painful, would have less force behind them. Her focus had to be split between Neo and her ammo if she had any hope of reloading during this fight. Neo was going to rush in, carve her up like a turkey and them proceed to just absolutely brutalize Higashikata Josuke. Neo would admit, she had been thoroughly worked up by this fight and she would look to blow off some steam wherever she could. Who knows, maybe she'd leave Josuke alive long enough to watch as she sliced that precious fucking pompadour of his into ribbons. Wouldn't that be fun? Neo thought that would be fun!

Yang's smug expression continued to egg her on as she approached… and then, just as the ammunition was falling and Neo was within a hair's breadth of Yang… the Xiao Long closed her eyes and snapped her bracers shut. With a loud yell, Yang brought her fists around… and slammed them into the falling ammunition. A single bullet from each bracers' chambers fired out and hit the ammunition…

And then Neopolitan practically went blind as a wave of heat and flame and light cracked out towards her. She stumbled back and away, shielding her gaze as she tried her best to blink away the light in order to see again. She hadn't dropped her blade, thank the Gods, but at this point she was effectively blind while that bitch, that bitch who'd planned this, she'd closed her eyes just before pulling this off! She was going to get her, she was going to-

"ORA!" She felt something grab at the hilt of her blade the moment before the punch connected, wrenching her weapon from her hand as she fell back several feet, just barely managing to stay up on her own two legs as she blearily looked out at the scene before her…

Neopolitan had seen a lot of things in her time as an assassin. A lot of gore, a lot of violence and a lot of wounds. She wasn't disgusted by what she saw, nor was she shocked… what she saw instead instilled just the slightest amount of dread in her.

Yang Xiao Long's hands smoked as one of them held onto her weapon, the young woman just glaring headlong at Neopolitan as her lilac eyes locked onto her. It wasn't hard to see what was producing the smoke; her hands were badly burned, hot bits and pieces of the ammunition she'd exploded in between her two fists dotting the surface of them. Her skin was either badly red or just straight up burnt, revealing some of the muscle underneath…

How had that happened? She still had Aura, there should've been enough to spare her that kind of injury. More than that, the flames seemed to have burned a few other parts of Yang's body, dotting all the way up to a slight burn across her right temple, a scratch having been at the center from it where a bit of the ammunition must've zoomed by her head…

Needless to say, several parts of her hair were scorched.

Yang reached up with both hands to grasp Neopolitan's blade, wincing only slightly as she grasped it plainly…

And then she exploded in a show of light and flame as she snapped her weapon in two.

At that moment, Neopolitan realized why Yang Xiao Long had suffered so many injuries at the hands of that explosion. She'd held her Aura back. She'd spent so much of it trying to keep her at bay, attempting to fight off the injuries Neo was inflicting, that if she used it to shield herself from the explosion then she would have spent it all. So instead she took the hit head on. She took it all onto herself…

And now she was using her semblance to cycle all of that pain and damage into strength, strength that made her eyes glow a crimson red.

One moment, Yang Xiao Long was several feet away from Neo and the next she was in her face, fists reared back like the winding up of a spring, ready to unleash itself.

Neopolitan wasn't surprised by the battlecry she'd heard next.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA - ORRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Bits of blood and burnt skin flew from Yang's hands as she pummeled the daylights out of Neopolitan, fists slamming into the shorter girl over and over and over again as Yang would not let up her barrage. Yang's hands, more blurs of motion than actual solid things, screamed through the air, the pain unable to reach her mind as the adrenaline pumped through her body, as Neopolitan slowly began to fold like a piece of wet tissue paper. Finally, at the end of it all, with Yang feeling her energy slowly but surely being spent, she reared back one fist and drove it into Neopolitan's mouth, sending the ice cream themed assassin flying away and into a crate, creating a body-shaped bend in the crate which she slumped into.

On slightly unsteady legs Yang Xiao Long walked over toward Neopolitan and just gave a big, shiteating grin.

"Guess you could say that victory was capped off with a 'Yang' eh… yeah that wasn't my best, I'm too tired to come up with good puns." Yang shook out her hair a bit as a few stray dead strands fell out. "Jeez… JoJo, you'd better still be alive. I need you to fix my hair…" Yang delivered one last kick to Neopolitan's ribs, the pink and brown haired girl just groaning from her position as Yang nodded victoriously. "Right then… time to see if JoJo's still alive. He'd better be… I really don't think Koichi and I still have the juice in us to take care of Red Hot Chili Pepper." With a heaving sigh Yang slowly stumbled away from her battleground, heading to the slowly dying light show. Hopefully Josuke was going alright…

While Yang's back was turned, she failed to notice the fact that the Neopolitan she had left in that crater in the crates slowly but surely gave way to glass.

* * *

Josuke was 'not' doing alright. Or at least, not by his own measurement. By charging himself on all that lightning Dust, RHCP had effectively super-charged itself. It was fast, faster than he'd seen it before outside of the electrical lines. It was strong, way stronger than Crazy Diamond…

And it just absolutely wrecked his ass.

The final point in RHCP's show of kicking Josuke around like he was a rag doll was throwing him and his Stand into a forklift, the device immediately collapsing under the force of the blow as its tires popped and most of the machine scattered about. Fortunately for Josuke, Crazy Diamond had re-made itself just behind him so that it would take the brunt of the blow…

The bad news was that Crazy Diamond itself was thoroughly exhausted, beaten and bruised by RHCP, and that the blow still bled through it and into Josuke. At this point, Josuke knew he probably had a few broken ribs and… well, yep, he was most definitely coughing up blood. That… that wasn't a good sign, he thought. All the while RHCP just cackled and laughed as it floated above him, crossing its arms over its chest as it glared down at him.

" **Well, well, well, what have we here? You aren't quite so high and mighty now are you Higashikata Josuke? Seems to me like you've had yourself a bit of a fall! YEAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!** " Josuke grimaced as RHCP said this, the Stand just looking down at him with an oh-so-pleased with itself expression on its face. " **I have to wonder what your final thoughts are right now Josuke. Are you cursing your teachers, mentors and that old man Joseph for having put a kid like you in this situation? Are you desperately trying to come up with a plan that will save your life? Are you hoping beyond hope that someone is going to come in and save your sorry ass before I kill you… well, I suppose it doesn't matter. Because right now, you're fuckin' dead kiddo! YEAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!** " With that, RHCP lunged forward, its hand reared back, as Josuke just stared back at it with a wide-eyed expression…

One that gave way to a confident look.

"Actually, I was just thinking that I won…" RHCP's expression became curious for just a moment before, suddenly, a floating piece of rubber slammed itself into the front of RHCP, the Stand cursing as it was slowly being surrounded. Before the Stand could even really resist, the pieces of rubber slowly melded together under the influence of Crazy Diamond's power until, eventually, it formed a solid sphere.

There were the sounds of intense struggling from the inside of the sphere before, after a moment, a fist ripped out through the tire rubber, RHCP's face peeking through the hole.

" **You honestly thought that would be enough, Josuke?! Just because rubber doesn't conduct electricity doesn't mean that I'm not strong enough to just-ack!** " RHCP's speech was interrupted as the rubber from yet another of the forklift's tires flew into its face, the rubber first patching up the hole and then 'fixing' the orb back together. This process repeated itself a couple more times; RHCP managing to tear open a hole, another tire coming in to patch it up and then strengthen the structure.

"I'm aware that you're strong in that state RHCP. More than aware judging by the number you did on me." Josuke groaned out as he placed a hand to his ribs. "However, that strength isn't coming from a consistent flow of electricity going into you. Just the opposite, it came from a finite amount of Dust. It's given you a lot of power, no denying that…" By the time the third tire had fixed itself onto the ball of rubber, the struggling had slowed down considerably. "... but you're still working with a limited amount of power. Power you're wasting trying to get out of my little trap." Red Hot Chili Pepper hadn't even struggled that much as the fourth tire melded with the ball of rubber and, by the time it did, any signs of struggling were pretty much gone, the collected layers of tire rubber likely having been more than enough to trap RHCP in its weakening state.

Josuke just took a long breath of air to refresh himself as he looked at his creation.

…

" **DOOOORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA - DORAAAAA!** " Before it was torn apart under the forceful hands of Crazy Diamond, the Stand pounding the rubber ball until it was torn open, before reaching in to beat the everloving shit out of Red Hot Chili Pepper. The Stand was rapidly rusting, having spent so much of its power beforehand and now being thoroughly cut off from any sources of electricity. Crazy Diamond went to work, battering and bruising the electrical Stand before, finally, punching it away and sending it skittering across the cement of the airdock, the Stand's breathing erratic and desperate as wide eyes stared back at Josuke.

"Alright Red Hot Chili Pepper… time for us to have a talk…" Josuke stumbled over toward the electrical Stand, RHCP just screaming in horror as it tried to force itself up into a sitting position only to stumble back onto its back as it looked up at the approaching pompadoured teen. "You're going to die without power… and while I can't be sure of how connected you are to your User, I have to imagine by how panicked you are that your death here means game over for him too… so I'm going to offer you a deal." RHCP just stared up at Josuke, obviously waiting for the hook, as the young man just nodded.

"You tell us everything we want to know about your employers, and we'll let you and your Stand User live… we won't let you go free, but you won't have to die or suffer the same fate as Enigma." The electric Stand just sat there on its back, gaze locked up at Josuke's as the young man and his hot pink Stand glared down at Red Hot Chili Pepper.

" **Y-You're serious? Even after everything, you're not just gonna pound me to death and get it done with? What, milk of human kindness or some bullshit like that?** "

"Oh no, nothing of the sort." Josuke uttered slowly as he shoved his hands back in his pockets. "After what you were a part of, I really don't feel much kindness for you. Like I said, you'll live and so will your Stand User, but neither of you will be free. The only reason I'm not ensuring you and your Stand User go right now is because you may have something we want… the way you were talking at the Dance Hall, you sounded like you knew some people in charge we didn't. That you were more cozy with the movers and shakers." RHCP flinched a bit as Josuke said this.

"Consider this a trade between two desperate groups of people; you're desperate to stay alive and we're desperate for information. Surely scum like you can understand a trade like that." RHCP looked to the side across the air dock and, hearing no signs of combat but, at the same time, seeing no sign of Neo, just ground its teeth together… before sighing.

" **Yes, I can understand a trade like that all too well. Fine by me then Higashikata; I wasn't loyal to that bitch or her cronies anyway. When my Master was tested by the Arrow, the only thing on his mind was using me in order to further his career… admittedly furthering it by stealing money, but that's how he afforded to get his band together in the first place.** " Slowly but surely, RHCP slowly forced itself into a seated position, its shoes weakly kicking out as it took deep, labored breaths.

"The name of your Stand User first so we can apprehend him after we contain you." RHCP scoffed a bit as he scowled up at Josuke.

" **Thorough aren't you, you brat? Fine. You already know who he is anyway; Akira Otoishi, the lead guitarist and vocalist for the band you all hired on for the School Dance. I hitched a ride in his guitar in order to get on campus the first time.** " Josuke flinched slightly, only for RHCP to just weakly chuckle. " **Don't look so surprised Josuke; my employer has a lot of Stand Users outside of The Fang now thanks to the Arrow. We aren't exactly loyal, like I said Akira's only interest is in stealing, but most of us are either grateful enough or fearful enough to follow orders until we're let go… funny that.** " Josuke just grunted a bit as he glared at RHCP.

"Alright, enough pronoun games and beating around the bush RHCP. I want names." RHCP just sighed as he looked up.

" **Impatient little shit aren't ya? Fine. I've got a name for you, and you'll love this one. The head bitch's name is-** "

It was a sudden thing, really. One moment RHCP was talking and then the next… it was hard to describe. A hole suddenly opened in his chest and, immediately following that, the hole began to disintegrate, turning into ash before Josuke and RHCP's very eyes.

" **AAAAAAAAAAAH! THAT BITCH, THAT FUCKING BITCH, WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING TO MY USER?!** " The process spread rapidly, soon enough RHCP's torso was split in two as the ash spread across his body, cinders falling from his form as Josuke just reached down and grabbed the Stand by the shoulders, hoisting his remains up.

"A NAME CHILI PEPPER, GIVE ME A NAME!" The cinders spread up towards RHCP's neck as its red eyes looked desperately into Josuke's. "CRAZY DIAMOND!" Immediately his own Stand reached forth and grabbed RHCP's body, sending its Stand Power flowing through it… to no avail. Josuke's eyes widened as he realized what this meant; Akira Otoishi was dead.

"C-C-C-CCCCCCEEEEEEHCK…" Before the words could be uttered, RHCP was reduced to little more than ash in Josuke's fingers. Josuke watched, eyes wide with horror, as he 'felt' the life energy leave the ash, felt the absolute oblivion of a Stand's death right in between his fingers. It was… it was something people always talked about experiencing. Stands were people's life essences; the Human Soul given form through Aura. When you experienced it's death… that… that was true death. The human body could cover it up with its flesh and bones, with the slow shutting down of its systems…

But when you felt the soul leaving a Stand, there were no such distractions. There was simply that empty oblivion. Josuke bit his lip slightly as he clenched his fists. RHCP was no friend and Josuke was in no way sad to see the Stand go. Hell, if RHCP had said no and stubbornly insisted on taking any information to the grave… well, that's exactly what would happen to it.

But to have information that could help their cause slip right through their fingers, to have a potential in die right before his very eyes… to be part of that experience. It shook him a bit, truly and honestly shook him. Josuke heaved a long sigh as he brought his comb out to fix his hair up, as it had been messed up by RHCP's beating from earlier.

"Josuke/JoJo, I heard shouting!" Two simultaneous shouts caught Josuke's ears as he turned his head to behind him, a small smile gracing his lips… before that smile turned into a frown when he saw what was there. Koichi and Yang, to be sure, safe and relatively sound and, most importantly to the pompadoured teen, 'alive'... but holy crap did they not look good. Koichi had two slashes across his chest which were still bleeding quite heavily while Yang's hands were burnt horrible, skin still peeling off, and her hair, her pride and joy, was signed in several spots.

Not that Koichi and Yang were treated to any better of a sight. Josuke's entire attire had been thoroughly roughed up and partially torn by his rows with RHCP which, on its own, would've made the boy look worse than usual. What really caught their eyes was the blood that seemed to pour out from his body here and there… and that he still hacked up in unhealthy quantities from his mouth as he looked at the two of them.

"Holy shit! Are you two okay, you look like you got messed up!"

"Are we okay, Josuke, are you even okay standing?!"

The reunion would go on like this for a moment until Josuke, finally, had the bright idea to call to inform Glynda that Neopolitan had been pacified and that RHCP was no more.

 **Akira Otoishi was investigated almost immediately after order was restored to the city. His bandmates had confirmed that Akira would, at times, disappear mysteriously for short periods of time but that he usually returned quickly. This time, no one was sure where he had been or what had taken him so long. Eventually the search was called off as, with the death of RHCP validated by Josuke's testimony, it was decided that wherever Akira Otoishi was, he was probably dead…**

 **His body was never recovered. All that was found in his private abode was a thin layer of ash on some of the carpet.**

 **AKIRA OTOISHI - RETIRED!**

* * *

"Honestly, I don't know how you even talked me into this Oz. Letting this kid stay out of the infirmary when he's got three broken ribs and had some internal bleeding. He should be resting in a bed while the medicine does its work patching him up, not standing outside shooting the breeze with his friends."

"H-Hey that's not all I'm doing, I'm also-"

"You've already beaten the big bad Stand User, this is all you're doing Mr. Higashikata, now stand still or else I'll make sure these bandages cut off your breathing."

"Yes Professor Peach!"

When the call had gone out concerning the success of Josuke and Yang's fighting off of RHCP and Neopolitan, it had been a slow process for the group to come back together. While Professor Peach had been more than easily brought out of the school in order to attend Josuke's wounds, getting those parties who had set themselves deep in the City of Vale was a bit trickier. Still with some hard fighting and some clever planning, everyone was brought back safely to Beacon. Now with the main threat to Joseph Joestar's arrival over and done with, the special orders given out to the police and soldiers could be reverted to more normal protocols.

Rather than focusing on holding the airbus platforms in the City of Vale, attention could instead be turned on containing and, eventually, squashing the riots as they raged across the city. What would be done with the rioters was still an open matter of debate as few wished to see them returned to their cells if they had been so easily made to escape previously. However, for our current flock of heroes, that matter was entirely out of their mind.

The more immediate focus was on Joseph Joestar's imminent arrival and just what Josuke planned to do… also, on Josuke's recovery, at Professor Peach's insistence.

"Professor Peach, I know you're right however… well, the boy's… well, I think no matter what young Mr. Higashikata wishes to do, he would wish to see this mission at least brought to completion. Isn't that right, Josuke?" The pompadoured teen turned his head up to Ozpin as the aged man spoke, a slight nod to his head as he looked back out toward the horizon, a slight dot beginning to enlarge at the edge of his vision.

"Yeah, I suppose that's right…" Josuke muttered to himself as Peach just shook her head, sighing in annoyance as she tightened up the bandages one last time.

"Fine, fine. But if the boy ends up with more serious injuries… oh who am I kidding, it's my job to let you all come crying to me about it." As Peach begins to gather up her supplies Ozpin gives Josuke a quiet nod as he wanders over to chat with Ironwood and Glynda, the trio coming together in quiet preparation for Joseph Joestar's arrival. As Josuke puts his uniform top back on, the rest of his friends begin to circle in, their eyes focused on the young man, though they momentarily glance out to the horizon to see the airship approaching at its own pace.

"So… moment of truth there, huh Josuke?" Okuyasu muttered as he scratched at his nose a bit, Josuke just nodding his head slowly as he cradled his head in his hand.

"Yeah…"

"So, how are you thinking about handling this. I mean, you're going to be meeting him here soon. What do you think you're going to say or do huh? Do you need help coming up with ideas, because we can totally help you, it's what friends are-"

"Ruby." Ruby stops speaking as Yang places a hand on her shoulder, the excitable young girl just staring up at her older sister with a curious expression as Josuke waves them both off.

"It's okay Yang, Rub means well." The pompadoured teen says somewhat despondently as he looks out at the sky. "Honestly… if it were my choice, I wouldn't even be here right now. I know that the answers I'm bound to find out aren't exactly great ones. Heck, they're probably the answers I've been dreading for a long time now… but… that's not going to help anything if I hear them. At the end of the day, I'm a Huntsman and I serve him as my leader. Me meeting with him, talking to him… having these feelings roll around… it's… it's not going to help anything." Everyone frowned a bit at this, even Yang, as they looked at the young man.

"But Josuke… he's your dad. You… I mean, you can, but…" Jaune's attempts were stopped as Pyrrha gently placed her hand on his shoulder, the blond teen just looking at her for a second before he nodded in some understanding.

"If that's the case then, you know, you've done your job here JoJo. You beat up the big bad Stand and… yeah okay sure, ice cream bitch is still at large but I think between us, Jotaro and Ren and Nora that we could take him. You don't need to be here, you've done your job." Josuke nods a little as Yang says this, a slight grin gracing his features.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence but… no. Like I said, I'm a Huntsman and this is my job. The entire reason I don't want to be here is that… I don't want my feelings to start affecting how I do my work. If I book it, then that just means I've already failed." Josuke sighed as he stood up slowly, dusting off the front of his pants. "I'd rather see the old guy get off that ship safe and sound and be done with it… after that, I don't have to see him again and I really don't have to deal with him… it'll be fine." Yang watches Josuke carefully for a moment as it seems like some of the others might try to speak up.

"Alright, if that's what you feel like you need JoJo, I'm behind ya." Yang said with a slight yawn as she stretched out and walked over to a nearby crate, leaning up against it. The others stared over at Yang incredulously, tilting their heads to the side as they do so.

"You… can't be serious Yang. This-"

"This isn't Josuke rushing into a fight headlong to get himself killed, this isn't him ignoring a major issue with his team that leads to them almost dying and this isn't Josuke working himself to near death… this is Josuke trying to deal with his relationship with… urgh, his 'old man' in the way he thinks is best. It's our place to support him, not to try to pick at him and make him second guess himself." The others flinched back as Yang said this, before a wide grin came over her face. "Besides, why the heck are you all being so gloomy about all this? Josuke kicked RHCP's ass, I kicked the midget's ass, Joseph Joestar is gonna be arriving in Beacon Academy safe and sound and we've 'finally' won some ground against these assholes we've been fighting. As much as I get why Josuke should be in a somber mood… Hell, we should be doing our best to get him to celebrate a little before the old guy comes walking off that ship, not making him miserable."

The others blanched a bit at this, slightly surprised by Yang's words, though Josuke laughs a little.

"She is right. We did all just work together to pull of… well, our first mission before our first real mission I guess. Come on, you guys should be celebrating a little bit, not worrying about me. I'll be fine, promise." The others looked at each other uncertainly… no one was really sure what to make of this situation.

On the one hand, Josuke and Yang were right. They had won a major victory here. A major piece had just been secured by their side that would, hopefully, begin pushing the tide of the fighting over to their enemies rather than their own turf. They had been challenged again and again, with even the peace of the City of Vale caught in the crossfire, but they'd managed to fight back and gain some ground. It was a moment to celebrate, it was a moment to cheer.

Still… the future loomed ever larger in their vision. In the potential battles with their enemies to come. With the future or visions that Hermit Purple would show. In their missions that were coming up in short order. It felt almost premature to celebrate, it felt almost… wrong to just relax even for this moment.

Especially as the future for Josuke loomed ever larger on the horizon as the airship approached. Josuke's future with his father and with his relationship to his family names was riding on that ship. It would be… hard to deal with, no matter what Josuke might think.

They'd be there for him though. Just as they'd been there for each other when times got rough and as they'd been there for Beacon and Vale.

The future loomed large… but it also loomed brighter than before.

Perhaps that was, as Yang said, enough of a reason to celebrate for now. Even if only for a short time.

 **-To Be Continued- Achtung Baby (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: As the text suggests, we're heading for one more little mini-arc before we head into some big action when it concerns The Breach. This arc, while it won't decisively conclude Josuke's character development, will set him a little further along the path. Judging by the name, you guys knows what's coming. I'll be changing the format up a bit of it, of course, as the issues at play aren't the exact same as the issues at play in the anime (Josuke's familiarity with the Joestar Family is far stronger, as just one example) but for bits that might reflect a bit too strongly on the animated or drawn versions of these parts, yeah, I might switch focus or skip them a bit as we move to newer, more fertile ground. As is my policy with retreading old ground.**

 **I expected that Achtung Baby will be 2 or 3 Acts as opposed to the behemoth 5-6 Acts we've been going through for the past three Arcs. Though we'll quickly get back into form for The Breach which, depending on if I decide to break up The Breach, will probably either be the longest Arc so far or will be two extremely long arcs side by side.**

 **With all that said, hope you guys have been enjoying Remnant's Bizarre Adventure and that you'll have a great weekend! As the next update is the second of this month, it will be a Chibi Update so look forward to that!**


	41. Announcement - An Actual Hiatus

Alright, so. In eight days, Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Beacon is Unbreakable turns eight months old. At 40 Chapters and over 500,000 words long, you guys have given me over 500 Reviews, 100,000 Hits, several hundred favorites and alerts and a spot on TV Tropes, not to mention what feedback I receive on Spacebattles. It's all been a rather crazy ride and it's been a pretty great as far as sharing my hobby with people goes.

However, four days ago when I sat down to try and write the Chibi update, only to find that not only were new ideas not coming forward but that ideas I'd had on stock weren't flowing out, I knew that my time had been stretched about as far as it could go. Trying to force out the next update felt like work, and that was a place I 'definitely' didn't want to be.

Now, don't mistake me. I don't say this because I've lost enjoyment from what I do. Quite the opposite, writing is my hobby and I enjoy doing it... but that hasn't stopped the slow grind of mental exhaustion from creeping up on me. Writing 10,000 plus word chapters every five days for eight months, even with the insane speeds I'm capable of, eventually starts to wear on ya, even with little breaks in between. I'm not done with my story, I'm not quitting, so please don't worry.

I'm just very tired and in need of a break.

I'd intended to hold off on this until October and have the hiatus start then and yes, before you ask, it had everything to do with the release of a certain Middle Earth Themed game that was set to come out that month. I'm not ashamed to admit it. After I returned from my mini-hiatus, which I assure you was 'not' fun considering where I was living at the time, I thought I could keep the grind up until early October. However, with the recent trouble with the Chibi update and the fact that I did characterize the thought of getting through September as a grind, I realized that I needed to stop.

Writing is my hobby. It's something I love to do and that, during this Hiatus, I will continue to do in 'small' doses. But, it wasn't meant to feel like work. If I were ever paid for this, then rest assured you wouldn't be hearing me open my big fat mouth up until some major holiday. However, as it is still a hobby, I would like to preserve my feeling of enjoyment and not have it ground away as I try to force out updates.

Question is, how long? Two months. In that time I'll be limiting myself to either short stories that I may have wanted to write but haven't felt like I've had the space to or in running a Play-by-Post game over on Spacebattles. And of course reading and writing for school because that's started.

On November 6th I'll return with a proper update to Remnant's Bizarre Adventure.

I hope you all understand, if you have any questions please feel free to leave a review, PM me or come over to the thread on Spacebattles. Also, now would be as good a time as any to tell me if you feel like there's something seriously wrong with the style, structure or substance of my story as this will be a time where I return to my outline to see if there's anything I need to change because it's broken and I didn't notice or that I want to change now that I'm more experienced as a writer.

With that said, thank you all for a very wonderful past eight months and I'll see those of you who don't reach out in November.


	42. Achtung Baby (Act 1)

The silence in the cabin was practically suffocating. Young and old sat together in this cabin, the lesser facing the greater in age, as they each took in the sight of the kindly old man from their memories. Ren, as ever, had kept his features schooled in that calm expression of his, years upon years of experience as well as a natural talent from his own Semblance having allowed him to keep himself in check even as the story unfolded before him.

His companion, on the other hand? Any silence on her part was mostly just due to not having 'anything' she could think to say, rather than actually wanting to keep her mouth shut and listen. For Nora… this was a story she hadn't expected to hear from the old man, if she had ever expected to hear such a story from anyone at all. To listen to the tale weaved before them… for a seventeen year old, it was a bit of a shock to the system. Especially to a person like Nora whose own views on the world, while marred by the experiences of youth and the knowledge of those that she had cared about passing, was still largely simple. There were good people, there were bad people and there were Grimm. It had been that simple in Nora's mind for a while.

Then there was Joseph Joestar. A man who had grown quite ancient, older in fact than anyone in The Frontier had lived for years. His silence came from having said his piece; he had told his story to the two youngsters who had looked up to him for so long and had weaved it to completion. For him, there was nothing else to say in the moment… at least, nothing else to say up until either Nora or Ren spoke up and asked the old man their questions. Joseph would've smiled at that if the atmosphere in the room had been light enough to allow for it; of course they'd have questions. Even while stoic, he remembered Ren being a very curious child, always asking after new knowledge either he or Avdol could provide.

And the idea of Nora of all people being silent for any given amount of time was laughable at best.

"So… is that it then? Is that the story behind all this?" Ren asked, his hands folded uncomfortably in his lap as he spoke. Joseph just nodded slightly, his grip personally on his cane as he looked at the two youngsters.

"That's the short and long of it at any rate. Probably not what either of you were either wanting to hear or figuring on but… well, it is what it is." Nora finally looked right at Joseph, her mouth clamped shut as her eyes seemed to search his face for a moment.

"I just… if all that's the case, then why both keeping all of this back? Why not 'tell' someone, or at least, let someone tell Josuke? Why keep him in the dark on this?" Joseph gave a kindly smile to Nora as she asked this, the old man shaking his head.

"Tell me, do you think hearing all this would make it feel better for him?" Nora clamped shut as Joseph spoke, the old man just sighing. "I don't know anything about Higashikata Josuke. I haven't interacted with him, haven't met him face to face… it's something that's kept my own household at least somewhat together and has kept anyone in Morioh from getting into too many hysterics about the situation. So while I can't even claim to know him better than you two… well, I know how young men like myself tend to feel about these things… or, worse yet, tend to 'not' feel." The old man reached up behind his head and casually scratched at his grey hair. "Would hearing any of this actually help at all? Would knowing how I made my mistakes, the reasons that went in behind them… would that change what's happened? That he's grown up knowing that his father lived in the very same city as he did and also knowing that he'd never see him…

"I can't say it'd help me at all when I was Josuke's age." The elderly Joestar chuckled hoarsely as he looked at the two teens, a slightly wry grin on his face. "Brothers above know that the moment I met me, I'd punch myself square in the nose for all this. Heck, Lisa Lisa may have only been absent from my life, and for 'far' better reasons than I've left Josuke to his own fate… but I still couldn't quite find it in myself to ever refer to her as my mother. It was too distant… too far gone by the time that relationship came to light."

"Old man…" Nora whispered softly as she watched Joseph heave a heavy sigh.

"I gave up any right to know much about my own son a long time ago. I've made peace with that… and the way you all describe it, Josuke's made his own peace with it. From the way you describe it, he could barely be less enthused about me being around, much less meeting me in person." Ren and Nora bit their lips, almost in unison, as the old man spoke… they couldn't exactly deny that he was pretty much on point.

"But… come on. It sounds like you'd really like it! And Josuke's a great guy! Like, you'd be crazy impressed with how he's turned out! Isn't it worth just taking a risk? I mean…" Joseph reached a hand out and patted Nora on the head.

"I think I've been plenty selfish enough for one lifetime, brat. Doesn't really matter what I want… for once, what matters is what the kid wants. I'm not about to force my way into his life when it's been damn well my own choice to not be a part of it for so long." With that, Joseph returned his hands to his cane as he looked out the window of the small compartment they'd all clustered themselves into. "I'll make my way into Beacon Academy, I'll do what Jotaro and Ozpin need me to do… and then… well, who knows. Maybe I'll stick around for a little bit if they feel like they need me or I'll just head on back to Morioh. That's all I can expect from this trip and… that's all anyone probably wants out of it at this point."

"But… I mean… if you guys worked this out, you'd both get to be happy! I mean really! Josuke would get to know his dad and you'd get to know your son! I don't understand why you're being so insistent about this!"

"Nora…"

"Ren, I'm serious!" Nora turned to face her erstwhile best friend, a look of frustration in her eyes. "They're both just being really stubborn about this! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity Ren! Like getting free food or finding a bag of money on the sidewalk, or something even bigger than either of that!" Nora clenches her fists together as she looks down to the side. "If you and I had this kind of chance…"

"... We'd take it in a heartbeat." Ren nodded in understanding as he reached up and, gently, grabbed for his friend's hand, bringing her back down to a seated position. "But this isn't our chance Nora, and what's happened between Joseph and Josuke isn't what's happened to us… Joseph's right. It'd be unbelievably selfish of him to just forcibly intrude upon Josuke's life after having made the choice to 'not' be a part of it. Josuke… clearly feels the same way. You've seen his reactions. You've seen how he feels… we've heard it ourselves."

"... Yeah… but…"

"Nora… this is something Josuke and Joseph need to work through. You can be as frustrated with them as you'd like… but this is 'their' relationship with each other." Nora deflates as Ren finishes speaking, the ordinarily bubbly bomber just puffing up her cheeks as she crosses her arms defiantly.

"I still think it's dumb…" At that, Ren can't help but chuckle.

"You have that right to think that." With that said, the magenta eyed young man turned back to face the elderly Joestar, the old man just looking at him with a sad smile as their eyes met. "As for you, sir… I think it goes without saying that what you did was wrong and seriously hurt one of my friends. That's a hard pill to swallow for anyone, especially knowing the story behind it."

"I'm aware… didn't exactly get on my knees to ask for forgiveness after all. Awfully big ask to make of anyone." Ren nodded in firm agreement, though his firm exterior gave way to a slightly kindly look.

"That doesn't mean I can't sympathize with what pressures you were facing… nor that I'm about to turn my nose up at you and ask that you somehow go back in time and throw Nora and I into the ocean way back when, rather than have you be a part of our lives." Joseph blinked, clearly surprised, as Ren bowed his head politely. "You've shown yourself to be a good man, Mr. Joestar… and even good men can make mistakes."

At that Joseph turned his eyes over to Nora, who still had her arms crossed over her chest, refusing to look at the old geezer.

"... Still mad…"

"I can tell." Joseph commented idly as Nora glanced back over to him, then over to Ren… before she just sighed and shook her head.

"I thought you were supposed to be a smart guy, old man." Nora placed her hands on her hips though, it was clear, her body language was more open than it was before.

"So did I… turns out even clever old bastards like myself can make stupid decisions." Nora's expression softened at the genuine tone that underlined Joseph's words. Before the three of them could get any further into a conversation, the loudspeakers into the room suddenly blared to life.

"OI, YOU THREE, LOOK ALIVE!"

"Jotaro?" Nora asked out loud as the huntsman's voice suddenly boomed over the line.

"You three are going to need to keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything suspicious, we have an issue!"

* * *

"Okay, so, here's the plan: when Joseph Joestar gets off the plane... well, I mean, he's an old guy right? So he'll probably have some trouble walking! So someone, I'm not saying who, could maybe speed on by and give him a little trip? Then Josuke, being the kind of guy he is, would have to go on up to him and keep him held up! It's an emotional moment, they're finally directly in each other's presence and then… the magic happens!"

"... Ruby, I don't mean to pop your bubble, but I have 'so' many questions." Weiss commented as she rubbed at her temples, the rest of the group just looking down at the young Huntress-in-training as she looked over to her partner.

"Pffft, what are you talking about Weiss? This idea's fool proof! Tripping into someone always works in those novels that Blake reads!"

"Okay, first off Ruby, you need to stop reading Blake's… novels, they really aren't age appropriate." Yang commented dryly as she looked down at her baby sister.

"But I'm a teen! Or older! I don't know why you guys keep insisting that I shouldn't be reading them!"

"Just listen to your sister Ruby." Blake commented, a slight tinge of red on her cheeks as she tried to keep her eyes anywhere but her teammates at that moment.

"Secondly, you really shouldn't use those… 'novels' as source material for managing relationships… ESPECIALLY non-romantic ones!" Weiss declared, obviously annoyed, as Ruby just flinched back a bit.

"Third, I really doubt that, even as fast as you are, that you could pull off that stunt without anyone else noticing." Jaune commented from his own position way back.

"W-What? I didn't say it was gonna be me! Where would you guys get a… okay yeah I was talking about me, but I could totally pull it off!"

"Fourth, and finally… you heard Josuke. I really don't think he'd appreciate it if you tried something like this." Pyrrha commented idly, as much of the rest of the group just nodded in agreement. At that moment, Josuke was off to the side on the air docks, his eyes trained on the rapidly approaching ship as it flew towards Beacon's docks. The pompadoured teen seemed resigned at that moment, his head resting in his hands as he watched the ship approach.

Koichi and Okuyasu had gone off to collect Neopolitan, now that everyone had been treated and taken care of following their own fights, either in the City of Vale proper or the air docks here. This had just left the not-inconsiderable presence of Glynda, Ozpin, Ironwood, half of Team JNPR and Team RWBY there as they awaited the arrival of the ship alongside Josuke.

This had left time for some of the group to begin to conspire, though unsuccessfully.

"Pyrrha's right. What we need to do right now, little sis, is just sit back and… well, wait, I guess." Yang said casually as she leaned up against some nearby crates, shrugging her shoulders as Ruby frowned and crossed her arms.

"He's our friend though, we should be doing what we can to help him!"

"And we are… by letting Josuke handle this himself." Yang said with a kindly smile as she pat her little sister on the head. "Rubes, I get where you're coming from and I'm sure if the old geezer wasn't right around the corner that JoJo would even appreciate your gesture… but right now, sticking our nose into their business just isn't going to end well for anyone, especially those two. Josuke deserves the chance to make this decision himself, it's not our place to get involved." At that Ruby turned to her sister, a deep frown on her face.

"Yang…" The blonde heard the tone in her sister's voice and sighed, shaking her head.

"I know Ruby, I know… but just because you know what I'd want doesn't mean we know what Josuke really wants. I can't force my own perspective on him… Gods know that people have done that enough to the poor guy already." With that a slightly wry smile crosses Yang's lips as she reaches forward and lightly punches Ruby on the shoulder, causing the younger woman to flinch and rub at the spot Yang had struck. "Have a little faith that Josuke knows what he's doing. We've given that to him in way more crazy situations, so we should be doing the same here, right?" Everyone nodded slowly. It hadn't been that they disagreed with Yang's take on things, per say…

"It just stinks that there really isn't anything we can do about it. We're Hunters, our life's calling is to help people…" Jaune sighed as he ran a hand through his own blonde locks. "Then again this isn't exactly a problem you can get into a fight with and come out on top." Yang chortled as she shook her head.

"Tell me about it." Blake, Weiss and Pyrrha quickly followed up with their agreements, even as Ruby remained off to the side in a bit of a huff. Before the argument could go any further, before Ruby could attempt to rebuff their logic any further, something drew 'everyone's' attention.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Koichi's scream echoed through the air docks, drawing everyone's eyes to himself and Okuyasu as they immediately turned a corner. While nowhere near as panicked as Koichi, even Okuyasu's expression took a direct turn for the distressed and the pissed off as they ran back toward the group. The ship, now a mere few dozen meters from docking, was right there, just right there.

"Okuyasu, Koichi, what's wrong?" Josuke called out as his two teammates immediately turned their gazes on him.

"JOSUKE, THE GIRL, SHE'S GONE!"

And yet even now it seemed as though they weren't out of the woods yet.

"WHAT?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Yang's eyes immediately turned a violent shade of red as she forced herself up off the crates she had been supporting herself on. "I beat the everloving tar out of that midget, and you're telling me she's 'still' up? What the Hell? What do you have to do to keep her down?!"

"Everyone calm down!" Glynda's shout drew everyone's attention, the older blonde woman adjusting her spectacles as she prepared her riding crop. "Yes, the sudden disappearance of the girl is a problem, but it doesn't mean that we have anything to be immediately concerned about. Right now there's upwards of a dozen of us, and more on the ship, protecting Joseph Joestar. Any attempt to get him 'now' would result in that girl's demise, no matter how skilled she is or how her Semblance might add to her ability as an assassin.

"I doubt our enemies are so suicidal that they'd accept that kind of trade for Joseph Joestar's-"

*CRACK*

Any further attempt to calm the situation by Glynda was immediately cut off by the sounds of shattering glass. All eyes turned to one of the ship's windows and, to their horror, they saw hanging off the side was one Neopolitan, the ice-cream themed assassin keeping a steady grip even as she pulled a bloody fist from the window of the airship. Shaking her hand off to get rid of some glass and blood, Neopolitan turned her gaze back to the dock and carefully scanned the crowd… up until she found Yang.

Whereupon the little assassin raised her bloody hand up to flip the blonde brawler the bird.

The sudden storm of bullets that impacted the zone that Neopolitan had previously taken up only found shattered, illusory glass as Neopolitan once again disappeared, obviously into the bowels of the ship itself.

"FUCKING BULLSHIT!" Okuyasu immediately voiced most concerns of the group as he stared up at the airship, The Hand having only just formed behind him as he ground his teeth together. "We're so close, so damned close!"

"It's not over yet, children." Ozpin was the first to declare as he prepared his cane, pulling out a Scroll and immediately punching in a number. "Jotaro, it's Ozpin… yes, that was gunfire. I'm afraid we have a small problem."

* * *

"She's on the ship?!" Nora's words were immediately followed up by a quick activation of Magnhild, the mighty warhammer being brought out in full force as Ren allowed his own weapons to slide gracefully from his sleeves and into his hands. The other end of the line growled in some annoyance but continued.

"Yeah. Our target's capacity for trickery thanks to her Semblance has turned out to be a notch above what we might have been expecting. The girl is clearly experienced with it… Hell, she's used it to get around us several times now." The underpass, the night of the Dance and here and now. Their enemy was decidedly capable and tricky indeed.

"Doesn't matter how invisible she can be if I smash her with Magnhild…" Nora muttered as she swiveled the hammer in her hands, a sigh coming from the other end of the line.

"Yare yare daze… I just need you two to keep tight for now. I'll be down there as soon as I can and, once I'm there, I doubt she'll try anything… fast as she might be, she's not faster than Star Platinum: The World." Ren and Nora nodded in agreement as Jotaro continued. "Keep as close to the doors as you can and keep an ear out; if she's as talented with illusions as she seems, she'll be able to make the doors look like they're not even opening or closing."

"On the other hand if we stick right by them, we risk getting caught in an illusion and picked off from the side before anyone else can think to react…" Ren muttered as there was a grunt of affirmation on the other end.

"Keep your ears peeled. The second you hear anything amiss then go right for the source of the sound… dammit, but stick close to the old man. He's her target; no matter what, don't get too far from him…" The frustration in Jotaro's voice was evident and very much equally matched by the frustration everyone else was feeling. As the line died so that Jotaro could quickly move down to the cabin, everyone's mind was on the same thing; she could be anywhere… or at least, anywhere that wasn't inside the room. After all, no one had heard the doors open as Jotaro spoke, no one had heard any sign that anyone had even come down to their level in the past several minutes. Still, that in and of itself was little comfort if it meant she could've possibly been anywhere outside of the cabin itself.

If they allowed themselves to be drawn away or distracted, for even a moment, they could find themselves in a world of hurt… or, worse, they could find themselves short one Joseph Joestar. It was paramount that they keep their eyes and ears peeled. Paramount that they keep their wits about them until Jotaro arrived.

In all honesty, it was that aspect that made it all too easy for Neopolitan.

A couple minutes passed and she walked right on up to the door, wearing the skin of these idiot's dearly trusted ally. A fist banging on the door with the force of a man Jotaro's size and with the current tension of the situation behind it easily echoed into the room. Whatever nerves had been unleashed by the sudden sound would lead to these two and the old man immediately accepting the sight of their salvation. She watched eagerly as they walked over to the door and opened it for her to enter.

After all, Jotaro was here, so they had nothing to worry about right?

As Neopolitan slowly strode into the room, she couldn't help but take a deep, long breath. So… this was it then, right?

This was how Neopolitan was going to die.

Neopolitan was an utterly confident sort. She was proud and, yes, on the off day she might even say she was arrogant. Now, that arrogance didn't extend to people who were better than her, who were more powerful… but that was just reality setting itself in. When it came to people she was obviously the superior of, Neopolitan had absolutely no issue in flaunting how much better she was than them. Had no problem taking extreme pleasure in picking her foes apart bit by bit by bit…

Yet, in this moment, even the utterly proud Neopolitan knew that, with this last act, she was a goner. Her Aura was pretty much spent; that big titted bimbo had done a bad number on her and she barely had the stamina to rub together to make this illusion, much less make another if she needed to. She was bleeding from multiple places and, at any given moment, Neopolitan felt like her Aura could give and she'd have to succumb to the stresses she'd put her body through.

There was no position of superiority, there was nothing holding her above her opponents. The second she killed Joseph Joestar, Neopolitan was as good as dead… she very much doubted this Nora girl would react well to seeing this old bastard die right in front of her. With any luck, she'd swing that hammer and collapse her chest in, killing her before she could be taken captive.

That was fine, Hell, beyond fine really. It was the best she could possibly hope for in this situation.

The original plan had been horribly fumbled, that much was readily apparent. She'd given up so many advantages in her fight with Koichi and the bimbo and Red Hot Chili Pepper had completely and totally dropped the ball in his fight versus Higashikata Josuke, to the point where that kid and his ridiculous looking pompadour had forced her hand into sending the signal to Cinder and her cronies.

Red Hot Chili Pepper could've handled this easily; the old man probably only needed one jolt to that wrinkled heart of his and he'd drop dead. Now though, it was down to Neopolitan to deal with him… and there was no getting out of it this time. As soon as she stabbed him through the chest, the two behind her would be right on top of her… and if they didn't deal with her, then Kujo Jotaro would.

But that was fine.

Roman needed to live. Roman needed to survive this and move on. Roman 'deserved' to win. After all the time that these brats had set him back, after all the worry and panic, after having to deal with that bitch Cinder Fall and her cronies… Roman deserved peace of mind. He deserved it no matter the cost.

And considering that the cost, now, would just be her life? That was all too cheap for him. Not because Neopolitan had thought her father figure as valuing her life so little, but because she only had her life because of him. Because of Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan hadn't had to suffer the fate of so many other urchins lost and forgotten on the streets of Vale. Because of Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan had been given a life and a chance to live it to the fullest… and Gods be damned, if it wasn't a full life at this point. Assassinations, ice cream, crime sprees, long walks with her parasol, beating the tar out of people so arrogant as to view themselves above the 'midget' or the 'poor mute'. Yeah, Neo could say that her life was fuller for having Roman Torchwick take her in.

So, she owed all that to him. It wasn't a matter of having to pay it forward… back a matter of paying it back to the man who had given her this wonderful chance.

Hell, despite how utterly stupid it was to allow… Roman even let her have a chance to be a girl her own age and dance with a cute guy. Hmmm, maybe that'd be one regret that she didn't get a chance to really get anywhere with Koichi. Ah well, always one thing right?

The only thing that actually held her back was the thought that, with her death, Roman would be in a nest of vipers. Neo had no doubts that as soon as she pulled this off, Cinder would do her damndest to work her way even deeper into Roman's mind in order to try to turn him into just another pawn of hers. It was almost inevitable, really, that was just the kind of person Cinder Fall was. Yet still, Neo couldn't be too concerned about that.

Yes, if Joseph Joestar died along with her, Roman was left with Cinder… but if the old Joestar lived, then Roman's life was at stake. Whatever Cinder might try to pull, it was better than imagining Roman falling into the hands of Ironwood who'd do… who knows what to him.

Cinder was poison, but Roman was a strong person. With his life no longer in direct peril, he'd be able to resist Cinder's toxic words and remain his own man, she was sure. However, Ironwood was guaranteed death. That just wouldn't do.

It was remarkably easy, Neo would reflect. She just walked right on in and offered a stern, Jotaro-esque nod to both Ren and Nora before turning her sights on Joseph Joestar. There was no hesitation, no thoughts that her life wasn't worth this, no thoughts that she herself 'wanted' to live. No, in fact, just the opposite. To die for Roman's sake, to ensure that he'd be safe.

All other things had been pushed to the side in her mind. 'This' was what she wanted.

With that, and a burst of Aura into her body, Neopolitan practically flung herself at Joseph Joestar, Nora and Ren shouting in surprise as the form of their beloved older Huntsman immediately gunned it for Joseph Joestar. Her parasol hidden under the guise of her illusion, the only sign that it was there was the motions of her own hand as she prepared to thrust it right into Joseph Joestar's heart. A nice little kebab to end off on, his heart impaled on the tip of her parasol blade. A quick death, perhaps more merciful than she might've otherwise been inclined to hand off to the person whose very existence threatened Roman's life.

It was fun.

As Neopolitan took her last step, the very last one before she'd allow her own forward momentum and a thrust to carry her on through to impaling Joseph Joestar straight through, she felt two things. The first was something wrapping around her ankle, a tough… 'something' that had very, very, 'very' sharp thorns that were now digging into her heel, puncturing through her weakened Aura with ease.

The second was the world being sent upside down and around as she was pulled off her feet, her grip on her parasol slipping and her head plunging into the ground, cracking off the wooden floor of the small cabin as her illusion shattered and Neopolitan was revealed for all to see.

How?! HOW?! She'd caught him off guard! She had her illusion up! There was no way he saw this coming, no way he saw through her! So how did… what did…

Neopolitan's mismatched eyes locked onto what it was that had wrapped around her ankles and, quite literally, pulled her off her feet; a series of purple vines, aglow with their own spiritual energy, that had ended up crawling down from the back of the man's coat, where she couldn't have seen them coming out from, around the cushions of the couch and, finally to her feet.

The very same vines that suddenly appeared around the old man's left hand, still holding onto his cane, and which immediately gunned it for her.

" **[Hermit Purple: Overdrive]**!" The Stand's name echoes in her ears as she watched the vines approach. On top of the purple energy that had vaguely surrounded them, she now vaguely watched as the purple vines suddenly sparked, surrounded by a veritable web of yellow electricity as they approached.

This on top of the head of that annoying girl's oversized hammer being swung down toward her chest.

Oh fuck this. Neopolitan had gone through enough bullshit for today, thank you. She was 'not' having this!

Neopolitan grimaced, a silent growl in her throat as she placed her hands just behind her head and 'pulled' her legs back. The old man, despite the toughness of his vines, was still 'just' an old man and was bodily pulled out of his seat by Neopolitan's suddenly flip onto her hands. The same motion caused the orange-haired girl's hammer blow to hit home on the ground, shattering the old Joestar's cane in the process.

"OH OOPS, SORRY OLD MAN!" She barely took the time to register Nora's apology as Neopolitan flipped around on her hands and, with a swing of her legs, clocked the bubbly bomber upside the head with a quick and sent her stumbling back. Pink and brown eyes took in her surroundings. Now where the Hell did she drop… AHA! With a smirk Neopolitan reached forward with one of her hands, grasping her parasol with it and then immediately springing off the other back onto her feet. The old man was on the ground, the hammer girl was currently shaking the stars from her eyes and Neo, well, Neo had everything she needed in order to kill this old bastard.

Now all she had to do was… was… ooooh. What a positively 'delightful' sensation. Neopolitan couldn't help but calmly smile as she looked down at Joseph Joestar. Why, she hadn't felt so completely and utterly… tranquil, that was the word, in all her years. Now, where was she? It was so hard to think clearly when she just felt so much at peace. She felt like she could take a nap right here and right now… oh right… killing the old man… but… oh but she didn't have to worry too much about it, right? I mean, after all, who was going to stop her? The old man was only just getting off the ground, Nora was only just getting her hammer ready again and the guy with the fruity pink stripe in his hair had only 'just' put a knife to her throat and was under threat of slitting her up if she made a move…

Wait.

With that thought, Neopolitan finally managed to shake off the… whatever the Hell that was. She couldn't even think of how to describe it as the vibrant colors that normally made up her body finally flooded back in. She glared hatefully as Nora prepared her hammer again and as the old man brought himself back to his feet, however unsteadily without his cane. Oh this little fucking piece of shit had some kind of mind altering Semblance did he? Great, fan-tucking-fastic. As if she hadn't had to put up with 'enough' Semblances today that threw her off her game.

Whatever, just because she had a knife to her throat and a hammer ready to cave her chest in, that didn't mean squat. She could maneuver around this guy, Hell, maybe even get a laugh by making the girl accidentally slam that hammer into his face and reduce it to pulp. Then all she'd have to do was walk on over to the old bastard, avoid his Stand, and cut him up! She still had a chance to win this, she still had a chance to-

"Ah, so you managed to apprehend her."

…

Neopolitan's eyes went pure white as she turned her gaze over and saw Kujo Jotaro standing there, the older man glaring right at her as he brought his hand up to swipe around the tip of his cap.

… She had no chance.

It was 'possible', 'feasible' to do this while it was just the four of them in this room. She could handle these people, even in her weakened state… but she knew how much of a problem Kujo Jotaro was. She'd seen his Stand work before her very eyes… there was no way in Hell she stood any kind of chance of pulling this off with Star Platinum: The World in the room, ready to stop time at any given moment and beat her into a bloody pulp.

She couldn't kill Joseph Joestar…

She failed. Completely and utterly. Roman was doomed…

Neopolitan bit her lip slightly as she took all this in, a ragged breath escaping her chest as her mind immediately flew through the possibilities. They had her right where they wanted her now. She had a knife to her throat, a hammer at her side and Star Platinum: The World ready to stop time in an instant. She was as good as caught and no move she made was going to get her over to the old man or get her out of here. She was captured.

Which left her with three options; try to make another illusion to get away, let them take her in or bite her tongue off and drown in her own blood.

The first option was just no a go; she could feel it. She was 'spent' right now. She needed a good several dozen minutes of rest before she'd be able to pull off any of her usual shenanigans. Between Koichi, the bimbo, the old fart and hammer girl's boytoy here, she just didn't have it in her to form another illusion. So getting away with an illusion was out… why not just die here and now? Bite out her tongue and deny them even the remote chance of getting any information out of her. Better than giving them everything, right?

… Sadly, with the Stands available to these assholes, this option didn't look particularly viable either. After all, she bit her tongue and tried to kill herself like that… and then what? Kujo Jotaro stops time, drags her ass back to the docks and puts her in Higashikata Josuke's hands to fix up real quick, where she then gets taken in for questioning. Hell, if she showed herself having a tendency towards trying to violently end her own life, they might just keep Higashikata on top of her at all times just to be sure… and she didn't feel any better about facing Crazy Diamond in a straight up fight than she did the idea of facing Star Platinum: The World.

As fun as it would be to waste these asshole's times through such a scheme, Neopolitan didn't really feel like going through that rigamarole if it just meant she'd end up in their clutches anyway. She didn't fancy the idea of going through the pain of biting her own tongue off, thank you. Which left her with the other option of being taken in. She wouldn't talk, of course, Hell, she 'couldn't'... but they didn't need to know that. They could just think she was 'extraordinarily' stubborn and just wasn't giving them anything they might've wanted out of her.

More than that, they'd probably put her in some cell somewhere… and they couldn't have Kujo Jotaro stand right on top of her at all times of the day. No. He was 'important'. They needed to move him around. He had placed to be. Surely if they caught her and dragged her into custody, they'd be able to keep a firm grip on her, right?

Neopolitan did her best to keep the grin she felt just underneath the surface form making an appearance. Yes, she'd be able to escape once they brought her into custody…

Whatever feelings she might've had about smiling soon departed, however, as Neopolitan soon realized that even if she did escape that Roman's fate was as good as sealed. Still, it would be better for him if she was alive and by his side rather than kept in chains by the enemy or dead… especially if death wouldn't guarantee that they wouldn't just be able to fix her up and keep her still forever.

There was no getting out of being caught… but there could be getting out of being in captivity if Neopolitan played her cards right. So, her eyes darting between an increasingly irate Nora, the knife still held carefully at her neck and Kujo Jotaro and his Stand ready for any move she made, well, Neopolitan sighed and, slowly and carefully, raised her hands up. Discretion, the better part of battle and all that other crap she had often heard but never paid much mind to.

With that, the soldiers onboard the ship quickly apprehended her and dragged her off… she watched at the other three helped the old man get himself settled as the ship came to dock. This… this would be a hard thing to discuss with Roman in the future. This would be the first time he'd set Neopolitan on a job that 'didn't' get done.

It was somewhat sickening to her that her thought in that moment was that she honestly hoped that 'Cinder Fall' of all people would be able to come up with something to save Roman's skin.

Gods help them both.

* * *

It had been an immensely satisfying sight to see Neopolitan dragged out from the ship, secure in various cuffs to ensure that, whatever she might try to pull, she wasn't going to make it far before she'd be caught again. Satisfying and very much a relief; the group of teens had, on and off, had to deal with either her directly, as was the case of the underpass or Yang's fight, or the threat of her presence for a while now. To have her safely in hand and being carted off was a load off of everyone's minds.

One of them, however, was perhaps a might bit more satisfied than the others as Yang, quite loudly, hooped and hollered as she watched the midget get taken off to Ironwood's main ship for holding.

"Eat it ya little pipsqueak! Who's smirkin' now huh?! Now I've kicked your ass 'AND' you got caught! Banner day for you huh runt?"

"Yang, I think she got the picture."

"Pfft, who cares if she got the picture, this is all for me!" Yang let out a good natured laugh as they all watched Neopolitan get carted along. Of all of them the only one who wasn't in a particularly celebratory mood was Koichi. The young man watched as the ice cream themed assassin was carted off. The look she'd given all of them, so very 'very' poisonous, had been enough to unsettle the still somewhat nervous lad already… but there was something about when she turned her gaze on him that made him feel distinctly 'uncomfortable'. He couldn't say why or what caused it, but… he wasn't eager to celebrate too soon. Something didn't feel quite right…

"JOSUKE!" Everyone was snapped from their celebrations to watch as the bubbly bomber, Nora Valkyrie herself, immediately leapt from the ship as she approached her friends. She ran straight up to the pompadoured teen and, in her rush, nearly bowled him over before she managed to dig in her heels and stop from just knocking the poor young man over. "Okay look Josuke, here's the deal, you see- ACK!"

Ren, very helpfully, tugged back on the collar of Nora's shirt as the young woman tried her best to spill her guts to Josuke, the Stand User just nodding gratefully as Ren dragged Nora decidedly away from Josuke.

"But Ren…"

"Nora…"

"Ren… I just… I want this all to work out…"

Ren paused for a moment as Nora said this and, for a moment, turned his magenta eyes to the rest of the crowd. Even the adults among the group, or at least, those in the know about the situation, seemed tense. Ironwood's eyes were locked forward, to be certain, but there was a certain degree of concern Ozpin was sending over Josuke's way. Concern that was met by their various friends.

Ren was silent during a lot of talks. He mostly let Nora be the one who bridged the gap between him and their friends by spouting her stories or just being the friendly sort of person that Ren… well, wasn't. At least, not usually. Still, that didn't mean that he didn't take notice of everyone's stories. That he didn't know things about his friends or learn about them over time…

There was, by his reckoning, perhaps not one person in their group of friends who couldn't in some way sympathize with the situation Josuke was going through. Perhaps not directly, but each of them had their own troubles. Things they wish could have gone better or were going better with their families. Jaune's parents hadn't supported his dream to become a Huntsman, Pyrrha was distant from hers as a means of escaping Mistral, Yang herself obviously felt 'strong' sympathy for Josuke's situation and, given they were sisters, he couldn't imagine Ruby was far behind. Blake hadn't ever even 'mentioned' one word about her parents and Weiss… you definitely got the feeling that she wasn't on good terms. Ren had heard about Okuyasu's story, and perhaps the only one of all of them who couldn't completely understand Josuke was Koichi, and Ren had no doubts that the boy held Josuke in a great deal of esteem and felt strongly for the young man's struggles.

The less said of Ren and Nora's situation, the better.

So he could see quite plainly on all of their faces an equal measure of dread and… a silent sort of hope. Even Yang, perhaps the most stubbornly cynical about this of all of them, seemed to hold some faint whisper of a prayer that somehow, 'somehow' this was going to end up okay. That Josuke would be happier at the end of this than he started out.

In that way, Nora's desire was all of theirs… but at the same time, Ren knew Yang and, to a lesser extent, Joseph were right. This wasn't their matter to jump into and make a decision on. It was Josuke's.

"I know…" Was all Ren could offer his oldest friend as he placed a hand on her shoulder, the both of them joining in the tense silence as they watched the ship's entrance. Josuke had been doing his best to look off to the side and seem disinterested. However, this was broken the moment Koichi gasped upon seeing his first sight of his town's illustrious leader.

For Ren and Nora, the sight of Joseph had been a surprise but an expected one. Joseph had been quite old even when they had met him all those years ago, so it wasn't too great a shock to see the man whittled down further by time. However, if everyone else's gasps were any indication, the shock was greater on their end. No surprise; after all, the Joseph from their memories would've been the man whose adventures they'd read about.

So as the frail old man slowly stepped out onto the gangplank of the ship, broken cane in hand, and cast his gaze out at the small crowd, it was a small wonder that everyone seemed so shocked. All except for Josuke who seemed to be doing his very best to avoid locking eyes with the old man. There was a moment where Ruby bit her lips and seemed to take a step off to the side, a step that was quickly intercepted by Yang placing her hand on her sister's shoulder. Silver eyes and lilac met and, after a moment, Ruby's gaze became downcast as she watched the scene unfold. Joseph Joestar saw his son and saw his gaze so averted from him… his breath left his body in a deep sigh as he took a few steps forward.

Perhaps no one was more shocked than Ruby herself when the old man tripped anyway. All at once everyone was getting ready to jump forward; the old man looked so frail and rickety, the idea that he might crash to the floor and break something was at the forefront of everyone's mind. Yet, when all was said and done, not even the young woman with a speed Semblance had outmatched one person's pace.

So everyone watched in stunned silence as Higashikata Josuke, apropos of nothing, caught Joseph Joestar in his arms. No one seemed more surprised by this fact than Joseph himself, as he just blinked in confusion.

"Hey now… watch your step. You'll end up falling over the cliff or something and then this would've been pretty pointless, right?"

"Ah… my apologies. You see, I'm not normally this unsteady on my feet… but I'm afraid Nora broke my cane in the scuffle down below…" Several pairs of eyes turned on Nora, the bubbly bomber again just sheepishly scratching at the back of her head as she gave a light chuckle. The only people who hadn't turned on Nora in that moment were Ruby and Koichi, the pair of youngsters looking on at the scene with increasingly growing smiles and veritable glimmers in their eyes as Josuke just coughed awkwardly.

"Well… I guess that's that then, right?" In that moment Josuke shoved his hand out in front of Joseph Joestar, keeping his gaze firmly away from 'anyone' so he wouldn't have to look them in the eye. "You're just going to have to take my hand…"

In spite of Josuke's best efforts and in spite of everyone trying their best to not put too much attention on the increasingly flustered young man, most everyone couldn't help but gawk at the increasingly flushed teen as he offered his hand to the old man. It was perhaps sensing all this attention that Josuke ended up just grabbing the old man Joestar's hand and, ducking his head down so that his pompadour might hide his face, guided the old man toward the end of the airdock and leading him on toward Beacon Academy.

"... Ruby Rose… even after all that, did you honestly actually go through with your hairbrained scheme?" Weiss declared with a bit of annoyance tinging her voice as she turned to look at her team's leader, said silver eyed young woman practically squealing at the scene she was witnessing.

"She didn't Weiss… she really, really didn't…" Yang muttered, thoroughly surprised as she yanked against the spot on Ruby's shoulder where she had held her grip. "I honestly can't believe what I'm seeing here. Is this for real? I mean... what's even happening right now?"

"Don't think about it Yang!" Ruby squeaked as she waved her arms towards the pair as they walked off. "Just accept the feels!" Okuyasu crossed his arms as he watched, tilting his head to the side.

"I don't understand why Josuke's doing that though. I mean, couldn't he just fix the old man's cane and then hand it off to him or-"

"SHHHH, BE QUIET OKUYASU! I swear you're so dumb sometimes…" Koichi muttered as the scarred teen looked down at his teammate clearly confused.

"Eh, why not?" By this point most everyone was stuck between Yang's camp of utter confusion and Ruby's camp of being thoroughly pleasantly surprised… and it was clear that Koichi was in the latter camp himself.

"It's just better this time if he doesn't fix it…" Koichi said, tears visible in his eyes as he watched Josuke and Joseph walk off. At that point, Yang just put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side. Josuke was a boy scout, sure, the guy's heart was pretty much always in the right place… but it just seemed so odd to see that he was giving 'this guy' a chance. 'This guy' who had pretty much walked out on his family and left his mother to her lonesome. A guy that had been out there for years and now just… appeared. She understood Josuke's angst, she understood the feeling of being conflicted… but those conflicted feelings always bordered on either not wanting to see Raven at all and wanting an answer.

Yang… honestly didn't think she could wrap her mind around the idea of ever letting someone like Raven have a chance. Yet, this was what she was seeing. She turned her head around to see that her various other friends and saw that they ran the gambit; Blake and Weiss seemed in camp with her, stunned into some pretty strong confusion, while Jaune seemed to be increasingly going along with Ruby and Koichi on this matter and Pyrrha seemed eager to follow his footsteps.

If there was anyone with a shiteating grin on their face though, it was Nora. Even Ren seemed upbeat about this…

What was she missing out on here, exactly?

Guess she'd have an opportunity to ask him later… which, sure as Hell, she was going to take.

Off to the side, Ironwood heaved a sigh of relief as the general rubbed at his temples, Ozpin merely smiling confidently as he took part in a cup of hot cocoa.

"Nothing can be easy, can it Ozpin?" Ironwood asked, bags barely visible under his eyes as he watched the rest of his men join in with Josuke in escorting Joseph Joestar to Beacon Academy. Days like this he understood why Ozpin seemed as off as he did; if Ironwood had to keep dealing with insane situations like this as a Headmaster of one of the Academies, he'd probably turn into an eccentric sooner or later too.

"That, sadly, tends to be the way of the world James." Ozpin commented idly as he took another sip out of his mug. "Mmm. But it just makes it all the more satisfying when things do go right. Chin up General; the city is pacified, we've captured another enemy agent and Joseph Joestar is being safely escorted into Beacon. I would expect a military man like yourself to be holding a Triumph in this moment, rather than appearing so dour." James Ironwood laughed slightly as he turned his gaze back towards Oz.

"It isn't over til it's over Oz. We've got Joseph Joestar, but we'll need him to work his magic."

"Speaking of." Jotaro commented idly as he walked down from his own position the ship, a rare smile on the normally serious Hunter's expression as he turned to face Ozpin and Ironwood. "Did you get the materials asked for ready?"

"A television and a picture of Roman Torchwick? Not that hard to come across… though admittedly you threw us for a bit of a loop on the model. The former should arrive within the hour." Ozpin stated calmly as he took a drink. "Mmm… how long should we expect this to take?"

"Roman Torchwick doesn't have the same ingrained connection to Joseph Joestar as Dio Brando did, so it might take a little while for it to track him down. Hermit Purple isn't exactly everything it used to be either; time makes fools of even Stands." Ironwood and Ozpin each nodded their assent as the trio ended up heading on toward Beacon Academy.

"We've been sweating this affair for a couple days now. I doubt a couple hours of waiting will kill us." Ironwood declared rather calmly as Ozpin smiled.

"Indeed. Plus, well, it might do good for us to allow those two some time to themselves." There was an odd look in Ozpin's eyes; a very, very old look indeed. "Opportunities like this come barely once in a lifetime… and just as often they're not taken."

* * *

The City of Vale, Warehouse District

As all this went on, unbeknownst to our heroes, eyes were upon them. Though they no longer had Red Hot Chili Pepper to act as a spy within the ranks of their enemies, RHCP had helped to pave the way for this particular use for him to become obsolete. Cinder Fall smiled as she looked down at her Scroll, the symbol of the Black Queen hovering just in the corner as she watched the entire affair take place from a security camera.

Yes, the loss of RHCP was to be tragic, not just for the cleanup the role in dirtying her own hands to ensure that the all-too knowledgeable Stand wouldn't slip into enemy hands, but for its combat prowess. Yet Cinder Fall had planned for this eventuality…

Cinder Fall 'always' had a plan.

With the CCT hacked, Cinder now had eyes and ears everywhere in Beacon and Vale. The scope of her vision and of her abilities to move the various chess pieces of this board couldn't be matched. The arrogance of the Four Kingdoms in attaching so much of their lives to the CCTs would prove to be just one part of their undoing. This success, the main objective of that night of The Dance, would pay dividends from now until, potentially, the future… provided The Breach itself failed.

An eventuality that Cinder was now forced to reckon with. The golden eyes woman sighed as she turned off her Scroll, the video feed dying out. Indeed, while Roman Torchwick was outside the eyes of their enemies, Cinder could count on the fact that The Breach would go off with the complete and total element of surprise. Now… now that wasn't so true. Worse yet, now Cinder had to reckon with the fact that Joseph Joestar was in town and would, within a matter of hours no doubt, have Roman ready to be doled out to their enemies. It was one thing for Neopolitan to be captured; the girl was an annoyance but her loyalty to Roman was absolute and total. She wouldn't talk and, given her talents, Cinder had little doubt that their enemies would be able to force her to talk with Hermit Purple before she escaped.

Roman, on the other hand… if he slipped into the enemy's hands and Joseph Joestar could force Hermit Purple upon him, then 'that' would be a problem. A decidedly fatal one…

But Cinder Fall had a plan. Cinder Fall 'always' had a plan.

And so Cinder Fall turned to her erstwhile lackey, the man she had effectively entrapped into this alliance not so long ago now, as he agitatedly swung his cane around, his other hand palming his face as the man shook his head.

"Neopolitan will get out…"

"Yes, she will." Cinder stated cooly, calmly and with a certain hint of that ever present seduction of his. That much was true.

"She'll… she'll get that old bastard before he can rat me out."

"I'm afraid that ship has sailed, dear Roman." Indeed. With the state Neopolitan was in, it'd take several hours of rest before she could even possibly think to work on an escape. The girl was good and her Semblance decidedly useful for such a feat… but she'd still need time to recover from her pummeling.

"You don't know that… Neo's never failed me before. She won't fail me now." With that Cinder fall just smiled, nice and wide, as she reached a hand up to run along Roman Torchwick's shoulder blades, the man tensing as she did so.

"Oh, my poor, dear Roman… I'm afraid there's a first time for everything." The man was as pale as a sheet. Despite his own self-assurances, it was clear that the reality of the situation was dawning on Torchwick. Like a rat in a cage, he was huddling in the corner, making futile motions towards resistance as reality slowly but surely crushed him.

The truth was unavoidable, however. Neopolitan had failed and now his life was in direct peril. If something wasn't done then and there, Roman's fate was sealed.

"But you shouldn't worry, my dear Roman… because this isn't how your story is going to end." Roman Torchwick turned to match Cinder's gaze, his eyes wide with a deep-seated panic and worry. Cinder, ever the manipulator, offered the poor, unfortunate soul in front of her a look of sympathy. "Because you're one of 'my men', right Roman? And you know that I always take care of my own… just look at Emerald and Mercury. Perfectly safe and rescued from fates far more perilous than your own. Your dear little girl couldn't help you this time Roman… but I promise you. I can and I will."

"... You're serious?" There was a mix of desperation and hope in Roman's voice… just what Cinder fall wanted to hear.

"Of course my dear, poor Roman… after all; I have a plan."

Cinder Fall 'always' had a plan.

* * *

The silence would probably kill him before old age did.

Joseph had to physically restrain himself from jerking around or making too much movement as he and Josuke sat in the same room, awaiting Ironwood, Ozpin and Jotaro as they got the material ready for him to go to work with using Hermit Purple. While the three men were making the final preparations Josuke had elected to stick around with him and wait for the 'official' higher up business to begin before departing… for what reason, Joseph couldn't be certain.

The fact that the young man had been utterly silent ever since declaring this had not steadied the old man's nerves. The older Joestar was of two minds; on the one hand, the experience just then… it left him feeling somewhat over the moon. It was a simple gesture on Josuke's part… but it was a sign of openness that Joseph knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had no right to. A risk being taken by his… by his Huntsman.

But a chance for what? That remained the question that kept Joseph so worried in this silence. What had this young man waited around for… what were his intentions?

"... I had a talk with a really good friend about this the other day." The elderly Joestar gave a quick mental thanks to the Brothers Above when Josuke finally spoke, the young man scratching at the back of his head as he kept his back turned to him. "We talked about what exactly I wanted out of all of this… because, for a long time now, I hadn't really considered it. I considered what was best for everyone; for your honored family, for Jotaro, for my mom, for Morioh… and I was just content leaving things the way they were… no, that wasn't just it either… " Josuke sighed as he turned his gaze back toward Joseph, the young man's eyes meeting his.

"I was scared… Yang was right about that. I was afraid of what I might find out… but… not just what I might find out about you." At that, Joseph perked up. Yet if Joseph thought that Josuke would clarify he was soon corrected as the young man turned to face him head on. "With all due respect to you Joseph Joestar, Leader of The Frontier and Head of the Honorable Joestar Family… I think you owe me some answers."

There was a stubbornness there. Despite his own uncertainty, despite his own fear, this young man was looking him dead in the eye and making his demands. Joseph knew all too well from that look in his eye; he wouldn't be satisfied until he got them. Not now. Not after he'd come this way with him.

It was an easy mood to read. After all… it made Josuke look more like Joseph than ever before.

So it was with a heavy and nervous heart that Joseph Joestar brought his hands together into his lap and offered what little of a smile he could to the young man.

"I think so as well, Higashikata Josuke."

 **-To Be Continued- Achtung Baby (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Alright. Gotta shake off the rust.**

 **So this chapter is meant to have a lot of stuff going on in it; we're addressing one of the odder and yet far more interesting parts of Josuke's character that we saw developed in this part of Diamond is Unbreakable; his relationship with Joseph and why he bothered giving the old man a chance as well as setting up the roots of Roman Torchwick's fall from sensible villain to 'cackling villain telling the heroes that good guys never win before being eaten by a Grimm', both of which are really only lightly expounded upon in their series proper.**

 **The more clever of you might even see a parallel begin to form between these two plot lines; as one Father-Child Relationship begins to develop, another is slowly frayed. I'll discuss Joseph and Josuke later because they're a really interesting pair in Diamond is Unbreakable and 'DEFINITELY' deserve their own Author's Note to discuss that dynamic, so we'll start with Roman Torchwick.**

 **If like me you watched Volume III with the expectation that Roman Torchwick would roughly reappear and act in a way similar to how he went into the mess he was in then, like me, you were definitely surprised when the Roman Torchwick that popped out was instead the kind of guy who gave long-winded speeches about the futility of good and how evil was going to win the day, to the point where you might've expected a 'not so different, you and I' monologue to come out of the guy. Now, I say 'lightly' expounded upon because this isn't dropped out of our lap without any kind of sense; Roman himself actually gives a very sensible reason for his sudden turn in behavior;**

 **Survival.**

 **Getting on Cinder's side, whole hog, was the only way Roman saw fit to survive… and to be honest, it seems like there was more going on with Roman's spiral than just 'he needs to be a bit more evil'. If I had to guess, my best bet is that the RWBY staff had A LOT of material that they wanted to go through with Roman Torchwick. Something that would combine the more sensible, more mellow Roman of Volume 2 with the Roman Ruby ends up fighting aboard the ship in Volume 3. However, and say it with me this time friends;**

 **The RWBY staff probably didn't have sufficient time on top of everything else they had to establish in Season 3. Establishing the Maidens and their lore, Establishing Winter and giving insight into why Weiss would abandon her friends after the Fall of Beacon, setting up for the conflict that Yang would face so that we'd have context for her eventual fall into depression, setting up Pyrrha's troubles as she was suddenly thrusted into a situation way beyond her understanding, setting up all the crap with Cinder Fall, the finale, Drunkle Qrow and, finally, the Tournament fights themselves. Volume 3 had SO MUCH stuff to get through that I'm willing to bet you my bottom dollar that there was a great deal of stuff left on the cutting room floor, stuff that we may never get the chance to see.**

 **I've made no secret of the fact that Neo and Roman's part in this chunk of the story leans heavily on tragedy and this is part of the setup; Roman's fall and Neopolitan's pretty much undying and unquestionable loyalty to the man. It's why Neo's remaining such a big part in this arc. However, it's also for another reason; as contrast to Josuke and Joseph and their own arcs. Again, we'll get into that later.**

 ***Sighs* God it is good to be back in action. I feel well rested, I feel great. Just got a little bit of rust to shake off and we should be good.**

 **But first things first, a few ANNOUNCEMENTS;**

 **First off, chances are, this chapter isn't coming out at 6:00 A.M. like it had before. This is because in the previous eight months of posting I'd often disrupt my own sleep schedule in order to habitually get these chapters out right on the dot at 6:00 A.M. Not my brightest idea looking back on it so I'm reworking that to 'whenever I happen to wake up and if I have time before classes to get this posted'. So expect chapters to be out at anytime between 6:00 A.M. (if I should happen to naturally be up by them) to around, say, 5:00 P.M. at the latest.**

 **Second, I'm rounding off into what should be the last semester of one of my Masters Degrees, so things could end up getting difficult as I prepare for my Comps. I'll let you guys know ahead of time if my schedule is about to suddenly fill up but I thought I'd inform you just in case.**

 **Third, and finally, in the future expect slightly shorter windows of uninterrupted updates before some kind of break. At a minimum it'd be two straight months of updates with a two week break, working up to four straight months with a 1 month break and then, as we just had, eight months with a 2 month break. I'm saying this because I don't think it'd be wise for me to push myself to the limits I had previously with those eight months, barring some extreme circumstances where I just have oodles of time on my hands to dedicate to just writing.**

 **Other than that though things shouldn't be too different from how they were before. I thank you all for your patience and I hope you all have had an excellent two months. It feels good to be back.**


	43. Achtung Baby (Act 2)

"Now… where to begin…"

Question of the hour as far as one Joseph Joestar was concerned. Sat alone in the hall just before the elevator to Ozpin's office, sat on a bench as he looked up at his… well, his biological son, Higashikata Josuke. Really, this was the question that formed the very cornerstone of this conversation; where did he start? Did he start with how he met Josuke's mother and that entire affair, explaining what had been going down… or, perhaps not. After all, to explain why he'd been so open to going into the situation with Tomoko in the first place, he'd need to explain the events that far preceded his time with the young woman.

The question was, would Josuke have the patience to hear out his entire story, or was the young man only interested in hearing the bits that involved his mother and himself? Looking up at the young man there was a clear tension in his body language as he stared down at the older Joestar, his eyes locked with his for the briefest of moments before they shifted away from his. Joseph scratched his chin in thought; the boy had waited this long for his story and, even now, he wasn't rushing him along. It was clear he wanted to know just what was going on… but at the same time, it seemed that the boy's cool head was prevailing.

Perhaps he could test the waters and see just how much Josuke was willing to absorb as far as Joseph's part in this tale was concerned. See if he was more like Nora or Ren in regard to waiting for his story to come to its full conclusion.

"I assume you've heard the story about how my wife and I got together, correct Josuke?" The young man's vibrant eyes blinked as he looked down at the old man, confusion clear on his face as he just casually shrugged.

"I mean… sure. Everyone's heard it. It's part of your life story after all." Joseph shook his head slightly. 'Part of his life story' indeed, part of the many tales that kept The Frontier hopeful and strong. Exemplary tales from the last remaining First Family of Morioh with the Zeppelis now only being a Mistrali family and Speedwagon never having sired any children of his own.

"Would you mind telling me the version you've heard. It'd be helpful for me to understand what I'm starting with." For a moment Joseph regretted the request; a slightly annoyed glare crossed Josuke's features and Joseph had thought that he had perhaps overestimated the young man's patience with him. Surprising though, Josuke just crossed his arms and looked off to the side, as if disinterested.

"What's there to tell? You and Suzi Q met in Mistral during your time protecting The Creator's Stone and, after your battle with Kars, she ended up nursing you back to health in much the same way Erina did for Jonathan Joestar. The two of you, likewise, fell madly in love as members of the Joestar line are wont to do and you two tied the knot, Suzi Q even willingly returning to Morioh before the city was cut off by the flood of Grimm following Erina's Death." It sounded as if Josuke was reciting from sold old book he'd been forced to read again or again or some story told to him time and time again. It wasn't unexpected, Joseph supposed, but it still told him just about everything he'd need to know for where this conversation would go.

And so, new cane in hand, Joseph sighed as he looked forward and away from Josuke, outside a nearby window. "Tell me Josuke… do you know what was going through my mind when I was marrying Suzi Q? What thoughts just wouldn't leave me when I ended up taking that woman as my wife?" Josuke blinked in some confusion as he looked back at Joseph, the young Huntsman just shrugging his shoulders.

"Beats the Hell out of me, how am I supposed to know that?" Joseph couldn't help but grin a bit at that, to which Josuke ended up blushing in embarrassment at his frankness. His annoyance had caused him to slip up. "Uh, what I mean, sir, is-"

"At ease Josuke, at ease. We're not Leader and Huntsman in this place." The young man immediately relaxed upon hearing this as Joseph stroked his chin. "Plus it's very natural that you wouldn't know what I was thinking…

"I mean, I don't even really know myself."

Josuke flinched a little as Joseph said this, though not in a pained or cringing manner. More it was the shock of hearing such a statement from Joseph Joestar that seemed to rile up the reaction.

"Sir… I mean, uh… you know what, sir?" Josuke chuckled as Josuke seemed to fight for some way to address him. "What do you mean… oh, wait, is it because… you know, you're getting a little…" Joseph had to admit, he chuckled a bit at the young man's insinuation.

"Perhaps that's part of it… but even before I got this old, I'd forgotten much of what I was thinking that day when I asked Suzi Q to marry me and we ran off to the nearest Church." Joseph shrugged as he looked back forward. "Or at least, that's what I'd thought for the longest time. That I'd just 'forgotten' what I was thinking that day. After all, your wedding is supposed to be a big deal. You're marrying someone… and if you're a Joestar, it's the person you love. It was that way with my grandfather and my father and… well, that's the way it was supposed to be for me."

Joseph smiled a wry grin as he looked over at Josuke, the pompadoured teen just staring headlong at him. "After all, it's like you said, it was a scene right out from the tales of my grandfather's own life. Here I was, awaking from my battle with a near-immortal being that nearly cost me my life, a battle that had been long, arduous and painful… and when I woke up, there was a beautiful young woman, blonde no less, tending to my wounds and treating me quite pleasantly… most of the time." Joseph coughed into his fist as he seemed to recall some minor annoyance but moved on.

"So, I had to have been thinking 'something' when I asked her to marry me, correct? That I had just forgotten it due to time and the rigors of having to run The Frontier." Joseph chuckled as he looked down. "It was really only twenty or so years ago that I considered the possibility that it wasn't my memory at fault. After all, while I was bit of an older gentleman then, I wasn't ancient. I thought long and hard about the kind of young man I was then… and I thought long and hard about my own thoughts. Do you know what occurred to me, Josuke?" Josuke swallowed a lump in his throat as he shook his head.

"I didn't forget anything… I just wasn't thinking anything at all when I married Suzi Q."

"Eh?" Honestly, were it not for the seriousness of the topic, the pure look of confusion that crossed Josuke's face might've been amusing to the elderly Joestar. As things currently stood, Joseph just sat there waiting while Josuke placed a hand on his forehead. "I-I mean hold on a second, you can't really mean that for real, right? I mean, you had to be thinking of something, right? You're a Joestar, all you all fall in love with one woman and marry them. I mean, for you to not be thinking of anything-"

"I'd have had to have been an eighteen year old young man who had just survived a life or death struggle that, very nearly, left me dead out in the middle of the ocean who just so happened to be being brought back from the edge of death by a very attractive young woman…" Josuke seemed to pause as Joseph said this and, after a moment, the teen's face dropped.

"Oh my God…"

"Makes a little too much sense, doesn't it?" Joseph asked as he watched Josuke just walk on over to a nearby chair, the young man plopping down onto it as he continued to stare at Joseph Joestar.

"... I mean… I don't get it…"

"Josuke, you're a young man yourself. Heck, you're only a couple years younger than I was when I married Suzi Q. You can't tell me that you haven't looked at some attractive young women yourself and gotten a little… interested?" Josuke's face went pure red at this as he looked off to the side, scratching the back of his head.

"W-W-Well… I mean… that's to say that, I think so but… I-I'm more a guy who believes in True Love, sir…" Joseph actually smiles a bit at this as he observes Josuke.

"Good man…" But Joseph sighs as he leans back in his own chair. "But I can tell that you get what I'm referring to. Josuke, we're 'all' excitable young men at one point in time in our lives… and some of us have a little more self control than others… or in my case, a lot 'less' self control than others." Josuke looked back over at the old man, a curious look on his face.

"But, I mean, Jonathan and George-"

"My grandfather and father were, from what I've been told, very 'unique' men… and Lisa Lisa and Erina were very unique woman. I can't say much for the former myself, but I can assure you of the latter." Joseph sighed as he looked off. "Besides, I can tell you myself that I wasn't the paragon of patience and thinking things through when I was a young man. Sure when it came to a fight I could plan like no one's business… but in everything else I was rash and irresponsible… sad to say it never cost my own person quite dearly…"

"... Caesar?" Joseph just nodded solemnly.

"I had thought that I'd learned to think things through a little more clearly after that… but in the end I was overestimating myself, again. Frankly, I was also underestimating just how much of an impact a near death experience could leave you… and facing your own death isn't much easier." Joseph cackled slightly as he turned back to Josuke. "Did you know that Suzi Q and I only really chatted once or twice before we got to the point where she was nursing me back to health and I asked her to get hitched with me." Josuke's draw dropped slightly as Joseph admitted this. "Hell, the first time we talked, the major takeaway from our conversation was that she thought I had weird lips."

"Oh… is, is that so…" Josuke leaned back in his chair, his hands reaching up for his own lips in such a manner that Joseph just chuckled under his breath. "Alright so… you didn't love Suzi Q at the time. I don't get why it took so long for something to pop up then. You said twenty years ago, right? Then what's the deal, why did it take so long for something to click." Joseph shrugged his shoulders as he rubbed his chin.

"Well first and foremost, Holly was born… and Josuke, let me tell you something; I love that girl. Even as old as I am I still view her as my child. Admittedly I'm more in the position of needing her help than she needs mine but… well, Holly will always be my child." For Josuke there was a bit of a sting as the old man spoke so reverently about his daughter but he got the picture; the man loved his kid. "So early on I really didn't have a chance to think too much about it because Suzi and I were busy raising Holly… then… well… erm…" Joseph coughed into his fist slightly. "The rest really isn't important, moving on-"

"Sir, I asked for answers. Whatever it is you need to say, I won't be… more angry than I might have a right to be." Josuke quickly corrected his statement. He was still upset about this entire ordeal and, answers or no, he wasn't exactly liking what he was hearing. After all, the way Joseph Joestar was building this up he was basically saying that he ended up in a mid-life crisis and slept with his mom… because.

This was something Josuke expected but, nonetheless, wasn't exactly all that excited to hear coming from the old man.

"I understand Josuke but, really, the other stuff isn't as important and it really isn't something you need to hear…"

"I'll decide if it's something I need to hear or not, sir. So please, out with it." Joseph grimaced at Josuke's tone and, after a moment of staring into the young man's eyes and not seeing him back down, the elderly Joestar sighed.

"And besides the love I had for Holly… well, I was a young man Josuke and… I'm not going to lie, the sex was pretty great."

…

It didn't take long as all for Josuke's face to 'immediately' turn beet red as he turned away from Joseph, his hands immediately cradling both sides of his head as the young man seemed to just shut down for a moment, a silent scream ripping itself from his throat before, finally, that turned into an actual shudder and sound of disgust.

"Holy crap… I… I really didn't need to hear that, like, at all! Holy shit, I didn't need to… 'imagine' it either… oh Brothers…" Josuke turned slightly green at the thoughts now running through his mind, Joseph just nodding in understanding as he thought back to the moment when Lisa Lisa told him she was his mother… and the moment that he realized that he'd snuck a peek at his own naked mother.

While Josuke was busy being disgusted by his own imagination, Joseph took a moment to gag as well; even after all these years, that thought still managed to put him in a bad frame of mind.

"Well hey young man, I did tell you that you didn't need to hear this… and it would've been pretty redundant to say that you wouldn't 'want' to hear it considering the conversation."

"You think?" Josuke snapped back for a moment before the sight of the old man caused his feelings of nausea and embarrassment to renew. "... You could've warned me a little harder, dammit… a-anyway, moving on?"

"'Fraid not, cause now that it's out there, it's… part of the understanding." A slight 'Oh Gods' could be heard under Josuke's breath as Joseph coughed into his fist. "Anyway… the early days of my relationship with Suzi Q were defined by all that. The idea that this was just how Joestar men fell in love and got married, the… passionate sex-" Josuke gagged for a moment, "-and the birth of my daughter. All of it was enough to dissuade any niggling voices in my mind that something may not have been right. That I may have rushed into something I didn't understand. Hell, she nursed me back to health, we had a very passionate relationship-" Another gag, "-and I loved my child and, when she eventually had them, my grandchild. It all seemed like it worked out like it was supposed to, right?" As the conversation wound back down into something serious, Josuke's gaze could finally return to Joseph as the old man sighed.

"But… things changed, Josuke. My daughter moved out of my home and married another man and, well, Suzi Q and I were getting older. Time eventually catches up to all of us, Josuke; even Hermit Purple: Overdrive couldn't deny that fact for me for long. Eventually… the fiery passions of youth just die in a relationship Josuke. If there isn't something there underpinning them, if there isn't more to it… then the relationship will slowly go along with that passion.

"In the end, it was only the justification of my father and grandfather's lives that kept me in denial for much longer. However, in the end, I've long since come to accept the idea that I wasn't either of them… so when the passion left and my daughter left, my own justifications for why I couldn't remember why I married Suzi Q, why I couldn't 'feel' those emotions my Grandmother Erina or Lisa Lisa described… they eventually gave way to a simple truth."

"... You didn't love her."

The statement was heavy in the air as Josuke spoke, Joseph giving a sad smile as he looked up to her.

"Don't mistake me, Josuke. Suzi Q… she's the mother of my child and she's been a constant partner with me for many decades now. She's a good woman and any man would've been lucky to marry her… Hell, I consider myself lucky considering the bounty she gave me in the form of our daughter… but yes, you're right. One day I was in my office, working away… and I realized that I didn't love my wife. I realized it the second that I took a moment to weigh my options between working late into the night and going home… and for once, going home didn't appeal as it had for so long.

"But… well, I didn't think it mattered at the time." Josuke blinked as Joseph continued. "Sure, I wasn't in love with my wife… but I was still content. I didn't hate Suzi Q, far from it, and I was perfectly happy with the life I'd put together for myself. Besides, it wasn't as if I could actually do anything about it… there was expectations put in behind the myth of the Joestar Family. Ideas about the kind of men we are and how we operate. 'The Joestar Family only ever has one child a generation. The Men of the Joestar Family only ever fall in love with one woman in their lives. The Joestar Family is loyal to each other to the bitter end. After all, even with Jonathan and George dying so young, Erina and Lisa Lisa never remarried.' The power of myth… it can be a very stabilizing thing Josuke. I think Speedwagon, as much as he was a true believer in my Grandfather, realized that himself and formed half the reason he had built up our family so much.

"So in the end, even if I didn't love her, even if I might have been curious about what was out there… it wasn't like I could divorce her and move on. Because my marriage was more than just 'my' marriage… it was part of the greater sense of safety, security and stability that surrounded Morioh. As much as the great walls and the promise of Atlesian Military Superiority is the myth that convinces Four Kingdomers that they're perfectly safe here… the legendary qualities of the Joestar Bloodline is what holds Morioh together, Josuke. Anything that forms a fracture in that… well, look at yourself."

Josuke blinked in confusion. Look at himself, the young man would've thought. What's there to look at? Still as Josuke looked down at his hands, his eyes went slightly wide in surprise; his hands were shaking. Not out of hate or anger even; though he did feel a certain sense of disgust at the idea that this mid life crisis formed the basis for Joseph Joestar to sleep around with and knock up his mom, Josuke wasn't without sympathy for a man who had rushed into such a monumental decision.

No, the shake of his hands came from surprise. Surprise and… yes, a little bit of doubt. He'd known better than anyone that the Joestar Family wasn't perfect. Hell, he knew Jotaro personally and was part of Joseph's story…

But to have the entire myth built around the family be torn down so completely still shook something in him. Something at his very core that took a certain amount of comfort in the idea of that Central Family. That the Joestar Line, while afflicted with its terrible curse, was still made up of men and women who were simply 'above' normal people. Who were like their ancestor, Jonathan Joestar…

At that moment, a decidedly dark thought crossed Josuke's mind.

"People… people would doubt the entire conceit that surrounds Jonathan Joestar…" Joseph nods.

"Indeed. Speedwagon knew Jonathan personally. He knew what my grandfather was like and so… well, it was clear that everything he said about him was the truth. Jonathan Joestar really was a once-in-a lifetime… no, perhaps once in 'many' lifetimes sort of man. Heck… we don't look to him and Dio's relationship with such significance for no reason… Two Brothers, one of Light and One of Dark. A curse passed down the family line that links them inextricably to this fight. You're part of it too Josuke, after all." At that, Josuke reached a hand up to his own shoulder and… he knew it was in his mind. Still, in that moment, Josuke couldn't help but imagine that his Star Birthmark burned hotter than it ever had in his entire life.

"But Speedwagon was the last man alive to know Jonathan. People only continue to believe in the stories because those of us who've come after him and Speedwagon have done what we can to live up to their example… well, it took Jotaro some time but, well, he's certainly a man worth of the Joestar name." You can't help but nod in agreement; as little as even Jotaro seemed to think of himself and his time as a youth, it was clear that he lived every bit up to the Joestar name as anyone. "That carries with it the risk though… if that illusion is ever suitably broken, if that fact ever passes into myth…"

"It doesn't take many people to fall into despair to call in the Grimm…" Joseph nodded as he leaned back in his chair.

"When my grandmother Erina died, Josuke… you should've seen the people of Morioh. They lined up for miles to pay their respects to her. People loved her Josuke… people felt safe because she was, to them, Morioh's Mother and Grandmother. The despair people felt when that sense of safety and family was gone… when it was broken by her death… there's a reason why Stroheim could never make it to Morioh, Josuke. The entire town was surrounded by Grimm for miles. It was the closest Morioh's ever come to complete destruction since the days when Dio Brando was marching an entire army of Grimm around the continent, destroying any colony he could come across.

"It's made even worse because of the nature of Stands. They're reflections of our Souls Josuke, given shape by Aura and empowered to fight by our wills and willingness to continue to Stand and fight next to them. When people are consumed by their despair… it can make even a powerful Stand crumble." Josuke nodded his head in understanding as Joseph leaned back.

"I took these lessons to heart Josuke… and so for three long years, I accepted that this was to be my lot in life. That I would stay married to a kind, caring woman that I didn't love and that… I would be okay with it. My own daughter had managed to find love on her own and, by then, Jotaro was around nine years old when I realized these things. I could be happy for and with my family and continue to work as Morioh's Leader until a suitable successor came along… because Holly, Brothers love her Josuke, I wouldn't trust her with The Frontier if all our lives depended on it." Josuke nodded in understanding. That was it then, past was prologue… and so…

"But you didn't accept it for long, did you?" Joseph nodded, a strained motion as the old man looked down at his cane.

"No. No I did not…" Joseph looked down at the cane and the edge of his cap ended up obscuring Josuke's vision of his face.

"So, that's it then huh? You were having a mid-life crisis, decided you'd put it behind you by sleeping around with my mom and then… I just happened to pop out? Great, glad we could get this behind us…" Josuke huffed as he placed his hands on his knees… up until Joseph chuckled. Josuke's eyebrows arched in interest as he looked over at Joseph.

"Your mother, huh?" Again there was that chuckle… and Josuke couldn't help but feel annoyed.

"What, something funny you… sir…" Josuke corrected himself before he spouted off something like 'old man'. Joseph raised his face to look at Josuke and, for a moment, the pompadoured teen was thoroughly surprised.

There was a smile on Joseph's face, one of a deep, 'deep' nostalgia.

"Your mother… Josuke-"

Before the conversation could go on, the doors to the waiting room opened up, drawing Josuke and Joseph's attentions forward. Jotaro, Glynda, Ozpin and Ironwood all entered at once; just underneath Jotaro's arm was an old model television and, in Ironwood's grips, were several folders stuffed to the absolute brim with intelligence, information and photographs on Roman Torchwick.

"Terribly sorry to interrupt Mr. Joestar, Mr. Higashikata, but… well, when it comes to Roman Torchwick time may very well be of the essence. We've already waited long enough while waiting for everything to come in… I'd like to ask if we could quickly have this done." Josuke bit his bottom lip as he heard this. On the one hand, he'd thought he'd pretty much gotten all the information he'd needed out of Joseph Joestar. He'd ended up feeling, if not unsatisfied then passionless in his marriage and his mother had been the… conduit which Joseph Joestar had managed that. The affair had gone on, Josuke happened and, well, everything was history after that. As far as Josuke could be concerned, he'd had the entire story laid out for him and he could feel satisfied.

"Hmmm… yes, judging by what you'd told me, this is vital business for us to conduct. We shouldn't leave it waiting any longer…" Joseph heaved a great sigh as the elderly man forced himself to stand on his own two feet, the elderly Joestar readjusting his glasses as he did so. There was a momentary pause in between this and the others approaching the elevator, as Joseph looked down at Josuke with a slightly sorry look on his face.

"Josuke… we're not entirely done here, I think."

But on the other hand… there was that. There was something else Joseph wanted to discuss. There was more to the story; while Josuke could see the broad outlines, it was clear there were more details to be filled in. There was something more to the story that Joseph hadn't gotten the opportunity to tell yet…

For Josuke, the question would be whether he'd want to actually hear the rest.

"If you all wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if after I used Hermit Purple to help find your target that I could continue my discussion with Josuke…" Joseph scratched his chin slightly as he did so. "Perhaps take a bit of a walk at that… it has been ages since I've been in the City of Vale… it would be nice to see it again." Josuke couldn't help but frown at that. He suspected he got the general picture of what Joseph was angling for.

After all, if they stayed in Beacon then who knew 'what' would end up interrupting their discussion. The second the two of them got away from campus, the less likely it would have been that the two of them would end up interrupted as they had here.

"There is the prisoner we have in custody, Mr. Joestar. She's been giving us quite the silent treatment ever since we've brought her on board… we've literally not been able to get her to cop to anything, and it's clear that she's taking a great deal of pleasure in resisting our efforts. Hermit Purple could be quite useful in pulling whatever information she might have as well." Ironwood stated firmly as Ozpin merely shook his head.

"James, as much as I might agree, it's clear the prisoner currently isn't in much of a state to do much of anything. As much as we might want her information, the additional stress forcibly tearing information from her mind might inflict on her could end up costing us what knowledge she might have all together. We've already got more than enough with just using the Divining aspects of Hermit Purple in order to locate Roman Torchwick, let us not give in to haste when it comes to the prisoner." Joseph nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, while Hermit Purple might not be an especially destructive Stand, it's effects on appliances has been rather… poor before. The process is intense and takes a lot of energy, and it goes for getting information out of people too. In her current state, I wouldn't put it past the girl to pretty much fall apart under the pressure of the interrogation." Jotaro himself gave a quick grunt of agreement; the wielder of Star Platinum remembered a discussion much like this one back during the Stardust Crusade. While he and Polnareff had, to very strong degrees, wanted to pull the information on Dio out of Enya as soon as they could, Joseph had cautioned that doing so could have caused irreversible harm or even destroyed her mind so soon after Jotaro's battle with Justice. If it was the same case here, then Jotaro could see the wisdom in putting it off.

"Once Joseph does his work we can begin strategizing around what we're going to do with this information. We'll have our hands full as is James… I doubt that we'd miss Joseph for a couple hours while we began moving everything into position, wouldn't you agree?" General Ironwood frowned slightly as he looked down at the old, rickety man before him, a slight frown on his face as he looked back to Ozpin.

"We might've pacified the city Oz, but are you really sure it's wise to let him just go out in it? I mean…"

"I do believe I'd feel quite secure if with Higashikata Josuke keeping an eye on me, General. Besides, I might be old and a might washed up when it comes to fighting, but I'm not completely useless so long as I have Hermit Purple on hand. I'll be fine." After the browbeating by both Ozpin and Joseph, the general just sighed as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright, alright. Just wanted to put this all out there to be sure. Just worried as all… can't help but feel a little jumpy now that things are going well. Feels like the other shoe has to drop eventually."

"Understandable. It has seemed like any bit of good news has either been followed up with bad news or by ill tidings as of late… all the more reason for us to put this plan into motion." Ozpin turned his gaze to the elderly Joestar who, in turn, glanced back over his shoulder at Josuke.

"So… what do you say, Josuke?" The pompadoured teen bit his lip slightly as he gave the matter some thought…

* * *

She'd have to give this matter some thought.

Neopolitan had found herself in a rather small and tightly sealed cell aboard Ironwood's warship, a slight frown on her face as she crossed her arms. The seat provided in the cell was quite small though, thankfully, Neopolitan's equally small statue made it quite easy to treat as a bed, crossing one leg over the other and kicking it in the air as she took time to think.

While her body 'desperately' craved some kind of sleep right now, she didn't want to go to sleep without forming some kind of plan for her escape. After all, she was on a 'very' tight time limit right now. Who knew when they'd drag Joseph Joestar in here to do his magic to her. The more time she spent sitting in this cell, the more she recovered and the more likely it'd be that the old man would be freed up to go ahead and just plug that Stand of his into her mind which, to be completely honest, was 'not' Neo's idea of a good evening.

She either needed to come up with a plan now while her mind at least was functionally awake and ready to go or she'd need to do it later once her body felt well rested. Doing it now meant that, as soon as she woke up and had enough Aura to work with, she could put her plan into action. Doing it later meant precious minutes could be wasted.

No thank you.

First things first was to appear inconspicuous. The more it looked like she was planning her escape the more attention she'd draw to herself. The more attention she drew to herself, the more it might eventually come to pass that she'd be moved into a decidedly trickier cell to break out of or, worse, just brought out for the mind diving. So Neopolitan sat laid back in her cell, appearing as casual as she could, yawning slightly as her body felt more and more of the strain of her exhausted Aura. The very picture of a defeated enemy who was looking for a comfortable spot in the cell to get some sleep.

With that, Neopolitan looked around her cell. It looked to be about a little shorter than Roman if he stood fully up while being about as great in radius as she was laying down with her legs bent, perhaps saving a few inches. Now, from Neopolitan's perspective, the cell was larger on the outside than it was on the inside; she had honestly expected more room inside the cell when she had been walked up to it. Her cell, therefore, was actually only a small amount of the space comparatively… in all likelihood, the walls of this little prison were probably 'several' inches thick, which meant she wasn't going to be literally busting her way out of this. The door was similarly thick and sturdy looking.

Considering she didn't have her parasol on her, something she'd have to look into replacing later, that meant that cutting, punching, kicking or beating her way out of the cell was a no go. That was usually the case with prisons but hey, you never know, a rusty hinge or a lazy contractor could end up giving you the key to your freedom just through shoddy workmanship.

Perhaps then it was understandable that General Ironwood's Flagship was up to code and that everything appeared to be state of the art and brand new. One point for the General.

Alright so she'd need more information. With her rough estimates, Neopolitan quickly figured that she could fit the two guards who were standing just outside her cell into this little hovel without much trouble. They'd have to be bent at some slightly embarrassing angles but it's not like they'd care much; you can't get too embarrassed when you're dead, after all.

No, the embarrassing angles would be purely for Neo's benefit, of course.

But before Neopolitan could begin to giddily imagine which body parts she'd put each of their heads on when it came to aligning their corpses, Neopolitan of course knew that the biggest need of the plan 'before' that was to try and ponder out how she was either going to get out of the cell in order to get to the guards 'or' to get those guards in here so that she could quickly kill them and then proceed with her humiliation and successful escape.

Neopolitan stopped kicking her foot, swiveled around on her back and got up onto her own two feet in the cell, the top of it, despite the small size of the room, still being a ways away from her head. On the door of the cell there was a single window showing out to the holding area of the ship and Neo, with a slightly put upon sigh, walked over to it… only to find that her head couldn't quite reach it. She was almost there of course but Neo, the short girl, would have to indulge in a little embarrassment herself.

And so Neopolitan, deadly assassin with a Semblance that made her almost impossible to pin down, had to daintily get up on her tippy toes in order to look out the window…

Sixty-nine, Neopolitan decided. The guards would be arranged in a sixty-nine position once she was done killing them and dragging them into her cell. That was proportionate punishment for this, if you asked her.

Neopolitan scrunched up her mouth a bit as pink and brown eyes scanned down both lengths of the room from the window of her cell, a slight frown on her face as she had to fidget a bit to look around the guards posed on either side of the cell. Alright, six cells down one way, six cells down the other and one cell directly facing her own cell. So thirteen cells on each side with twenty-six total in the room, most of them unoccupied though, she did see, that a good deal of them had her former 'associate' Stand Users stuffed inside, locked up by Ironwood and his associates after Josuke and his friends had beaten the crap out of them.

Were it not for the fact that Neopolitan had been forced to join them in their captivity, she might've taken a moment to laugh at them and then be on her merry way, leaving them to their fate.

Regardless, Neopolitan then looked up at the ceiling and scanned around… say what you would about Ironwood, but the guy was 'fancy'. His holding cells had a vaulted ceiling with little arches hanginging down that led up to either side of some black pillars that were just hanging off the ceiling. She had been in far less fancy schmancy prison cells to be certain, so she could at least give Ironwood an A for actually considering some interior decorating…

Though Ironwood didn't exactly come across as the sort of guy who'd just include random interior decoration in his prison area. No, that seemed a little too gauche for a man like Ironwood. There had to be some kind of use for all those… hmmm… Neo's eyes scanned the ceiling as time went on, her frown deepening as she did so.

Where were the cameras?

At first Neopolitan had thought that maybe, just maybe, Ironwood had made all those arches and junk in order to hide the cameras from sight of the prisoners… but that was dumb. Really dumb. After all, prisoners can't directly see the cameras then the cameras can't directly see the prisoners… kind of making the point of the cameras completely and utterly pointless all together. So no, that couldn't be it. Still, she wasn't actually seeing any cameras on the ceiling and she 'very' much doubted that Ironwood was the kind of idiot who'd leave no surveillance in his prison hall… right? She supposed it'd be good for her if he was, I mean, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth but-

Wait… wait a moment. Her eyes tracked down onto one of the central pillars of the room, pink and brown narrowing as she watched one particular pillar closely… closely… up until the moment where the pillar shifted ever so slightly and the briefest flash of a lens met Neopolitan's eyes.

Clever dick. He'd disguised the cameras that were watching all the cells as architecture in the room. That way if someone was stupid enough to break out without a plan, somehow, then they wouldn't think to destroy the cameras because, as far as they were concerned, there weren't any cameras at all. Then you could just have the cameras follow their movements in order to track them down, break their legs and then drag them back to their cells.

It was actually kind of ingenious.

Annoying as all Hell because that meant there were a metric shitton of cameras that she'd have to consider in her escape, but still ingenious.

Still, the fact that she now knew where all of them were meant that Neo could, at the very least, be certain that she could form an illusion later in order to help aid her escape. She'd need a lot more rest than she might've initially thought, however. By the looks of it the illusion would have to expand out from the cell so that it would obscure the camera's visions of it… and she'd have to make sure she mentally covered all the angles so that nothing would look too crazy to someone watching multiple camera angles.

Tough and really complicated but hey, she was Neopolitan, Roman Torchwick's right hand woman. She had this.

Cameras covered, Neopolitan turned her attention to her last roadblock; tweedle dee and tweedle dumb here. Two human guards that Ironwood had left in charge of her cell to make sure she didn't try anything. He'd precluded using robot guards because apparently old Jamesy finally came around to the realization that Atlas' robots sucked in a fight where they didn't have vastly superior numbers against brain dead opponents like the Grimm and that he actually needed some quality in order to keep someone like Neopolitan pinned into her cell.

It was a good effort again and a point of common sense she could almost admire. It still wasn't going to stop her from breaking out of here with a big old smile on her face, but it was a smart move.

Still, just how quality were these guys? She could assume, on a baseline level, that they probably had their Auras unlocked… but honestly, that didn't mean much. Aura was like a muscle in its own way; if you didn't push it to its limits, it wouldn't get stronger. Training was nice but you didn't get quite the same workout as you did out of live, life or death fights.

Which was why, in a 'normal' one versus one, she would've kicked that blonde bimbo's ass.

But she wasn't going to dwell on that… at least, not right now.

Plus the Atlesian Military was, at best, out of practice what with the zero wars being fought and the Grimm being mostly fought by Atlesian Knights. If Neo had to guess, these guys wouldn't be too hard for her to take down… after all, they just so happened to carry their own nifty little guns and a knife holstered somewhere on them for close quarters combat. Both of which would be extremely nice, though Neo would be going with the knife. After all, while her illusion 'could' disrupt sound and keep it quiet, she didn't want to give the impression that she was capable of that yet. Best to just stab them in the necks or cut open a major artery and let them bleed out nice and quiet so that nobody got tipped off as to her second ability.

She didn't need that getting around when Koichi just thought that Neopolitan was only capable of manipulating sound for stealth.

Ugh, no time to think about that stupid stuff. Koichi was fine, Josuke fixed him up and he suspected nothing. It was fine. Totally fine. She was sure about that.

At any rate, time to test the brain cells on these two geniuses here. So, with just a tiny cough into her hand, Neopolitan tapped on the glass to her cell and the guards, having not heard a single peep out of her, jumped a bit as they turned to face her.

So they were jumpy in her presence huh? Wise.

"What do you want inmate?" Neopolitan just frowned slightly as she made a motion for a glass of water to which the two guards just huffed. "You'll have that brought to you later. What, you think we're stupid enough to leave you alone in your cell to go and get you a little drink, little girl?"

…

Maybe she'd undress them entirely while she was at it when she was rearranging their corpses. That sounded even more fun. Still, she wasn't going to lie, she was kind of hoping they were 'that' dumb. So Neopolitan just shrugged her shoulder and nodded as the two guards scoffed.

"Right then, well, go ahead and give up on that dream little girl." Again with that. "We're not leaving our post here for anything or any reason. You'll get food and water at assigned times and it'll be slipped into your cell through that little mechanism there on the wall to you right." Neo's pink and brown eyes glanced over curiously and, sure enough, there was a big old obvious portion of the wall that had a square panel cut into it… the cuts were 'way' too thick for her to press her fingers into and the steel was still reinforced. Likely the only way to open it- "The only way to open it is through a button on the other side, so don't go getting any clever ideas" -right, thank you, that.

"Face it little girl." Neopolitan clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she turned to the other soldier. "The only way you're getting out of here alive is in General Ironwood's custody when he comes to drag your little ass off to be interrogated. So you best get comfortable in the meantime because you aren't going anywhere." With that the two guards turned their backs on Neo and went back to their business, leaving Neopolitan fuming slightly as she crossed her arms.

She'd steal their scrolls and send photos to the families. That would be the cherry on top of all this. That was what Neopolitan had decided as she turned around, walked back to the seat and laid back down upon it. Otherwise a big old smile was on Neo's face as she yawned and closed her eyes.

So, the only way she was getting out of here was in General Ironwood's custody huh? Not a bad idea there boys, not a bad idea indeed.

* * *

"You're 'actually' going through with this? You're going to keep engaging with this guy?"

Whilst Josuke and Joseph had retreated for a while, presumably talking among themselves while waiting for Ozpin and Ironwood to set things up for Joseph, the rest of the gang of eleven had withdrawn to Team RWBY's dorm room in order to have a quick strategic meeting on how to address all the possible outcomes of Josuke's and Joseph's talk.

Side one, headed by Blake, Yang and Weiss, was that Josuke was likely to find what everyone just about expected out of Joseph Joestar and that he'd be coming back, if not completely happy, then at least satisfied that he finally got the answers he was looking for and was ready to move on and that they'd need to be there to support him. Side two however was lead by Ruby, Nora and, to the extent that he wasn't dragged into that side of the argument by Nora, Ren, who all insisted that Josuke might just end up giving Joseph a chance and that they should be open to them taking this step in the relationship.

Everyone else had fallen into a slightly confused middle, all except for Okuyasu who suggested, out of all of them, that Josuke might just come back with pretty much no progress certainly made and with things in a bit of a limbo. He was promptly ignored up until Josuke returned to explain that he hadn't gotten the full story and that things, up until Joseph left the meeting, were in a bit of a wash…

And that yes, he was going to take Joseph Joestar up on his offer to continue the conversation.

"Josuke, I can understand being curious, and I swear Yang if you make a curiosity kills the cat pun I'll smack you with the cover of my book." Yang's mouth had been open at the time and then quickly shut as Blake continued. "However, you know the backstory to all this now. I mean, even under the absolute best possible circumstance, that he loved your mother well and truly like something out of a storybook… then what, Josuke? That still leave you with the fact that he 'abandoned' you. Even under the best case scenario, that's where this story ends up." Josuke frowned slightly as Blake laid this out, Yang frowning slightly as she looked over at Josuke.

"Listen, JoJo… I'm not gonna be as harsh as Blake here but… she's got a point. I get that this might be what you want but… I dunno. I'd hate for you to get your hopes up and then just get hurt by the end of it. Hero or leader or whatever, the old man did leave you. That part of the story doesn't change…" Yang offered, sympathetically as she could, as Ruby shook her head.

"Maybe that's true, but you never know what could come up! Like, there's gotta be a reason right? If Joseph Joestar is as much of a good person as they say and the story says, then there had to be a reason, right?" Weiss frowned a bit as she looked over at Ruby.

"Ruby, what reason is there that could possibly be good enough that a father would abandon their own kid and leave them in the dust the moment they're born?" Ruby looked over at Weiss and opened her mouth… only to close it and think for a second. "That was a rhetorical question Ruby, there is no answer."

"Oh…" Ruby frowned and crossed her arms, turning her silver eyes back to Ren and Nora for some support. What Ruby found was that Ren was, very determinedly, holding Nora back, keeping a hand on the normally explosively energetic girl's shoulder and tempering her so that she didn't say anything.

"... What?"

"You guys went on the ship to speak with Joseph Joestar, surely you guys have the answers Josuke wants already. Why not just-"

"It's fine, Jaune." The blond young man stopped as Josuke placed his hands in his uniform's pockets, the pompadoured teen leaning up against a nearby wall. "Look… there's something I have to know. Something that's bugged me for a long time. Something that I've never been able to quite understand but that I've had to just 'accept' because it's what I was told. It's… something I can only figure out from the old man."

Why did his mother fall in love with this old geezer. It wasn't that Josuke doubted his mother's feelings, Brother Above knew that the woman well and truly loved Joseph Joestar. For the longest time, it was just something Josuke had to accept even when it made 'no sense'. She loved an old man who left her pregnant and alone for decades and did so to such a degree that she never had one ill word to say about him, even to his own bastard.

This was something Josuke just hadn't been able to wrap his mind around, and it was something he knew his mother wouldn't be able to answer… not to Josuke's satisfaction. Not because she wouldn't be able to list off a whole laundry list of reasons, but because… well, how could he trust her recollection when it was clear she was that deep in for Joseph.

No, if Josuke wanted to understand, he'd need to hear it from Joseph Joestar himself. That was the only reason he was moving forward with this…

The only reason.

Yang couldn't help but grin as she crossed her arms a bit. "Seemed awfully spooked about getting your curiosity answered a few days ago there JoJo. Is the opportunity just knocking a little too loudly for ya?" Josuke couldn't help but chuckle at that, despite himself. The situation was tense but he could recognize Yang's point.

"Yeah… I guess it was easier to say that I might not want to know when the opportunity for those answers weren't right in front of me. When I didn't have that opportunity just handed off to me… now, he's here and willing to answer them, pretty much without much coercion from my part. Now that I have a chance…"

"I'm just busting your chops, JoJo." Yang shrugs her shoulders. "I don't understand why you're pushing on with the story the old guy gave ya, sounds like a load to me… but, well, we've been over this."

Indeed they had. Such that, by the time there was a knock on the door, pretty much everyone knew what was up ahead. With that, Josuke just took a deep breath and, combining his back into a reasonable state, headed off. "Alright… I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Give 'em Hell, JoJo." There was a slight nod and, for a moment, all parties involved caught a brief sight of Joseph Joestar before Josuke quickly closed the door behind him. The seconds ticked by and soon their footsteps disappeared down the hall…

Whereupon Ruby almost immediately shot up to open the door, only for Weiss to grab her partner by her hood and tug her back into line.

"And just where do you think you're going, Ruby Rose?" The silver eyed young woman just laughed nervously as her gaze shimmied on over to the door, causing the white haired heiress to heave a deep, annoyed sigh as she palmed her face in her hand. "Seriously?"

"I mean, come on, look. Ironwood's soldiers are out in force, sure, but there were criminals out in the city not even six hours ago-"

"Criminals that only had the advantage of numbers so many were cracked down on that we pretty much forced them all back in line…" Weiss reiterated, causing Ruby to swallow nervously.

"Right, I remember… I'm just saying that you never know what might happen! We should keep an eye on Joseph and Josuke, you know, just to be sure that everything will go okay!"

"Ruby… I'm quite certain that Crazy Diamond would be able to handle whatever little thing might come those two's way. Let's not forget that the main thrust of our enemies was against Josuke at this school… and it fell through, spectacularly. If our enemies had more resources to dedicate to this, they would've very well done so by now." Pyrrha commented, attempting to be a voice of reason.

"Sounds to me like someone's offering a rather poor excuse to justify her going off to spy on Josuke and Joseph and get an ear into their private conversation." Blake commented dryly, arms crossed as her amber eyes focused in on Ruby. The Huntress-in-training in question just laughed nervously, sheepishly scratching at her black and red hair.

"C-Come on… you guys really don't think…" Seeing that absolutely none of her friends were buying her attempts to play it cool, Ruby sighed. "Come on, you guys can't say that you 'aren't curious'. I mean think about it; there's this huge opportunity for us to see a big reunion moment between Josuke and Joseph! That'd be amazing to see!"

"It definitely would!" Nora agreed emphatically as Ren sighed.

"'If' it happened." Ren added to which Koichi nodded.

"Yeah… plus it feels kind of wrong to intrude on a private moment like this for Josuke." Koichi offered somewhat nervously as he looked to his scar faced teammate… who looked conflicted.

"On the one hand, you're right Koichi… but on the other hand, I mean, Josuke's gonna tell us anyway right? We're his friends after all and he wouldn't 'not' tell us about whatever happens, right?" Everyone nodded slowly as they worked around what Okuyasu was saying. "I mean, I'm a little bit curious about what's happening…" It was clear he wasn't the only one, but most seemed to want to maintain some level of propriety in all of this.

"Look, it's just not right. It's like Yang said, it's not our place to interfere with this or to push Josuke in one direction or another. We're supposed to support him, and I don't think spying on him is very good support. Right Yang?" Weiss asked, sure this time that, for once, she and the blonde would be on the same page.

Who was promptly slipping on a jacket as she made her way to the door.

"Ah, you say something Weiss." Immediately Weiss' delicate hand swung around and slapped herself on the forehead, dragging it a ways down her face as she stared right on at Yang.

"Are you kidding me?!" Weiss asked through grit teeth as Yang just offered a grin and a shrug.

"Look Weiss, I still mean what I said. This is all Josuke's show and whatever he decided to do with this old geezer is his ballfield… but… I dunno, call me curious but I don't feel like I really get what's going on here. Even after Josuke came in and explained it to us." Weiss blinked somewhat as Yang fixed up her jacket. "How do you know what a guy like Joseph Joestar's done to you, know what your relationship is… and decide to give it a chance? Even a remote chance? I believe Josuke when he says its for answers but… he's got them. Or at least, he's got the ones that matter…"

"Yang." As Ruby spoke Yang stopped for a moment and, turning to face her younger sister, just nodded her head. Almost as if a silent question had been answered Ruby just smiled and gave her own nod.

"So if I can't understand it from the way Josuke tells it, I'm going to do what I always do; do something about it myself. We're not gonna intrude, we're not gonna give Josuke any sign we're around… I just wanna see what's happening. I want to know what my friend is going through… and I can't just by talking to him. So, I'm going to see it happening with my own two eyes."

"... You're just doing this because you're a gossip who can't stand to let something like this go by without seeing it. I know that's the truth Yang." Weiss accused, her light blue eyes narrowing slightly.

…

An awkward cough disrupted the silence as Yang just breezed right on by Weiss' accusation. "Now, I understand if you guys have any hesitations, but for me-"

"Let's get going!"

"We gotta find some good seats!"

"Hey wait, guys seriously, OKUYASU, DON'T JUST DRAG ME ALONG!"

Yang stepped to the side as her sister, Nora followed by a dragged along Ren, Okuyasu with Koichi grabbed up in his mitts and eventually Pyrrha and Jaune, more out of a concern to keep Nora in line, exited the room. This just left Yang, Blake and Weiss there, with Weiss looking positively flummoxed by all this. Eventually Blake just sighed, stood up, grabbed a nearby book and made her way out the door.

"Pun, book cover, head." Was all she said with Yang just offering a slightly cheeky grin as her partner exited the room. By this point the Schnee Company Heiress had buried her face in her hands and ruefully shook her head.

"I swear, I'm friends with a bunch of boors…" Weiss commented idly as Yang just chuckled, placing her arm around the shoulders of the white haired Huntress.

"Well if we're boors Weiss, then what does it say about you that you're hanging out with all of us?"

"I don't even want to think about it…" Was Weiss' only response as Yang let out a slight chuckle, closing the door behind them as they went.

 **-To Be Continued- Achtung Baby (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: Not much to say there as we're in the lull between my discussion last chapter about Roman torchwick and my discussion next chapter about Josuke and Joseph but, to give a little bit of information, for me this always seemed like the most likely reason why Josuke would want to know more about Joseph. We see that he's not entirely keen, at least visibly, on getting to know or understand Joseph Joestar and that his primary concern upon realizing Joseph's gone somewhat senile was keeping him away from his mother.**

 **Given at least these 'visible' signs, we can't preclude the possibility, and I know I certainly don't, that Josuke subconsciously wants, for himself, a relationship with his father, it always seemed to me that, on a surface level, Josuke would pin wanting to know or understand Joseph in the context of either protecting or understanding his mother.**

 **Also, I've always found it funny how people have described the vague canon of DiU as the worst possible outcome for this situation. The idea that the worst possible situation for everyone involved was that Joseph just happened to slip up, sleep with a college girl and then leave her pregnant. That it's the saddest situation that could come out of this.**

 **Personally, #1, I always felt like this didn't gel well with DiU because I very much doubt Tomoko, someone we see as very much a strong and independent person, would develop such an attachment to a one night stand and, two…**

 **Boy howdy, trust me, that's not nearly the most depressing possible explanation for all this.**

 **See you all in five days.**


	44. Achtung Baby (Act 3)

"Hmmm… it's funny. I would've thought I'd notice more changes since the last time I was here. It's been little over a decade and yet the city looks much the same as when we left it…"

Josuke internally sighed as he kept his hands in his pockets, walking along the old man as they traversed through Vale. The two of them, after some hassle with the airbus station following the multiple battles that took place on the dock, had managed to arrange for a flight down to the City of Vale proper. While Josuke had been brought aboard this with the promise that their discussion would continue, Joseph had insisted that they wait to find some place quiet… it wouldn't be seemly for them to continue their discussion in a crowd of people, after all.

And Josuke had to admit, he did agree with that notion. It would've been… awkward to keep up this discussion with the old man in a crowd of people, watched by multiple eyes and ears while Joseph spilled the story about how he ended up knocking up his mother and abandoning him. This was going to be some personal stuff and Josuke really didn't want an audience of any kind, much less an audience of perfect strangers in a city so far from home. So he indulged Joseph, deciding that the two of them would traverse the city till they came across a park. Upon getting some advice from some locals, Josuke had been told that the largest concentration of parks, and the largest parks by far in Vale, were in the Residential District just across from the river.

Of course, the pair hadn't been in 'complete' silence during the trip over. Brothers Above knew that would've been equally awkward to talking about their issues.

"Yeah, it's kind of weird. With as much construction that goes on in this city you'd expect it'd look like something changed… but it seems like it's a lot of noise without much result." Josuke scratched the back of his head. "After all, anyone gets work done on their houses or work on the wall needs doing then it's almost immediately noticeable…" Joseph nodded along, though the old man smiled nonetheless.

"Perhaps it's because of the difference in scope." Josuke looked over to the old man, who just scratched at his beard while they walked. "After all, Morioh is so very small compared to Vale. Just one of the city's districts is enough to fit our entire town in and then some… it's easy to notice when something is different or has been changed in such a familiar environment. Here in Vale…"

"Everything probably gets lost in the sea of buildings and people…" Josuke finished Joseph's thought, nodding in agreement with the old man's logic.

"... Makes me wonder why it's still so hard to navigate then. I swore I remembered some directions to a park I took Ren and Nora to when we had last visited Vale… so hard to recall now a days…" Joseph heaved a sigh as they continued on, Josuke just frowning slightly. As much as the old man could raise a wise point or as vibrant as his memories of the past were, it was still very obvious that Joseph Joestar was an increasingly old man. It was present here and there; his difficulties in traversing such a vast distance without needing to stop, his foggy recollection of recent events… there were even times where the old man would stop, seemingly lost in memory, before snapping back into focus.

It raised an… odd feeling in Josuke. As much as he felt in his gut that he hated this old man for what he did to his mom and him, as much as he felt like it should've been his right to loathe this guy… this was Joseph Joestar. The man who saved, literally, the entire world twice, with help each time, and who'd nearly sacrificed his life both times to do so. As much as he tried not to think about it because, as Yang put it, just because he saved people didn't mean he didn't do wrong… but still, fact remained. Joseph Joestar was a hero. A man he'd looked up to for a lot of his life…

To see time making a fool out of him, slowly claiming his mind and body… it was upsetting in its own small way. So, Josuke sighed and patiently pulled the old man off in the correct direction.

"Hey… sir. The park's in this direction. Those directions can't have slipped out already, eh?" Joseph frowned slightly but nodded as he followed Josuke's lead for a time. It would be a similar pattern of course; Joseph would eventually claim that he recalled the rest of the way and begin leading forward and Josuke would allow the old man to do so. Hell, it seemed to make him happy in some way, after all. Then his memory would slowly fog over and it'd be up to Josuke to put them back on the right path.

This time, however, as the pair turned a corner Josuke couldn't help but crack a small smile; the park they'd been told about was right before them, hidden from immediate sight by a row of houses. Finally, this day was about to be over and Josuke could just get back to his normal life, questions answered and any reason to see Joseph Joestar before he left gone. Then he'd be on his merry way back to Morioh and that would be that.

It was an oddly empty thought, to be perfectly frank, but one that Josuke couldn't help but indulge in. So eager was young Josuke and so old and worn down was Joseph that the pair failed to notice that they'd been tailed by, well, a small party of Josuke's friends and teammates. As the pair rounded each corner the rest of Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO would soon follow, tracing the steps of the pair as closely and quietly as they could… not an easy feat with personalities like Nora and Okuyasu in their ensemble, but it was a task accomplished through 'liberal' use of Ren's Semblance to keep the pair calm and quiet during their pursuit.

"Oh thank the Gods, they're stopping soon…" Ren muttered under his breath as he placed his hands on his knees slightly. As simple as it could be to activate his Semblance and allow it to carry for short bursts, especially for short bursts, and on singular targets, keeping two people calm cool and collected under the influence of his Semblance for the near hour the trip took to arrive at this particular part was draining on him. When this was all said and done, the young Mistrali man was looking forward to just kicking back and sleeping for the rest of the day and evening.

"Alright Blake, you're our resident expert on sneaking around and stuff like that. Find us a good spot to hide and then we'll all pack in…" Ruby muttered as Blake frowned slightly, her bow twitching in annoyance.

"... You know I'd ask how you got around to typecasting as the sneaky one, but I suspect that I wouldn't particular enjoy the answer." The group of friends all shared a collective chuckle as Blake waited for Joseph and Josuke to disappear into the park, the girl waving her hand forward for the others to follow her as she sprinted forward, her footsteps damn near silent… to her friend's great pleasure and to Blake's momentary annoyance.

It was actually a rather beautiful sight to behold, Josuke took a moment to realize as he looked around. While the buildings here in Vale's Residential District were by no means tiny, in fact many stood multiple stories, they all were utterly dwarfed by the high-rise offices, apartment complexes and condos that made up the main city, bustling with an eternal energy and practically blocking out the sun once it had completed most of its journey across the sky. The smaller buildings made it far easier for the sun to shine down… not to mention the fact that the park itself was lest a dense forest and more a sprawling, grass covered hill with multiple concrete paths cutting its way through it. There were bushes and gardens of sweet smelling flowers to be certain and, at the top of the hill, there was a small sprawl of trees that provided a great deal of shade under a handful of park benches.

However, it wasn't necessarily these natural detail which had drawn Josuke's eye. Okuyasu had been more than correct on their first day in Vale; if they wanted trees or nature, they had plenty to gawk at back in Morioh, provided you were willing to step outside the walls for a stroll. Here and now though… the fact that the hill grew more sparse as it went down leant itself to a rather sprawling visage that expanded out in many directions. From various directions the pompadoured teen could take in the sights of Vale. The sprawling cityscape, while suffocating when standing right in the middle of it, made for an almost stunningly beautiful horizon. The silhouette of the city shined with its glass and metal, sending fragments of the sunlight that shone down upon it back into Josuke's vision. From there the Ocean itself sprawled just beyond the city skyline, the sound of waves and the smell of sea salt air just barely playing on Josuke's ears and nose respectively.

Not far off the natural barriers of Vale, its mountains, the Emerald and Forever Fall Forests provided strong contrast to the man-made wonders of the city, not the least of which being the Wall of Vale itself. Even Beacon Academy, standing proud and tall with its many spires atop its cliff face, could be seen off in the far distance, the very tops of its towers shining like the brightest lighthouses.

It made Josuke wish that he had come to this location with better reasons. That he wasn't here to be told a story that wasn't certain to end with him being violently pissed off. That he could've just been here to appreciate the quiet atmosphere and the beautiful sight that his time here in Vale allowed him to partake in.

Vale would never be as properly beautiful as Morioh, as much as the city strained under the circumstances of its existence. Still, to see such a foreign sight and to have it go to waste for… this. For 'this' conversation, for 'this' time… it just left Josuke feeling more frustrated.

"Alright sir, I think it's time we picked up where we left off." Joseph's own nostalgic smile seemed to fade as the pompadoured teen spoke up, Joseph Joestar just nodding slightly as he cast his gaze about. The old man spotted a bench near the top of the hill, away from the eyes and ears of most common visitors to the park, of which there were few and fewer as time went by. It had been very early in the morning when the attack took place and most people who weren't keeping to their residences for their own safety were either on their way to work or school. Most people, it seemed, were just enjoying small lunches or breakfasts here in the park before moving on; many sandwich bags being tossed in nearby trash bins.

"It is at that. Take a load off my boy, story's not quite close to being done yet." Joseph spoke casually as he began, though the old man's expression quickly cringed as he looked back. "I meant that in more general way, I didn't mean to call you my boy as in-"

"I understand…" Josuke sheepishly scratched at the back of his head, the younger man flustered and annoyed by the sudden stop as he just waved his hands at the elder Joestar. "Just… take a seat sir so we can hurry up and finish this." Joseph just nodded, relief visible on his face, as the old man slowly hobbled over to a nearby bench and popped a seat, an audible breath of relief escaping him as he leaned back into it. Josuke soon followed thereafter and, while the two were focused on the horizon, the gang quickly followed Blake into some of the nearby shrubbery, limited tree lines and, in the case of Weiss and Ruby, sitting quite low to the ground against the various flowerbeds.

"Now then… your mother." Joseph sighed wistfully as he brought a handkerchief out of one of his pockets, swiping it across his brow to clear it before settling it back in. "Like I said, it was about… oh, twenty years ago I think when I realized I didn't have feelings of romantic affection for Suzi Q. That the passion was gone and that I didn't feel for her more than as a close companion. That, obviously, leaves a slight lull in our story in between that and you… well… being born." A look of disgust comes over Josuke's face as Joseph waved him off. "No, I didn't sleep with your mother when she was seventeen Josuke." At that, the pompadoured teen visibly relaxed, as did many others listening in on this.

"While Tomoko had been a Huntress for three years… well, you should know, unless you perform exceptionally well or have a name made by your folks or otherwise, it can be hard to work up the Morioh ladder from that young of an age. Ryohei… Brothers bless him, the man was loyal and hardworking and dependable as far as anyone could be concerned, but he wasn't an 'outstanding' Huntsman with an outstanding Semblance. The Higashikata family was also not widely known before him either, so Tomoko had to make a name for herself based entirely off her own grit, determination and Stand Power." Josuke nodded in understanding as Joseph began, the old, grey man smiling slightly as he rested both hands on the top of his cane.

"And, Brothers Above, that woman did. Born with an unusually Strong Stand considering her parentage she also certainly knew how to use it. As the years went on it was clear that she was incredibly capable as far as our Huntresses were concerned; the right mix of steadfastly determined, headstrong and clever. She earned herself a bit of a reputation; your mother wasn't very much one to take being hit on lightly. More than a few Huntsmen lost their teeth, and for good, before you learned to control Crazy Diamond Josuke."

The pompadoured teen couldn't help but wince at that. By this point in his life Josuke had been forced to play an unwilling doctor to more than a few men who thought that scoring with the woman who 'spread her legs' and fathered a bastard would be easy so long as they said she was 'very pretty'. Brothers, the amount of teeth and bruises they'd have by the end of it seemed like it was just horrifically painful.

There was a small part of the pompadoured teen that was deeply amused that this had been a consistent behavior for his mother… and raised an uncomfortable point…

"So what, did you use your fame to wow my mother or something? Not as easy to punch Joseph Joestar in the face for hitting on you, right?" To Josuke's surprise, Joseph Joestar actually laughed at this. An honest, good natured laugh as the old man scratched at his beard.

"No, I suppose it wouldn't be easy to just up and punch me in the face. Who knows, maybe you're right and that's part of what made it all go more smoothly… but I'll have to know, I didn't open up like some barfly trying to drunkenly hit on a woman like she's a piece of meat." Josuke couldn't help but grimace at that, a slightly nauseous feeling in his gut as he prepared himself for what was next.

"Honestly, your mother and I didn't speak much even when her renown as a Huntress started to pick up. My direct influence with Hunters is usually pretty limited to a pool of the best of the best, Team Leaders and the like who're to be sent off to do the dangerous work that helps keep Morioh safe. It didn't take long though… when Tomoko was twenty and I was… Gods, I'd have to have been sixty-two then. Don't get me wrong, I was still fit as a fiddle thanks to Hermit Purple: Overdrive. It's only been in recent years, now that my mind's started to go, that my body's begun to follow." Josuke frowned at that and… well, while he didn't exactly want to imagine 'that', it was perhaps less barf inducing to consider than the idea that his mother got it on with someone who looked roughly the same as Joseph Joestar did now.

That didn't mean that he wasn't thinking about throwing up a little in his mouth, a thought echoed by many of his friends listening in.

"I supposed the first time we talked to each other was when a lot of the other Hunters put her up to be elevated for a leadership position on a mission to head back to the old Joestar Mansion to see if we couldn't salvage any last things from the old place. The Joestar Family Mansion was last touched by human and Faunus hands when it was being evacuated back during The Reckoning… a lot of people wandered over the years just what may have survived in the old place with the Grimm running amok. So I interviewed her, I did my best to get a good read on her and I approved her to be one of the Team Leaders going in.

"Honestly, it wasn't hard to. She had a certain way of getting people to listen to her, a strong pride and sense of will that would've made it hard for subordinates to bully her and to say that she wasn't a fool would've been underselling it. Perhaps she was a little too headstrong, a little too stubborn, but… well, it wasn't the worst flaw to have when a Stand's power could often be measured in how willing their User was to keep up a fight." Joseph nodded. "She seemed rather ecstatic to be given the green light. Apparently Ryohei had gone on and on about the Joestar Family, about how his grandfather and father had passed down stories about Jonathan and George. While it was a large honor to be given the green light for a promotion from me… she seemed to take a great deal of pride in it."

"... And then?" Josuke asked, leaning forward on his elbows as he waited for the inevitable.

"... And then she went off on the assignment and I didn't speak to her again until she came back." Josuke slapped a hand against his forehead as Joseph said this, the young man practically dragging it down his face before he glared at the old man.

"Can we just get to the part where you… ugh… dammit…" Josuke's discomfort was clear and, despite himself, Joseph couldn't help but chuckle.

"Just grin and bear it… you'll see where I'm going with this soon enough Josuke." A 'I doubt it' was muttered under many a breath as Joseph spoke, though the old man didn't seem to care a lick as he went on. "Needless to say the assignment was… well, it was a success in terms of the fact that everyone managed to come back alive. Tomoko had been stubborn in trying to dig everything they could out of the manor but… well, time makes fools of everyone Josuke. Nothing was left in that old house save for a few books that the Grimm or the elements hadn't torn up. Still, I considered it a job well done, even if your mother didn't…" Joseph leaned forward more on his cane as he closed his eyes.

"... Part of being a leader on assignments like this is discussing the end results with me in reports, some private so that Team Leaders can give their honest assessment of what went down without fearing the others knowing who it was that handed off the information. It was a good way of getting people to admit to potential wrongdoing in an environment where they could feel safe. Where they didn't have to fear what other people might see and here. Confidentiality was the key here…" Josuke perked up as Joseph took off his glasses, producing a cloth to clean them.

"I was a married man. I was fine with my lot in life and I wasn't looking for any further entanglements. I'd have my beautiful daughter, my increasingly bright and impressive grandson and the company of a woman who cared deeply for the family we made together for the rest of my life. So… well, the meetings with your mother just started off as official talks. She'd tell me what happened and… hah, thinking back on it, it was kind of useless bringing her in for them. The woman was content to speak her mind no matter whose company she was in, so a private setting just made it more likely that she'd rant and rave without interruption. Still, it was official protocol and… well, I found it charming. Ryohei had instilled in your mother a love for Morioh as deep as his own and a desire to be the best Huntress she could be. She took every responsibility as seriously as it could… and that included the debriefings.

"Eventually… there was that creeping feeling I told you about. That desire between wanting to go home and just wanting to get a little more work done that, over the years, gave way to just wanting to get more work done. Still, I at least wanted to leave the day on a high note. Something that could give me a quick pick me up at the end of the day while I finished putting things in order for the next day. So I started scheduling your mother's debriefings as the last of the day before everyone would head off.

"It was… very pleasant. With it being the last debrief of the day things were winding down. People were tired and leaving and everyone was just looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the day before starting back up again tomorrow. Morioh never truly rests, but people take what they can get. As it was, the debriefings with your mother grew into increasingly casual discussions. She was never evasive about her own mistakes, Hell, she'd own up to them when she and the others that were assigned with her would come in to report on their immediate successes or failings, so these talks never lasted long on their own. Eventually they started to devolve into us just… talking towards the end of it. Eventually the usually allotted time would expire and she'd leave. Eventually I think your mother took notice of the fact that, despite the day being over even for myself, that I'd never follow her out of the building… and that I'd never be particularly close behind when it came to going home either.

"So one day, out of the blue, your mother slams her hand on the desk and demands to know just what I'm doing staying so long after all the official business was done. You've lived with your mother long enough that I have to imagine you know what she can be like when she gets an idea in her head about people, Josuke…"

"... She can be pretty stubborn if she thinks they're doing the wrong thing." Josuke muttered as he recalled his own conversation with his mother about coming to Vale. Brothers, he still felt like his neck would snap back from whiplash in a second at the memory of her jerking him about while yelling at him.

"It was a bit spooky for me, I tell ya. I'd gotten so used to most people outside of my family just doing whatever the Hell I said that getting push back from this sprout just kind of shocked me. I told her that I was just finishing up with some planning in the evening. It was stuff I used to save for the next morning but, eh, why not get it done the night before and give myself the time to sleep in the next morning. She accepted the answer but still insisted I was doing a disservice to my family by not getting home as soon as possible in order to see them… it was almost funny, in a way." Joseph chuckled again and Josuke really couldn't help but feel a queasy feeling start to settle into his gut. A deeply uncomfortable thought that hadn't worked its way into his mind before as a possibility… save for perhaps in the most ludicrous of imagined possibilities.

"So she said that if I was dead set and determined to finish that up then she'd stick around to help. An extra pair of hands in order to get me home sooner and all that. I tried to convince her that it was a waste of time but… well… Tomoko was Tomoko. Perhaps especially back then…" Joseph gaze dipped down as he spoke and Josuke could feel a nervous lump lodge itself in his throat. "... It wasn't meant to escalate. The girl was fine and spunky to be sure and I thought she was a peach and a fine Huntress… but I was a married man. The idea seemed ludicrous at the start… after all, she was a third of my age. If anyone had suggested to me that what ended up happening would've happened, I would've taken it as an insult both against myself and Tomoko…"

"Sir… this doesn't sound like a one night stand…" Josuke finally got out. The elderly Joestar paused for a moment as Josuke said this, the old man's grip on his cane tightening for a moment as he smiled.

"Josuke… I don't mean to pry… but Tomoko. Does she still love me?" Josuke flinched back at this. Again, the old man's words perturbed him but… it was less annoyance now than feeling spooked. 'Still' loved him. As if Joseph was well aware of his mother's feelings. Still, curiosity now drove Josuke forward as the young man looks off to the side.

"... Yeah… Hell, she goes on about how great you are. How proud I'd make you… how caring of a person you were." Josuke doesn't go on about the nights he heard his mother sobbing into her bed, how after his grandfather's death he'd just as often hear her mournfully call out for Joseph to comfort her as she would for her father to come back to them. How she spoke about how amazing Joseph Joestar was and how much of him she saw in Josuke… how much of a Joestar Josuke was.

His throat was already tight enough from admitting what he did. He didn't think he'd hold together if he spilled the rest… didn't think that he wanted Joseph Joestar to know the rest.

"... Josuke… tell me honestly… your mother is headstrong and stubborn. Any tit who hits on her gets their teeth knocked out. Always has been like that, always will be I suspect. She's strong-willed and even after Ryohei died, she projected a strong face to the rest of Morioh… and she was able to put up with years of scorn after your birth. Be honest Josuke… does your mother come off like the kind of woman who could be easily manipulated by a series of kind words and a handsome visage?

"Does she seem like the kind of woman who'd love a man she only had a one night stand with?"

And there it was. The question that had hung over Josuke's heads for years now. The question that 'always' came to mind whenever his mother would go on about Joseph Joestar, whenever he'd hear her cry in her room late at night or whenever that melancholic look would pass over her face.

Would his mother really fall in love with a man she'd only slept with as part of a mistake, drunk or not.

It was ultimately a hard question to wrestle with. It shouldn't have been on the surface; people made mistakes all the time. People rushed to judgement or let themselves be deluded in many ways. After all, if he said that his mother fell in love with a guy who just took advantage of her… so what, right? So what if his mother did happen to fall hard for the most famous man in Morioh after having slept with him. That kind of celebrity, that kind of power… people would be taken in by that, right?

It was a simple answer that would've left this entire affair as an open and shut case. Would've left this entire, dreary business just over and done with. His mother had fooled around and ended up falling in love with a person who didn't really care all that much. That… that was an acceptable answer. Hell, it was probably the most real answer he could think off…

But it always felt like poison whenever he'd try to articulate it. Always felt so utterly toxic whenever his mind would try to convince him of this idea. Not because of any love he held for Joseph Joestar or his identity as the Man of Morioh, no, those were honestly the furthest thoughts from his mind whenever he was considering this. No, the poison that ran bitter across his tongue, the toxic thoughts that would cause his very own mind to revolt from his line of thought didn't center around Joseph Joestar.

It centered around Higashikata Tomoko. Not just 'mom', 'a huntress' or 'a woman'... but who she was as a person. Higashikata Tomoko didn't get swept off her feet by handsome looking men who tried to sweet talk her out of spending time with her family in order to be with some asshole who just wanted a night in the sack. Higashikata Tomoko wasn't so careless that she'd abandon her responsibilities as a single mother or as a Huntress of Morioh for some random passing fancy, Hell, the fact that she had to and did balance both aspects of her life astonished Josuke even to this day.

Higashikata Tomoko didn't get taken for a ride by anyone. That was the huntress, that was the woman… that was his mother. So to slander her so horribly, to write off her feelings as just the delusions of some college aged ditz with her head in the clouds who got taken for a ride by a powerful man… that made Josuke want to choke on his own tongue that he would even consider the possibility.

That he could even consider reducing all her own pain and loneliness across the years to something that degrading just because it made it an easy answer, because it tied up the story in a way that was simple to package. A young woman who got taken advantage of by a dirty, crusty old man with the fame of a hero at his back…

Because, Brothers Above, what was left as the alternative? These thoughts had made Josuke's mind revolt against him for having considered such treasonous slander against his own mother… but what stood before him as the alternative possibility… it made his stomach drop. It was an abyss, deep and dark, that threatened to swallow this entire tale whole.

If his mother didn't just fall in love with a One Night Stand… that could only mean terrible things.

Horrible things… not just for his mother, the person he wanted to protect, the person he held dear, the woman he had held close as his family.

"Sir…"

Josuke chanced a glance over at Joseph Joestar and the look on the old man's face sent the pompadoured teen's thoughts tripping into that void.

Melancholy. That was the only word that seemed appropriate for it.

"You know… Speedwagon told me growing up that we Joestars… we fall in love with one woman and one woman only. That our… destinies or whatever you want to call it binds our bloodline deeply with those we might consider our closest friends and allies. The call of our blood brings people to us… and that includes the loves of our lives…" Joseph chuckled as he readjusted his grip on the cane. "After I realized what my marriage had turned into, I thought that this was just one more way that Speedwagon was looking at my grandfather and father through rose-tinted glasses. One more way that the memories of men who seemed larger than life was obscuring his vision." Joseph readjusted his glasses as he heaved a deep sigh.

"Josuke… I found the one woman I'd love for the rest of my life when I was sixty-two years old."

The silence that immediately followed that statement was utterly deafening. As the wind rustled through the trees, Josuke could swear that he heard a series of surprised gasps as the wind played on the leaves above. In fact, it sounded almost too much like surprised gasps for his liking. Before he could think to investigate, Joseph continued on with his tale, that melancholic look still firmly planted on his face.

"It started off so slowly. So slow that I didn't even notice it starting. The nights as she helped with my work in the office dragged on later and later. Discussions about business and the next day's work started to get less and less frequent; it'd always start off with that as a way of presenting of work that evening with a goal, a milestone that'd mark it complete… but as time went on our discussions would wander further and further from it. Life, Morioh, our families, our struggles, her hopes and dreams and my journey through the rest of Remnant alongside Caesar and my mother… these were the topics that started to pop up more and more frequently. The way your mother's eyes shined whenever I told her a tale of daring and wit as I outsmarted that old bastard Kars or Wamuu or Esidisi… the genuine thrill she took in my tales was charming.

"We started to find more and more common ground; my love for my daughter and grandson was often reflected in her own love for her father and I came to respect Ryohei as a man through your mother's stories about his diligence long before he eventually sacrificed himself for Morioh's greater good. Hell, even shared a bit of a sweet tooth, though mine was geared more towards Pumpkin Pete's cola while hers were with those snack cakes she seemed to enjoy. It was… fun. There was a certain back and forth that we'd partake in that wasn't quite present in my relation with Suzi Q anymore. Suzi Q could be a right tease, don't get me wrong, and she had a fine head on her shoulders… but your mother stood quite firm in her own right and had a rather biting tongue when it came down to telling you off.

"I'm not going to drag on into how things evolved and changed as time went by… I suspect you don't want to hear that as much as I'd rather not dwell on it. Suffice it to say that one evening… I still didn't want to go home even after we'd finished for the evening. I'd come to want to spend more time in your mother's presence than I had even wanted to go back to the house built for my wife and I. After all, Jotaro would've been asleep as would Holly and the only person who would've been left awake was my wife, Suzi Q… if that. The prospect of going to such a simple home before passing on to the next day had lost any appeal compared to the company I was keeping… so, from there, things began to escalate." Josuke couldn't help but clench his jaw shut as he listened to all this, his eyes trained on the ground as he took all this information in.

"Eventually… yes, our relationship turned romantic. From there it became… sexual…" This time Josuke's clenched jaw was more a help in keeping him from vomiting at the wave of mental images that crossed his mind as Joseph continued on. "And… well Brothers, if I thought Suzi Q was-"

"Okay, I get it, you thought my mom was… urgh… could we just get back to the important bits…" Josuke finally barked out as Joseph seemed to snap out of some trance he was in, the elderly man just sheepishly coughing into his fist as he readjusted his glasses.

"Yes, right, my apologies." The slight tint of red on the old man's cheeks swiftly dissipated as Joseph continued. "We were always fighting off the reality of the situation though. Day by day the fact of the matter creeped in on both of our thoughts. The fact of the matter was that I was three times your mother's age and as much as some old fashioned sentiments might've stuck around, there wasn't exactly a lot of people who'd sit well and quiet with that kind of relationship… though, to be frank, that was the 'least' of the problems facing us…"

"... You were a Joestar."

"Correct." Joseph sighed as he reached up under his cap and scratched at his grey hair. "By now I'm sure you've heard it all, whether from Jotaro or your mother or your grandfather… or Hell, from me. It's like I said; the Joestar lineage isn't meant to be looked at as merely human. We're supposed to be paragons, examples of the best that mankind can offer… beacons of hope in the darkness that keeps the light of Morioh shining. Pillars of strength and self-sacrifice that show that we can hope to dream for better things if we all give it our all. I said that if I had divorced Suzi Q and remarried that I knew it would shake the people's confidence in our family, in the mythos that Speedwagon had been so careful to ensure comforted everyone in Morioh…

"Tomoko and I were under no illusions. If divorce and remarriage would've been a harsh blow to that confidence, then finding out I'd cheated on my wife with a considerably younger woman would've been a 'horrific' blow… Hell, it very nearly ended up being one when it all came out. Were it not for some quick posturing and Suzi Q being willing to forgive me, things would've been a lot worse. As it stood… before it all went down, Tomoko and I knew what our affair carrying on would've meant… but, well, let's just say that your mother and I had another quality in common; we were quite stubborn people." Josuke nodded slowly, his pompadour bobbing slightly, as Joseph looked down the hill.

"So the affair carried on for as long as we had the will to keep going. It was a hard thing to let go off… I was no longer the brash, too-clever by half young man I had once been. I hadn't tripped into a relationship that I had rushed along into because I had survived a near death experience… and Tomoko was enamored, perhaps equally so if what you say is true." The two men of the Joestar lineage sat in silence, side by side, as the wind continued to blow.

"Eventually Tomoko and I broke off the arrangement. We were unhappy about it but… it was necessary. We knew if we continued on and were found out then things would fall apart. Better to leave with happy memories and be thankful that we got to spend that time together at all than to let this drag on to discovery and for our miseries to be compounded. It was better to just end it there and leave it..." Joseph spoke mournfully as he said this, though the old man hadn't shed a tear. The look on his face was one of an ancient man, long since having begun to feel his age, who had already thought over these events time and time again.

"It's ultimately a shame... I'm not ordinarily a man who believes in things like fate, that we're destined to make the same decisions no matter what… but… I know who I was as a young man. I was brash, headstrong and compulsive. I never would've had the patience to wait. If it wasn't Suzi Q, then I would've married some other pretty face who caught my fancy. Such is life, I'm afraid…"

"... Do I have any reason why I should believe you? For all I know, you could be lying to me…" Josuke muttered under his breath as he looked down the hill. To his surprise Joseph just shrugged his shoulders.

"No. No you do not. You have no reason to believe me or to think that I'm not lying. After all… no matter what I may have felt or my intentions, I hurt both you and your mother with my actions. If I had more self-control, if I had turned Tomoko down, then none of this would've happened… and that's the best case scenario for you. The worst case is that I'm an old man lying to you right now, spinning you a yarn that could just as easily be falsehood after falsehood, lies topped one right after the other meant to make you feel sympathy for an old bastard who deeply injured your family." Joseph turned to look at Josuke and, contrary to what he might've expected, there was a serious expression on Joseph's face. "You have no reason to believe me… I haven't been kind to you Josuke, even if that wasn't my intention. I wouldn't have wanted what happened to you to happen but… it did. I can only apologize and hope that you do believe I'm telling the truth. It's more than you owe me, but it's all I can hope for."

That was it? No argument over how he had nothing to gain from this? No statement begging him to consider his history as a Hero to Morioh? No yarn about how much he and his mother loved each other and how his mother's love should've been proof enough?

Where was the begging? Where was this old bastard's angle?

…

Did it even matter? Like the old man said, he had no reason to trust he was even remotely telling the truth. No reason to believe anything he said. As far as he could be concerned, Joseph Joestar could be little more than the lowest scum on the face of Remnant. That would've been all he deserved, like he said. After all, what was there for Josuke to trust him over? What was there to speak for this old bastard's character?

He wasn't the kind of man who'd risk his own life rescue a stranger's child, right?

…

Except…

Except he was.

For all Josuke might've thought that Joseph's heroics, his adventures, didn't reflect on who he was… it did. A man who was only concerned with himself, a man only absorbed by his need to survive and who would damn all others to make sure he got out alive… that wasn't the character of a man who would've done the things that Joseph Joestar did. Yang might've been rightly being a good Huntsman didn't make you a good person…

But being the sort of man who would distract a Living God, who would become the target of his ire and draw him miles away… just so that no one else would be hurt or injured, just so that no one else would die… no, that man was a good man. The kind of man who'd travel all across the world, twice, first in order to save that entire world… and then in order to save his daughter… and…

" _Josuke… don't worry. It's going to be okay… your father… he's going to go fight Dio Brando. He's going to save you, Josuke!"_

Jotaro might've been the Stardust Crusader who returned who had ultimate defeated Dio Brando… yet every last member of the Stardust Crusade shed blood, sweat and tears in order to defeat that devil, that monster who was once a man. That included Joseph Joestar… even when it would've been safer for him to just sit in Morioh and wait for someone else to do the job.

That wasn't the character of a man who would've walked up to Josuke and lie to his face about all of this. It certainly wouldn't be the type of man his mother would've fallen for.

Still…

"Even if what you're saying is true… and mind you, that's a mighty big 'if'... that doesn't explain everything about why you did what you did." Joseph looked over to the pompadoured teen, who just glanced over at the old man with frustration. "You must've known the game was up when my mother got pregnant… so why throw me under the bus? Why just leave me out to dry…"

A moment of silence passed and, after it, Joseph's gaze fell to the ground.

"Josuke… when your mother and I stopped our affair… I didn't know she was pregnant with you."

"... Pardon?" Josuke asked, blinking in confusion, as Joseph looked over at him.

"I honestly had no idea Josuke. Part of the break up was that your mother and I agreed that seeing each other again would be painful and… well… to be frank, a rather large temptation on both of our parts. My life went on and hers did as well… I don't keep up with every single pregnancy that happens in Morioh, Josuke. When I stopped seeing your mother around at all… well, it seemed like a logical conclusion to the end of our relationship. I was sure she'd move on and then that would be that…"

"Then you were born… and I was completely blindsided, Josuke." At that the pompadoured teen's throat practically closed as he looked at the older man.

"But why would…" No… no it made sense the second Josuke gave it some thought. "She didn't want to be a burden to you… mom thought she could hide it and that everything would be fine…"

"Because she's incredibly stubborn." The two men said at once, both of them sighing somewhat as Joseph chuckled.

"Your mother meant well… she knew what this would mean and what a mess it would cause. Birthing a bastard is yet another step up from cheating on your wife, after all. In the chaos that followed your birth, she told me that she thought she could keep it quiet… that she could raise you as her own child and that only she would be the wiser… perhaps I'd know, perhaps I wouldn't, but that'd be fine by her. Still… you and I know now that there was no way to keep something like that under wraps."

Both men of the Joestar lineage absent-mindedly grabbed for their left shoulder blades, the mark of their lineage stamped upon their bodies.

"By the time I had any chance to react, it was all already too late. The ball was rolling and I had to put all my effort towards making sure it didn't careen out of control. Holly was amazingly upset, Jotaro… well, he was smart for his age and he understood almost immediately what was going on and Suzi Q… woof. Suzi Q was 'furious'. Angrier than I've ever seen her in my entire life. I thought she was going to throttle me when the news spread around.

"So… well, you know the story from there, I'm sure." Josuke just nodded, the pompadour teen silent as he and Joseph just sat there. After a few moments, the young Huntsman turned to face Joseph, a curious look on his face.

"... So what gives then? You've never met me and… well, we both know this wasn't going to go fantastically. There's just too much history for it to be all papered over…" Josuke muttered as he rest his head in his hand, Joseph just nodding solemnly. "So… why even bother answering my questions in the first place? You could've just left this all well enough alone sir, like you have been. I get that circumstances may have colluded back in Morioh… but why agree to come out here? Why now?"

"... I'm a very old man Josuke." The pompadoured teen choked slightly as Joseph started off like this. "My mind's been slipping more and more as the years go by and… well, time has finally caught up with me. No amount of the Joestar Bloodline or Stand Power is going to stop the ravages of time Josuke. Make no mistake… Jotaro's time is coming. It won't be in the next year, maybe not even in the year after that, but it is coming. Hell, next year I won't even be able to joke that I'm a swinging seventy-something…

"When you asked me to give you your answers… to speak with you… it was a relief to me Josuke. Because it meant that… well, I would finally have my chance. Away from Morioh, away from Suzi Q… away from my responsibilities as the Leader of Morioh." With that, Joseph Joestar turned to look Josuke dead in the eye, a kind smile on his face as he looked at the young man.

"That away from every responsibility that I've sworn to uphold, away from all the pressures of making sure the people of Morioh believe me to be the man my name entails… that I would finally have the chance to meet my son face to face."

…

The silence weighed heavily on the hilltop. Everyone was waiting with baited breath, though Joseph Joestar seemed to lean back into his seat, a look of acceptance on his face. The old man had told Josuke everything he'd wanted to know and everything there was to this, now going forward was all on Josuke's shoulders. It was his decision, not Joseph's. To that end, Josuke turned his head away from the old man, his pompadour obscuring his expression as he rest his hands on his knees.

"... I'm sorry. It sounds like this moment meant a lot to you but I need to lay it on the line. It might seem cold, but calling someone I just met "pops" or "dad" is just not happening. What you and my mother went through… it wasn't like I thought it was, I'll admit. But… that doesn't change the fact that I can't really feel like you're my parent. Not after all this time."

You could practically hear the sound of multiple hearts breaking just behind the pair as their audience silently mouthed various emotions, only kept in line by Ren's Semblance. Joseph, on the other hand, just nodded his head slowly, the old man having expected this.

"No. I understand; it's well within your right to feel like that. I'm in no position to ask for otherwise… I'm merely glad to have gotten this chance." With that the old man and the teen each stood up from the park bench. "We should head back to Beacon then, yeah? Your friends are probably worried about how you're doing… and I should get back to work. The sooner I'm finished helping these whelps the sooner I'll be out of your hair."

"Mmmm? I suppose, but…" Josuke scratched at the back of his head, a slight frown on his lips as Joseph looked at him, curiously. "You did say that you wanted to see if the city changed at all. We didn't exactly have much of a tour before we ended up getting here. It seems unfair that you'd get shortchanged out of this…"

…

"Eh?" Joseph blinked in some confusion at this, his response from the teenaged Huntsman just being a bit of an annoyed grunt.

"I mean come on. You come back to a city you've only seen a handful of times, maybe for the last time, and… well, it would seem like a waste to not let you at least see a bit more of it, Mr. Joestar." As Josuke spoke, a soft grin formed on Joseph Joestar's face as he slowly wandered over to Josuke's side, the team leader doing his best to crane his head further and further out of Joseph's sight as the old man approached.

"Ah… yes, I suppose. Still, it isn't any trouble. I believe I've seen more than enough. I would rather not bother you with my own nostalgia now that our business is concluded..."

"Well, it wouldn't be a bother really. I'm technically a tourist here too after all… besides, it's not like you'll get many more opportunities like this later on, right?"

A slight chuckle broke through Joseph's throat as Josuke said this, the elderly Joestar's shoulders pulling themselves from out of a slump as he turned to face the far more red face of the pompadoured teen who had done his level best to turn his face away.

"I suppose you're right at that…"

The pair, slowly but surely, sauntered off after that, leaving the hilltop quiet afterward. Once they were out of sight, however, a few heads popped out of their various hiding places.

"Alright, we need to beat it back to Beacon. Rubes, everyone, let's go… Rubes?" Yang looked down into the bush Ruby was hiding in, tears streaming down the silver eyed girl's face as she looked on.

"I can't get up… oh my Gods, Yang, that was beautiful… I'm so full of emotion right now…" Ruby's weeping, though joyful, caused her older sister to roll her eyes as she looked around.

"Look… hey, Weiss, help me out with Ruby here… Weiss?"

"Oh Gods… that was amazing…"

"Weiss, come here, it's all going to be okay!"

"Don't touch me…" Weiss muttered through her own emotional tears even as she hugged Ruby back.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Hours Later

"Okay, that took 'way' more effort than it should have…" Yang leaned up against a nearby wall as she said this, a sigh heaved from her body as the various members of the teams sat around waiting for Josuke to return. It was clear that having heard the entire story unfold had been emotionally affecting for a lot of them. From Okuyasu and Koichi down to Jaune and Pyrrha, most of the gang had a decidedly melancholic expressions firmly planted on their faces.

Save for perhaps Nora and Ren who, by that point, had first and foremost heard the story before and secondly, when it came to Ren, had fallen asleep.

"You guys could've emotionally prepared us for that!" Okuyasu barked out, the scarred teen doing his best to keep up his own manly visage as he crossed his arms. Nora just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"Sorry, but Ren and Joseph were insistent I not say anything." A snore from Ren followed Nora's words, as if acting in confirmation, as the others just sighed.

"Alright so… we're going to have to do our best to maintain our composure when Josuke gets back. Everyone who's still feeling particularly emotional should probably stand back and let the rest of us do the talking… Koichi, Jaune, Ruby, Weiss…" Blake looked over at the four Hunters in question who, between the four of them, seemed to take on the far stronger emotional reactions. Blake sighed and shook her head at this, turning her amber eyes back over to Yang who just stood by the door, impatiently tapping her foot as she stared down at the floor. "Should I include you in that list there Yang? Seeming a bit bothered." At that the lilac eyed teen snapped to attention as she pulled a wide smile.

"Oh, me? I'm fine, absolutely fine. I mean, this is a moment to be happy and sad right? That was… not the story I was expecting and I can't say I understood Josuke's actions but… well, it worked for the best, right? Everything turned out better than expected…" Yang's demeanor deflated a bit as she looked back towards the door, Blake smiling slightly.

"I'm glad you're doing your best to keep up high spirits… but Yang, you really don't need to feel this so deeply for Josuke or to try to understand it so much. You're his friend, yeah, but… it's okay if you don't grasp this. You and him… your stories are different." Yang frowned slightly as she leaned her head against the wall.

"... Yeah… they are…" Before the discussion could carry on any further the sound of the door's knob being twisted drew everyone's attention. In short order Higashikata Josuke walked into the room, a slightly surprised look on his face as he took in everyone.

"Oh, hey guys. I figured most of you would be here but… I wasn't quite expecting everyone to still be here…" Before anyone could speak, Yang just shrugged her shoulders and pushed off from the wall, a wide smile on her face.

"Eh, Ren's checked out for the day but… we figured this was going to be a big day for you JoJo. One way or the other, we wanted to be here for ya." The black haired Faunus had to admit to some surprise; any sign of any doubt or confusion on Yang's part seemed to be utterly missing as the blonde brawler gave her usual smile while calling Josuke by that same old nickname. If Josuke had any doubt about its legitimacy he certainly didn't show it as the young man just smiled back.

"Great, thanks for that. I really do appreciate it… though you guys really didn't have to…"

"No, we didn't. But that's what friends are for, JoJo." With a quick punch to the shoulder Yang brought her arms back to her torso, folding them as she tilted her head to the side. "So… how did it go, JoJo?"

"Oh… it went… fine. Surprisingly fine, really…" Josuke scratched his chin as much of the room just tried to look curious as they tilted their heads to the side. "Mr. Joestar and I talked and… well, afterward we just took in some of the sights around the city. His story… well, it gave me some stuff to think about. It made me consider the possibility that maybe my mom wasn't the only one hurting in all of that…" Yang nodded in understanding as she placed her hands on her hips, a curious curve to her eyebrow.

"Sounds to me like it went better than fine from that." Josuke grimaced slightly as she said this, the young pompadoured teen just scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, maybe… I guess I-"

"JoJo… do you feel better about all this?" Yang interrupted the young Higashikata, Josuke just blinking as he nodded his head somewhat numbly. At that Yang just shrugged her shoulders. "Then I'm happy. I said it before, but it looks like your head might be a bit thick there JoJo."

"Oi…"

"I said that if you were happy, then I was happy. If you got what you wanted or needed out of this, then I don't really care if I don't get it. My friend's happy; what more could I ask for out of this?" At that, Josuke just smiled… perhaps his warmest and most genuine one since the news broke out that Joseph was coming to Vale in the first place. It melted the hearts of some of those watching, glad to see that things had turned out for the better…

For one of them, however, it proved to be just too much.

"Oh Josuke! We're so happy for you!" Ruby exclaimed with a bright smile as she practically leapt out of her seat, a wide, toothy smile across her visage as the pompadoured teen just blushed in embarrassment. "It's so good that you and Joseph had such a heart to heart! Soon you'll be able to call him dad or pops in no time at all!"

…

"... What was that Ruby?" Josuke asked, suddenly perturbed, as Ruby realized that she had just slipped up.

"Ehhehehehe… oh, it's nothing, Josuke."

"No, really, because it sounded like you just said something about me being able to call him dad…" The rest of the group silently glared at Ruby, trying to get the nervous black and red haired young woman from continuing to spill her guts.

It failed horribly.

"Oh what, pssssh, no, I didn't. I mean, come on Josuke, what could've possibly gotten me to say something like that? I mean, it's not like we were secretly watching you or anythi-HRMMMPH!" Yang quickly slapped a hand over Ruby's mouth, the blonde young woman chuckling nervously as she looked back at Josuke.

"Little sisters, am I right Josuke? Just have the darndest way of not shutting up before they end up saying too much, right?" Josuke's gaze was obscured by his pompadour, though if the rock solid seriousness of the rest of his expression was any indication, he wasn't happy. "... We're cool, right Josuke?"

Perhaps an even better sign was the fact that Crazy Diamond had materialized behind Josuke.

"... CHEESE IT!"

" **DORA!** "

With that a stampede of Huntsmen and Huntresses poured out of the room, Teams RWBY, JNPR and the remainder of JOJO each running for their lives as Josuke chased after them, Crazy Diamond hot on their heels!

"JOSUKE, PLEASE, WE JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE OKAY AFTER HAVING A TOUCHING MOMENT WITH JOSEPH!"

"OH, IN THAT CASE, LET ME IN ON ANOTHER TOUCHING MOMENT; CRAZY DIAMOND MASSAGING YOUR COLONS!"

As the group ran down the halls, few failed to notice that they had left the sleeping Lie Ren behind, seemingly unaware of the chaos that had surrounded him. Absolutely none of them would see the small smile that had formed on his face as a pleased sigh escaped his lips.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Thus we move on from the more personal arc of Josuke and Joseph onto the next climax of the series. We've been building to it since Echoes and, along with Crazy Diamond and Echoes, it forms the second to last major Climax of the series. There'll of course be more descending action following it and then a rising action but, according to my draft, we've well passed the halfway point of the series.**

 **Now then, a few obvious things: One, no Invisible Baby Hijinks, what the fuck gorilla_fingers? Recall a while ago how I said that I didn't care to rewrite scenes that basically had very little change save for a few choice words here and there. This is a continuation of that policy; I really had nothing clever or unique owed to the setting to take place with Shizuka Joestar and she was never really in the outline. Even if she were to be referenced, it'd take place off screen much like the Ruby vs Cinder fight or the Giant Robot fight. I would've been bored writing those scenes out in fanfic forms and, trust me, you'd be bored reading them, especially when there's perfectly good manga panels or animation dedicated to Shizuka's hijinks now.**

 **The reason for this was because Shizuka's use in the plot was kind of unnecessary in this universe. You'll notice an oblique reference to her earlier on while Joseph and Josuke were talking it out, and this was intentional; the reference was meant to make the reader aware of Shizuka's plot role in the episodes she was in because, yes, Shizuka Joestar in the series proper is little more than a plot device. Whatever cool characteristics the fans have given her fanon representations, she was in the plot for one reason; to show Higashikata Josuke that his old man wasn't a rat bastard.**

 **Here that becomes unnecessary as 'Josuke is aware of Joseph Joestar's backstory'. While this does make it difficult for Josuke deal with Joseph and make the conflict much more personal for him, it also ends up leading to Shizuku being kind of an unnecessary prop in the plot. Don't get me wrong, I could've written her in and done some stuff with her because hey, fan service.**

 **But I only really do fan service when it's fun to write or helps to advance the story in some way or advance a concept that I want in your heads for later reveals and ideas. If I'm going to be bored writing fan service, I'm not going to include it. I'd be miserable and that misery would wash off on you guys.**

 **Second, like I said earlier, there's equal parts amusement and annoyance with the idea that the common fandom interpretation of the events that transpired between Joseph and Tomoko was just a one night stand. Amusement because even if there were no internet, Joseph Joestar would've been a famous tycoon, multimillionaire real estate whatsit and I doubt it would've been hard for Tomoko to piece together who the 62 year old she was seeing was.**

 **I also feel like it's kind of accidentally cruel to Tomoko's character and the idea behind her. She doesn't quite come off like the kind of woman who'd fall in love with a one night stand as she is pretty independent and strong willed as far as JoJo mothers is concerned. The idea that she'd be that head over heels for a guy who just got her drunk or something and then left… I dunno, left a bad taste in my mouth.**

 **Plus, I love human misery so the idea that Joseph lives with the knowledge the he met the love of his life far too late for him to possibly live a happy life with her does tickle my narrative sense of appreciation for high drama. Yeah, for those of you who may be thinking that this is leading up to something saccharine or heartwarming… nah. This horrible situation is going to be the baseline for what goes forward as far as Joseph and Tomoko is concerned. There's no happy ending for Tomoko and Joseph sadly, I just thought that this would be the best way to fit this universe together that stayed true to various characterizations and made sense to me.**

 **Next, Josuke and Joseph… you know, I said I had an entire spiel for them, but I feel like I really gout most of it out through the text of the chapter. Josuke's a good kid who loves his mom, who loves this asshole he's never seen and then that asshole shows up. In DiU Joseph has to prove he's actually a good person but the only reason he gets that chance is because Josuke 'wants' to give him that chance on some level. However much Josuke might proclaim that he's not gonna call him dad or pops and that he needs to just leave for America as soon as this whole thing is over, it's clear that Josuke does want some closure. It's probably one of the most realistic aspects of Josuke's character: sensibly, he doesn't want to give the asshat who left him and his mom behind another chance because, hey, you had your chance and you were a filthy cheater 'but'... it's hard growing up without a parent. It's a lot harder to tell them to stay out of your life when there's a chance for that divide to be healed.**

 **It was a really relatable arc.**

 **Finally: why did I keep the name Achtung Baby if Shizuka wasn't going to show up? First off because that's the name commonly associated with the arc so it was easy to use to give people a broad idea of what to expect rather than coming up with something that wouldn't link your minds to these events. It's the name my mind went to when thinking of a name for the arc, so I just stuck with it. Secondly, because it's a fucking cool name.**

 **That is all.**

 **See you all in five days if all goes well.**


	45. The Breach (Act 1)

Ozpin's Office, Beacon Academy, Earlier That Day

The ride up the elevator had been rather awkward, all things told. James, Glynda and Ozpin each stood off to their respective sides, eyes a glance at anywhere besides the elderly Joestar who had taken the ride up with them following their interruption. The three adults had come to be, at the very least, passingly familiar with Higashikata Josuke and, thanks to the insight provided by Jotaro, 'very' much familiarized with the history between the young man and the old man Joseph Joestar. While they all wished for an air of professional dignity to keep in the elevator, Ozpin and Glynda were at the very least curious about how the discussion was going with the young man. Ironwood, not so much interested himself, merely didn't wish to come off as rude to the man who basically stood as a maligned 'fictitious' figure in Atlas' history thanks to Stroheim.

"So, how're things back home old man?"

"Mmm, not much has changed since the last letter I sent Jotaro. Your mother is healthy and hearty as always, your wife is quite well though it's clear she's starting to miss your presence and Jolyne… well, she's taking her father being away for so long about as well as you might expect."

"She hasn't been causing trouble has she?"

"Only to the degree that it's troubling to see her mope around so often. The letters and gift you got her only hold her for a few days at a time, after all."

Jotaro, on the other hand, seemed to be taking the opportunity to actually catch up with his grandfather and the goings on in Morioh in person now that he had the chance. The adult huntsman just nodded his head as he readjusted his cap.

" **Yare yare daze** , I knew she'd end up being a hassle." There wasn't much reprimanding in that tone of voice from Jotaro. Quite the opposite; to the degree that the stoic man could, he sounded amused.

"It's a hard thing for a child used to having a parent around to suddenly be without. But she's keeping strong otherwise." There was a nod of understanding between the two fathers as they faced back forward in the elevator, the rest of the adults turning their heads away to keep inconspicuous and to keep from appearing like they'd been listening in on their conversation. Finally the elevator stopped and the doors to Ozpin's office cracked open. Stepping into the grand Headmaster's Office, Joseph couldn't help but whistle as he took a look around.

"You know, I've seen this old building from afar three times in my life. Never imagined that the inside of this here clocktower would've looked like this… or would've had such an amazing view." The elderly Joestar remarked as, after Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood entered, he stepped on through the elevator door to take a look around.

"Rest assured Mr. Joestar that if you come to Beacon's old grounds in your youth, this office wouldn't be here. It's a comparatively recent addition to the building itself." Ozpin answered congenially, allowing for some easy conversation between himself and the very old man before his eyes as their devices were set up.

"I see, I see. Must've been one Hell of a task to do so. From the outside the building doesn't look much different." Joseph stroked his chin as he said this, Ozpin just chuckling as he shrugged his shoulders.

"The clocktower could look quite mighty from a distance but the old design left quite a lot of room for engineers and construction workers to move around. It was surprisingly easy to work around and move gears in order to make room for all this… though that did mean that the clock had to be stopped for a number of years." Joseph, again, whistled slightly as he cast his gaze around.

"My goodness. Marvelous. Speedwagon had spoken quite well of Four Kingdom engineerings and I've always been impressed, but that's quite the feat you're describing Mr…?" Joseph stopped for a moment as he looked over at Ozpin, arching a brow. "Pardon me, I don't think I ever caught your last name? I know you're the 'Headmaster Ozpin', but that sounds like more of a first name to me." The Beacon Headmaster chuckled at the old man's perceptive nature. He had to admit, of all the things he might've expected of the Joseph Joestar, such casual conversation, such an enjoyable one at that, hadn't been among them.

"Quite astute Mr. Joestar." Ozpin offered a slight bow as the elderly Joestar just smirked at him. "Very well, perhaps a more formal introduction is in order now that things are settling. My name-"

"Oz, how about we skip the pleasantries for 'after' we know what we're going to do about the enemy at our doorstep that's repeatedly tried to assassinate multiple people in this very room the past few days?" Ironwood commented over his shoulder as he pulled out the pictures and documentation Joseph would need. The pair looked over to see Jotaro nodding his head in agreement as he and Glynda finished hooking up the old television set.

"Fair's fair, though that conversation might have to wait till even later then… I'd rather not keep Josuke waiting long after we're done here." Ozpin nodded his head as he offered a weary smile to Joseph.

"Perhaps another time then. For now Mr. Joestar, do come and familiarize yourself with our target in question." Without much room for pause Joseph walked on over to the desk, keeping his cane in hand, as he readjusted his glasses to look down at the files…

"Rather dapper looking gentleman… though I suppose given his status, 'gentle' is perhaps not the best word to employ." Joseph muttered as the resident Four Kingdomers nodded, Ironwood coughing to clear his throat as he splayed out a number of documents across the table.

"Roman Torchwick, confirmed as his real name during his last detainment in the Vale City Prison, 6'3" and last weighed in at 199 pounds. Thirty-eight years of age he was born in one of the outlying villages of Vale and moved into the city during his childhood. His record of criminal behavior begins relatively young, working with various criminal networks in Vale and slowly building up his own base of power. His major breakout was a series of robberies at the various dockyards of Vale and they continue to be his favorite targets to this day, leading us to theorize that his base of operations is somewhere in that district.

Was only caught once six years ago, which is why we have most of this information in the first place, but managed to break out of prison through, at the time, unknown means. With our recent captive's abilities made known I think it's safe to assume that she was the reason he was able to make a breakout. He's been quiet ever since, keeping low to the ground and working in small time crime, up until several months ago when he stared leading the major Dust Store Robberies that have afflicted Vale as of late. We theorize that it was around that time that he forged an alliance with our common enemy and that it forms the backbone of the reason for his sudden confidence."

"So, a common crook who's made a lucky break by allying with a powerful beneficiary. I can't say that's an unfamiliar type for Jotaro and I. Sounds like that old fella… what was his name Jotaro? Dan of Steel?" Joseph's face seemed genuinely confused as Jotaro just shook his head.

"Steely Dan. Surprised you forgot, given what he did to you." There was a moment where all three adults could plainly see Kujo Jotaro clench his fist and grind his teeth together as some memory surfaced in his mind. But that moment soon passed as Joseph just nodded.

"Of course, of course. Memories going a bit fuzzy on some of them…" Joseph stroked his chin as he looked over the information.

"At any rate, I wouldn't quite sell Roman Torchwick so short as to call him a common crook. He's likely been chosen by our enemies as an ally precisely because he's anything but; over the years he's managed to gain an outsized influence over much of the rest of the criminal underbelly of Vale, to the point where he's been able to easily hire out, if not outright entirely buy out, entire criminal networks that had deep rooted histories in Vale to work with him. While Vale doesn't know Crime Lords quite like those they make over in Mistral, it's pretty easy to say that Roman Torchwick is the closest thing we have by a landslide. He's powerful and while he's not the most dangerous of our foes by a wide margin, I'd wager, he is quite dangerous in and of himself and shouldn't be underestimated." Ozpin finished up for Ironwood as Joseph nodded in understanding.

"That he's our only known enemy at this point also suggests that whoever it is that's working with him… well, they think he's relatively more expendable as a face of this operation than anyone else. It speaks to Roman's relative place in their hierarchy…"

"And just how dangerous they truly are if they find an individual like this suitable to put out as their 'face' rather than someone else. He's the one they can afford to lose, in other words." Joseph nodded his head firmly as he looked over to Jotaro and Glynda. "Is the television ready?" With a quick nod and the press of a button, static filled the television screen. Joseph Joestar took a deep breath of air as the elderly man approached it, presenting his hand to it as his old eyes narrowed. "Very well then, let's get this going; Hermit Purple!" With a crackle of electrical energy the various thorned vines of Hermit Purple shot forth from Joseph's arm and into the television. While the Four Kingdomers might have flinched at first, having believed that the tv would shatter under the sudden invasion, they were each met with some surprise when the vines just melded into the device.

"Remarkable, exactly as the old book described" Ozpin declared, stroking his chin as he chanced a closer look at the vines. As Hermit Purple wriggled about the television the static, slowly but surely, began to convulse and change, new colors beginning to stray across the screen as, it was clear, some kind of image was attempting to be made. Everyone squinted their eyes as, at first, only a vague and highly static image was present at first; Roman Torchwick, seated on… some kind of reclined chair. Everyone furrowed their brows and Joseph sharpened his focus, more of Hermit Purple delving into the television to increase the power of his Divination.

In a moment that image faded out from the static and, in its place, a far more clear image was produced. This one of Roman Torchwick as he rode in small motor vehicle. The surroundings were clearly the wooded areas of Vale… but to where he was going, it was very much hard to say.

"He's already left the city then? Hmmm… troubling. Perhaps then all of this was just a ploy for time just in case their assassins failed to deal with Mr. Joestar? He'd be bought enough time to get out of the city so that we couldn't easily find him." Everyone else nodded vaguely as they watched the image for a moment.

"Still, it isn't exactly much to go on; we know he's outside of the city proper now but where he is or where he's going isn't exactly known to us. We need more information, better information." Glynda's assessment was much the same as everyone else's as Joseph turned to Ironwood and Ozpin.

"I don't suppose you would have cable in this office, would you? I could try to make due with another version of my Divination in order to try to get a better idea of where he might be going, but it requires an audio element…" Ozpin just shook his head, though a smile remained on his face.

"No cable I'm afraid… but we can make due with a Scroll." Ozpin reached into his pocket and pulled out his own personal Scroll. "If it's an audio element you seek, Scrolls are tuned in with the CCT, meaning that they have access to quite the wide variety of videos or audio files that can be used." Joseph nodded his head as he pulled Hermit Purple back from the television.

"... I'm just going to warn you now, Hermit Purple has a nasty habit of destroying small electronics I expose to it." Joseph responded as Jotaro just dragged his cap down.

"It's only because you smash them in the first place you old timer…" Ozpin chuckled a little as the younger Joestar remarked on this.

"Well… just try not to smash it, would you Mr. Joestar? I can get it replaced but there's better things for us to be doing with our time." With a slightly hesitant nod from Joseph Ozpin handed off his Scroll which was quickly put under the many vines of Hermit Purple. Soon enough the screen of the Scroll came to life with various sites and services being accessed. Radio shows, video streaming sites, audiobook download sites and just about every available thing that could produce a sound was flying across Ozpin's screen and, at first, it produced a rather horrible cacophony of sounds. It had been to such a horrible extent that the nearly everyone had to cover their ears.

However, soon enough, the white noise gave way to a series of voices that started to form out words and sentences that were, slowly but surely, becoming more and more distinct. Until, finally, they struck gold.

"Roman Torchwick Is. On the move to. Mountain. Glen. The. Death of. This. City. Warns of. The doom of. Vale."

The room went silent as the message died off, Joseph furrowing his brow as he stroked his chin.

"I have to admit, I didn't think I'd ever have to hear about… that place again in my life. Honestly would rather not have had to think about it ever again." Jotaro nodded in agreement as he ground his teeth together.

"Yes… it's pretty clear from the message; Mountain Glenn is where Roman's heading." Glynda furrowed her brow as she looked at everyone else.

"I am confused as to why the Divination needed to cut up the name of the city. After all, why not just find one audio source for the name of the city rather than… well, whatever that was?" Glynda asked as Joseph looked over to the blonde teacher.

"Hermit Purple can only make words and sentences out of audio it has ready access to. If it couldn't outright say Mountain Glenn, it's likely because it doesn't have access to the entire name in one audio file…" The two Headmasters nodded their heads, frowns on their faces.

"Hardly a surprise… the Vale Governing Council would very much prefer to pretend that Mountain Glenn never existed. The idea that they've wiped the city out of memory, and probably look to keep it that way regularly, isn't much of a surprise. A disappointment to be sure, but not a surprise." Ironwood shook his head as he looked out the window.

"Perfect place for Torchwick and his puppet masters to make their plans a reality if ever there was one. The Governing Council is so busy ignoring Glenn that they probably haven't sent anyone there to check over the place in years, much less months or weeks. Torchwick and his gang have probably had free reign to do whatever they want in Glenn for ages now… who knows what they're setting up in there that could doom Vale." Everyone else nodded grimly as Ozpin placed his own cane on the floor.

"Well… we have our target and we have the location he shall be… the question now is how do we go about this…" Ozpin stroked his chin as everyone else furrowed their brows.

"Not exactly an easy question to answer. With the students being in the state they're in, we'll need to keep staff around to make sure a panic doesn't break out. The fight didn't end up directly hitting the school thanks to Higashikata Josuke and Yang Xiao Long, but the efforts needed to take down our little spy and Red Hot Chili Pepper drew more attention… if we evacuate the school to send everything we have at Glenn, we'd probably finally break the student's morale…" Glynda nodded her head, though there was a clear bit of disagreement on her face.

"I'd find it hard to believe you'd even want to send a full force in the first place James. The amount of attention a full army would draw-"

"Would be enough to flush Torchwick out and force him to either give up on his plans or face us directly in the field for once. It wouldn't have been a bad idea." Ironwood insisted as Ozpin just shook his head.

"I'm afraid I must disagree. We can't be certain that Torchwick wouldn't have plenty of heads up on such a force to be able to move his operation with time to spare. A full attack wouldn't work… and it'd be even worse to go through without knowing what, exactly, we're dealing with." Ironwood's eyes went a bit wide as he turned to face Ozpin.

"Wait, you're not actually going to say that-"

"We need to scout out this situation first? Yes, that is what I'm saying James. Going in without proper information or an idea of what's going on will only lead to a mistake. We know where Torchwick is and, given time and Hermit Purple, we can know full well what he has at Glenn. Once we have that information-"

"It might be too late! We can't be sure that all this hasn't been a stalling tactic meant to give them exactly the time and space they need to make sure everything goes according to plan Oz! We know where Torchwick's heading and exactly! Even if we can't send a whole army, we have to send an actual assault force! We can't afford to scout ahead and wait for information."

The argument was heating up and though it was clear that Ozpin was trying his best to keep James calm and with him, it was also clear he wasn't going to bend from his position of authority… and in fact looked about ready to use that position to make a move. Before either man could continue to speak or argue, however, a cough interrupted their small argument.

"Gentlemen… if I may?" Joseph Joestar stepped forward, an eyebrow raised as he looked at each man… a tense look in his eyes as he stared at each of them. For a moment both Ozpin and Ironwood stepped back and nodded, allowing Joseph room to speak. "General Ironwood, our enemies are using Mountain Glenn as some kind of staging ground. What information we have and what we've now learned from Hermit Purple can give us 'that' much of an idea. If they're capable of moving resources from Vale to Mountain Glenn… that likely means they have the ability to move resources outside of Mountain Glenn with proper warning. Proper warning that they've managed to achieve multiple times now thanks to whatever breaches there are in Beacon's security. Red Hot Chili Pepper is dead… but if we start trying to mobilize one of your strike forces, even if it isn't as large as an army, it could be a very easy signal to send to Torchwick that he needs to move out of the city. Action is good… but haste isn't."

Before Ozpin could open his mouth to thank Joseph or Ironwood could look too sour, Joseph surprised both men by immediately turning on Ozpin with a serious expression. "And you're attempting to be a little too clever by half. You know where your enemy is and you know that a lot of his resources have been spent. Even if these past few days have only been a stalling tactics, they have been days where Torchwick and his associates have lost a good number of their resources. While we can't send a full army or strike force, sending something with the intent of actually engaging Torchwick is no foolish move or thoughtless strategy. Your enemies are right before you eyes, you know where they are or where they're going to be. Scouting doesn't change what you have to do… nor does it change that you have the window of opportunity to do it 'now'."

Joseph looked both men deep in their eyes, the old man's gaze locked firmly with theirs as, it seemed, years of experience and… perhaps a shadow of regret pooled in them. "You two are both allies. Rather than arguing with each other about strategy, you should both recognize that you each have strategic points to make here. A large force, even just a strike force rather than a full army, isn't feasible… and you do need to act now because no amount of new information is going to change what needs done… but the time it would take to gather it might. Don't let your egos, positions, desperation or stubbornness distract you from what's clearly right in front of you both or tear your alliance apart. The moment you two stop working as well together as you can is the moment the enemy truly begins to defeat us.

"What we need is something small, something that won't upset your students and won't be viewed as an obvious move to attack." Joseph said flatly and firmly as he finished, leaving much of the room stunned slightly. They hadn't expected such vim and vigor to come from the old man who, after a moment, just grinned a bit. "I'm 'still' the leader of the last outpost of civilization on the Unknown Continent gentlemen. I don't have and keep that position just because I have a pretty face, after all."

"I suppose not…" Ozpin said, blinking away some surprise as he rubbed at his chin. Ironwood nodded in dazed agreement and, soon enough, the room fell into some silence. Glynda watched the entire display with some nervousness as Jotaro just gave a slight nod to his grandfather. "... If we were to do such a thing I would prefer if it wasn't Ironwood's soldiers. The movement of soldiers is always going to be something people take notice of… I'd rather it not be so conspicuous. To that end, the student missions are supposed to happen tomorrow." Ironwood nodded as he looked Ozpin in the eye.

"Originally they were supposed to be canceled… but if we passed around word that all the people who led the attack on the Dance have been dealt with, we could create an atmosphere where it looks like we are just returning to normal… still, you don't mean to send one of the student teams to Mountain Glenn, do you?" Ozpin couldn't help but chuckle as he nodded.

"Come now Ironwood. I do believe they've more than proven themselves at this point." Ironwood sighed as he palmed his face.

"I can't say they haven't, but… color me uncomfortable how much we're coming to rely on children, Oz…"

"They are the heroes of our next generation Ironwood. Belittling them after they've shown their merit doesn't do right by them, I'd say." Glynda said flatly as she crossed her arms, Ironwood just sighing.

"Fair point… still, if we are going to send one of them… I dunno. Sending just a student team with one of the teachers, even if Beacon's teachers are great Huntsman, doesn't feel like enough firepower…" Ironwood said as he shook his head. Before the discussion could kick back up Joseph just stepped forward again, a sly grin on his face.

"Then, gentlemen, may I suggest a compromise?"

* * *

The Next Day

"This week really just doesn't stop, does it?" Okuyasu groaned as he scratched the back of his head, the other members of Team JOJO nodding in agreement as they walked down the halls. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, this week at Beacon Academy had probably been the most stressful most arduous and, frankly, most dangerous week yet. None that they'd encountered before, even when Koichi had been kidnapped by Angelo, had even come close.

There was the preparations for The School Dance which, while standard in and of itself, had turned into a brawl that nearly lead to the death or capture of numerous students from all Academies and their friends. Then there was Joseph Joestar's arrival, the riots in the city triggered as a means of trying to pin him down in a place where Red Hot Chili Pepper could kill him easily and then there was his actual arrival.

The number of Stands and foes that they'd had to fight in just the span of a few days were also mind-numbing. Red Hot Chili Pepper, Harvest, Enigma, the illusory girl and the hallucination girl, without even getting into the criminals that Okuyasu, Team JNPR and the RWB of Team RWBY had to deal with. After all of that, after ALL of that, they thought that the week would wind down. There was no way it was going to pick back up again, right?

Cue the announcement early this morning that the students were to gather in order to select assignments for their first missions. All the attacks who'd assaulted Beacon during The Dance were either caught or neutralized, after all, and so business at Beacon could continue at its usual pace.

Of course, Team JOJO and their compatriots knew this to be a bit of a lie; while the illusion girl had been caught and was aboard Ironwood's main craft, the hallucination girl that Jotaro had fought was still at large. Still, it was a relatively minor lie when one thought about it; after all, with the beating Jotaro described giving to her it was unlikely, even with Aura healing, that she'd be back on her feet for a long, 'long' time. Still the fact that they were still expected, after all of that, to get up, brush their teeth, wash their face and then go out for some mission that was meant to test their caliber…

"Yeah, not gonna lie, this might be a bit of a pain." Had even Higashikata Josuke, usually the most diligent of Team JOJO, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked down the halls towards Team RWBY's dorm room. Koichi just nodded in tired agreement as he walked along with his friends, looking at the pair.

"What could they possibly ask us to do at this point? The idea that this would be a first mission for us was already kind of silly considering the situation Morioh's been in… and now after this week, what more could Team RWBY, JNPR and us have to prove to everyone?" Josuke and Okuyasu tiredly nodded in agreement, the scarred teen just heaving a heavy sigh as he looked around.

"It's kind of bullshit if you ask me. We're exhausted, at least give us a whole day to relax before going out again. Hell, you're still injured from your fight with Red Hot Chili Pepper, Josuke!" Josuke just waved off Okuyasu as he continued to walk ahead.

"It's fine, it's fine. Professor Peach said I'd be perfectly fine." That was a wee bit of a lie and Josuke knew it. The young man had been told by the Professor that his injuries would be fine so long as he didn't stress them. What she stipulated after that, however, was what he omitted; that if he significantly pushed himself that he'd risk tearing open the wounds she'd either bandaged over or stitched after his battle with Red Hot Chili Pepper. Still, that didn't change the fact that they were Huntsmen and that, by decision of their superiors, they had a mission to do today.

"I'm sure whatever it is it won't' be too insane. After all, this is meant to be a first mission for students, right? It can't be that bad if they feel safe in continuing forward with it so soon after everything that's happened. Let's just grin and bear it… this 'Summer' thing that Ruby and the others keep talking about is coming up at the end of the semester, right? We'll probably get plenty of time to rest once this semester ends."

"And then at the end of Summer there'll be the Vytal Festival Tournament… and then we go home…"

The mood dropped a bit as Koichi said this. It was hard to think about but he was right; when the semester would end, that meant that Team JOJO's time here in the Four Kingdoms was more than halfway gone. There'd just be those months of Summer, the tournament and then… back home to Morioh.

The three young men were homesick to varying degrees of course and would love to see their home… but it still felt odd that after what was feeling like such a short period of time that they were already getting ready to go back home to Morioh, back to their own continent.

Back to the way things were before.

."... Hey, don't look so glum you bastards." Okuyasu's words broke Koichi and Josuke out of their daze as the scarred teen just grinned. "I mean, come on, if we go through with the Vytal Tournament then that's it right? Morioh's back with everything! We did our job and, from there, the adults can start doing their job! It's not like this is going to be the last time we'll ever see everyone again… Hell, who knows, maybe we'll be able to start making trips to Vale in our free time! Once Morioh starts getting help from the other Kingdoms, things'll change for the better!"

Josuke and Koichi blinked at Okuyasu's enthusiasm and, after a moment, both young men smiled.

No, things wouldn't go back to the way they were. They'd be different, they'd be better.

"Okuyasu's right. Let's not get caught up in the idea that this experience is almost over. Let's enjoy it and then look forward to the new experience. For now, let's just get to Team RWBY's dorm." Koichi and Okuyasu's smiles dropped slightly as a thought they had soon came back to the forefront.

"Why are we going to their dorm room again, Josuke? I mean, it's not like we aren't going to see them when everyone gathers for Ozpin's speech." Josuke nodded as he brought a hand up to sheepishly scratch at the back of his neck, the pompadoured teen demuring a bit.

"Well… after I got done chasing you guys last night-"

"Thanks for that, by the way, as if we all weren't tired enough."

"-right, sorry…" Josuke apologized as Okuyasu just smirked at his leader. "Anyway… the whole thing with Mr. Joestar was an experience and a half… and well, you guys were all supportive. I've already thanked you guys of course," Okuyasu and Koichi nodded at that, thought hey hadn't needed the gratitude in the first place, "and I plan on thanking Team JNPR at the meeting. However, I wanted an opportunity to thank Yang for… I dunno, having my back no matter what and giving me some perspective. It got me to ask Mr. Joestar for my answers in the first place. So…" Koichi and Okuyasu nodded in understanding… though there was a smirk on Okuyasu's face.

"Oh, I see Josuke. Well don't worry bud… we'll get the rest of Team RWBY out of their dorm too so you can really 'thank' Yang for all her help. Ah-hahahaha… haha… ha… come on, aren't you even going to react?" Okuyasu watched as Josuke just smirked, readjusting his uniform as he just kept on walking.

"Nope."

"... Not even a little?"

"Not at all Okuyasu."

"... Well Hell." Okuyasu just frowned and shoved his hands in his pockets, the scarred teen robbed of his entertainment for the morning as the trio just walked down the hall. Josuke had learned after many, many years of being Okuyasu's friend that the best way to handle the guy when he was being a pain was to just not feed into it. The guy was like a campfire; just don't toss any kindling in and eventually he'll burn himself out.

Which was probably why Koichi was such a frequent target of Okuyasu's friendly barbs; the guy just couldn't help but react to his, or Josuke's, teasing.

With that out of the way the trio made it to Team RWBY's dorm room, Josuke taking a slight breath as he reached for the knob. Okay, just go in, thank Ruby, Blake and Weiss for their support, thank Yang for knocking some sense into you, and then walk out. This didn't have to be awkward or give Okuyasu any stupid ideas. No surprises, no distractions, just in and out. With a quick knock, Josuke spoke up.

"Yo, guys. You all decent?" The pompadoured teen asked as the series of voices behind the door suddenly went silent… and the sound of something stepping around quickly could be heard.

"Err, yeah Josuke, we're decent but if you could give us a minute we've-" Ruby's words were cut off as Josuke opened the door. The mission stuff was set to begin and he really did want to get this out of the way while they had a chance to keep this relatively private. Still, as Josuke opened up the door, what came next was a pretty huge surprise to the pompadoured teen.

Dog.

Dog jumping up on his uniform.

Dog licking his face and only just avoiding messing up his pompadour because Josuke had managed to get his hands up to shield it instead of his face.

WHAT?!

A small, black and white dog barked excitedly as Josuke opened the door and with an unnatural grace jumped up onto him and started licking his face. The pompadoured teen wasn't sure what to do for a moment as he suddenly had a face and, not exactly welcome, mouth full of dog slobber all over him.

"Agh! Dog?! What!?"

"ZWEI, GET DOWN!" Immediately Josuke took a deep breath of air now that he didn't have a face full of dog to worry about, gasping for breath as he shook his head to try to get as much of the slobber off as he could. Once he was focused back in on the room he could see Ruby looking apologetically, though with a slight smile on her face, as she held a little black and white… what did they call it, a corgi? Yeah, a corgi in her arms.

"Sorry about that Josuke. You just ended up surprising Zwei was all and the little guy gets excited when he's surprised… and he's really friendly when he gets excited." Ruby explained quickly, in her Ruby-ish way, as Josuke watched in some dumbfounded surprise.

"Oh I bet he does, because he's such a good boy!" Which was only added on to by the fact that Weiss was… well, baby-talking to the little dog in Ruby's arm.

This wasn't exactly at all what Team JOJO had expected to find when they had entered the dorm room. Before Josuke could think to add much more in, a towel was quickly thrust into his hands by one Yang Xiao Long, the blonde looking apologetic as she did so.

"Yeah, sorry about that, he really is just a friendly dog. At least he didn't touch your hairdo JoJo. Took a lot of training to make sure he never touched anyone's hair." Yang flicked her own blonde mane as she said this, the shell-shocked Josuke just nodding his head as he took the towel to his face.

"So I know we haven't been in your dorm room before guys but… have you guys always had a dog? That would've been pretty cool to know beforehand." Okuyasu muttered as he walked up and took a closer look at Zwei, the little dog just turning its head to look at the scarred teen with that dopey, far away look in its eyes.

"No. We have 'not' had a dog and we're not 'keeping' a dog here…" Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi blinked in confusion before they turned to look up at the bunk bed. Sure enough, Blake was up there hiding as she stared down at the scene, glaring at Zwei as the little dog just wriggled around in Ruby's arms.

"Oh, are you scared of dogs Blake?" Koichi asked as he tilted his head to the side, Blake's ribbon standing up on end as she turned her glare toward the young man.

"I'm 'not' afraid of dogs. I don't know what you're implying!" Blake declared though as Zwei barked she flinched and hid even further up onto the bunk bed. Okuyasu just couldn't help himself as he smirked and pointed up at Blake.

"Oh come on Blake, there's no need to be a-"

"Okuyasu, I swear to the Gods, if you make that pun you won't live to regret it!"

"-scaredy cat!" The scarred teen barked out a loud laugh as he slapped his knee, Blake just growling a little as she turned to look over at Yang.

"This is your fault! You taught him how to make horrible puns like that, take responsibility!" Yang just smiled at her partner as she shook her head.

"Come on Blake, I might've instilled Okuyasu with my awesome sense of humor, but I think even Okuyasu would be able to crack that joke without having learned it from me. You're making the cat jokes too easy with how badly you're reacting to Zwei… why, you could almost say you're getting along like-"

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

"-cats and dogs! Eh? Eh?" Ruby, Josuke and Koichi just groaned while Blake snapped her gaze over to Weiss.

"Weiss, come on, help me out here, do something about those two! Discipline them or something!" Blake shouted after her white-haired teammate… who was just distractingly petting Zwei.

"Huh? Oh, of course… uh… bad jokes, don't make them again, it's not right…" With that Weiss went right back to babying Zwei, this causing Okuyasu to just bark out a laugh.

"Oh yeah, that was really cutting. I felt that right to my bones." Weiss just nodded distractedly as she continued to play with Weiss, Okuyasu turning to look at Blake. " Besides Blake, if you really wanted Yang and I to stop, why don't you come down here and make us… unless you're too scared?" Blake frowned as she seemed to push herself up on the bed, getting ready to dive down at the scarred teen. A quick excited bark from Zwei put an end to that, however, as Blake just glared at Okuyasu and Yang.

"I'll make you two regret this. I don't know how and I don't know when, but I'll make you regret this…" Yang and Okuyasu just waved Blake off as everyone's attention returned to Ruby.

"Anyway, Blake is partially right; we haven't had a dog in our dorm room the entire time. Zwei just arrived today… our dad sent him in by the mail." Team JOJO blinked as they tilted their heads, Ruby just nodding her head over to the cardboard tube that Zwei had arrived in. This… caused Team JOJO to just look in confusion.

"... How the Hell does that even work?" Koichi muttered to himself, his confusion causing him to drop his decorum, as Josuke and Okuyasu just nodded in dim agreement.

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about that. He does this kind of thing often so you just kind of get used to it." Yang said with a shrug of her shoulders, earning a quirked eyebrow from Josuke as he looked over at Yang and Ruby.

"Who your dog or your dad?" The two daughters of Taiyang Xiao Long just blinked slightly as Josuke proposed this question. They turned to glance at each other for a moment before looking back to the pompadoured teen.

"Yes." They both answered in time which caused Josuke to slap his forehead with some amount of force. Before this particular strain of the conversation could go much further, Ruby stepped forward toward the trio of teens, a puppy-dog like expression on her face that very much matched Zwei's.

"Listen, dad sent Zwei here and… well, you know, it's cause dad says he needs some help taking care of him for a bit! He won't be here long and… well, with the week we've had, we could really use Zwei around to help keep our spirits up! We'd really, really, REALLY appreciate it if you guys wouldn't tell anyone that Zwei's here! Like, please?!" Ruby practically begged as she looked at the three young men, each of whom blanched a bit at the sheer force of her begging.

"No! This is against the school rules! We can't have a dog in our dorm room! You three have to do the right thing and not let them keep that… that thing here!" Blake cried out from her hiding spot as she glared down at them. As if finally snapped out of her state by Blake's declaration, Weiss turned on the three of them with a fierce look.

"If you three take this little cutey away from us by telling someone, I swear that you won't ever get a moment's peace for so long as I live!" The three young men flinched as Weiss declared this; it was quite clear that she was dead serious. Though Josuke and Koichi just waffled for a moment, Okuyasu blew out his cheeks as he waved them off.

"Relax, we won't tell anyone. So you have a dog in your dorm room, what's the worst that can happen?" Ruby and Weiss' eyes sparkled at this as, eventually, Josuke and Koichi found that they didn't quite have the will to shoot these two down either.

"Yeah, what Okuyasu said. We promise we won't tell anyone… just be sure to keep it to yourselves." Ruby nodded as Koichi said this, Josuke emphatically nodding in agreement.

"Seriously. Jotaro doesn't want us to make a bad impression, so if he knew that we knew you guys were breaking the rules and that we didn't tell anyone, he'd probably be really, really pissed." Josuke muttered conspiratorially… only just then noticing the look of horror that came over Ruby, Weiss and Yang's faces. "What?"

"I'd be pissed about what, Josuke?" The pompadoured teen resisted the urge to jump out of his skin when he heard Jotaro's voice come from behind him. He turned his head slowly and saw Jotaro standing in the still open doorway, his neutral expression etched onto his face as he slightly frowned at everyone in the room. Excited by the new person who entered the dorm room Zwei barked and, surprising Ruby by twisting around so suddenly, got out of her arms and immediately made a break for Jotaro.

"Zwei no!" Ruby called out, realizing just how much trouble they were in as the little corgi made a beeline straight for Jotaro. Zwei, however, surprised everyone by stopping in place as Jotaro lowered his gaze to meet the little dog's, the corgi practically scuffing the floor with its sudden stop as it plopped itself down into a sit right in front of Jotaro, its tongue hanging out as it looked up dumbly at the giant of a man.

Everyone was dead silent, not quite sure what to expect from Jotaro who just stood there and stared down at the little dog. The edge of his cap obscured his eyes as Jotaro just looked down at the dog and, for a moment, Ruby and Yang panicked as Jotaro reached into a pocket of his jacket. That panic quickly turned into confusion as Jotaro pulled out, of all things, a stick of gum and knelt down. As he unwrapped it, he offered it to Zwei who, after sniffing it curiously a few times, gave a quick little bark and chomped on the gum, taking it out of Jotaro's hand and chewing on it enthusiastically.

"... Is gum good for dogs Yang?" Ruby muttered to her sister, confused, as Yang just shrugged.

"Can't be any worse than some of the stuff we've fed Zwei over the years. Besides, look…" Before Ruby could mumble an agreement with Yang's assessment, the group was a bit surprised to see a slightly nostalgic look cross Jotaro's features. Eventually the man's stern expression returned as he stood back up to his full height and looked at the rest of the teens.

"I've already told JNPR and it took me a while to track you all down to find you all. You'll report to listen to Ozpin's speech… but don't bother to stick around to look for assignments. We've decided your missions for you." At that all seven gathered teens just perked up in curiosity before Jotaro turned on his heels, getting ready to leave.

"Wait, Jotaro, is something up? Did you guys discover anything with Hermit Purple?" At that Jotaro arrested his movement and looked back over his shoulder.

"We did. We'll explain it later. You'll get your mission details from Glynda once the speech is over. I'd suggest you all hurry; it's just about to begin." Everyone popped out a Scroll or, in the case of Team JOJO, stole a peek at someone else's Scroll to look at the time and found that Jotaro had been quite right.

…

"AAAAH! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Weiss, snapped out of her Weiss induced stupor, immediately bolted out of the dorm room, the Heiress not wishing to miss what was to be the most important event of their semester.

"Holy shit, wait up!" Okuyasu quickly followed after and soon Koich trailed after.

"Wait, what are we gonna do about Zwei?!" Ruby called out as Blake nodded fervently.

"Yeah! You can't just ignore we have a dog Jotaro! That's against the rules! You have to take it away or tell someone else so that they can take it away! Jotaro?! JOTARO!" Blake quickly jumped to the door and sprinted away before Zwei could make a move on her, the dog just excitedly jumping around from all the sudden burst of energy.

"I'm sure dad sent some food ahead, just leave a bunch out for Zwei and lay out some newspaper for him to go on and we'll figure it all out when we get back!" Yang shouted at her sister as she hurried on out of the room, Josuke nodding… before slapping his forehead.

"Great, between Zwei and this I forgot to actually say thanks… I'll do it when everything's settled down." With that Josuke immediately sprinted off after his friends, leaving Ruby to look down at Zwei with a very… mischievous expression on her face.

* * *

"Well… Ozpin sure put on a brave face for everyone, eh?"

The rest of Team RWBY nodded with Yang as they stood out on Beacon's campus, their bags packed to the brim with various survival gear to fit their needs. While Glynda hadn't given them the precise details of their mission, she had instructed them that they'd need gear for camping for, potentially, several days.

The gathering in the auditorium had been… odd, to say the least. Not because of any strange events, per say, but because of the atmosphere that hanged over the entire proceeding. After all, it hadn't even been a week since 'everyone' in that auditorium, the students at least, had been nearly kidnapped or killed by the Enemy Stands that had invaded Beacon's Dance and tried to demolish the current generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses. Every single student in that room, save for the three teams that had fought against those Stand Users, were on edge and nervous. How could they be called to do missions so soon after something so traumatic. How could they be assured of their safety?

That had been the mood of the room when Ozpin had walked on stage and, microphone before him, gave a speech. It was quite moving, to be perfectly frank. A tale of history and the meaning behind this unity between the Four Great Academies of The Four Kingdoms. Though the speech did feel rehearsed, as if Ozpin had given it again and again… there had been a few new choice additions to it.

"Finally, I would wish for us all to formally extend our welcome to some newcomers to this ritual. For the past eighty years, students from Mistral, Vacuo, Vale, Mantle and Atlas have come together every two years to participate in the Vytal Festival and the rituals that precede it. Our Kingdoms have known an era of peace and cooperation in that time… but in that same period, a great host of civilization has had war waged upon it by our enemies the Grimm.

"A town nestled against a riverbank on the Unknown Continent by the name of Morioh stood as the last presence of human and Faunuskind in those inhospitable lands. A town made up of citizens from all Four Kingdoms, working in tandem in order to achieve their goals. In all that time they've suffered quietly and with dignity, taking it upon themselves each day to face our common enemies head on and without fear… for twenty years longer than even this Vytal Tradition has been ongoing.

"It is an immeasurably hard thing to have your sense of safety and security taken away. To know that your foes rest on your doorstep. That each day presents the chance that the monsters we all fight against will stand before our gates and attempt to take away everything we have all fought for. Each of you are here because you are strong, intelligent and capable and that these qualities are what gained you admittance into the various Hunter Academies you each hail from. However, this is not the reason you are all Hunters.

"What makes a Hunter is the ability to stand against the darkness and gaze into it with bravery. Not without fear, but with the strength of mind to be able to fight against that fear in order to protect the innocent. In order to protect the lives and livelihoods of those we hold dear to us. That is the code by which a Huntsman or Huntress lives… and it is by that code that Morioh has stood for one hundred years and now stands here, ready to join our Four Kingdoms in this ritual of Togetherness, Unity and Peace.

"Welcome Morioh. Remnant hasn't known it… but we've been waiting for you to join us for some time now."

The undertones of this section of Ozpin's speech weren't missed by anyone in the room and, though many students still seemed nervous or unsure, there was a certain air of confidence that returned. As the applause rounded and Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi did their part as 'representatives' for Morioh, Ozpin's words returned some semblance of resilience back to the student population.

The fact that, supposedly, all interested parties had been caught or driven off and that students would have a professional Huntsman or Huntress watching over them during their missions had also gone a long way towards settling nerves.

"I wouldn't so much call it a brave face as a rallying cry. After all, he believed what he was saying!" Ruby said firmly, a small smile on her face as she recalled the entirety of the speech. The other members of Team RWBY nodded as, finally, their Scrolls rang. Official details of their mission was to be sent over the Scrolls they carried though Glynda had done the girls a favor by informing them that they'd need to meet their professional Huntsman out on the air docks. Teams JOJO and JNPR had been taken off to meet with their own professional Hunters separately, though the groups did agree to quickly meet back up before they all actually left on their respective missions.

So it was with some nerves that RWBY pulled out their Scrolls and took a look. It looked to be an elimination mission in Quadrant 5, a ways from Vale…

"Of you've got to be kidding me: Professor Oobleck?" Yang muttered under her breath as Blake raised a finger.

"Doctor Oobleck." The black haired Faunus corrected.

"Details, details… man, just our luck huh? Not exactly seeing this turning out as a smashing mission." Yang muttered as she put her Scroll back into her pocket, Ruby just shrugging as she looked at her sister and friends.

"Well look on the bright side; we have a Grimm Elimination Mission! That sounds like it's going to be pretty exciting!"

"Yeah, certainly more exciting that what most of us have going on." Team RWBY were knocked out of their funk when JOJO, JNPR, Sun and Neptune approached them, the gang of friends just grinning as they all joined up.

"You guys got your assignments too?" The others nodded as Sun and Neptune stepped up first.

"We actually decided to partner up with a Hunter who's been working as a Detective down in Vale… we'll be deputized as honorary Junior Detectives!"

…

"Cool?" Okuyasu asked, seeming a little befuddled, while Jaune just looked imminently impressed.

"Yeah, so cool!" Ren coughed into his fist to draw attention over to JNPR, the magenta eyed young man furrowing his brow.

"We'll actually be working with Port in clearing out some Grimm nests in the Emerald Forest. It's nothing too major but the school just likes to ensure that the Grimm population doesn't get too big for students to handle."

"In all honesty, Port will probably handle the lion's share of anything that would pose much of a threat." Pyrrha said with a slight shrug, the tournament fighter not seeming overly bothered as Nora just groaned.

"Yeah, so it's gonna be boring…"

"What about you JoJo? What are you guys looking at?" Josuke shrugged his shoulders as he pulled out his own slip of paper, unfolding it.

"Well we're set to actually be in the City of Vale too. Making a round of the city in order to try to keep any criminals or remaining prison escapees from causing a scene."

"That seems a little odd. You guys are the most experienced people our age when it comes to Grimm Elimination but they're keeping you in the city?" Weiss folded her arms across her chest as she tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah, doesn't make much sense to me either, Hell, doesn't make much sense that after everything that's gone down that JNPR's staying near Beacon too…" At that, Sun furrowed a brow as he crossed his arms.

"Wait, didn't you guys pick these missions?" The trio of teams shook their heads and explained the situation, which caused the monkey Faunus to stroke his chin with his tail. "Weird… you'd think that after all the butt we kicked at the Dance that they'd be gearing you guys up for something big… instead it sounds like they're just trying to keep you as close as possible." Blake ended up shaking her head as she pointed to her own team.

"'Fraid we break that pattern. We're being sent out to Quadrant Five to eliminate some Grimm. It's not terribly far from Vale admittedly but it's still not exactly in spitting distance." Sun frowned a bit at that as Neptune pat his friend on the back.

"Don't worry man, we've still got some time before we have to put our detective skills to actual use. That was a good attempt though!" With that Koichi turned his attention over to Team RWBY, tilting his head to the side.

"So who are you all going to head off on this mission with? If you're going so far from Vale to kill Grimm, it's gotta be someone pretty strong." Yang just blew out her cheeks as she shook her head.

"Yeah, no. They're sending us with Oobleck. Not exactly sure how rapidly telling the Grimm about history is supposed to strike fear into them but, hey, what are you gonna do?" Team RWBY each nodded in agreement with this, a sentiment shared by JNPR, Sun and Neptune. Team JOJO, however, stayed noticeably silent as they blinked in confusion.

"Did… you say Doctor Oobleck?" Josuke asked, seeming quite confused. When Team RWBY nodded their assent Josuke just folded his arms and tilted his head. "That's… not right. Because when we were taken off to meet with our guide, it was Oobleck. He's going to be telling us more about the History of Vale while we scout out the various criminal elements."

"Wait, what?" Ruby tilted her head to the side, Koichi nodding fervently as he looked between them all.

"It's true, he said he was the one heading up our mission. It seems… a little bit weird that he'd be heading up your mission too. Did he tell you guys this himself or…?" Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang each looked wearily at each other before their turned their glances back over to Team JOJO.

"No… we got it sent to us over our Scroll. We were told that we'd meet the Huntsman in charge of our assignment out here, after all… speaking of which, where is he?"

"Yeah, and why would they send you incorrect information on your Scroll?" Jaune asked, tapping his chin in thought. The sounds of footsteps soon reached the large group's ears and, soon after, a weary, put upon sigh drew their attention behind them. As everyone's eyes locked onto the new arrival, well, it would've been an understatement to say that some jaws dropped..

"Call it an additional security measure. With Oobleck having met with Josuke's team in private and the message sent to your Scroll over the official system there's no electronic proof that Oobleck's going anywhere but Quadrant 5. If our we still do still have someone who has an in against us, they won't see this bait and switch coming. Honestly, as far as plans from the old man go this is pretty basic stuff… but it should work."

Kujo Jotaro stood before the assembled group of teens, though his garb wasn't quite what any of them had seen in his time here at Beacon. While the white coat and white cap remained much the same, the various pins that made up Jotaro's usual attire had been changed around. On his cap, a dolphin and a sun pin had, using their shapes, spelled out a 'JO' on the front of the white cap. A large, acute triangle pin jutted out from the left shoulder of his jacket and a pair of dolphins coming together to form a heart had been pinned onto his left. His undershirt, compared to the blue overshirt with a green undershirt from before, had been replaced by a long sleeve, dark pink get up.

While appearing so similar to what they had come to accept as Jotaro's 'usual' look, it still gave the man a striking and memorable appearance.

"... Does he just have multiple change of outfits and pins around? Has he been going shopping… and if he has, where can I go get some myself?" Sun muttered in a mix between excitement and awe as Jotaro approached the group.

"Ren, Ren! Look, he's wearing the pins we picked out!" Nora excitedly murmured to Ren, the young man just nodding with a small smile on his own face. Jotaro's pace ended with him walking past Teams JNPR, JOJO, Sun and Neptune to stand in front of Team RWBY, a serious expression on his face as he looked down at the four young women. Said young women immediately stood up straighter as the older, serious Huntsman approached them, his eyes scanning about them.

"... I hope that you all have everything you need packed.

"We're going hunting."

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, pretty small announcement but still an announcement. There's no way I'll be able to get you guys out a chapter of this in the usual five days time you might expect it. Tomorrow I'll be packing some stuff up and making the drive back to my hometown to help prepare for Thanksgiving. Then tomorrow is obviously Thanksgiving so I'll be spending most of the day stuffing my face and then sleeping it all off in a food coma the likes of which only comes once a year. The following day, I'll be driving back to my usual abode, packing and then unpacking my stuff all the while.**

 **While I could theoretically churn out a chapter in just one day, I'd rather not. The work that goes into a chapter of Beacon is Unbreakable involves a lot of checking over my notes, making sure continuity stays in check and making sure that everything is being put in that needs to be there for future set ups. It's a bit of an event whenever I sit down each day and I'd rather not stuff that into one day's worth of writing.**

 **So Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Beacon is Unbreakable will not update on November 26th. Expect the next update, however, on December 1st.**

 **I hope you all understand and have a wonderful holiday.**


	46. The Breach (Act 2)

"Huh? Mountain Glenn?"

Ruby's voice came in at a little over a shout as the four young women shared an open space in the air transport that had been assigned to jet them over to the location of their mission. It had been a rather dizzying affair to know that they had been placed under the care of Kujo Jotaro, a man whose name they had come to find synonymous with awe given the amount of time they'd spent not just with Team JOJO but with Nora and Ren as well. They'd heard all the stories, heard the feats that he was able to accomplish… or, well, most of them anyway. The four women had to admit to some amount of curiosity; from what Ren and Nora described, it seemed like Star Platinum's only 'Stand Power' was just to punch things really hard. When everyone tried to get some clarification from Josuke and his team instead of the answers they sought… well, they got some awkward glances and some remarks about how they'll see sooner or later.

Apparently the topic was a no-go as far as openly discussing it, which was 'very' odd considering how open The Frontier Huntsmen normally were about most everything else. Only a few things, in fact, seemed to engender this reaction in them and keep them far, far off from openly discussing it. So Team RWBY thought they had an opportunity and a half here to actually ask Jotaro about this on their way…

If it weren't for the fact that their own nerves were keeping them from doing so. Exposed to Jotaro in only short bursts outside of the classroom and as a teacher in said classroom, this had been their first taste of Kujo Jotaro as he normally was on the job. To say that the guy was kind of intense was a 'dear' understatement that woefully undersold the tension in the compartment; just a look from 'this' Kujo Jotaro was enough to cause them to flinch a bit. Bringing up a sensitive topic of discussion that even Okuyasu, of all people, seemed unwilling to share without Jotaro's consent seemed like a poor idea in that context.

So Ruby Rose, at that moment, settled for something more… related to the current situation; a clarification of where the heck they were actually going to. Jotaro just nodded his head slowly, a hand on his cap to keep the wind from blowing it right off his head as he spoke back up.

"Mountain Glenn. It's a ruined city destroyed by the Grimm somewhere to the South of The City of Vale itself. As you can probably tell from the name it's tucked in the mountain ranges in a glen; small enough to be relatively secluded but large enough to hold a city. According to an old friend, it was Vale's first attempts to expand outside of its own walls back in the day." All of Team RWBY just blinked in confusion at this, all four girls looking at each other as if to try and see if 'any' of them knew what Jotaro was talking about.

Unsurprisingly, not a one of them, even the well red Blake and Weiss, seemed to understand.

"Now Ruby and I might've grown up in Patch but… well, I'd figure we'd have heard about a city like this growing up Jotaro. What gives, exactly?" Jotaro turned his gaze toward Yang and her very relaxed tone, the blonde brawler seemingly realized that she just referred to the man by his first name to his face. "Er, I mean, why would it be such a secret place Mr. Kujo, sir?" The cap-wearing Huntsman just sighed as he pulled the bill of his cap down slightly.

"Calm down, you all are acting like I'm going to maul you if you step out of line." Seeming to finally have some permission from the giant of a man to 'not' worry about formalities in this case, in spite of his own seriousness, seemed to breath some relief into the four young Huntresses. "As for that, I'm not surprised. My friend was exceedingly well traveled for anyone back in those days and usually kept his ear out… and he hadn't heard about the city's destruction before the rest of us ended up arriving there. Seems like the Governing Council of Vale has done an exceedingly good job of making the people who did know about Mountain Glenn think that nothing interesting is happening there anymore… and for people who never knew about it to keep on not knowing about it." The meat of what Jotaro was insinuating was not lost on any of the four members of Team RWBY by a long shot, as concerned expressions crossed all four of their faces.

"You… can't mean what I think you mean, right?" Blake took a cautious step forward as she said this, drawing Jotaro's attention her way. "The Governing Councils can get up to a lot of stuff, trust me I know from experience, but… I dunno, that seems like a step beyond the normal levels of self-interest they seem to employ." Indeed, years in The White Fang and as a protester for Faunus Rights had taught many things about the way the Kingdoms were run. That the Governing Councils of the various Kingdoms were, at best, more than a little corrupt was one of them. That, if you didn't directly threaten their interests, was another.

And finally that if you 'did' threaten their interests and you weren't something they could easily squash underneath their heel, like the newly militant White Fang, that they were more than willing to fold to your demands once the going got tough. Still, even in spite of that not at all grand assessment, the black haired Faunus couldn't quite wrap her mind around the idea that the Governing Councils would ever, effectively, disappear a city from the public consciousness. That just… that just seemed inhuman. Completely and utterly inhuman.

"Sadly, Ozpin and Ironwood all but confirm those suspicions." The four young women flinched a bit as Jotaro looked out the open compartment of the transport, their eyes following his as they saw, out in the distance, a small valley settled in between various ranges of the mountains. In that valley the faintest outline of… something could be seen. It would've been ill-fitting to call it a city as the jagged, broken outline that cast itself against the sunlight looked nothing like the villages of Patch, the Cities of Vale or Atlas or anything any of them had ever seen in their life. More akin to a jagged set of rocks at the bottom of a deadly cliff than a vibrant town.

Yet, as they got closer, they could see the ruins of great, towering office buildings and the remains of homes and businesses that had once been the small city of Mountain Glenn.

"In its own way, it makes a sick amount of sense. The Grimm are attracted to negative emotions like anger, hate, fear and despair. What better what to make sure that cocktail of emotions comes to light than to tell the people that humanity's first big city beyond the four main ones was utterly destroyed by the Grimm, abandoned to its fate by the very people that swore to its protection." Jotaro fist clenched slightly as he spoke, the giant of a man scoffing as he leaned back up against the wall of the transport plane's compartment. "As terrible as it is, you can't have that kind of knowledge sitting over everyone's head… especially when you've built up the idea that everyone is safe and that they don't have to worry about the Grimm. That podunk villages might be threatened by the monsters but that those people who choose to dwell in cities never have anything to fear."

"Well… I mean, that's true to a certain degree. Atlas, Vale, Mistral and Vacuo haven't been seriously challenged or threatened by Grimm in decades." Weiss pointed out, though as Mountain Glenn came more and more into view the Schnee Company Heiress couldn't help the pit that was forming in her stomach.

"Maybe so. Still… if that really is true, why bury an entire city and the people who lived in it? After all, peace like that can't be so fragile that one set back can ruin it all, right?" It wasn't the implication of Jotaro's words that made Team RWBY go silent. It wasn't the idea he was putting forth that made them distinctly uncomfortable.

It was the fact that none of them could provide a solid answer to that question… well, almost none of them.

"Even if that's the case… that's why there's Huntsmen and Huntresses. If anything does go wrong, we'll be there to put everything back where it belongs. That's our job." Ruby declared emphatically, even as her silver eyes reflected the ghastly image of Mountain Glenn.

"True enough. Walls, cities and tunnels only get you so far… it's just a shame that particular lesson seems to be falling out of style in these parts." Ruby turned her gaze to Jotaro and, despite herself, gave him a little something of a glare. There's a moment of surprise on Jotaro's face before the older man just nods. "For the most part." A smile works its way up onto the red and black haired young woman's face as Jotaro admits this, one that grows more when she feels her sister pat her on the shoulder. "Now then, before we get down there, there's something important we have to establish…"

"Order of operations?"

"Our specific goal?"

"Call signs?"

"Cool nicknames?!"

In order of most to least serious, Weiss, Blake, Yang and Ruby gave their input, all of which caused Jotaro to just shake his head. Eventually the cap-wearing Huntsman just sighed as he coughed into his fist.

"... You're going to see things down there. Things that no one should have to see no matter their profession." The grim tone that Jotaro took surprised the four young women. "Mountain Glenn… it has been almost completely abandoned. No one's probably been by here since myself and the rest of the Stardust Crusaders came through here. We did our best to do what we could but… we didn't have the time to just sit around." Jotaro turned his steely gaze over to the four young women, each of whom were taken aback by the drop in his voice.

"Mountain Glenn is a tomb… just… be careful and be respectful when you can." With that Jotaro further surprised the four young women by jumping out of the plane.

…

"WAIT, YOU'RE JUST A NORMAL PERSON WITHOUT YOUR STAND, YOU DON'T HAVE A LANDING STRATEGY!" Ruby shouted after Jotaro as she immediately lept from the plane, quickly followed by the rest of her team. While the four young women on some intrinsic level knew that if Kujo Jotaro were so comfortable leaping from a plane that it meant that he wasn't in much of any kind of trouble, there was still some gut reaction to seeing it happen. After all, that was the rule with Stands and Stand Users; the Stands themselves were powerful but Stand Users weren't really all that super human. From what they could tell about Star Platinum, it was just an unusually powerful Stand, not necessarily one that could keep Jotaro safe while he fell from the sky.

Unless, Blake and Yang had thought… unless its strange power could keep him safe. The pair remembered, quite vividly, the scene in the classroom as Jotaro walked in on their discussion. One moment Yang was standing tall, defending Blake's record and her decency as a person, that Jotaro shouldn't be looking to punish her… the next, Yang was outside of the classroom without any idea how she got there and Blake was just alone with Jotaro. It had been a deeply disquieting moment for the pair, a moment that the two had yet to really wrap their minds around. That had to be it, right? Why else would Jotaro be so calm even as he plummeted to the ground?

It wasn't until near the end of the fall that they saw the shimmering pattern fly out of Jotaro which, in time, eventually formed into the Stand that they knew as Star Platinum. What they saw next was Star Platinum throwing Jotaro's bag down towards the ground in front of them, the force of the Stand's throwing ensuring that the bag was moving faster than they were as Star Platinum moved to get a solid grip on Jotaro.

 **[Star Platinum: The World]**!"

They weren't even sure what happened after that though. One moment Jotaro was falling towards the ground along with his bag and, the next, he was just standing on the ground as if nothing had happened. The four young women's eyes boggled out of their skull at the sight of this and, for a moment, they had forgotten their own landing strategy… a mistake that they were quick to correct before they splattered on the pavement.

By the time they had all landed on the ground the four of them were still staring at Jotaro as he placed his bag back onto his back, the strap slung over his shoulder as he looked back at them.

"We'll walk and talk; our mission isn't exactly complicated so it won't take long to explain it."

"... Before that, Mr. Kujo?" Weiss question stopped Jotaro from turning away from the team of Huntresses, the white haired heiress just fidgeting a bit as she gaped for a moment. "... What was that? I mean… you were falling and then the next moment… something happened? What was that?" The three other members of the team just nodded in agreement, each wanted to know just how he had managed that.

"... I suppose there's no harm in telling you this now that we're so far from any potential eyes or ears back in Beacon and Vale. Besides, it wouldn't do for you all to not know the full abilities of a member of your squad." The four nodded in agreement as Kujo Jotaro slightly readjusted his pack's grip on his shoulder. "Star Platinum: The World's special ability is to stop time for everyone and everything but myself, it and anything we're holding."

…

"I mean… that's just like putting it into layman's terms, right? That's just a simple way of explaining a really complex ability, isn't it? I mean, you can't possibly, actually be able to… stop time… with your Stand." As Weiss trailed off with no sign of Jotaro breaking out into a joke or some kind of sign that he was only using the simple explanation of 'stopping time' to cover up a far more complicated ability her jaw dropped slightly. "You're serious." It was less of a question and more of a burning, sudden realization.

"I am." Jotaro returned flatly as Blake just blinked a couple times.

"... That… makes sense, I guess." Indeed, with the perspective of Star Platinum's ability, it put the events of the classroom into a perspective that, finally, made sense to the cat Faunus. A very scary kind of sense in that such a power existed at all but hey, a kind of sense.

"... That power is so… COOL!"

"... That power is so busted…"

The two sisters, meanwhile, had somewhat divergent reactions to the realization of Star Platinum's ability; Ruby seemed ecstatic and utterly blown away that such an amazing ability could exist, easily being the most powerful Stand Power she'd ever heard of in her short time of even knowing what in the world Stands were. Yang, on the other hand, was blown away and not a little bit putoff. The ability to just stop time for everyone and everything except yourself? That… that really did seem like the most bullshit Stand Power to have ever existed.

What the Hell was the counter to that? How did you work around 'that' power and then the fact that Star Platinum, from what she'd heard, could kick ten different kinds of ass in as many seconds?

"I'm limited in how long I can stop it for and, if I use the ability too often, it puts a strain on me but that's the short and long of it at any rate." Jotaro raised his hand slightly, raising five fingers. "For now, let it be understood that I can… reasonably Stop Time for five seconds at any given moment."

"... And if we're talking unreasonably?" Yang asked, tilting her head to the side, as Jotaro frowned.

"Let's just say that we'll get to that if we're ever put into that kind of situation, which we shouldn't be…" Jotaro said quite firmly, the four young women nodding in understanding; if they kept their wits about them then such an occurrence really shouldn't be something they'd need to worry about. "Now then come on; we're going to find a place to drop all this stuff off before we move on."

"... I'm sorry, what?" Ruby interjected quickly as Jotaro turned to face her.

"Our mission is to find where exactly Roman Torchwick and his goons are hiding around here… and I have an extremely good guess. Honestly, it's the only reasonable place they could be staying given how busted up most of the rest of Mountain Glenn is." The older Huntsman pointed down to the ground as he fixed them all with a serious look. "Mountain Glenn has a series of tunnels working underneath it leading to an old railway that connected itself to Vale. Back when this was a city and not a graveyard, it was meant to be a defensive system that the citizens could hide in and use as an escape route in case of a large Grimm assault… up until the Vale Governing Council effectively locked the doors, leaving them to handle the Grimm on their own." The four teenaged girls just swallowed nervously at this, Jotaro's even-handed description, tinged with frustration though it was, being slightly unsettling.

"Nobody has directly come to Mountain Glenn in a while… but it stands to reason that if Roman Torchwick's goons and their allies have been working in these parts, they'd want to do so in a place that was completely out of sight and that no one even remotely passing through would be able to spot. They're probably somewhere underneath Mountain Glenn itself… and if their target is Vale, as Ozpin, Ironwood and the old man assumes it is, we're probably looking at them using the railroad in order to achieve their ends." Blake's amber eyes widen slightly as she steps forward.

"Is that why JNPR and JOJO also had their missions assigned for them and kept close to Vale?" Jotaro nodded quickly.

"Mmm, perceptive. Yeah, Josuke's and Jaune's team have been kept back just in case anything happens. If things go poorly here then we'll need everyone we can to help protect students and civilians while the other Hunters get to work on either handling the threat or doing clean up. Given that you all already have some skin in the game with how involved you all have chosen to get-" Team RWBY chuckled nervously at having been so blatantly called out, though Jotaro seemed to barely care, "-then you all seemed like prime candidates among the first years to keep in reserves on top of older year Teams and your teachers."

"Okay, so I get all that but what's this about leaving our bags behind?" Ruby asked again, hugging her bag almost protectively, as Jotaro just turned to face her.

"We know where we're going and where our enemies are likely to be. As frustrating as it might've been to pack all this up, it was mostly for show, just like saying that Oobleck was leading this mission; thanks to the fact that our enemies likely know that the old man survived they're probably expecting an attack… but they'd be expecting an attack from either a massive army or a serious team of Hunters. Not from a History Professor and a Team of First Year Huntresses, even if that team has proven itself against these people before. By giving this all the appearance that it is just a normal seek and destroy mission, leaving my name out of it and having you all pack your supplies, we've hopefully been able to lull our enemies into a false sense of security; they'll be keeping their eyes set for a large army or a team made up of more experienced foes. Not you four… and so long as I keep my head down, they won't know I'm here either.

"To that end, we're heading right for the entrance to the underground that we know about… the one the Stardust Crusaders and I found during our first visit here. The bags can be set off to the side and picked up later, but they're not important to this mission." With that Jotaro turned his back fully on the team and began walking off. "So we're dropping them off and leaving them while we clean up the trash." The other three girls nodded in firm understanding as they slung their own gear over their shoulders and followed Jotaro, while Ruby just gave a big old frown as she ran up to run beside the giant of a man, still holding her bag like a small child.

"B-But, I mean, what if something happens with our bags before we get back? You know, like, what if one of Roman's goons comes by, finds our bags and takes them? O-Or what if some Grimm come, yeah, some Grimm come and they… they cut up our bags and destroy them… that… that wouldn't be good! My d… my deodorant and my sleeping back! It's really important that I get them back to Vale! I spent a lot of Lien on them!"

"No you didn't Rubes, dad did."

"STILL! STILL! Dad spent money on it and I don't want to waste it!" Ruby exclaimed as the rest of her team just looked at her with a great deal of confusion. Jotaro just sighed as he looked down at her, rolling his eyes slightly. He supposed she was fifteen… on the other hand, he had become a Huntsman, officially, at the age of fourteen, so that wasn't much of an excuse.

" **Yare yare daze** , it's more important that we have a lighter load when we go into this fight than protecting your bags, Miss Rose." Jotaro declared flatly as Ruby turned on him, her silver eyes wide with shock as he just shook his head. "Whatever, if you're honestly that worried then I'll just carry your bag; Star Platinum does most of my fighting anyway." Jotaro immediately reached out and grabbed Ruby's bag which, oddly enough caused the girl to panic even more.

"WAIT NO IT'S FINE I CAN CARRY IT I'LL JUST BE SUPER CAREFUL AND-"

"Bark bark!"

…

"Bark bark?" Weiss asked, tilting her head to the side as Blake flinched quite heavily. Everyone looked at Ruby, the silver eyed girl sweating heavily as she nervously chuckled. Her bag, again, echoed out a couple of barks that sounded 'suspiciously' like a small corgi as they all stared long and hard at her.

"O-Oh, that must be my Scroll, I, uh, I changed the… ringtone? Hahaha… ha… haaaa…" Ruby swallowed nervously as she looked up to Jotaro, the stoney expression of the man staring at her head on as he reached both hands down to grab for the zipper of her bag. "JOTARO WAIT!"

But it was not to be. For as soon as his hands were on the zipper Jotaro immediately undid it and, lo and behold, Zwei's head popped out of the opening of the bag, the dog giving a few short barks as its tongue hung out of its mouth while it was panting.

"Zwei?"

"ZWEI!"

"THE DOG?!"

Yang, Weiss and Blake's reaction each differed 'wildly' from each other. On the one hand, Yang just seemed utterly confused at seeing the family pet pop right out of Ruby's bag, Weiss seemed delighted beyond capacity for rational or reasonable thought and Blake looked like she was about ready to jump out of her skin at a moment's notice.

All of this paled in comparison to Jotaro… or it would if you knew what to keep an eye out for. The older man seemed only slightly more perturbed than what his base expression might entail. However, upon closer inspection, it was clear that Kujo Jotaro was… annoyed, to say the 'very' least. Jotaro's left eye twitched slightly at the sight of the corgi popping out of the bag, as the older Huntsman reached a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. His tooth could practically be heard grinding against each other as the Huntsman took in this development, Ruby Rose shaking a bit as she held on to her 'very' excited dog.

"I-I'm sorry! It's just that we were leaving on a mission for what I thought would be days and I didn't want to leave Zwei alone and I thought that hey what's the harm in bringing him along I mean Zwei's always been able to hold his own in situations like these, kind of miraculously too I mean whenever we go off to find him when he's run off we never really see any Grimm around but there's signs that they're there and I know I just said that he can handle himself but I reallydidn'tfeelsafejustleavinghimatBeacontomaybebefoundandsenttothepound-"

"So your solution was to instead bring your dog on a search and destroy mission where there could be hundreds of Grimm around?"

"... Yes?"

" **Yare yare daze** …" Jotaro looked back up toward the sky and the rapidly retreating tail of the ship that had just dropped them off, an annoyed scowl now plastered on his face. They were in too deep and having the jet make another run over their location just to pick up a dog would very likely tip off a lot of people that there was something up. Not to mention the number of Grimm who had probably already been alerted to their current location by the drop off…

"Alright. You hold on to that dog for dear life. Just… try to not let it get in the way…" Jotaro heaved a heavy sigh as he shook his head. "We'll find a location to drop off our bags and then move on to the next objective. Let's just get going…" With that Jotaro stalked on off, leaving Team RWBY to wait a moment before following him. Blake was rather quick to follow, all too eager to get away from the monster that she considered the little dog. Yang was next and, in her own sisterly way, offered that odd expression, a mix of sympathy for the aggravation she'd brought out of Jotaro and a look that said 'maybe not your brightest move sis'.

It was kind of like how her dad would sometimes give her and Yang that said 'I love you both but I'm so disappointed'. Otherwise known to Ruby as 'the worst' look.

Weiss was by far the slowest out of them to get going… mostly because she hung around for several seconds to coo at Zwei while petting him before snapping to attention. Ruby just heaved her own sigh as Zwei licked her face, sensing her distress.

"Well at least you're allowed to stay boy. Just don't get into any trouble, okay?" The little corgi gave a couple happy barks at this, Ruby shushing him given their sensitive situation before she ran off after Jotaro, looking to catch up with the head of their group and the rest of her team.

For what had initially been billed as a Search and Destroy mission, there was remarkably little of the latter as they followed Jotaro's lead. Anytime they would come in some distance of a pack of Grimm, Jotaro would lead them off to the side or some spot in a nearby ruin in order to hide and wait for the Grimm to pass.

"This kind of sucks Jotaro. We can totally kick those things' butt, why are we wasting time waiting for them to go by?" Yang asked, curious, as Jotaro kept his gaze on the Grimm.

"It would be faster for us to kill them, but it'd also cause a lot more chaos. We can't know for certain how aware our enemies are of what's going on… and while we can use that in order to try and sneak around, we can't take it for granted by getting into large scale fights when we don't have to. Not only would the odds be good that we'd just attract more Grimm, but we'd also be looking at a chance of being spotted out by our quarry before we found them. The trade-off in time is worth maintaining the element of surprise." The answer, while it didn't seem to be Yang's favorite, did placate the blonde brawler as she nodded and slid back into a hiding spot, the rest of her team keeping quiet… and Ruby keeping her hand over Zwei's snout in order to make sure the little dog didn't alert any of the Grimm.

It was touch and go several times as they passed through the ruins of Mountain Glenn though, finally, after what seemed like an age, Jotaro seemed to be acutely aware of… something. His eyes glanced about, taking in landmarks as they passed, as the older man finally nodded.

"We're getting close. Be ready; once we're underground we'll have to move fast and hit fast. Don't spare a thought for any grunts we might leave behind; our target is Roman Torchwick and our goal is to stop whatever it is he's got brewing here. Securing every single small potato we come across will just slow us down." The four young women nodded, Yang getting increasingly excited while Weiss, Blake and Ruby just seemed to be steeling themselves for conflict on their first… well, technically first, really, mission. Technically.

The building that Jotaro took them into was a bit of a surprise to everyone; a hotel. Or at least the ramshackle remains of one. The entire building looked like time had taken its toll on it as most of the exterior was severely weather worn with some chunks having fallen off of it, various windows being shattered and any ornamentation that might've adorned the building having long since rusted away, been destroyed or taken by small birds.

About the only thing that it seemed like time wasn't responsible for was a rather large hole in the outer wall that seemed to have once been the sight of a window.

"Uh, a hotel?" Blake asked, somewhat incredulous, as Jotaro just nodded.

"Like I said, Mountain Glenn had a lot of tunnels underneath it meant to act as a safety net for the people leaving here… which means that there were a lot of buildings, especially ones that a lot of people would be in at one time, that had secret entrances to the various tunnels. This building was one such one… and during our original visit here, an old hag named Enya used this secret entrance as a means of finding… puppets for her Stand."

Justice. They'd remembered Ren and Nora's description of the very ghoulish monstrosity that had disguised Mountain Glenn as a still living, breathing city. It hadn't taken a lot of thought for the four members of Team RWBY to realize what Jotaro had actually meant by 'puppets'.

"At any rate, just follow me… and from here on out, keep your guard up." The four young women each nodded as they got their weapons ready, Ruby putting Zwei down on the ground in the process.

"Now just stick close but stay behind us, okay Zwei?" The little corgi, by now tuned into what exactly his owner was going on about, just gave a little tilt of his head but otherwise stayed quiet. Mollified by this Ruby readied Crescent Rose as the group of four humans, one Faunus and a dog stalked through the remains of the hotel, dust having accumulated in multiple layers around the place. Jotaro's eyes glanced around as they walked, a slight shiver hitting his shoulders as each new sight brought… not necessarily unwelcome thoughts, but thoughts that weren't appropriate for the moment.

" _What do you mean 'Why does my breath stink'?! It doesn't matter … Fuckin' toilet…"_

" _Huh, what was that Polnareff?"_

" _NOTHING! KAKYOIN, JUST GIVE ME THE MEDICINE SO I CAN DISINFECT MY MOUTH ALREADY!"_

" _... I could've swore I heard the word 'toilet'..."_

"Er, Mr. Kujo?" Jotaro snapped himself out of his reverie as he looked back at Weiss Schnee, the young, white haired woman just kind of staring at him along with the rest of Team RWBY. "I… I know that some people are really into fighting, Yang comes to mind over there-"

"Yep."

"-but… I dunno, a smile doesn't really fit you."

…

"Ah, of course. Apologies, my mind was… somewhere else." Jotaro took a breath and readjusted his cap, the Stand User banishing the old thoughts from his mind as he again moved forward… had he stopped right in place as he took in those memories? No wonder they had been staring at him, he had probably just been dazedly looking off into space in the middle of an important assignment.

Yes, an important assignment. He could reminisce about better times later. For right now he had a job to do along with this team of young Huntresses. He had to stay focused. Had to stay on track. Otherwise both RWBY and Vale could face dire consequences. Eventually the group passed into the back corners and passages of the hotel and, before them, laid a large, heavy door.

"Passed this door is the entrance to the underground tunnels. We haven't seen any guards yet but I'm guessing that's going to be changing soon. Be prepared…" As Jotaro said this, Ruby turned to Blake, the silver eyed young woman looking at her teammate.

"Blake, can you hear anything past the door? Any guards?" Blake frowned slightly as her eyes fixed on the door, her amber gaze narrowing as she slowly shook her head.

"No… I don't hear any guards." Jotaro took that as a go ahead, his hand twisting the knob and opening the door slowly. "Not just that… I… I don't hear anything at all." Momentary confusion at Blake's assessment soon turned to surprise as the group of five Hunters saw what lay on the other side of the door. Rather than a huge sprawling passage that slowly descended down into a deep, dark cavern as they might've been expecting, there was only a small space just behind the door, just large enough to be a closet of some kind.

At the back of which was a cement wall, far out of place of the rest of the building. Before that, there was no sign of anything on the floor… except… except the 'faintest' outline of new concrete in comparison to the rest of the room.

"I'm guessing that isn't supposed to be there?" Yang remarked idly as Jotaro nodded, kneeling down onto the floor and pressing his hand against it.

"Absolutely not. There used to be a trap door here just beyond the door. Opening it would lead down into the tunnels. It was heavily barred but, between your strength and Star Platinum, it would've been a cinch to open again… now it's just… gone…" Jotaro frowned as he traced around the outside of the new patch of concrete on the ground.

"Recently too by the looks of it; the rest of the room looks like it was part of the original construction… but this part here, it's recent and made with different stuff." Weiss remarked dryly as they all looked down at it, Ruby just furrowing her brow.

"Well, I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to break through right? I mean, Jotaro has Star Platinum!" The older Huntsman nodded his head in agreement as, after a brief flicker, Star Platinum came to the front, the Stand tall and proud as it reared a fist back.

" **ORA!** " With a loud battle cry the Stand slammed its fist into the ground and, indeed, a mighty crack and crater was formed into the floor… but to everyone's surprise, it wasn't immediately shattered into pieces.

"Hmmm, they poured it on thick." Jotaro remarked as he took a step back, bringing a hand up to stroke his chin as he looked down at the concrete.

"Well, I mean, it can't be so thick that you can't just beat your way through it right?" Yang asked with a shrug as she cracked her knuckles. Hell, in all likelihood, she could break through this with ease if the situation called for it. Jotaro nodded his head, a slight grimace on his face as he continued to stroke his chin.

"Easily… still, I would think that'd be the case for most people. Grimm already weren't really big on going through these entrances in the first place, or at least, we didn't find any in the tunnels when we passed through, so you wouldn't think they made this to keep them. On the other hand, it would perhaps keep unsuspecting people from finding them… but if someone who knew what they were looking through came by, someone sent by people with knowledge of Mountain Glenn like say…"

"A Governing Council."

"Or a Headmaster." Blake and Weiss spoke one after the other, finishing Jotaro's thought as he nodded.

"Indeed, then some concrete wouldn't really do much. After all, even as first years most of you could probably easy dig your way through this concrete. Maybe not with brute strength for most of you, but with Dust and enough time you could probably blow this concrete out of the way with ease. So what would be the point in just laying concrete…"

"You think it's trapped?" Ruby asks, seeing where Jotaro was going as the older man just nodded his head.

"It's what would make the most sense to me. Concrete isn't much of a barrier to Hunters or the military, so it'd almost be a waste of resources to lay it just for the hopes of buying, what, a minute? Maybe? Sure it might alert you that they're coming but, by the time they you know, they're already breaking in…" Jotaro looked down at the concrete, shaking his head. "No, if I had to bet any amount of money on this, I'd say that there's an unpleasant surprise waiting on the other end of this barrier."

"You mean like explosives? Heck, I'd rig something with that if I knew how." Yang remarked casually with a shrug as Blake just nodded her head.

"And I 'did' rig my fair share of traps with just that. If they rigged the end of this concrete barrier with enough high explosives, not only could it do a lot of damage to the surface and to us…"

"But it'd also probably trigger a cave-in with this particular passage, leaving us needing even more time to dig our way through while they're alerted to the fact that we're here…" Weiss began as Ruby finished.

"And so would the Grimm." Everyone nodded in time, Jotaro just having heaved a sigh of annoyance as he turned to the rest of them.

"It's a bit of an idiot trap, probably expecting that most people would just immediately punch or blow their way through it without a good deal of thought. Still, even for people who can see that something must be up, it'd by them time by discouraging them from an entrance… if I had to guess, a lot of these entrances are probably sealed up similarly."

"Great, so our easy access to the likely enemy base has just been swept out from under our feet. Now what?" Yang crossed her arms as she and the others thought for a moment.

"There has to be an entrance around here that they're using. They couldn't use an entrance in Vale because, if the Governing Council and other authority figures are keeping such a tight lid on Mountain Glenn, I'd have to imagine they have entrances to the tunnels leading here sealed up nice and tight." Jotaro nodded in agreement with Blake.

"Indeed; there's only two points of access to the tunnels underneath Mountain Glenn and that lead to Vale; one end at Vale, one end here at Glenn. If they're getting in from anywhere, it'd be here… we just have to track down where exactly they're getting in from…" The group of Hunters all stroked their chins as they gave the matter some thought. A way to find out where their enemies were moving in the city and to pinpoint where exactly the main entrance to their base was. Blake's hearing might help but it wasn't great for tracking and no one else possessed exemplary senses except for Star Platinum's impeccable eyesight…

"Bark bark!" The silence was broken by Zwei, after spending much of the past several minutes just staying back and being quiet like a good boy, barking out a couple of times as he drew the attention of the rest of the group to him. The group of five all took a moment to look at the little dog, the corgi having wagged its tail at the sudden attention that had been paid to it. All eyes turned on Ruby Rose as a very excited look slowly came over her face.

"Hey, that means I actually did the right thing by bringing Zwei here! Hah!" Ruby crowed a bit as she leaned her head back, causing Yang to just chuckle while Blake and Weiss shook their heads. Jotaro, on the other hand, just knelt down and pulled another stick of coffee flavored gum out of his jacket. As he unwrapped it and fed it to Zwei, he glanced up at Ruby.

"By pure happenstance, yes, you brought just what we needed when we didn't know we needed it. Doesn't make your decision right… but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." Jotaro spoke evenly as he readjusted his cap and stood back up to his full height. "New plan; we'll have Zwei hunt around for our targets to try and see if we can locate them or their base's secret location. I'll protect the dog… since he'll be tracking, we can't exactly stop him every time a group of Grimm show up. We'll need him on a trail at all times. That means I'll keep a direct watch on him and stick close to make sure he doesn't get attacked. You all, on the other hand…" Jotaro inclined his head toward Team RWBY, the four young women grinned a bit as Yang slammed her fists together.

"Sounds like we're getting tested on our search and destroy skills after all!"

"I suppose that's one way to put it, yes."

* * *

"Ah, Mr. Kujo? A moment of your time, if you wouldn't mind?" Kujo Jotaro turned his head slowly to look over at one Weiss Schnee, the Schnee Dust Company Heiress taking a moment in the quiet between brawls with packs of Grimm in order to approach the older Huntsman. Said Huntsman was currently walking somewhat casually alongside Zwei, the little corgi just scampering along as it sniffed the ground, trying to sniff out trails of other people in the area while occasionally chomping on some coffee gum.

It wasn't a mystery to Jotaro why the scene was so nostalgic for him or why, in the quiet moments, it allowed his mind to wander to better days and better memories of his time with the Stardust Crusaders. In this moment, in the quiet before battle, when his only task was just to keep an eye on both this dog and his charges to ensure no Grimm got them… it allowed him a moment to let those memories wash over him.

That moment, apparently, was now over as he motioned for Weiss to continue. "Uh, right, so… well, Mr. Kujo. You're… first, let me see if I understand this right. So you're the next Leader of The Frontier after your grandfather…"

"Either dies or retires, yes. He's an old man, you don't have to tiptoe around that fact." Weiss seemed slightly taken aback by how blunt Jotaro had been but, in the end, just nodded as she moved along.

"Right, yes. So you're the heir to your land… why are you putting yourself at risk like this? Why go off and handle a mission yourself? Surely other people could've been sent in your stead?" Jotaro arched a brow at this.

"Do you mean 'this' mission in particular or the broader mission here in Vale?" Weiss frowned a bit as she took a moment to think, before she just shrugged.

"Both, I suppose."

"A fair question, I suppose." Jotaro adjusted his cap at this as he looked forward. "The first and most obvious reason is just that I was most qualified to be here. The danger was perceived as high and that we needed to be serious if we were going forward. We didn't have sheer numbers to spare so we sent quality; in the case of Vale and Vytal broadly, myself and Team JOJO and, in the case of this mission, you, a Team who has regularly met with Roman and his forces and won, and myself, probably one of the singular more dangerous Huntsmen we have on hand."

"The second?" Weiss asked, tilting her head as Jotaro just shrugged.

"It's expected. I'm a descendant of Jonathan Joestar. I went with my grandfather as part of the Stardust Crusade… people expect me and my family to put our lives on the line to do our part in protecting our home and, now that we're trying to be part of broader Remnant again, the Four Kingdoms. It'd be a shirking of responsibility not to." Weiss nodded cautiously as she raised her own head up.

"I can respect that. After all, that's why I'm here too; as a Schnee it's my duty to the family name to do my part. To honor the Schnee name is why I'm here." Jotaro nodded slightly, though with a slight tilt to his head.

"A good reason… it's commendable of your family, really." Weiss blinks as Jotaro said this, the older man looking off. "As far as I was aware, you Four Kingdomers didn't 'have' to necessarily serve as Huntsmen or Huntresses. If this is part of honoring your family name, then it must be pretty deeply ingrained."

"... Well… actually, I'm only the second Hunter in my family. The first was my sister, Winter." At that Jotaro paused and looked down at Weiss.

"So then how was being a Huntress expected of you?" As Jotaro asked this question, Weiss went silent. The young woman had just stood there, her eyes trailing down as Jotaro raised a hand. "Forget I asked, it isn't important. You decided to be a Huntress to honor your family name." Weiss just nodded somewhat, a new pack of Grimm having arrived as they spoke. This seemed to snap Weiss out of her stupor as the girl just furrowed her brow, throwing herself back into her work as Jotaro just stood there beside Zwei.

" **Yare yare daze** …"

* * *

"So…"

"So?"

"You're JoJo's nephew then, eh?"

Jotaro sighed, very much irritated, as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Of course this was going to come up sooner or later. 'Of course' it was. Jotaro had gotten so used to this being pretty much a non-issue back home; everyone already knew about this and, more to the point, everyone knew better than to talk about it. Hell, no one 'wanted' to talk about it. The older Huntsman supposed that it was a little too much to ask that this continue to be the trends once people here in the Four Kingdoms found out.

"Yes… Josuke's, technically, my uncle." Yang Xiao Long, the person who'd asked him this question, blinked somewhat as she punched a Beowolf so hard in the head that its neck snapped, sending it flying off as it dissipated.

"But… you're almost old enough to be, like, his way older brother or something. Heck, the gap between Ruby and I is smaller than the gap between you two."

"I'm aware. I also have a daughter who insists on calling him her 'Grand Uncle' who's years younger than your little sister."

"... Your family is messed up."

"You don't know the half of it."

"Yeesh, the half of it huh? That must be one messed up family history then." Yang remarked as she pounded another Beowolf into the ground, which had caused Jotaro to arc a brow at her as she insisted on talking to him while he was watching over Zwei.

"You can't have decided to just come over here and chat over that, right?" Yang nodded slightly as a slight calm had come over the city, the busty blonde having folded her arms as she tilted her head.

"Yeah… I guess what I want to know is… why didn't you do more about the entire situation?" Jotaro immediately understood; so that was her angle then.

"I assume you mean my old man and Josuke's situation." Yang nodded and, rather than wait for her to clarify, Jotaro just barreled on forward. "Simple answer is that I was trying to do what was best for myself and my family." Yang furrowed her brow and seemed ready to talk back, but Jotaro raised a hand. "Yes, before you accuse me of anything, I considered Josuke my family as well. However, I don't consider him my 'only' family. I also have to consider my mother, my grandmother, my wife, my daughter… and myself. The truth is that the entire situation has been a clusterfuck far longer than you've known about it, and we've done the best we could to navigate it given that. My daughter shouldn't have to grow up with that entire situation weighing over her interactions with her great grandfather and grand uncle, my grandmother had suffered enough pain and humiliation over it, Josuke wanted 'nothing' to do with the entire situation back then and my mother… Brothers, when the entire situation first came to light she actually locked herself in a room for days and would barely speak to anyone.

"Hell, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me either; I was a kid when all this came up. When I was seventeen I was effectively risking my life to not just save my own mother's but to save some kid I'd never even met… and then, because Crazy Diamond ended up being such a powerhouse, I was assigned to guide his training later on, well after I had started my own little family." Jotaro looked over at Yang, the blonde brawler having a sympathetic look on her face.

"I understand what you're getting at and I do appreciate that you have Josuke's back on this… but this was hard for everyone, not just Josuke. Sometimes, when it comes to family, you have to pick and choose your battles… sometimes not 'everyone' gets to win. Hell, sometimes you have to do what's right by you because you need to keep an eye on what you need as well. I'm sure you've been in that position; after all, you're an older sister." Yang stopped for a moment as Jotaro had said this, the lilac eyed Huntress casting a glance off to the side.

"Y-Yeah… I guess I have given stuff like that some thought…" Yang looked over towards Ruby. "Trying my best to make sure I see to her before…" Yang shook her head. "Thanks Jotaro, I… JOTARO, LOOK OUT!" Yang hadn't seen the large Ursa Major stalk out from behind the corner of a crumbling building, its fangs wet as it stalked on towards Zwei and Jotaro. The little corgi just stared unphased at it while Jotaro kept his gaze locked on Yang. Yang moved to help-

-only to be struck dumb when the head of the Ursa was sent bouncing a ways away. While her own punches usually broke Grimm necks, she watched as Star Platinum pulled its fist back from a full arcing punch that had literally knocked the Ursa's head off, leaving only its body standing in place as the Stand disappeared. Soon enough the corpse of the Ursa fell over backwards and dissipated, all the while Jotaro just shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

"You were saying?"

"... Right, your Stand's bullshit, I nearly forget."

"... Well, you're not wrong about that." Jotaro said offhandedly as he turned to look back down at Zwei, the little corgi just barking excitedly before he once again set his nose on the trail.

* * *

"How are you holding up?"

Blake had to admit, she was somewhat surprised when Jotaro actually spoke to her, seemingly apropos of nothing, as she just so happened to wander near him and that… that 'thing' that they had leading them around. The black haired Faunus just relaxed a little bit as, according to her own ears, there weren't a lot of Grimm in the immediate vicinity. Blake rolled his question around in her head and, really, it hadn't taken long at all to realize what he was asking.

"Oh, you mean since our talk?" The young woman asked which earned her a small nod from Jotaro. "Better, much better… I actually had fun at The Dance… you know, before everything went to Hell in a handbasket… and I've actually been resting. I feel almost brand new, honestly." Blake sheepishly scratched at the back of her head as she laid all this out. "So… thank you Jotaro."

"No need to thank me." The older Huntsman relied as he and the… the dog continued on. "I wasn't just talking about physically though."

"Of course…" Blake muttered as she crossed her arms, looking down and off to the side. "Well… I haven't made too much progress. I still feel like…"

"Like shit?"

"Yeah." Blake hadn't been used to using such coarse language herself, so speaking so freely with an adult of all things was a pretty new experience for her. "I know that I still have my own dreams and goals… and that it all revolves around bringing humans and the Faunus together in peace… that's why I'm here now, as a Huntress. However… I dunno. After everything I did, I kind of have to ask myself if I'm the right person to be helping with this. Heck, Sun basically believes the same thing I do and leads an almost all-human team to boot without issues… but he's never been a member of the White Fang, so he doesn't have that baggage around his neck."

"Right." Jotaro remarked calmly as he kept an eye on the dog.

"... I guess… I dunno… you and Sun make it seem easy." Jotaro arched an eyebrow at this, as Blake looked back up at him. "I mean, your wife is part Dolphin Faunus, right?"

…

"Where did you hear that?"

"From Okuyasu." The awkward silence continued as Jotaro stared back at Blake, the young woman gasped a bit as she straightened right out. "OH! So it was just a rumor then?" More awkward silence and Jotaro just glancing off to the side. "... Ooooh. So it's not a rumor… so did you really just marry her because… I-I mean, I'm not judging, I think it's great that people in The Frontier are that comfortable with Human-Faunus Relations. Totally not judging and I don't really care if it was a main reason or not, even though some people might think it's a bit-"

"I didn't marry her just because she was a Faunus."

"Oh okay, thank the Gods." Blake breathed a sigh of relief as Jotaro clarified this, the older Huntsman growling slightly under his breath as Blake looked back up at him. "I just mean that… I dunno. When I think back to all the things I did and then see how you're 'married' to someone who, herself, is only part Faunus, and how Sun is leading a human team… I dunno. I already know that so much of what I did in The White Fang hurt people but… was it just… wrong to start with? Will it matter if I keep trying or… will I just keep screwing my own dream up… and am I a horrible person for having these thoughts in the first place?"

…

"Brothers, they really don't bother talking to 'any' of you do they?" Blake blinked as Jotaro shook his head slightly. "Look… it's getting dark and it looks like we're not quite hot on a trail yet. We're going to be settling in using the supplies we brought… not what I wanted but given the situation, it looks like it's what we're going to have to do. Tell everyone else that we're going back for the supplies and then settling down in a base camp."

"Oh, okay. Sure thing Jotaro." With that Blake quickly sprinted back off toward the rest of Team RWBY, leaving Jotaro along with just the little corgi as the young man just sighed.

" **Yare yare daze** … for all the talk about guiding future generations, these kids aren't getting a lot of actual guidance…" Jotaro remarked dryly as he slipped not just his pack of smokes out but also another stick of coffee flavored gum. He dropped the still-wrapped stick down to Zwei while he had Star Platinum light his own cigarette. Zwei, meanwhile, easily tore apart the wrapping without having swallowed any of it as he started chewing on the gum inside. "... You've gotten pretty good at that. Pretty sure I can just toss you sticks now without having to unwrap them for you." The little dog just gave a few quick barks at that, the little corgi almost having choked on his gum after his barks. Jotaro just shrugged his shoulders in the meanwhile as he took a long drag on his cigarette.

"... They have to be using some kind of entrance around here. They can't have sealed them all up, otherwise they'd have locked themselves out as well… and the Dust Robberies were continuing up until recently. They'd need some kind of space open in order to move Dust into their headquarters…" Jotaro exhaled as he spoke. "It'd still be the smartest bet that they're underground… above ground we would've easily noticed by now. Aren't a lot of places to hide out of sight in a ruin, after all… just have to find their opening…" After that Jotaro dropped his cigarette and smothered it under his shoe. "Come on… Zwei. It's been a full day for everyone. Time to turn in and rest before we start this all again tomorrow." The little corgi barked excitedly as it spat out the flavorless gum, the little dog having trotted alongside Jotaro as they moved to rejoin Team RWBY.

Unbeknownst to the group of Hunters and their dog, while their enemies had indeed been working and lurking under their feet… there had been an enemy that had watched them as well. Two red, beady, little eyes had watched the group for most of the day… stiffening and getting agitated as it watched them move around the remains of the city, sometimes getting closer to its territory and sometimes getting further.

The others… they had given it, given them, the ability to make sure that nothing could move into take them on. It had made them superior. Dominant. Furthermore, they knew their place; far below their turf, away from them and their hunting ground. Subservient and docile. These intruders however… they hadn't known their place.

They would they. And they knew… that these intruders would make a fine meal.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: So normally the second update of a month would have been a Chibi update. Well, I'm still having trouble putting some thoughts and ideas together for this one. Still, a quick break to give me some space to think and go over my outline, like a proper Chibi update allowed for, is still something I'd be looking to implementing here. Plus, with a big old paper and some of my finals coming up in the next five days, this actually makes for a good little collision of circumstances.**

 **So without any solid ideas for a Chibi update, the Chibi Update won't be coming out this month. So December 6th won't see anything posted as it concerns these stories. I'll see you all on December 11th and, for those of you in University, good luck, we're almost at the Christmas Break my friends and compatriots.**


	47. The Breach (Act 3)

"We'll be using this place as a temporary campsite. The heightened location should give us plenty of time to react to any Grimm that might wander their way around here, especially given that they'll have to fit themselves in the staircases and corridors leading up here. In addition, the fact that we can set up camp closer to the inside of the floor, with multiple walls blocking it off from the outside, should keep any campfire we set up for warmth from being noticed. We might be approaching summer but the evenings are still bound to chill. Arrange your supplies and gear around the campfire and close to each other; at a second's notice I want you all to be able to gear up and be ready to fight back should the worst happen. You don't have Stands so it's 'imperative' that you're able to ready your weapons as soon as possible."

"... Well hot damn I knew he'd be professional about this but, woof."

The other girls nodded, both at Yang's muttered statement and at Jotaro's read of the situation. It had been a bit of a startling experience for all four young women, although for Blake it hadn't been such a huge change of pace. For Yang and Ruby, more used to their charming and funny Uncle Qrow and how he handled being a Huntsman, this was their first time seeing such professionalism on display. For Weiss, who had never really 'seen' a Huntress in action before, not even having had the pleasure or chance to watch her sister work, this was kind of a first. Blake found this all pretty familiar and, even to a degree, nostalgic; the handing out of orders at the end of a long day as members of Adam's White Fang would settle in for an evening. That wasn't to say that they hadn't taken in impressions of the Huntsmen and Huntresses that made up the staff at Beacon, but it couldn't really compare.

The various professors of Beacon, ranging from Port and Oobleck and their… quirks, kindly put, up to Glynda and her seriousness, had been seen by the young women primarily as Professors. Goodwitch had been the exception twice over, first with Ruby when she had stopped a robbery by Roman Torchwick, and second by the rest of the girls in witnessing her aid in the fight against Red Hot Chili Pepper.

But those had been live fire moments, not the necessary, moment to moment details of being a Hunter out in the field. For that, Jotaro had been the one to begin to cement their impressions of what it meant to be behind enemy lines, deep within Grimm territory. That impression? Preparation, awareness and organization.

"We'll be setting up a shifting guard so that we always have an eye on what's going on outside our camp. There's five of us here so every two hours we can swap out for a shift and, that way, everyone can get a full night's rest. We can't afford to go at our enemies distracted by exhaustion." Jotaro pointed between the five of them as he handed out his orders. "Yang, Ruby, myself, Blake and then Weiss. There'll still be at least some light for your first two shifts, Star Platinum and Blake can handle the deep darkness of the middle of the night and Weiss can keep watch during the sunrise. If you spot anything, however, and I do mean 'anything' I want you, whoever's on watch, to alert the rest of us." Jotaro readjusted his cap as he laid this all out. "Everyone clear on this?"

"Yessir!"

"You got it Jotaro."

"Absolutely."

The older huntsman just gave a nod as everyone broke ways, Yang quickly going off to drop her stuff off and set it up before she took up watch at the designated point, the blonde young woman kept her eyes peeled on the fading scene of Mountain Glenn. Meanwhile the other girls just slowly and carefully, or in Ruby's case with vigor and a bit of a rush, set up their own spots in the campsite. Of all of them, Blake seemed to be handling the task with the most efficiency. Considering what Jotaro had come to know about her past, that was hardly a surprise; history in the White Fang, from what Jotaro had learned about the organization, had likely instilled in her some measure of survival training previously. Spending most of your time outside of civilization would make such a thing necessary. The others were handling this, in Ruby and Yang's case, like a camping trip while Weiss just seemed to follow everyone else's lead.

Ideally they would've had this kind of experience, and to a more professional degree, earlier… then again, Jotaro sighed as he tilted his hat, ideally even Ruby would've been a Huntress for a full year by that point in his estimation. He couldn't have held them to his standards, given that they varied so heavily from what The Four Kingdoms considered a 'standard' education for Huntresses. Still, to have their first mission so late in their education when so many habits would've been well ingrained by this point…

Jotaro sighed as he got his own sleeping bag ready. Well, that was what his job right now had been, right? To act as an experienced Huntsman to help guide them through their first official mission. That meant keeping them organized and, hopefully, keep these patterns and thoughts nailed into their heads for the future. He hadn't necessarily expected or wanted to be in this position, given the importance of their mission… but, well, Kujo Jotaro was nothing if not adaptable. It had been a rotten situation that their enemies had managed to seal up their entrances into the underground, which had been further proof that they were hiding somewhere down there, but he'd make the most of it now. A little bit of a lesson on properly keeping yourself hidden and tucked away in a safe spot while camping out wouldn't have been amiss.

Now, to get some sleep so that he could handle his own shift later on that evening…

"Excuse me… Jotaro?"

Right after he dealt with this. The capped Huntsman gave a short sigh as he turned on his heel and came face to face with one Ruby Rose. The older Huntsman arced an eyebrow as he looked down at the, very much compared to him, small girl.

"Yes, is there something you needed Ruby?" The brusk nature of Jotaro's question seemed to put her on her heels for a moment, though it seemed Ruby recalled quickly enough that this was just how Jotaro spoke normally. With that the girl looked over to the small dog, Zwei, who had at that point taken to curling up on her sleeping bag to go down for a nap itself.

"I just… thought I'd come over and apologize real quick. I know I wasn't supposed to bring Zwei but, well, I was just worried about leaving him in our dorm room for… who knew how long. I didn't know that the mission was supposed to be so short… if I had I'd have probably left him behind. I know he's been useful but… well…"

"You still broke orders and brought your family pet into a dangerous situation where it could get hurt or, worse, cause a moment of distraction where members of your team could be harmed." Jotaro had finished her thought for her, causing Ruby to flinch a bit as she nodded. Jotaro just sighed as he adjusted his cap. "However, I can't deny that bringing Zwei ended up being just what we needed on this mission; without him we'd have had to search all throughout Mountain Glenn looking for our enemies or their entrance into the underground. We haven't found it yet, but the fact that your dog caught traces here and there has at least put us on the right track, which will hopefully save us time. I can't exactly thank you for doing this by having broken the rules, but it'd be low of me not to acknowledge that you've helped in some small way by doing so."

"... Soooo… you can't thank me, but you're glad he's here?" Ruby tried to confirm Jotaro's thought pattern as the older man just nodded.

"Indeed. I'd honestly not make it a habit to pull stunts off like this in the future. I can't say they'd pay equally good dividends." Jotaro knelt down as he continued to set up his sleeping gear, the young woman having nodded as she kicked the ground slightly.

"Makes sense. I just wanted to come out and say sorry myself." Jotaro nodded slightly as he looked up at her. The slightly guilty expression on her face and the way she looked off to the side reminded him, in some small way, of his own daughter. It didn't seem like a practiced expression, that slight puppy-dog expression, just like it didn't for Jolyne. It just seemed like they had been naturally adept at trying to pull at heart strings.

"Surprised you didn't go for trying to defend your choice by bringing up Zwei's helpfulness rather than apologizing. Not a lot of kids your age would be willing to avoid making excuses for their behavior." Ruby nodded as she tilted her head to the side.

"Well… I guess dad raised me better. He's a Huntsman too, along with Uncle Qrow, and he always told Yang and I that we should listen to Hunters when they're giving us advice… he'd probably be just as upset that I brought Zwei along." Ah, that explained the look then; she must've gotten practice with her own father…

It made Jotaro wonder if all fathers had to deal with this kind of behavior coming from their daughters. Who knows. He'd have to ask the Old Man if Holly ever acted that way.

"I'd heard your old man was a Huntsman, but I haven't been told if I'd have the chance to meet him." Ruby shook her head slightly.

"Nah, dad's pretty much just a teacher over at Signal these days. You might get a chance to meet my Uncle Qrow while you're here; he's still pretty active as a Huntsman." Jotaro couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at that. He'd heard about Qrow from Ozpin but hadn't heard his relation to any of the students at Beacon.

"Your entirely family made up of Hunters or something?" Ruby grins at that, the young woman vigorously nodded her head as Jotaro asked.

"Yessir! My mom, my dad and my Uncle are all Hunters, heck, they all used to be on the same team! They were some of the best too, from what dad and Uncle Qrow say and what I can remember of my mom." Ruby placed her hands on her hips as she puffed out her chest with pride, a slight twinkle in her eye as she looked down at the capped Huntsmen. "I guess our families have something in common!"

Jotaro offered a curt nod at that, though he continued to set up his gear. "Well you'd have that in common with a lot of Frontier Families. After all, almost everyone's a Huntsman or Huntress in Morioh… though I see your point. Few families necessarily consider themselves "Hunter Families" quite like the Joestars do." Jotaro dusted his hands off as he finished setting his gear aside, the giant of a man had stood back up on his own two feet as he looked down at Ruby. "So I'm guessing that's why you chose to become a Huntress then, right? Your family?"

"... Well, I guess? I mean, it's mostly my mom and… well, even then it's not necessarily just cause it runs in the family." Jotaro quirked an eyebrow at Ruby's stammering and, after a moment, waved the young woman on to continue. The silver eyes of the young woman twinkled a bit, as if just the prospect of explaining this to someone else excited her. "Well… I've always thought of Hunters as being just about the coolest, most important people on Remnant. Not in terms of things like status or like that, but… well, because they save people. They help anyone in need and they make sure that the people of Remnant can look to the future with some kind of hope. They're heroes, plain and simple… and my mom was the best Huntress ever. She was amazing; killing all kinds of Grimm and then coming home to tell us stories about it…

"I want to be that for other people too. I want to be a Huntress that people can look at and feel hopeful. Heck, I kind of want to be like you too, Jotaro." Jotaro had remained silent as Ruby spoke, the giant of a man nodded his head along with Ruby's explanation, slowly but surely. When she finished with that, Jotaro frowned, a slight tilt to his head.

"Is that right?" Ruby nodded vigorously as she brought her hands up.

"Yeah! You might not be as cool as my mom-" Jotaro frowned as he fought to keep himself from feeling defensive, "-but Josuke and the others have told us about the Stardust Crusade! How you saved the world and everything! Heck, when Yang and I heard you guys were coming, we read that old biography to check out stuff about Joseph Joestar and he was a hero too! It was inspiring and awesome and it reminded me a lot of all the stories my mom would tell. It's everything about being a Hunter that I want to be."

Ruby smiled; everyone she'd told this too, from Ozpin down to her own sister, usually seemed uplifted by the idea. They took Ruby's words well and even seemed slightly inspired by it. So it was with some surprise that Jotaro remained as stoic as ever… if that, as it even seemed like his frown had deepened slightly.

"Did I say something wrong?" There seemed to be some conflict behind Jotaro's eyes as she asked this question, though finally Jotaro just shook his head.

"No, no. That's a perfectly fine reason for becoming a Hunter." Jotaro shrugged off whatever had been eating him, it seemed, and Ruby sighed a bit in relief. "Now, get some sleep; you've burned some time talking to me but it won't be your sister's shift forever." Ruby 'eeped' slightly as she nodded, immediately heading back over to her own sleeping bag to catch some rest. Jotaro watched her run off and, once he had his space, the giant of a man heaved a sigh as he took a seat on his bedroll.

" **Yare yare daze** …" To be a hero. To live up to the ideals and stories of the Hunters of old. To believe firmly in the destiny and virtue of the Hunter's profession and to let that be your guiding light in carving your path in this field. To have looked up to family and other people you considered heroes and using them as measuring sticks as you made your own way forward.

Jotaro hadn't lied to young Ruby Rose; it was a perfectly fine reason for becoming a Hunter. Hell, in his own way, Jotaro hadn't even necessarily disagreed with her. The Hunter's profession was both honorable and necessary. The sacrifices made by the few in order to ensure the greater good for the many… or at least, that's how it seemed in the Four Kingdoms. Though the attitude wasn't far off; in the Frontier, it was the entire community coming together for said greater good. It was all well and good and it certainly inspired more than its fair share of young men and women to become Hunters.

Jotaro wasn't 17 anymore. He hadn't viewed the Hunter's profession with disdain, as something he had been railroaded onto as part of his 'heritage'. As something that was pointless. He hadn't even denied the idea that there was Heroism involved with the career. When you risked your life, day in and day out, to save people who weren't members of your family or who you didn't personally know… yes, one could aspire to be a hero. Hell, he'd even bet that Ruby Rose's mother was herself a hero, the way Ruby talked so reverantly about her...

But Kujo Jotaro was no hero. He hadn't earned that distinction. Neither was his old man… and that hadn't been Jotaro projecting onto the old timer either. No, he knew from personal experience that there had been no way in Hell that Joseph Joestar would have ever referred to himself as a Hero.

Not when the two of them had known heroes. Not when they'd known the people who deserved that recognition and praise. Who'd given up anything and everything in order to see to it that the world would be safe. The people whose deaths had made it possible for the world to be saved. People whose sacrifice had saved not only those around them but countless others.

People that men like Jotaro and Joseph themselves 'couldn't' have saved or protected. People who had been indispensable to both Jotaro's and the old man's 'heroics'.

Having had to accept that, having had to look his own failures at protecting those closest to him in the face… having had to accept that, without their sacrifices, the Stardust Crusade would've been for naught… that had been a bitter pill to swallow.

But it was also the pill that all living Huntsmen and Huntresses had to swallow at one point or another. When you saw a comrade get cut down and you couldn't have done anything to save them, when their sacrifice is what was necessary to save you and others… it weighs on your mind.

People like Ruby Rose… they'd be hardest hit. The moment when the nature of being a Hunter gives way and and separates from the stories they grew up on, it would be a bitter lesson. It was, after all, easy to feel like a hero from the stories when the Grimm were the only thing in front of you.

It had been much harder when you had to bury your friends…

Or… worse yet…

When one had to expose themselves to 'that' world. The True Man's World.

Kujo Jotaro often considered himself a cynic, and a cynic should've thought that breaking the illusions of those coming into the Hunter's professions would be a kindness… but it was anything but kind to do that to another person. Hell, if he couldn't do it to his own daughter, what right had he to do so to another man's daughter. Surely Ruby's own father had been aware of all this and chose not to break his daughter's belief in the innate heroism of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

He hadn't even been sure he could blame the guy; there was something uplifting in seeing and hearing his own daughter's excited declarations that she'd follow in his footsteps and become a Huntress.

It had been equally disquieting and unnerving to think of what she may have to face one day.

In its own way, Jotaro supposed that it was funny. For all the issues that the other members of Team RWBY had between them, it had ended up being Ruby Rose that he felt the most sorry for. Innocence like that was inspiring to see… but it was equally sad to watch it die.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. A fool's hope perhaps, but then, wasn't everything about the Frontier a fool's hope?

With that, Jotaro tilted his hat down and tried his best to get some sleep before his own shift and actually managed to even lightly doze through Yang, after her shift finished, having made her way back to the campfire before she settled into her sleeping bag.

…

"Blake, are you awake?"

"... Yeah."

' **Yare yare daze** …'

* * *

"Alright so… then what? I mean, it had to be a tense couple days…"

"Hah, you'd best believe it. It had been rare that we sent out scouting parties that far out into the Grimmlands for a while but, well, the areas closer to Morioh had been pretty much picked clean, up to and including the run back to the Joestar Mansion your mother had been part of in that first mission. If we were going to look to find anything valuable to trade off, we'd need to risk a further sortee into the wilderness… and despite your mother's reassurances, and my official duty, I couldn't help but worry. Think I ended up breaking several little pens that were brought into my office during that week, especially when they started to run late. Everyone figured they were dead meat."

"Well obviously they weren't, after all I'm here, so what ended up happening?"

"Well, as your mother told it, when they got out into the first Atlesian settlement that anyone in Morioh had seen is nearly 80 years, she-"

"Excuse me, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Joseph and Josuke both jumped a bit as a new voice interrupted their talk. The older Joestar and the young Higashikata each turned their heads back to see Glynda Goodwitch, the professor of Beacon Academy standing a good distance behind both men as they sat on one of Beacon's many benches, looking out at the City of Vale in the distance.

"Ah, Glynda, good to see you."

"Professor Goodwitch, hello!" Joseph's more casual greeting and Josuke's formal one caused the corner of Glynda's lip to turn up in a slight smile before she managed to smother it under his usual, calm exterior, the blonde Huntress arching a brow at Josuke as she stared at the young man.

"Mr. Higashikata, I'm surprised to see you back at Beacon. Had the mission with Oobleck concluded already?" Glynda, of course, knew that the mission wasn't over; it was due to continue on for several days of patrolling the City of Vale, keeping an eye out for trouble. She had just wanted to see the young man's reaction and hear what reason he had. The young man merely shook his head, his body going ramrod stiff as he took on an air of professionalism.

"No ma'am; we're still set to patrol for the next few days. When night fell, Professor Oobleck merely decided that, given that Beacon is so close to Vale and that we have such ready transport to and from the city that spending resources arranging for a room to stay in the city itself would be a waste when we all have rooms and boarding to tide us over here at Beacon. We're set to return to the City of Vale at 6:00 A.M., Professor." Glynda calmly nodded as she took this in; it had made sense. No point in spending the school's funding on staying out in the city when easy lodging was available. It certainly sounded like Oobleck.

Which had made a similar report of Port 'forcing' JNPR to rough it out in the Emerald Forest as part of their own training a slight source of amusement; efficiency from one Professor and authenticity from the other.

"Understood Mr. Higashikata, was simply making sure that you weren't shirking your duties was all. Pardon me for entertaining the thought." The pompadoured teen just shook his head before bowing it, a muttered something or other about it having been her right to inquire given as the older man in their midst just gave a wry chuckle.

"I appreciate it Glynda but rest assured that, if such a thing were to have occured, I'd have made sure that my Huntsman here would've been duly punished for such a dereliction of duty. No one gets special treatment in the Frontier and especially from me…"

"Mr. Kujo seems to suggest different as it concerns your daughter Holly." The blonde Huntress watched, amused, as the old man just coughed awkwardly into his fist, his gaze shifted off to the side as his… it was still strange for Glynda to make the mental connection of calling Higashikata Josuke Joseph's son, but, there it was, his son hid a smirk underneath his fist.

"Yes, well… is there something you needed from me Glynda, or were you just out enjoying the night sky and happened upon us?" Joseph finally asked, which caused Glynda to reaffirm her calm exterior as she gave a grave nod.

"Yes… I would actually like to take a moment to speak with you alone, Mr. Joestar. That is, if you and… Mr. Higashikata wouldn't mind?" The two men quickly shook their heads, Josuke having immediately stood up as he dusted himself off.

"No problem at all, if you guys have official business you need to speak about then I'm fine to leave. I guess I'll talk to you some other time Mr. Joestar." The pompadoured team leader gave a quick nod to the older man, who just smiled at the young man.

"Indeed. I'll see you… hmmm… perhaps tomorrow, Josuke?" The young man paused to think before he nodded and then promptly departed the scene, leaving Glynda and Joseph alone with little more than the nighttime sounds that surrounded them having kept them company. The old man shifted and sighed a bit, his old bones practically creaking as he adjusted his position on the chair.

"Brother's sake… must be nice to have your Aura. Getting older for Hunters on this side of Remnant must be a breeze." Joseph paused for a moment before he waved his hand. "Not that I'm implying you're old, Glynda."

"Didn't even consider it, Mr. Joestar." She had but it had been better to be polite than raise a stink. It hadn't even been like he was wrong; with your Aura unlocked, old age was more a matter of how much time had passed than any physical debilitation. Sure, one day she herself would slip off into that sweet oblivion… but by the Gods, it'd sneak up on her rather than having announced its presence day by day with aches and pains.

Honestly, looking at Joseph Joestar had made her particularly glad of that fact. "As for why I'm here… I wanted to thank you, Mr. Joestar." Joseph arched an eyebrow as the Beacon professor walked around the bench, not taking a seat but still walking up to face the older man. "That fight between Ironwood and Ozpin that… almost broke out during the meeting. Even with Jotaro around, it's been something that's been slowly building ever since Ironwood showed up with all his ships and his army."

"Yes, I believe I've seen more Atlesian Soldiers around Vale than I've seen members of the Vale Police Force. It must've been quite the show." Joseph muttered as he stroked his chin, Glynda just having nodded.

"Ironwood means well, really he does, but as you've seen he can be a bit… well, he can overdo things." Glynda corrected herself as she folded her arms. "He and Ozpin have conflicted on strategy ever since he was brought in to Ozpin's circle. Always more aggressive than Ozpin, wanting to move forward regardless of what pace the Headmaster believed was right for them to go. It all nearly exploded that night… but your words were able to cut the fight off short. I wanted to thank you for that." Rather than an appreciative smile or a thank you, as Glynda might've expected, she was greeted with an arched eyebrow as Joseph stroked his chin, the old man just humming to himself as he thought.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Miss Goodwitch." Glynda blinked in some surprise; Joseph, outside of an official meeting place, usually was much more casual with the people around him. To hear the old man croak out a much more serious tone had been a bit of a surprise. "However, I do believe that I didn't just side with Headmaster Ozpin during that debacle. Ozpin's strategy had its own flaws and drawbacks which were quite serious in their own right. I didn't singularly praise one man and chastise the other. Both men were at fault in their attempt to argue their points."

"I'm… aware of that, Mr. Joestar. However, I merely assumed that you had done so in order to placate Ironwood's complaints. After all, the plan that we went with-"

"Was decidedly less aggressive than what General Ironwood wanted, yes, but it was also decidedly more aggressive than what Headmaster Ozpin had desired." Joseph brought his hands to the head of his cane, his grip secured around it as he looked up at Glynda. "Both men brought strong points and weak points to their arguments… to have gone fully down either path would've left a hole open in our activities… but both were too stubborn, in their own right, to compromise… and so, I had to remind them that 'compromise' was not only an option, but preferable."

Now that, that surprised Glynda.

"Mr. Joestar… I'm not sure what brought you to this conclusion about Ozpin… but I can assure you sir, Ozpin has plans, and has planned, for many different occasions before and they've worked out, given time and trust. I can understand coming to this upon first meeting him… but, as I've said to Ironwood, you just need to trust Ozpin. He knows what's best." Joseph gave one of those old man grins as he smiled, a wry look on his face as he brought his cane around to point at the blonde Huntress.

"Miss… I've tangoed with Immortal Beings tens of thousands of years old, one of whom could have very well been the equal of a God at his most powerful… and yet they were still capable of making mistakes. They weren't human… but they had 'very' human traits. Pride, honor, cowardice, ill-tempers… no one on this planet is exempt from poor judgement. Trust me, I know from experience." Joseph chuckled as he said this and settled his cane back on the ground. Glynda hadn't been of a mind to discount this; certainly Joseph Joestar's experiences were… unique. Still…

"Ozpin is… something different though, Mr. Joestar. I can't entirely explain what yet, but-"

"You'd be surprised-" The elder Joestar interrupted Glynda as the purple vines of Hermit Purple formed on his arms, "-what I can and can't know at any given time. What Hermit Purple can tell me about things, people and places. There are limits, sure… but being in the same room as someone tends to ease those limits." Hermit Purple dissipated as he raised a conciliatory hand. "I'm not going to tell you you're wrong; Ozpin is clearly knowledgeable and intelligent far behind his years… it's plain for me to see that. However, what's also abundantly clear is that he's a man. As human as I am or you are… and smart men can be very foolish people indeed Glynda… very, very foolish indeed." Joseph looked back out toward the City of Vale, the woman's gaze following his as they both looked out at the horizon.

"I didn't just pull that speech out of my ass, Glynda. Granted, I've gotten very good at that over the years. Several decades of leading can give a man that kind of experience… but no, I didn't need experience or a little time to put that speech together." Glynda looked back down at the older man as he adjusted his hands. "Brash pride and a desire for action, logic and strategy paired with a sense of superior station. Belief in one's own justice versus a belief in your wit and clever ability to outmaneuver your opponents. Clashing against one and other, seeking dominance and yet not finding it… neither side would give. It'd just end in a division in a group that can ill afford one, with enemies right on their doorsteps, known but unknown to them.

"I didn't need my experience as a leader to prepare for this argument Glynda… I'm afraid I've had the time to think about what I would say to a pair like that for over sixty years now…" Joseph chuckled, though admittedly there was little humor in it. "Granted, Ozpin clearly keeps a professional air about him at all times, and Ironwood's zeal is born out of patriotism… but the cynic can recognize his own. Ozpin thinks he's the only man with the plan who can think all these things through and that it's his wit and cunning that'll end up carrying the day and that everyone else might as well be pieces in a board game for him to maneuver around, while Ironwood can't stand to just wait and watch while foes are on the door, especially when his own personal honor has been insulted by them so many tims. Yes… all too familiar for this old man."

"... You do sound like you've given this a lot of thought." Glynda remarked as Joseph just nodded idly.

"Aye… I haven't had many regrets in my life, Glynda. There haven't been many things in my time here on Remnant that I've thought were mistakes that I'd gladly unmake. But… no one gets to be my age without regrets. Without having done things they wish they hadn't, or said things that they wish, beyond all capacity for logical thought, that they could take back."

"JoJo! This is it, the heart of my soul… TAKE IT!"

Indeed. There had been few days in his entire life where those memories which belonged to his best friend hadn't haunted his mind. Where he hadn't gone back to think of that one argument. What he could've done differently. What he should have done differently. The things he said and the things he left unsaid. More than the weight of time, these thoughts hung on Joseph Joestar's shoulders like a lead weight. In the end, it had only been his time with Higashikata Tomoko that had eased his thoughts… but even then, they inevitably returned. They crept into the corners of his mind and, when he least expected them, he found himself assailed by them.

But…

"Even so, the experience has made me all the wiser. True wisdom, Glynda; it isn't knowledge accumulated over time or what you know… but your experience and how you decide to let it shape you. Even if you live as long as a being like Kars did, you can still find that there's wisdom that you have yet to learn." Joseph Joestar grinned as he stood up. "For some, it's that no man's an island… and that asking people to just trust in your word, regardless of what they might contribute, is a fool's errand." Glynda looked somewhat abashed as Joseph chuckled.

"I've had my fair share of experiences that have forced me to be wise… so has my grandson, for that matter. I'll never be grateful for the wisdom that life has forced upon me, Glynda, nor the wisdom that I have forced upon myself through my mistakes. I imagine that most men feel that way… but you want to know what the absolute best part about that kind of wisdom is?" He gave a wry grin as he nodded back up to the tower of Beacon Academy where, he assumed, Ozpin and Ironwood were still hard at work. "Sharing it. Giving that wisdom, that breadth of experience, to those who still have yet to earn it themselves." Joseph shrugged his shoulders as he walked off.

"Believe you and me; it's something we Joestars have gotten remarkably good at… even if some of us are a little rougher around the edges about it."

* * *

These four were a complete and utter mess.

Okay, perhaps not Ruby Rose at this moment in time, granted, but she was more likely to turn into a complete mess for a time somewhere down the line. However, there was no 'ifs' about the other three members of Team RWBY. While he wouldn't have gone so far as to call them trainwrecks, they were still by far perfectly functional and even good-hearted human beings, and a Faunus, but their perspectives were… well, they gave seventeen year old Kujo Jotaro a run for his money.

Perhaps it was part of being a teen, but that hardly excused it in Jotaro's mind. Hell, as far as he was concerned he'd still punch seventeen year old him in the mouth if he ever crossed paths with him.

Blake… he'd known she was a mess in the head for awhile now. Hell, that'd been the only reason he'd actively approached her out of the four to ask about how she'd been. It hadn't been because he'd been unconcerned about the other members of Team RWBY; by all accounts they were his charges so long as this mission went on… but Blake had, so far, been the only one to actually open up to him as far as advice was concerned. This wasn't Morioh; he couldn't just pick these girls up by the scruffs of their collar and force them to talk out their issues for the sake of their mental healths and, therefore, the effectiveness of their Stands. However, hearing all of her doubts laid out so flatly to her own friends… it underlined for Jotaro just what kind of life this kid had led. It was clear that there hadn't been a support structure for her for a while… it was equally clear that it had been of her own choice in the matter, twice over. First running away from her parents to join the Fang and then running away from the Fang.

Morioh was a tight knit community. While Jotaro had been rebellious in his youth, he hadn't thought of outright abandoning his home and his family. As much of a shitstain as he was, he didn't have the drive to do that. Perhaps that's what separated Blake from himself, one of the things at least; she'd had something she'd believed in strongly enough to pursue it while Jotaro had just floated on through life before the Stardust Crusade. It hadn't excused her actions, as he'd said before… but it did give context.

It also gave context for how she continued to kick herself while she was down. Though perhaps no longer driving herself into the dirt to try to make up for it, it was clear she still held herself in little regard.

Weiss Schnee… the girl who'd spoken to him about family expectations and honoring the family name. It seemed a nice enough idea… now though, it seemed like the girl had set all sorts of expectations on her own shoulders. Expectations it seemed she realized she might not be able to save. For Kujo Jotaro who had, admittedly, a good father and a 'deeply' loving mother, to the point where the woman could get fucking annoying with all of it, it was hard to imagine being in what sounded like a broken family.

Yet her father sounded like some kind of villain from the comic books his grandfather loved to import. There had to be more complexity to it that than, to be sure, but from what he'd learned about the Schnee Dust Company in his time here and Weiss all but admitting that she had come to Beacon to basically try to salvage her family name, it spelled out 'all' kinds of poor things about the head of her family… especially if she had felt the need to get out and away, as far as Beacon, because staying in her home country wouldn't have changed a thing.

Perhaps that had been another thing they had in common, aside from being Heirs to 'prestigious' families as she had suggested; the weight of expectations on their shoulders was tremendous. However, Jotaro's expectations had been slowly prepared over time. The young Schnee girl had taken the expectation and mission over saving her family name suddenly… and it was a huge ordeal, by the sounds of it.

If the bottom line was as dire as not letting her father being the end of the Schnee Family name.

However, none presented the sheer 'set against herself' vibe that he'd gotten from Yang Xiao Long. A person who valued family and taking care of that family to such a degree that she'd even walk up to him and ask him why the Hell he hadn't done more for Josuke while he had been growing up and dealing with his issues about Joseph Joestar wanted, seemingly, little more in life than to be alone and to go off on her own way to explore the world.

You couldn't have put together two more opposed dynamics than that if you tried… except perhaps if you attempted to teach humility to Dio Brando.

A person who, very clearly, thrived off of human contact and sought out groups of people, making quick friends with complete strangers such as team JoJo within a week of the group having arrived in Beacon who, on top of that, also desired to be of as much help and support to those people as she could. Such so that she had Josuke's back throughout the entirety of this ordeal, supporting the teen in a way that few had offered or been able to previously. Yes, that was the very profile of a person who wanted to just ride off into the sunset, leaving those friends and family behind so that they might just be able to explore the world while occasionally kicking some ass.

It had made absolutely perfect sense...

Jotaro was a loner. Sure, he loved his family and enjoyed time around them, but the man was, by nature, a recluse. He had not qualm about taking time to be by himself and, rather, enjoyed it. He couldn't imagine spending every waking moment of everyday with someone. The idea of living Yang Xiao Long's preferred lifestyle was completely alien to him. Even among people he considered himself close to, he'd have ended up going insane. It had been with that observation that he'd felt in his bones that the same would be true of someone like Yang Xiao Long if she had attempted to live his preferred lifestyle.

Yet there it was, stated as plainly as it could; that was her 'dream'... even as she went into talking admirably about her sister, Ruby.

It was all nuts. Completely and utterly nuts.

At the end of it all, their thoughts, their conflict, had become clear; they all knew what they wanted… but they didn't. They weren't sure and that fact spooked them… the fact that what they wanted and what their profession was, what that profession meant, and what they themselves might believe all conflicted against one and other also contributed to that.

Weiss Schnee wanted to improve her family name, but she wanted to be free of members of her family.

Blake Belladonna had wanted to live for her cause, her dream of helping the Faunus… but felt in her heart of hearts that she hadn't been worthy of that vision.

Yang Xiao Long wanted to be there for friends and family and wanted to be alone…

And Jotaro had been just about fine with leaving this all alone. With not saying a damn thing. They were, in Yang's words, in a war zone and armed to the teeth. To parse through all this crap, to offer them what wisdom he'd had tucked away, this wasn't the time or place. They could deal with this later, Hell, Josuke and his friends could even help them. For now, Jotaro had just wanted to try to get what little sleep he could before it was his shift…

And then he'd heard it.

"It's the life we chose…"

"It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads, but at the end of the day it's a job to protect the people and whatever we want will have to come second."

…

For fuck's sake.

"I wouldn't sell it quite so short as it being 'just' a job."

The three young women jerked in their positions as they whipped their heads around, watching as Kujo Jotaro had stood up from his position to check his watch. Fifteen minutes before he'd have liked to switch shifts with Ruby… whatever, he'd deal with it.

"A-Ah, Mr. Kujo. We're sorry to wake you, we'll go right to sleep, sir-"

"Being a Hunter is more than being what you might call a job." Weiss Schnee flinched as Jotaro addressed her, her attempt to skirt around the issue having been spectacularly slapped down as she watched the older Huntsman draw his cap down. All three had assumed that Jotaro had been up for at least the end of their talk… or, worse yet, for the entirety of it. Which had hardly been good news from their three perspectives.

"I've seen people have jobs now. Hell, I'd seen it even in the Outskirt villages when I'd go to visit. People who have jobs… their lives have a certain degree of certainty. They'll wake up in the morning, they'll get ready, they'll go to work, they'll do their job and then they'll go home to eat, get some sleep and then repeat that process the next day. Provided no one walks in to ruin their day, that's how their life goes… that's what defines their work as a job. Certainty, ease… consistency.

"Your lives… your lives are in for anything 'but' that. You can never be certain about how each mission will go. You'll never be able to feel at ease, lest you leave yourself open to your enemies and the only consistent things in your lives will be what you build outside of being a Hunter. The profession isn't a 'job'... it's a duty, and an important one. People like me, people who work like this… it's a duty we perform daily to ensure that there are people like those shopkeepers or the men and women you see roaming about Vale for them to do their jobs. For them to live more normal lives." The three girls slightly wilted at that. It figured that someone who was actually experienced with the work of being a Hunter wouldn't have looked kindly upon their discussion.

"For you to just label it as a simple job, to ask questions about whether you can live your own lives outside of it or if it'll get in the way…" The three young women winced as they imagined the lashing to come next, "... gravely undersells what you three have done in being here."

…

"Huh?"

Jotaro nodded slowly as he looked down at them. "I've stated before that there's a vast gulf in difference between Four Kingdom society and Frontier society… while there's things I don't approve of, things that I think are more folly than glorious about these kingdoms… one thing I can't deny is that there's a certain amount of bravery in being a Huntsman here. In Morioh, the sacred duty of being a Huntsman isn't a choice. It's part of living in Morioh; it's part of making sure your home will be safe and that your neighbors, friends and family will continue to live. Perhaps the only man with a 'job' in Morioh is my Old Man… and his job is to oversee the safety and prosperity of our town…

"You three could have picked any job you could've wanted, same for Ruby. You all have varying talents and skills or the drive to gain them. You could have chosen to live the life a 'job' entails. One of certainty, of ease and consistency. A life where your work would come first but, well, it'd be more comfortable work. However, you didn't. One of the fundamental differences between the Four Kingdoms and Morioh that gravely favors the Hunters here… is that you all 'choose' to be here. You choose to give up what other potential your life might have to take up a duty that few others might wish to. To give everyone else the chance to live the lives they want to live.

"To undersell it as just a job puts to shame the risk you're all taking. The courage it takes to know that you don't have to subject yourselves to this duty… and then to do so anyway." Jotaro readjusted his cap. "In that light… there's no shame in wanting to build your own lives either. To have dreams and visions outside of it. I have a family myself… my old man did and so has everyone in Morioh. We take what small pleasures we can outside of our duties… because we know that we'll be called upon to dedicate ourselves to them again sooner rather than later. Hell, Ruby says your parents were both Huntsmen… yet clearly their duty wasn't so paramount, so needing to be all-encompassing, that they couldn't build a life where you were possible."

Yang flinched a bit at that.

"Duty is a burden… but like I said, there's no harm in taking care of yourself as well." Jotaro scoffed. "Brothers know that Josuke's pompadour has nothing to do with his duty as a Huntsman."

"... And if we don't know what we want? Or if… what we want is out of place or-"

" **Yare yare daze** , Heaven forbid you don't know what the Hell you're going to do with your lives, who you're going to be or how you're going to accomplish your goals when you're 17 years old." The three young women blushed as Jotaro had said this, the man pointing to himself. "Brothers take me, presumably surrounded by all different kinds of teachers who've gone through this shit before… Take it from me; ten years from now, all of you are going to look back at this moment… and you won't be able to recognize the people you are now as who you used to be. Hell, I was a shitstain when I was your age and I'd like to think I've changed for the better.

"Given that all of you have chosen to be here, despite your pasts or whatever the Hell it is that you think defines you… I'd say its safe to assume that you all will be fine with who you'll turn out to be and what you'll choose to do." With that, Jotaro turned to face where Ruby had been taking watch and, with narrowed eyes, called out. "Oi, Ruby, if you're going to stand there listening in then you can go ahead and come in to sleep while I take watch." There's a slight crash sound as a pair stumble around behind a wall and one Ruby Rose, sheepish but a distinctly satisfied, bordering on smug, smile, extricates herself from behind one of the corners.

"Hehehe… right Jotaro, will do. Good luck!" Jotaro narrowed his eyes slightly, which had caused Ruby to drop her very nearly smug smile in favor of rushing to her bed roll along with Zwei.

"Now seriously, get some sleep. If Star Platinum hears any of you talking, I can't be held responsible for what it'll do." There seemed to be an instinct on the part of the four young women to laugh Jotaro's statement off as a joke…

When Jotaro had very distinctly 'not' laughed or not given any sign that he hadn't been joking, they all quickly clammed up and laid down on their bedrolls, feigning sleep as quickly as they all possibly could. Hopefully that would turn into real sleep very, very soon. As much as this mission had a lot riding on Jotaro's shoulders, as he was the man with Star Platinum up his sleeve, this wasn't going to be 'just' his mission. He didn't have the capability to keep an eye on all of Team RWBY at once, couldn't be there to protect them at all times. They all had to be ready to handle themselves as well; from this moment on they were as good as Full Hunters, and that carried with it a certain responsibility.

They needed to be well rested and ready for when they'd find Roman Torchwick and his hide out… especially with Jotaro's own sleep, and their sleep, having been interrupted by their chattering. Jotaro yawned slightly as he bit back a slight growl; he'd need to sleep and sleep hard once his own shift was over. It wouldn't be anything dramatic but he'd lost out on some sleep. Thankfully, Star Platinum was keenly focused on the outside, the Stand's eyes and ears locked on the world around them as they scanned the horizon looking for any sign, the rest of the world all but dead to the pair as they did their damndest to make sure that nothing was coming for them.

Perhaps that had been why he hadn't noticed Ruby Rose leaving to go follow Zwei as the dog ran off.

Indeed, as Kujo Jotaro returned from his shift, Star Platinum withdrawn into him, he looked around, eager to pick Blake out so that she could start her own shift and he could get some sleep. His eyes glanced around the sleeping bags and, after a moment, found Blake. However, a moment of distracted thought laster caused his gaze to snap back over to Ruby Rose's empty sleeping bag. At first, Jotaro hadn't panicked; she'd likely just gotten up in the past few minutes to use the restroom or to take Zwei out to use the restroom…

Still, doubts had hung around in Jotaro's mind and, in the end, he'd been thankful for them. As he knelt down and touched Ruby's sleeping bag, his eyes went wide; her sleeping bag was cold, the only warmth left on it having come from the nearby fire that burned low.

"Oi, you three, wake up. We have a situation." Jotaro's voice, heightened as it was, immediately snapped the three young women out from their own sleep as they all slowly pushed themselves up into a sitting position. Their hair had been disheveled from laying on the ground and, given that they'd all only been asleep for at best two hours, they all looked a bit ragged. Nothing a little Aura pumped through them wouldn't fix but still, it was noticeable.

"What's wrong Jotaro, some Grimm on the approach?" Blake asked through a yawn as she quickly shook off her sleep and grabbed Gambol Shroud.

"No… Ruby's missing."

If there was anything that Jotaro could have said that would've woken Yang up, it had been that.

"WHAT?!" The young blonde immediately snapped into full consciousness, her lilac eyes momentarily going red as they snapped over to Ruby's sleeping bag. "Did she tell you where she was going? Where's Zwei!?" Yang checked around for Zwei, hoping the small dog might lead them to her sister if Jotaro had no idea where she was going. Frustration mounted as even that option for finding Ruby had gone up in smoke, leaving Yang to just grind her teeth.

"'Fraid not, I finished my shift and came back in and she had just disappeared." Jotaro had kept his cool as he stood up, the older man waiting for the three to rush to readiness as Yang just bit her lip.

"Dammit Ruby, worst time to just go off with Zwei… where the Hell could she have gone." While Yang's tone seemed angry, her expression made it clear as crystal that the young woman was far more worried for her little sister than she had been angry with her. With a shrug Jotaro just adjusted his cap as he brought Star Platinum out.

"Who knows… but given we're in enemy territory surrounded by Grimm, we can't stand around just asking for long. We're going to go-"

Before Jotaro could finish his order, a loud series of barks echoed throughout the building. While momentary relief might've flooded the group, having believed that Ruby was returning with Zwei as they spoke, worry again flooded in as the little dog scampered up the stairs alone.

More than that, the little dog immediately went for Jotaro's ankle and, taking a bite of his pant leg, immediately pulled the giant of a man toward the stairs.

"We're going. Now." There wasn't a second's hesitation as the group of four immediately sprinted off after the little corgi, Zwei letting loose a series of barks to keep the group following him as he rapidly turned corners. For a seemingly dense little dog that, at times, seemed barely aware of what was going on around it, it sure seemed like it understood the gravity of the situation it had currently faced. It was with that same determination that filled the three humans and one Faunus following in behind the little dog that they all came… to a giant pit.

A giant pit that Crescent Rose had set at the very edge of, alone.

"Oh no…" Yang muttered, knowing that her sister wouldn't have left behind her precious weapon for any reason, as she stalked over and picked it up. The rest of the group just looked down at the hole, a concerned expression passing over all of them.

"Wait… we passed through here earlier today, didn't we? I'm pretty sure this hole wasn't here before…" Weiss remarked cautiously as Kujo Jotaro just nodded grimly, the Joestar descendant having kelt down to check the edges of the hole.

"It wasn't; this is recent. The edges are jagged and not yet worn down by the elements. If I had to take my best guess, whatever Ruby was doing out here, this section of the ground collapsed right underneath her feet as she was doing so." The fully-fledged Huntsman remarked as he stood back up. "On the down side, I imagine these means our enemies are well aware that something's up… unless these sorts of collapses happen often. Bright side either way though, we've got ourselves an entrance underground." Everyone quickly understood what Jotaro had meant as they all stood, ready to go.

"First things first, your team leader needs your help. We're going to secure Ruby Rose, make sure she's alright and then return her weapon to her. Following that… we follow these tunnels to wherever Roman and his men are hiding. Those are our objectives and 'those' are the priorities we're following. Is that clear?" No disagreements, no hesitation. Good. "In that case, weapons out everyone, we're-"

In that second, three sets of ears were immediately set on edge, all three of them animal. One pair belonged to an assailant, its gaze cast out for thousands of feet as it took a shot at the group of five. It had only been recently woken up by the sound of a collapse in its territory and, by the smell, it knew it had already missed an intruder. More would not be allowed to go on.

A second pair belonged to Zwei, the little corgi immediately stiffening as the noise reached its canine ears. He had recognized that sound; Ruby Rose has spent years practicing with a weapon that made an almost identical, if not 'exactly' identical, sound as this one. Given that the weapon that the little dog had been so familiar with was in his other owner's hands, the little corgi 'knew' that this could only mean trouble…

Yet it had been the third pair, a pair of cat ears attached to the mind of a battle-hardened former terrorist, that immediately caused the most alarm.

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" Blake practically screamed as she grabbed Weiss and threw both herself and the Heiress down onto the ground. Jotaro and Yang had taken no time to ask questions and quickly followed suit and, within seconds, several feet behind them, some kind of bullet sunk itself into the ground, its trajectory having been firmly aimed at where Jotaro had, previously, been standing.

Immediately all eyes were on their surroundings, looking out toward where the shot had, presumably, come from. Four pairs of eyes hadn't had the vision to see… but, again, a pair of Amber, Faunus eyes had been able to pick it out.

The glint of a scope that moved ever so slightly, adjusting its aim.

"MOVE! WE'VE GOT A SNIPER ON US!"

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 4)**

* * *

 **A/N: I get what they might've been trying to go for with the original lesson from this episode… but, well, as you get older, you kind of start to realize how weird the situation is. Three young women, obviously distraught, are in the middle of re-evaluating some aspects of their lives or are realizing that they aren't what they've cracked themselves up to be, up to and including their reasons for signing up for the career of being a Huntress in question, to the point where the decision they come down on is 'welp, we've got this job now and it's going to be our entire lives, so anything we want is just going to come second'... and Oobleck, presumably an adult whose gone through a phase like this and has had to consider these questions, just sits back and lets them come to a pretty defeatist and, if you've actually worked previously, soul-crushing view of the world where nothing matters but your job.**

 **Educator of the Year material right there.**

 **Anyway, sorry this came out so late today, but I had a final today that took out a good chunk of my time. See you all on the 16th.**


	48. Winter Holiday

Well this is a bit of a bummer.

So, yeah. Between getting everything ready to get back home for the holidays, the headaches and sleep I've been catching up on after Finals and trying to sort out some things for the New Year as it concerns my apartment, I've been pretty well knackered as far as tackling a big old project like The Breach (Act 4). While I had only intended a potential Winter Holiday to potentially start on the 21st, I haven't felt quite ready to crack right into The Breach again. The blueprints of how the immediate fights are going to break out are there and I understand, roughly how the chapters will be laid out but right now the time and energy to sit down, pour over my notes and get into the business of churning it out hasn't quite been there.

So needless to say, this is the announcement that I'll be taking a Holiday. Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Beacon Is Unbreakable will return on January 6th, 2018, with The Breach (Act 4). Sorry for the last minute nature of this announcement, I had hoped that I could find the energy and will to really churn this bad boy out, as we are reaching the next major climax of the series (and, indeed, penultimate Climax of this part before hitting the Battle For Beacon). Last year, around this time, I was finishing up my broad outline for Beacon is Unbreakable and was moving into finely detailing the outline for... well, most of what you've read this year. I think I'll take this break as an opportunity to do the same, putting some finishing touches, clearing up any mistakes and all around just finishing up detailing the outline as we draw to the end of Beacon Is Unbreakable.

Just so that I don't rez the thread for no reason to offer Holiday Greetings, allow me to take this opportunity to say this: I'd like to thank all of you for having been part of this so far. With January 14th approaching, we're closing in on the first year this story has been up rapidly. Counting Chibi updates, I've put out over 50 updates revolving around this silly little idea I had last year, totaling up to around half a million words. As much as this has been for my own personal enjoyment of writing in general, your kind words, constructive criticisms and excitement for the story has had an undeniable impact on my own excitement for working on bringing this little expendable crossover to life. I've been so enthused about the reaction I've gotten so far, how warm you all have been, and I'd like it to be known that I appreciate everyone who has come by to check it out, even if you've said nothing at all.

Whatever your particular bent on the season, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Good Winter Solstice Generic Celebratory Day or what have you, and I hope you all have a splendid time.

Oh, and Happy Eventual New Year for everyone who uses the Gregorian/Julian Calendar.


	49. The Breach (Act 4)

The words rang out in the city of the dead and doomed. Words that, to the four gathered, immediately set the hairs on the back of their necks on edge. A call of danger, a call to worry.

A sniper. An unseen enemy from an unseen position, or one that was mostly unseen. As Blake Belladonna's ears twitched and swiveled and her own Faunus vision scoured the darkness, she saw the barest hint of a glimmer in the distance, one that slowly swiveled around until that glint caught in her eyes. There were a few things that Blake would ever be grateful for when it came to her time in the White Fang… perhaps it would have been better said that the things she 'was' grateful for could be counted on one finger.

However, the one thing that stood certain in Blake's mind, at that moment, was that she had been grateful to the terrorist group for having sharpened her instincts when it came to danger, that they had helped to align her senses with the elements and potential threats of the world around her. Right then and there, in that moment, those senses had only screamed one word at Blake.

Run.

"Get back!" Immediately Star Platinum plucked Jotaro from the ground and, with their Aura enhanced bodies, the three young women immediately dipped back and away from where they had dropped as yet another bullet struck the ground right where they had dodged, leaving a small hole there where impact had been made. Jotaro ground his teeth together as he considered the situation; they needed to find Ruby and they needed to get away from this sniper, and to the well trained mind of the Joestar descendant, that had left them only one choice.

"We need to get in that hole, now!" The three young women nodded in agreement with Jotaro as they each rushed forward toward the hole, only a small amount of distance having been placed between them and it in their attempts to dodge. However, as they rushed forward, Blake's ears again picked up on the minute sounds coming from the distance. Her amber eyes looked up and widened in shock; the scope and its glint had shifted… but it hadn't been pointing at them directly. No; now it was leading their movements.

Surely a shot wasn't ready to fire already. Surely this sniper hadn't already prepared another round. Even Ruby needed longer in between shots to prepare Crescent Rose. Yet there it was; as Weiss leapt up in preparation to drop down into the hole, Blake heard it; a shot went off, and with the way the scope had lead itself-

"WEISS!" Gambol Shroud's ribbon immediately flew out and snapped around Weiss' wrist, jerking the girl back and keeping her from descending into the hole. The young woman, momentarily annoyed, soon found her own light blue eyes go wide in a mix of shock and fear as the edge of the hole blew up in a minor shower of rocks and debris. Right where the arc of Weiss' jump would've taken her if she had fallen in.

Still, the others felt assured; surely that was it, another shot couldn't be-

At this point, even Star Platinum with its enhanced senses had finally picked up on the vague direction of the sniper and, with a shout, it immediately grabbed its Stand Master and shoved it down, the scream of a bullet flying just where Jotaro's head had been moments before, the projectile crashing into the ground some ways behind them near cover.

"How is it firing this fast?! It's a sniper, Hell, Ruby can't reload this fast!" Yang's declaration was met with another shot that was just barely avoided on her part, the blonde brawler having ducked back again away from the hole as she did so. Jotaro ground his teeth together; while they were out in the open like this, they were sitting ducks and it was becoming immediately clear that whoever this sniper was, they weren't going to let them anywhere near this hole…

Something else also became clear to Jotaro; Yang was right, there was no way a normal sniper rifle could be firing off this quickly. Therefore…

"It can only be the work of an Enemy Stand!" Jotaro's mind ran with the possibilities; if this was the work of an Enemy Stand, then they didn't know its full capabilities or what it could accomplish. In addition, if this was a Stand User who had aligned themselves with Roman Torchwick, then going into the hole at this point was tantamount to asking to be surrounded; the Stand User would follow in behind them and, in all likelihood, Jotaro and what remained of Team RWBY would find themselves pinned in between whatever trouble Ruby might be in and this new Stand User.

That meant that they had to find some way to deal with this Enemy Stand User… that meant finding out their capabilities and then trying to counter them… all on a budget of a 'very' short window of time. In addition, while Star Platinum had honed in on being able to 'hear' when a bullet was coming… his Stand didn't have night vision. In the deep dark of the dead of night, Star Platinum wasn't capable of picking up on the position of the Stand User like Blake seemed able to.

There was only one option; they needed to quickly convene and think of a plan of attack. Which meant that they needed some cover right then and right there. Weiss' Glyphs took too much time to do in 'this' moment…

"Everyone, get in the building!" The three young women couldn't spare the time to snap back to look at Jotaro as their eyes and ears were peeled for any sign of the sniper. This had left little room for arguing as the group of Huntresses nodded and immediately doubled back. Star Platinum and Blake had done their best to pull everyone else out of the dangers of direct fire, helping to dodge around the bullets while they pulled themselves in behind some cover.

"Are we sure this is going to hold up? It's a sniper rifle after all…" Weiss muttered as a bullet struck the wall they had ducked behind, a slight 'plink' following immediately.

"The bullet's damage at impact hasn't been severe; it's mostly just some minor surface damage to areas of the ground its impacted. I don't think we're necessarily dealing with something that's too high impact." Yang gave a quick growl at that as Jotaro and Star Platinum scanned their eyes about, looking for something…

"If that's the case then why the Hell are we sitting here waiting? We should just make a break for the hole! Star Platinum can cover you Jotaro and our Auras can tank the hits from this sniper rifle no problem! If it's just a bullet then we can pretty much just let this guy wail on us while we run!" Blake frowned slightly as she did her best to keep her ears perked up.

"If this guy is an Enemy Stand User like Jotaro said, then we can't be sure of how exactly his Stand functions. Maybe his bullets would just bounce off our Aura if they bounce off concrete, but there could be something else to it…" Blake murmured while Yang turned her gaze to her partner.

"All I know is that my sister is somewhere down underneath this Hell hole and that she could be in trouble without her weapon! If this thing can't break through concrete, then I don't think it's all 'that' special Blake!"

"I wouldn't be quite so certain of that myself." Jotaro muttered as Star Platinum quickly plucked something off the ground, holding it by its tail end. The three young women blinked slightly, momentarily confused by what the Stand had so very quickly retrieved… but as their eyes focused in the light, realization hit.

"One of its bullets?" Blake remarked, slightly surprised, while Weiss' eyes narrowed in confusion.

"That's… a weird looking bullet." Weiss' assessment, simple as it was, had been quite on the mark for all concerned. Star Platinum, holding onto the projectile by the very end of it, brought it into close view for everyone; and a good thing the Stand had. The bullet had been incredibly unusual; long and slender, not curving out at the sides like a normal bullet would, sharpened at the end rather than rounded, looking more like a stake than an honest to goodness round of ammunition. Weirdest of all was the fact that the bullet, across most of its surface, was barbed, with only the tiny bit of the end that Star Platinum held onto the round by being unmarred by these thorns.

The fact that this very same bullet, this barb, was dripping with… 'something' deeply unnerved all those looking at it.

"It's… covered in something? Maybe a poison?" Blake grimaced; a common enough tactic in the White Fang had been to coat their ammunition in less than savory substances; poison was used often enough, but other times when they didn't have the resources… less savory substances coated these rounds. The idea behind it was that even if the bullet only grazed their target and they could only get the 'one' round off, so long as the bullet broke the skin, then the substance, poisoned, diseased or otherwise, would infect the target, leading to a slow, agonizing death.

The fact that such a weapon had been turned on Blake and her friends had unnerved the young woman.

"I'd bet so. Though… it seems unusual. If it's a poison, it'd have to be fast acting for the purposes of this sniper. Otherwise what would the point be in a prolonged battle?" Jotaro stroked his chin as Yang grimaced a bit.

"I don't get it; why the special looking round and why the poison? Why not just a normal bullet; sure it might not puncture Aura as quickly, but it'd do more damage if it did. Yeah this thing might end up getting through to our skin thanks to the whole needle design," Indeed, Aura often worked as well as it did by taking the brunt of the damage being applied to it and spreading it out over a wider area, the shield of energy dispersing the strength of the blow across its own surface. Exceptionally sharp or pointed instruments could get around this by placing all of the energy into a single point, piercing through Aura before it had the opportunity to disperse the energy. In that way, the fact that the bullet had the energy of a sniper rifle packed behind it made it clear that a hit with the sharp end, or one of the barbs, would tear through Aura in relatively short order, "-but it's a poison. It can't take people down so fast that it ultimately matters… unless…"

Jotaro nodded as the Stand User quickly had Star Platinum fly out… the Stand disappearing from view. "Star Platinum's effective range is short… but when I was a punk-kid, I used to have it extend outside of its range in order to get shit for me. Food, my gramp's imported comics, whatever it could get its hands on. It isn't nearly as fast or as strong when it gets away from me…" A loud squeak drew the three young women's attention as, slowly but surely, they watched as a rat just floated into their field of vision, Star Platinum soon after fading in as well. "But it gets the job done still." Star Platinum nodded, its grip on the rat secure.

"J-Jotaro, w-what's with the rat?" Weiss asked, pulling her legs back away from Star Platinum and tucking herself up against their cover as tightly as she could to avoid being so close to the rodent. Yang and Blake seemed to catch on immediately as Star Platinum adjusted its grip on the rat.

"I'm testing what exactly we're dealing with." Before Weiss could ask for more of an answer, Star Platinum quickly tossed the rat out into the open, a slight blur of movement obscuring the little guy as the powerful Stand tossed it out.

A moment later the rat's body was bodily shot into an entirely different trajectory as it was struck by one of the sniper's rounds. All four hunters winced slightly as the rat was bodily struck by the bullet and sent flying, the body of the rodent just slamming against a nearby wall as it slid on down to the ground and just lay there, the bullet having fully punctured it and sticking out of its gut. However, if they had felt in any way disgusted or unnerved by the sight of something laying dead before, those feelings were immediately multiplied. Eyes wide with horror, the four hunters watched as the area around the rat's wound… Gods, it was hard to put into words, even.

At first it merely looked like the rat was shedding fur and laying bare its flesh, slightly puffy and red with blood oozing out of the wound, though these were expected. What 'wasn't expected was when the rat's wound, for lack of a better term, slowly but surely 'liquified'. As if having been stuck into a blender on the highest setting, the rat's flesh seemed to turn into what basically amount to a meat-jelly, chunks of the rat's flesh sticking out from the increasingly fluid remains of where the bullet had struck. Said bullet slowly slid, with a wet 'thunk' out of the rat's wound as eventually the rat was reduced to little more than a pile of goo with a tail, one of its legs and its head sticking out, and even those appendages seemed to be just 'barely' spared the fate of the rest of the rat.

Weiss Schnee was a tough young woman. She'd seen some horrific stuff in her time dealing with White Fang terrorist attacks on her family and as a Hunter at Beacon Academy. Still, non-gathered in that spot could blame her as she turned her head away from the jellified rat and vomited, as even Yang, Blake and Jotaro himself felt sickened at the sight they were beholding.

"Fuck me…" Yang's exclamation had been roughly what was on everyone's mind as they watched the display and, as Weiss recovered, the young had a minor freakout.

"Is 'that' what would happen to us if we got hit by one of those bullets! Oh my Gods, that's not even humane? What kind of sick bastard has a Stand that can do something like that?!" Weiss decried as she pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away at her mouth.

"Apparently the same sick bastard who's sitting up around in one of those buildings shooting at us, that's who." Blake remarked dryly, though no less disgusted or somewhat traumatized by the sight she had witnessed as she turned her Faunus senses back on their opponent… who had become strangely quiet after the shot had been fired.

"So we're dealing with an Enemy Stand User who can fire on us from farther away than Star Platinum can see in the dark, who's firing with the equivalent of some kind of sniper rifle, armed with ammunition tailor made to pierce even Aura, even if only momentarily, so that whatever toxin is coating its bullets can do… that to us." Jotaro stroked his chin as rested against the wall. "I can't even risk catching the bullets with Star Platinum, lest it accidentally get itself scratched on one of the barbs… whatever this Stand is, it has a lot of its bases covered.

"That being said, I suspect that all of this means that if we can get up close on our opponent and outflank them, then we could probably take them pretty easily; it can't be a Stand with too many close combat capabilities of its capable of firing such a powerful ability at such long ranges…" Jotaro pointed out the several bullets. "None of the ammunition is dissipating; if we assume that the Stand itself makes these, which we must given how many rounds have been fired in such a short period of time, then the fact that they can continue on existing even this far out from the Stand itself can only suggest a Long-Ranged Stand. The longer the range, the weaker the Stand itself in an upfront fight…"

"The problem's going to be 'getting' into that upfront fight without getting skewered." Yang remarked as she ground her teeth. "No, more than that, the problem is dedicating time and effort to 'pulling that off' while Ruby's in danger! This thing is just wasting our time… if we can't get into that hole, then we can't get to my sister in time before…" The blonde brawler clenched her fists while Jotaro just nodded.

"Indeed, we're short on time and options. We need to get into that hole… but we can't just leave this Stand User behind us. That would be suicide in and of itself. What we need to do is find a way to deal with the Stand User in short order." Weiss frowned as she looked down at Myrtenaster.

"It's a shame we can't leave it behind us… I 'could' wall off a good section of the ground in front of the hole off with ice using my Semblance so that we could safely jump in there… but that's about it. I can't aim my abilities as far off as this Stand is reliably, if at all." Weiss frowned as she looked at Blake and Star Platinum. "Especially if its so far off that only these two are capable of hearing the shot when it's first fired."

"That range is the entire problem, as well as the fact that we're practically still in the dead of night; Star Platinum's eyes are good, but they don't have night vision. I can't catch sight of this thing's scope… so I can't precisely nail in where it is. Even if I could, I'd have to get exceptionally close to the thing in order to try to do anything about it. Sure, I have… some ways of making a difference at range, but still, I'd need to get close… and spend a light of time in its line of sight." Jotaro grimaced as he adjusted his cap. "This is also assuming that this thing doesn't just reposition itself while we're moving, which they might be able to do; its far enough away that Star Platinum can hear the shots going off, but I can't necessarily hear whoever this Stand User is moving from this far away." The experienced Hunter, laying this all out for the other young women, made them grimace; it really seemed like they were short and shorter on options…

Well, Yang and Weiss grimaced.

"Yeah… seems like only one person here really has every tool necessary to deal with this guy right now." Jotaro, Yang and Weiss turned to face Blake, a slight frown on the young woman's face as she turned her gaze toward the corner of their cover. The other three frowned as they realized what Blake was getting at, but the black haired Faunus spoke up before they could talk her down. "I have night vision, I've been able to spot the glint of this guy's Stand this entire time. While I might not be able to communicate it to you all effectively, especially if it would mean trying to get you all to aim for the same spot in a split second in the dark… 'I' can use that information. My ears are sensitive enough that if I get in close enough, I can start tracking this thing myself…"

"Blake, but the open ground-"

"Isn't a problem; my Semblance can take a hit for me and I'm 'very' good at sneaking around. I can play this guy's game but even better; he won't know where I am, but I'll be able to hear him once I get up close enough. I just need an initial distraction to cover myself going into the maze of buildings…"

Something that would draw the sniper's position long enough for Blake to get into a position where she could sneak around.

"Alright, but then what are we supposed to do? Just leave you behind?" Weiss asked, exasperated, as she shook her head. "We're all a team here Blake, we can't just-"

"You can and you will." Blake said, quite firmly, as she turned her amber eyes on her friends and Jotaro. "And it's 'because' we're a team. Ruby's in trouble, without her weapon, and we need to get to her as soon as possible… but we have to deal with this guy or else he'll just follow in behind us. We can't kill him quickly… but 'I' can kill him, if I take my time. Meanwhile, you all can go on ahead and do what you need to do. I'll catch up later." Yang and Weiss seemed ready to fight Blake tooth and nail on this; like Hell Yang was about to let her partner go through with something like this, against an opponent who could 'liquify her' alone, and Weiss wasn't about to let the person who'd fought with her against The Lock go in against an even more dangerous Stand User alone.

Yet, it turned out, it was in neither of their hands.

"You're sure about this?" Weiss and Yang turned to look at Jotaro, stunned that the older man seemed at all willing to hear Blake out on this. Still, Blake just offered a firm nod as she chanced a glance beyond the cover.

"If you guys can even distract them for a minute, use Weiss' ice wall trick to get into the hole, then I can sneak into one of the buildings and start flanking around this guy to… to do what I need to do." Blake tightened her grip on Gambol Shroud as she chanced a glance back at the others. "Then when you all are going ahead, I can keep him from following you all. I wouldn't suggest this if I didn't think I could do it…" There was the obvious counter; that Blake was likely still tired from her extended lack of sleep the previous weeks upon weeks and that she could very well be in over her head…

However, given that everyone gathered lacked sleep and had felt somewhat drained by fighting most of yesterday and exploring Mountain Glenn, none were in a position to argue that particular point. Given their circumstances, Jotaro also knew he was in no position to actually argue the merit of Blake's plan either. So, with a sigh, Jotaro lowered the rim of his cap.

" **Yare yare daze** … Don't put yourself at extreme risk to kill this guy. The only thing we want is for you to distract him long enough for us to get in, rescue Ruby and potentially do what we can about Torchwick's operation here. Your priority is to distract and 'survive'... don't put yourself into a needlessly dangerous situation just to kill him; wait for us to get back with Ruby. Crescent Rose and her experience with it will make it a lot easier to deal with this bastard." Blake gave a quick nod, satisfied with Jotaro's stipulations. However, she had been about the only one.

"Jotaro! You can't be serious! We can't just leave Blake to handle this on her own!" Yang decried, as the older Huntsman just cast his gaze down at her.

"I am your superior at the moment, the leader of your group. I'm not saying you have to like the decision I've come to… but I've weighed the options and, Blake's not wrong, this is the best way we have to secure all of our objectives. That being the case, it's what we're going through with." Jotaro shook his head. "If you have a suggestion to make, speak up. Otherwise, fall in." Yang grimaced a bit at Jotaro's tone, as had Weiss. Both young women didn't like this at all, neither of them wanted to leave Blake behind…

Yet, at the same time, neither could exactly argue against the logic both Blake and Jotaro presented; they 'didn't' have any suggestions, they 'didn't' have any ideas as to how they could both keep this Stand User off their backs while they saved Ruby. A mixture of pride and stubbornness kept them from saying this out loud… but in the end, both nodded in understanding as they readied their weapons.

"Very good. Weiss, prepare your Dust, Blake, get into position… and good luck." The black haired Faunus just nodded, while at the same time shooting her two teammates a look of reassurance and appreciation. As much as they didn't like what she suggested, Blake couldn't help but appreciate the fact that Yang and Weiss were so concerned. Gone was the Blake Belladonna who might've taken this lack of faith, this insistence that she shouldn't push herself, as an insult. Her friends cared about her…

But that they also had the perspective to fall in when Jotaro laid it on the line was important. So it wasn't long before all three young women frowned and turned their attentions to readying for their various tasks, all the while Jotaro slowly raised his hand in the air to prepare a signal.

"I'll be heading out first to draw the initial fire: I'll use Star Platinum's Time Stop to let this guy try and sink two shots into me. Two seconds after I dash out, I want you all to start your moves as well. Don't run in directly behind me; worst case scenario would be that you'd end up being hit by the bullets that would be meant for me. Stay off to my flanks while we're running and as soon as you all hear both shots hit the ground, Weiss, I want that wall of ice up. It is 'imperative' that we follow this plan to the last detail." The three members of Team RWBY had not needed to be told that. They were well aware of the stakes in this moment. They all had one shot at this, one opportunity. Either they'd pull this off, Blake would get to her hiding spot and the rest of them would slip into the hole leading down into the underground of Mountain Glenn or… well, one or more of them were going to be peppered with those bullets if Weiss couldn't put the wall up at the right angle or the right time.

Meanwhile, Josuke and his healing touch were miles away back at Vale, too far for any of them to get to in a reasonable amount of time. No, they couldn't depend on Crazy Diamond for this. They had to run this little gambit of theirs perfectly. So all eyes were on Jotaro's raised hand as the experienced Huntsman took a deep, long breath. As he felt an ease fall over him, as he found a balance, Jotaro's body suddenly stiffened as he slammed his hand down.

"Two seconds!" He shouted as he immediately dashed out into the open away from the cover, Star Platinum phasing in just behind him. One second passed and Star Platinum could hear one gun shot go off. Another second soon after and a second round followed up. In that moment, he heard three sets of feet immediately begin to follow his movements, either closing in behind him or dashing off to the side.

Perfect.

" **[Star Platinum: The World]**!"

 **THUU** UUuuumm…

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

Jotaro choked in some surprise as he ducked out of the way of one of the bullets, just barely a few inches from his face from when he had activated Star Platinum's ability. Way too close for comfort but just close enough for success, which he would gladly take. Adjusting his cap quickly, Jotaro turned to take in the trajectory of the bullet and where Yang and Weiss fell in behind him. Yang had her eyes peeled and Ember Celica raised up in a protective manner, perhaps hoping she could negate one possible hit by bouncing them off of her bracelets. Weiss, on the other hand, had her hand in the middle of the air, Myrtenaster at the ready behind it, as she slowly formed a Glyph in front of her, with a matching one forming on the ground just beyond the hole.

Both of them were safely outside of the trajectories of the two shots and remain so. This allowed Jotaro a sigh of relief as he turned his attention back toward the hole, grinding his teeth together as he narrowed his gaze.

"One second has passed. Time resumes."

… thuuUU **UUUM!**

tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK!**

There was a momentary yelp in surprise behind him as time resumed, presumably either because the two bullets impacted the ground in between Yang and Weiss or because he had just suddenly teleported around without their notice. Either way this surprise was short lived as, instead, Jotaro heard Weiss take a deep, focusing breath as the sounds of a winter chilled wind passed by his heard, a momentary sensation of cold passing by him in the same instance. More shots went off as their enemy took the time to fire off his Stand once again, but by this time it was too late.

Weiss' ice wall saw to that. A large wall made up of a handful of separate ice pillars shot up from the ground just beyond the hole and, as if it were music to the group's ears, they heard the shots bounce off the other side of the ice wall ineffectively, the sniper not having had the angle to score a hit over it, nor were, presumably, Jotaro, Yang or Weiss still in view of the enemy Stand User. With a triumphant 'woop' from Yang the trio jumped down into the hole, Weiss having withdrawn her hand from the glyph she had summoned to brush it back through her hair, a highly satisfied smile on her face.

"Very good. Now then, bearings." Jotaro immediately turned his head about as they hit the floor, looking to establish just where the Hell they were going. It didn't' take long; the path behind them was totally caved off thanks to the falling debris, there wasn't a way back in that direction. Meanwhile, on the other hand, there was a tunnel just in front of them that lead down into the depths of Mountain Glenn…

A tunnel that Star Platinum, funnily enough, noticed had a series of footprints walking off down them, with two drag marks following in between the footsteps… presumably someone being dragged off.

"Bingo. We're going this way." Jotaro pointed off down the direction of the tunnel as Yang and Weiss nodded in ready agreement, the trip sprinted off as they sought to make the best time possible. As the trio moved along, it had been Weiss whose head suddenly shot up to attention, her light blue eyes scanning about as they tried to find something… and then proceeded to 'not' find it.

"Oh my gosh! Where's Zwei!? I haven't seen the little cutie ever since we made a break for it during the initial shots!" Jotaro snapped to attention at this as well; he hadn't noticed Zwei at any time while they were preparing their plans or even when they had been running about. The dog had just, seemingly, disappeared. For a moment, Jotaro's mind thought back to the rat that had been struck, and a slight fear gripped at his stomach; perhaps that dumb mutt had gotten shot in the initial fire and none of them had noticed? Sure you'd expect a dog of that size to at least make a noise, but-

"Hey, don't sweat it, Zwei's fine." Yang declared quite firmly as the other two just looked back at her with surprise in their eyes.

"Yang, how can you be so calm about this! Your dog's missing! The little baby could be anywhere right now, or worse-"

"Zwei 'isn't' dead. He didn't get 'shot' by that Stand User. I would've noticed it." Yang stated firmly, as if it had been an absolute certainty, as she looked back ahead. "Zwei might not look the part with how dopey he can be, but he's a tough little pup, just like his dad when we adopted him way back when. He can handle himself; he's safe, we don't have to worry about him." Jotaro frowned slightly at this, though he couldn't deny that he did feel… better about the prospect after hearing that.

"So you think your dog's handling itself just fine but that Ruby's in some kind of terrible trouble." Yang just chuckled slightly as she grinned up at Jotaro.

"You haven't seen Ruby try and fight without Crescent Rose; in a scrap between her and Zwei, I'd put money on Zwei hands down." Weiss just shook her head at the mental image, her expression clearly spoke volumes about how scarcely she could believe such a thing… yet Yang's certainty just ended up causing Weiss to resign herself to feeling shame on her partner's behalf, once again. Jotaro on the other hand just adjusted his cap as he turned his gaze back forward.

"Well if you're certain, then that's one less thing we have to worry about. Right now; full speed ahead, we're getting down this tunnel and finding out just what's happened to Ruby… and, if we're lucky, we'll end up being able to shove a foot up Roman Torchwick's ass before we hand him over to Ozpin and the others." The two young huntresses couldn't help but smile and nod along at that, their spirits buoyed despite the exhaustion that somewhat hit their bodies as they ran along, their purposes fully realized.

On the other hand, the enemy Stand User paused; the trespassers… they'd gotten away 'again'. They'd managed to sneak in and out of the territory 'again'! Human things that had struck it with the weapon in the first place had once again made a mockery of its strength and its dominance within its domain! The Stand User growled to itself as it, for a moment, subsumed its Stand back into it. It wouldn't allow this to happen. 'Not' again. Not after last time. It was going to pursue, and if the other-

 **BANG BANG BANG**

The Stand User screamed in its own tongue as it immediately booked it away from its spot, a hail of bullets striking down in the location that it had previously been in. Off to the side, Blake growled to herself, knowing that her shots hadn't landed; from the distance she'd managed to sneak herself to, the little bastard had managed to get away before any of her shots could actually land. In fact… she could… hear it moving. It wasn't footsteps like a living, breathing person. No; no leather, no metal sole, made the sound against concrete that this Stand User's feet did.

One might assume that it was merely bare feet, and for a moment Blake could've conceded that… if it weren't for the fact that, ever so distantly, she could hear claws scraping against the ground… four steps of them.

Blake… couldn't be sure. Not yet. However, either her Stand User was a Faunus who decided to go barefoot with claws on its hands and feet… or she was dealing with a wild animal…

The latter was absolutely preposterous; wild animals couldn't have Stands… could they?

Blake sighed as she shook her head. In either case, that meant her advantage on Faunus senses would only extend to her ears; very likely this Stand User would have night vision as well… and though claws signaled that the Stand User wouldn't have animal ears as a Faunus trait, Blake wouldn't make too many assumptions quite yet.

She needed to be at the top of her game then; this would be a true game of cat and mouse… Gods, Yang's puns were actually starting to slip into her vocabulary, the damn cat puns. Anyway, it would be a game where her opponent could very well see her in the dark and where she could see and hear her opponent. She couldn't hold back; she needed every advantage she could get here. Her cat ears twitched behind her bow as she picked up the sound of metal suddenly hitting the ground; presumably the Stand User had dragged his Stand back out. Still, it was hard to hear… and it would remain so while Blake's hearing was being obstructed.

With an unsteady breath, Blake Belladonna reached up for her bow and undid the not, dragging the cloth down off her head and placing it into one of her coat pockets. Free from their confines, her cat ears twitched and maneuvered about… and she could hear her prey far more clearly. Reloading Gambol Shroud, Blake bit her lip slightly as the former terrorists slipped back into the darkness, ready to stalk her prey until either her team was ready to call her back to them… or this Stand User was dead.

This Stand User wouldn't be getting into that tunnel. Blake would make sure of that.

* * *

Ruby Rose was very much 'not' having the time of her life right now. It had been one thing to fall into some deep dark pit, that was enough of a pain but one that she could have very quickly recovered from if given the time. Heck, she may have even been able to use her Semblance to quickly scale back up the hole and get back to the surface. Bad enough that she had been spotted out by some White Fang goons when she had fallen and had been approached, ready to be dragged away to who knows where. She could've easily taken them under the right circumstances…

Not, worst of all of this was the fact that the young woman had been separated from her dear, dear weapon, her baby, Crescent Rose. She must've dropped her Sniper Scythe somewhere in the midst of the surface above her having collapsed and dropped her into this dark tunnel in the first place! Then she had Zwei run back to try and get the rest of her Team and Jotaro to come and find her and… well… she did 'try' to put up a fight and resist being man-handled by goons that she and her team normally had a pretty simple time of knocking out and dispatching…

But without her weapon, Ruby Rose was about as threatening as a newborn puppy trying to pick a fight with something that 'wasn't a newborn puppy. Yeah, she could seriously distract you for a moment, and her random flailing was certainly cutesy, but eventually you were just going to pick her up by the scruff of her neck and carry her off. So the silver eyed Huntress ended up being grabbed by her arms and dragged along the ground, her skirt and shoes leaving drag marks in the dust of the initial, concrete tunnels before it transitioned into pure dirt.

She had been thankful Yang hadn't been here; she sure as Heck wouldn't' have been able to live this down if her older sister had been around to see it. Worse yet, Yang might try to restart that training she had done before she went off to get ready for Beacon, which Ruby had most definitely 'not' been a fan of. Now, one might have found it odd that Ruby had preoccupied herself with all these thoughts rather than having narrowed in on the fact that she had been captured and had currently been on her way to who knows where thanks to her enemies. That she might have been having a freakout thanks to this very scenario being the nightmare situation for a number of people…

However, Ruby Rose had been nothing if not an eternal optimist. She hadn't looked at this situation with dread, but more a mix of embarrassment and patience. Her team would come for her. Jotaro would come for her. Zwei would make sure that they knew where she had fallen and then it'd be only a matter of time. Of that Ruby had been absolutely certain. Plus, whoever these guys were, there had been no way they'd do such serious harm to her, with her Aura, that she wouldn't have been able to bounce back sooner rather than later, especially if she just stayed cool and let them take her to wherever they had wanted to go. When she could spot an opportunity, then she'd try something.

For now, she had been confident enough in her comrades that she was willing to sit back and wait. Things would be fine. More than that, this had given Ruby a fantastic opportunity; if Ruby had guessed right, then these guys had been in the process of taking her into their base! That meant Ruby would find who knows what here and, more than likely, would end up seeing Roman Torchwick himself! By having allowed her to come into their base, they would seal their demise once the rest of her team and Jotaro showed up to kick butt! As embarrassing as this accident had been, Ruby had been more than willing to chalk it up as a… happy accident.

That was the attitude that Ruby Rose took upon being dragged past the dark and dirty tunnels and into… well, Ruby was actually at a loss for what to describe it as for a moment. There were lights strung 'everywhere', with free-standing lights connected to generators having been scattered about in order to light the entire area. There were 'tons' of boxes everywhere, tons and tons of them, with many of them in different shapes and sizes. Some boxes were open topped before being slammed shut, presenting hundreds of little containers of Dust within. For Ruby, this was a moment of clarity; this was all the Dust that was getting robbed. This was what Roman Torchwick had been after this whole time. Still, Ruby hadn't been able to help but quirk her brow; why the Heck was it here? If he had some kind of plan, why spend all the time and energy moving all this Dust out of Vale and out into the middle of nowhere in a… a…

Train station? Ruby blinked as she looked around, the word so suddenly coming to her mind in a flash. It seemed like a ridiculous notion, that underneath Mountain Glenn there was some kind of full on train station but, as Ruby looked around, it became more and more clear that this was the case. There were refueling stations near a set of tracks that disappeared into a tunnel and, hey would you look at that, a giant cargo train. It just seemed so bizarre; an underground train system. Not like a subway like she'd heard existed in Atlas, but like an honest to goodness, old-timey train. Such things hadn't been really possible in a long time thanks to the abundance of Grimm on the surface outside of cities but… hey, here it was.

This had thrown Ruby for something of a loop. Something else that'd thrown her for a loop was the sheer 'number' of people that had gathered in this spot. There were easily dozens, if not over a hundred, members of The White Fang scattered about this train station, all carrying or delivering boxes. Some of them even seemed to have some kind of rudimentary Stand that had gone on to assist them with loading the train, making the process of getting all these crates of Dust back on board. Speaking of, that had been something Ruby couldn't quite figure. Now, being underground as she was, Ruby didn't exactly have a 'great' sense of direction… but she did have an ounce of common sense.

There was no way this train station was going out even further away from Vale. After all, Mountain Glenn had, apparently, been the farthest settlement out. It had to have meant that there was no station beyond this that the train could go. No, the only other place that it made sense for this train to be connected to was… well, Vale. So had that meant that Roman Torchwick had used a train in Vale in order to get this Dust out here…

WHAT TRAIN IN VALE!?

Ruby's mind ran at one-thousand miles a minute. There was no train station in Vale, no line to be connected there… but it was the only thing that made sense… AND IT MADE NO SENSE AT ALL! What was going on? Why was this Dust here, why had Roman gathered all of it and, most importantly, what was the point of having dragged it out of Vale if he was going to send it all right back…

For some reason, that last thought had chilled Ruby's spine for a moment, as if there had been some dark insinuation that had accompanied that imagining that had momentarily slipped its way into her mind. All of this Dust, being gathered onto one train that could have only been aimed right at Vale. The idea of it set her on edge as it danced around the very periphery of her thoughts, though she lacked the cruel, dark imagination to have fully pieced together the entirety of the plan.

"Be careful you animals! All of this Dust is worth more than your lives! If something goes wrong here, the boss will have my hide… and I'll make sure I have YOUR hides before he gets the opportunity to take mine." Ruby's ears immediately perked up, her silver eyes narrowed as she recognized the source of the voice that rang out across the entire train station. Ruby braced herself as the two goons dragged her up toward the train where, before her very eyes, stood Roman Torchwick, the Crime Boss of Vale chomping on the end of one of his cigars as he nervously handled his cane.

"Boss, looks like we have some company." Roman Torchwick groaned slightly as he placed his face in his hand and turned toward the trio who had just arrived.

"Seriously? We are right on the cusp of pulling off the boss'-" Roman's voice cut off as he saw exactly 'who' said company was, the man seemingly stopping right in place as he took in who was in front of him. Eventually, his frown seemingly melted into an easygoing smile as he reached up to readjust his scarf. "Well well well… what do we have here? Ruby Rose! Perennial thorn in my side and busy body! Haha, good to see you, brat? What brings you here?" Roman's cool demeanor immediately dissolved as he grabbed one of the two White Fang holding onto Ruby by his collar, the other one quickly grabbing Ruby's other arm to make up for his compatriot's absence. "No, really, 'what the Hell is she doing here'! We are 'literally' just a day away from getting this ball rolling and you bring HER, of all people, HERE?!"

"W-Well sir, I mean, boss, we found her in a collapsed tunnel by herself without her weapon! We thought she'd be easy pickings! Why not bring her here?" Roman slapped his forehead as he shook his head.

"Why not? WHY NOT? How about 'the rest of her team is probably here' why not? How about 'why not leave her lost without any direction of where to go to find us' why not? How about 'you've given her Team and anyone who was following her incentive to track her to find us and kick our asses' why not!" The two White Fang goons looked at each other for a moment, before they returned their gazes to Roman, the White Fang goon in Roman's grip having decided to speak up.

"So you want us to actually answer those questions or-"

Roman's cigar was promptly put out in the face of the White Fang goon that he had a grip of, causing him to cry outas Roman just dropped him flat out in order to free his hands,. His hands freed, Roman reached up to rub his temples as he tried to fight off the impending migraine.

"I swear… what did I do to deserve this? Why do 'I' have to be the one to put up with all this? Why couldn't it be someone else?" Ruby couldn't help but glare at her erstwhile enemy as she just frowned deeply.

"Oh I dunno, robbing people, hurting innocent people, being a real jerk. I think those are some pretty good reasons." Roman Torchwick seemed to snap out of his own state of self-pity.

"Wasn't exactly asking you Ruby, but hey, now that you've brought this little topic of conversation back to you, let's address that little problem, shall we?" Roman nodded his head off to the side of the train car, the other White Fang Goon who had not been dealing with a cigar burn to the fact just nodded and quickly fell in behind Roman as he sought to 'not' raise the ire of the obviously annoyed crime boss. The goon dragged Ruby with him, the girl doing her best to just be dead weight and inconvenience her captors until she had an opportunity to make an escape.

"You know, I could not have asked for a 'worse' sign of how today was going to go then having you of all people show up Rose. I mean, really, of all the bad luck I've had these past few days, you're a reminder that things can 'always' get worse! It'd almost be inspiring if I weren't so utterly and completely sick of dealing with all this at this point…" Roman sighed as he pulled out another cigar and lit it, the man having taken a long drag of it before he turned back to face Ruby. "You know you're so terrible to me. The least you can do… or, I should say, the least you're 'going' to do right now is tell me who exactly is here and what exactly you all know." Roman took another long drag off his cigar as he waited for Ruby's answer…

Only for Ruby to just glare up at him silently, her silver eyes defiant in the face of his bluster. "Oh-hokay, maybe I haven't made myself clear? I am 'really' not in the mood to deal with this kiddy bullshit of yours right now. Right now I am riding a 'very' thin line right now that depends on everything going right with this little plan, Ruby. So what I need you to do is to go ahead, realize that you're in a situation that I can make 'very' unpleasant for you right now and spill your guts before I spill them for you… how does that sound?" As Roman spoke he leaned down further and further until he was just about in Ruby's face, cigar held off to the side as he lightly blew smoke in the young woman's face…

What Roman had been met with was a big old raspberry, spit flying into his eyes and across his face as he just snapped back a bit.

"Well, can't say I didn't try. Alright boys, get the sticks ready, if this piñata isn't going to spill its guts willingly, then we're just going to have to do it the fun way." Sweat formed on the surface of Ruby's forehead; Roman's threat here hadn't exactly been subtle, and Ruby knew what exactly he meant. Ruby glanced off to the side, toward the tunnel she'd been dragged through to get here in the first place. After a moment's thought, Ruby just sighed as she returned to glaring at Roman; her Team and Jotaro would arrive in time. She knew they would; there was no way that Zwei hadn't informed them that she was missing and where she had fallen, and Yang, Weiss and Blake were really smart… not to mention how strong and experienced Jotaro was.

They would find her. They'd find a trail of her, they'd follow it here and then they'd help deal with Roman and his goon squad. If Ruby panicked over Roman's threats an spilled their numbers… that would take away their element of surprise. Sure, Roman knew that at least Ruby and her team were here, but he didn't know Jotaro was around yet. There was no way they could be prepared for Star Platinum in such short notice. So long as she kept quiet, they'd bust in, leading a surprise charge and knock these guys silly. She'd be fine…

She'd be fine. She didn't need to worry about Roman's threat. So with a deep breath Ruby watched as Roman readied his cane and-

 **BOOOOOOM!**

'OH THANK THE GODS!' Ruby celebrated in her mind, a wide smile on her face as Roman and all the other White Fang goons immediately turned toward the tunnel that Ruby had been dragged through.

"What the Hell was that? One of you, call in the patrol that's supposed to be guarding the main branch of tunnels leading here, get them to figure out just-"

" **ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA - ORAAAAAA!** "

Immediately the makeshift tunnel doors having lead into the train station were blown wide open, the beaten, battered and partially frozen bodies of numerous White Fang goons having been sent soaring through the air and crashing into several crates and comrades as they collapsed onto the ground. The dust kicked up and, for a moment, no one inside the train station could have seen what exactly had been going on beyond the busted down doors.

And then several shotgun rounds suddenly fired out and slammed handfuls of White Fang goons in the chest, knocking them unconscious even through what little Aura they had. A series of Glyphs appeared around others, their weight suddenly increasing many times over as they collapsed onto the ground, depressed and practically crushed under their own weight. Roman and the rest of the goon squad had momentarily panicked, their eyes having gone wide from the spectacle before them… which had been all of what Ruby had been looking for. With a quick jump up Ruby got to her feet, momentarily drawing the attention of Roman and the goon who had a hold on her.

That hold had been immediately compromised when Ruby 'slammed' her foot onto the goon's and, when he nearly stumbled over from the pain in his foot, Ruby slammed her head back into his face, instinct having caused the goon to let her go to hold onto his broken nose.

"NO YOU IDIOT, DON'T LET HER-" However, Roman's words had been too little too late as Ruby immediately activated her Semblance and darted off, first appearing only a handful of feet away from Roman Torchwick before she, eventually, disappeared entirely, coming back into view as the dust from the doorway settled down. When the dust cleared, everyone save for Ruby 'panicked'.

Yang Xiao Long dropped a White Fang goon to the side as she ran up to Ruby and hugged her little Sister, Weiss Schnee ran up, keeping Myrtenaster at the ready, as she kept an eye on how her leader was doing and, perhaps most panic inducing of all for those members of the White Fang and Roman Torchwick, Kujo Jotaro casually strode on into the room, Star Platinum floating silently behind the man as it held its fists up at the ready, the Stand clearly ready for a brawl.

Roman's blood ran 'cold'. It would've been bad enough to have Team RWBY, that long-lasting pain in the ass, here, but to have Kujo Jotaro of all people here? To have 'him' be present? It was all a little too much for Roman to have considered. He gripped his cane tightly, panic evident on his face, and for a moment it had been unclear as to what he needed to do…

"Now now Mr. Torchwick, I wouldn't fret if I were you. You've yet to completely run out of options, yes?" Roman's panic attack ended abruptly upon being spoken to, the man having turned his gaze to a nearby train car that had slid open. The man ground his teeth together at the sight of the two fellows on board; his 'backup' procured from Vacuo by Whitesnake.

"I don't think you two quite comprehend the mess we've gotten ourselves into. This is Kujo Jotaro, and he-"

"He's a Stand User. Strong as he is, he still has weaknesses. Weaknesses I am in a position to exploit." One of the men said as he took out a cigarette and took a nice, long drag on it, producing a long wisp of smoke. "My friend here should be able to handle the other… children just fine." The other figure dipped down a wide-brimmed hat at having been mentioned.

"I would still suggest we pack up though; this fight is bound to do damage to the train and Dust supplies. We aren't exactly in a position to sit around now that they've shown up; backup will probably be here sooner rather than later." The other man mentioned as Roman just choked a bit.

"Are you kidding? We have all this Dust we still haven't loaded! We need-"

"What we need has been taken care of Roman. Trust me, we're quite… set, as it were. All we have to do is send your dear employer their signal early to give the others time to get into place." The man again took a drag on his cigarette before he dropped it onto the ground in front of him. "Now… are you going to get this train going with at least 'most' of the Dust loaded, or are we going to sit here and ensure 'none' of the Dust gets to where it needs to go? Not sure if your employer would like that very much." Roman just ground his teeth at that, the man just glancing off to the side. It was true that with the help of the various White Fang Stands that they'd been able to load a lot of the Dust…

It was also true that, at this point, a lot of the Dust was better than no Dust at all. The former would 'maybe' still keep the plan in motion… the latter would most definitely have costed his hide.

"... Everyone get on board and into position! We're heading to Vale!"

While Roman and his own guests settled this little affair, Yang finally let Ruby go and, with a quick bit of flair, handed over Crescent Rose. "Man, you go on talking about how Crescent Rose is your baby and you leave her behind? Not cool sis, what kind of mother are you?" Ruby's silver eyes went wide and shimmered in excitement as she quickly took her beloved weapon back into her hands, practically having cradled it as she unfolded it into its scythe form.

"OH CRESCENT ROSE, I WAS SO WORRIED! Thanks Yang!" The blonde brawler just smiled as she slapped her sister on the arm.

"You weren't the only one who was worried… I'm glad you're alright sis." Ruby smiled warmly back at her sister, her silver eyes having scanned the group… before narrowing in some worry.

"Where's Blake? Why isn't she here right now?" Weiss heaved a sigh as she shook her head.

"There was a Stand User on the surface who held us up for a bit. Blake had to stay behind to help take care of them… she seemed confident that she'd be able to." For a moment, Ruby's worry deepened as she frowned, looking between the entire group… up until she saw the stern, even expression of one Kujo Jotaro.

"She'll be fine. She had a good plan." The older man stated firmly. Ruby, for her part, just sighed and nodded.

"Blake will be fine… she's really strong and really talented. I just worry because… well…" Jotaro nodded in understanding as he pat the young woman on the hand.

"Right." After that, however, Jotaro's gaze narrowed further, as did everyone else's, as they turned their attention back to the main draw of the moment; Roman Torchwick, the White Fang goons and the train, the latter of which the former two had currently been boarding. "Seems to me that we have you back, you have your weapon back and you're safe… so how's about we go ahead and deal with our target?"

"Sounds good to me." Ruby intoned as she swung Crescent Rose around for flair. "Team RBWY… and guest-" Jotaro nodded, "-let's go kick some butt!"

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 5)**

* * *

 **A/N: Not much to say this time around; good to be back, had a nice, if cold, holiday and this chapter wasn't that bad to get out now that I've recovered from finals. I'll be sure to alert you all if school starting is going to end up messin' with plans but, for now, count on the next chapter coming out on the 11th.**

 **Hope you all had a great Holiday, and Happy New Year!**


	50. The Breach (Act 5)

With a great roar of the engines and the slow churn of metal, moving for the first time in many weeks, or perhaps even months, the locomotive was on the move. Many surprised White Fang members watched in shock, their avenue of escape immediately going on the move, leaving them behind to their fate. That fate?

A strong punch to the jaw knocking them unconscious, or one of two blades. Kujo Jotaro ground his teeth together as he watched the train slowly begin to roll on down the tracks, the older man having grown increasingly annoyed with the small gang of White Fang grunts who had now made it their mission to slow down their progress and keep them from reaching the train. The RWY of RWBY also took notice of this, the three young women momentarily pausing from attempting to force their way through the crowd of White Fang to watch the train shake off its rust.

"Crap! Really kinda figured they wouldn't leave so many of their buddies behind! No honor among thieves, I guess." Yang grunted as she caught a punch from another member of The Fang, twisting the fist in her grip before dragging the guy in to be punched straight down into the dirt. Weiss Schnee nodded her agreement, Myrtenaster rapidly sliced through the air as she disabled another member of the terrorist organization.

"We need on that train now." Weiss quickly whipped out Myrtenaster and quickly ran her hands through the air, a Glyph forming at the young woman's fingertips as she slowly focused. Before long, a long, rising cliff of ice formed in between Weiss and the train, any White Fang goon who had sought to stand between the group and their destination having either been partially frozen in place for their lack of attention or threw themselves to the side to avoid an icy fate.

"Good job Weiss, let's make a break for it!" Not having needed to be told twice, Jotaro and Yang had nodded in agreement with Ruby's suggestion and the group of four quickly broke off contact with the White Fang, immediately running up onto the incline of the ice. It had been touch and go as, while Weiss had used what control she'd had to try and ensure that the ice wouldn't have been a bother for anyone running up it, it had still been a surface of pure ice. The three Aura users had found enough purchase to get themselves across it fine enough, though Jotaro had often needed the help of Star Platinum in order to make his way across.

As the train's engines roared and the machine had actually picked up speed, the group of four had just 'barely' made it in time to jump onto the backmost train car. The four young women had managed to land on their feet quite easily, their Aura having impacted their landing. The trio had turned, ready to assist Jotaro with his own fall, though to their surprise the more experienced Huntsman had landed beside them not a moment later, steady on his feet and seemingly without that much trouble.

"... You're kind of surprisingly spry for a guy who doesn't have Aura, you know that Jotaro?" Yang intoned, almost teasingly, as Jotaro just shrugged his shoulders, dusting off his jacket slightly as he did so.

"When you lead this active of a lifestyle, it isn't exactly hard." The older man spoke as he turned his gaze down the train's various cars. The three young women had followed his gaze and, lo and behold, they watched as from in between the various train cars and from the sides, the White Fang had just climbed up and out from the trains and onto the roof. "Didn't take them long to get up here." There was a slight annoyance that had slipped into Jotaro's tone as the man adjusted his cap, the three young women having frowned as they prepared for a fight.

"So, what's the plan Jotaro?" Ruby asked, Jotaro having still been nominally the leader of their group, as the older Huntsman looked down the line of train cars up to the engine.

"Our plan is to figure out what their plan is; they just launched a train down a very old line of train tracks that can only go one way, to Vale. Whatever their reason, we need to piece it together and quickly. To that end, we can't afford to waste too much time with these grunts." Jotaro looked down at the trio as he shrugged. "Capturing Roman Torchwick for interrogation would also be a plus, but I'm sure that went without saying." The slight smirks or smiles on all their faces confirmed this. "To these ends, we're going to need to make progress down these trains quickly and, potentially, find out what exactly they have in here.

"You three, at the earliest opportunity, I want you to get down into the train cars and traverse the train by passing through all of them. Take note of what's in there and, if you spot an opportunity to shortchange whatever their plan might be, do so. Don't waste too much time on these guys or whoever they might throw to try and get in your way." Jotaro turned his gaze back forward over the top of the train car as The White Fang goons approached. "I'll traverse the train by going over the top of the train cars. Hopefully that'll allow me to cut what time it'd take to get to the front." The three young women frowned, slightly worried, as Jotaro walked forward toward the approaching herd of White Fang.

"You sure about being up here by yourself Jotaro, one of us could stay up here to help-"

" **ORA!** " Before their eyes, as a White Fang goon jumped at Jotaro, a bladed weapon reared back and ready to cut them down, Star Platinum appeared and, with a powerful blow, sent the goon flying with enough forced to skip and hop across several train cars. If the goon hadn't been knocked out by the initial punch, having been sent skipping like a stone across the metal roofs had. The various White Fang Grunts who had, previously, charged with abandon and seemed ready to take the fight to Jotaro, paused and looked at the large man, having been reminded of exactly 'why' they had previously been on orders to not directly engage him one on one. With that little display, Yang just laughed as she slapped her knee.

"Nah, he's fine Rubes, Jotaro here can handle himself." With that, Yang placed a hand on her chin, rubbing it slightly as she gave a wiley grin. "Now, what we we need is to go ahead and get ourselves inside this little train." Weiss blinked as she just pointed up forward toward the gap in between train cars.

"... Yang you know that there's doors in between each car, right? It's actually not that hard to get in-"

"Too boring, I got a better way to handle it!" With that, Yang gave a quick 'woo' as the battle addict immediately sprinted forward toward another White Fang goon. Before Jotaro or anyone could stop her Yang gave a quick jump into the air, smiled nice and wide for the soon to be pulverized goon, and then punched straight down, slamming the goon's head into, and then through, the metal roof of the train car. With that, Yang Xiao Long dusted off her hands and grinned to her teammates and Jotaro, presenting to them the newly created hole. "Ladies and little girls first." Weiss and Ruby, in time, rolled their eyes as they quickly hopped down into the train car, Yang having given Jotaro a mock salute before she followed her teammates down into the train car.

With that, Jotaro turned his attention back to the rest of the White Fang on top of the train. While a good number had slipped back down in order to attempt to deal with the three Huntresses who had then, presumably, decided to take a trip through the various train cars, many more still stayed right on top of the train. They seemed ready to try their luck in a straight fight with Kujo Jotaro. Jotaro heaved an annoyed sigh as he adjusted his cap, his narrowed gaze falling upon each and every member of The White Fang whom had stayed behind.

" **Yare yare daze** , you all know that this isn't fair at all, right?" Jotaro muttered as he slowly leaned his posture back and raised his right hand.

"More of your friends should've stayed."

With a point, Star Platinum rushed forward, its battle cry echoing through the tunnel along with the echoes of the train's engine.

* * *

"I'm still not so sure about this." Ruby muttered as the three of them rushed through train cars, the trio having beaten or bruised many goons and grunts who had tried to get in their way. Ruby Rose, having been given space to not 'need' to think of how to beat these White Fang grunts, had instead turned her attention back to the sounds of combat that had been taking place above the very roofs they stood under. "There were, like, nearly a hundred White Fang going up onto the roof to challenge Jotaro… even if some of them came down, that's still a lot for anyone one person, even with a Stand, to handle. Shouldn't we have-"

Ruby's concerns had been interrupted as, seemingly out of nowhere, the head of a White Fang goon, thankfully still attached to his shoulders, suddenly burst through the ceiling. A huge, fist-shaped bruise had formed on his cheek as the terrorist groaned, the sounds of Jotaro's footsteps as they passed by echoing down into the train car as the three young women still heard Star Platinum going at it.

"Ruby, 'I think' Jotaro has a handle on this." Weiss commented dryly as she dispatched another member of The Fang, a mix of dry wit and amusement sang through her voice as Yang just chuckled.

"Yeah; this is what we've all been training for and, given that Jotaro's been at this 'way' longer than we have, I think it's pretty safe to say that he's more than ready for a goon squad." Yang commented idly as she looked around. "Now… more to the point, Weiss, what exactly are we looking at?" Weiss glanced around as Yang asked, a momentary lull in the fighting having formed as the trio prepared to move to the next train car.

"Same thing we saw in the last car… Dust, and a lot of it. If I had to guess, this is where Torchwick's been taking all the Dust he's collected these past several months." Weiss muttered as she looked at, well, 'everything'. Barrels upon barrels upon crates had been stacked, practically up to the very ceilings and, upon closer inspection, SDC labels and insignias plastered most of them. Those that didn't were instead cases full of commercially available Dust, equally stacked high, that had likely been stolen directly from stores involved in the robberies.

In one train car alone, Weiss estimated that there was probably something closely approaching to a 'ton' of Dust, and that was just her being cautious. She frowned as she bit her lip, the trio having continued to walk forward.

"I just don't understand; why load up all this Dust onto these trains? Why bring it all out here in the first place? It seems bizarre… you figured if he had some kind of trick up his sleeve for using this against Vale, he would've left it all 'in Vale' rather than having dragged it all out here." Weiss muttered as she stroked her chin.

"Maybe he couldn't keep it there, or anything that originated within Vale itself would have been too obvious and too easily stopped before the plan could go through?" The silver eyed young Huntress spoke up, the line of logic having been sound enough to earn a nod of agreement from the two older members of her team.

"So what? Torchwick's looking to blow something up? To what end though? These tracks likely don't lead anywhere in specific anymore if 'no one' knows where they go." Yang looked around at the Dust, the conundrum having boggled the blonde brawler's mind.

"Yeah, you'd think he'd have a specific target… and even then, why so much Dust for one target? What's he looking to accomplish?" Weiss asked, hands on hips, as they approached the entrance to the next train car.

"Well hey, think about it like this; the sooner we get to the front of the train and confront Torchwick, the sooner we can have these answers!" Ruby remarked with a cheerful chirp, which caused her partner and sister to both smile as they gave quick grunts of agreement.

"In that case what exactly are we sitting around for? Let's get going!" With that, Yang brought her leg up and, with a mighty kick, blew down the door to the next train car, having sent it skittering about the next car as Weiss frowned.

"Are all these overt displays of force really necessary, Yang?" Weiss asked as Yang just shrugged.

"Hey, this is not just our first mission but our first 'save a whole city' mission. I'm going to make the most of it." The trio of girls chuckled; it had been clear that what Yang had been doing was keeping their spirits high. The situation they had found themselves in was very tense and 'very' serious. A life and death struggle that they, mere days ago, had not entirely anticipated having to go through. Heck, such life and death struggles had become a more and more common occurrence these past several months. Still, they were young and not quite yet used to these stresses; a little comedy, a little steam blown off, it had been good to keep their heads in the game.

"Even so, I wouldn't necessarily suggest wasting energy like that on a job… it tends to tucker you out before you get a chance to actually get down to the nitty gritty of things…" The three young women flinched slightly, their attention drawn forward as they all readied themselves for a fight. However, each of them blinked in surprise at what they saw; whereas they might've expected a good number of goons with perhaps one brawny guy… what they saw instead had just been one man.

A man who leaned against one of the crates of Dust, calmly smoking a rolled up cigarette. The man himself appeared a bit odd to the fashion senses of the three young women; a wide-brimmed, purple-ish hat sat atop his head, the shadow neatly obscuring his eyes from the angle. On his face was a full beard that fluffed out just an inch or two from his face, nearly pure snow white save for some… odd little black squiggles that none of the three could have quite made out from the distance they had stood. A forest green range coat had been worn over a grey, high-neck shirt, one that had been neatly tucked into some dark, tan pants which themselves dipped into some boots.

The man appeared almost completely unarmed, save for a single revolver that had been placed into a holster connected to a somewhat loose hanging belt. Grey gloves flicked away the cigarette the man had been smoking as he turned on the three young women, allowing them to meet the gaze of some dark colored eyes.

"Least, that'd be my advice to you. Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be handing off that kind of advice to people my client's given some pretty specific orders concernin'. After all, wouldn't do to have you all actually learning anything." With that, the three members of Team RWBY all glanced at each other before looking back to the stranger in front of them.

"So what, just you here?" Yang remarked dryly as she tilted her head to the side, the hat wearing gentleman nodded in response.

"That's right ma'am. Me and my associated figured that if you all were carving through members of The Fang like a knife through butter, not much point in individual backup from them. Might as well just handle you all ourselves." Ruby, Weiss and Yang all looked at each other, furrowing their brows as they stared at the man in front of them.

"So where's your friend then? Hiding in a corner?" Ruby asked, genuinely curious, as the fella just shook his head and jabbed a thumb on behind him.

"Nah, he's settled himself up with Mr. Torchwick at the front of the train, trying to keep the guy from having a fit… and helping him set up for Kujo Jotaro's arrival, 'course." The man suddenly pulled out his revolver, a move which caused each of the three young women to flinch for a moment as he pulled back the hammer. "'Fraid it's just me here in this car, though my associate and I judged me sufficient to handle the three of you."

"... You're kidding, right?" Yang spoke up, a wide grin on her face. "Just you, huh? Man, Torchwick must've forgotten the last time we all tussled. Guy was in a giant mech and still couldn't take us on without his teeny, tiny scoop of ice cream." Yang cracked her knuckles as she looked over at Ruby and Weiss. "Hey, you two go on ahead. I'll deal with the cowboy here." Weiss frowned as she leaned over.

"Yang… just because he doesn't look like much, doesn't mean that we should take him lightly. For all we know, he could be a Stand User." Yang nodded understandingly as she cracked her knuckles.

"I get that Weiss, but at the same time, this 'good old boy' here just told us where our man is. Jotaro's going on ahead but it sounds like they're ready for him. I say three on two makes for a more even fight than two on one." Yang looked the stranger in front of them over. "Even if he is a Stand User… well, after Red Hot Chili Pepper, I can't imagine we'd come across another Enemy Stand User who'd give us as much hassle. It's better that we get this all over with, get Torchwick and then get this train stopped, don't you think?" Both the Schnee Heiress and the silver eyed Huntress frowned.

There was certainly a logic to Yang's words and it made sense on some strategic level; the sooner they secured the train, the sooner this mission would be finished and whatever threat to Vale that Torchwick posed would be cut down then and there. The head of the serpent had been placed right in front of them…

"Are you sure Yang?" Ruby Rose believed in her sister and her judgement, especially after the experience Yang had gained against Stands like Sticky Fingers and RHCP… 'if' this guy in front of them was a Stand User. Could be that he was just a good fighter with Aura. Still, she needed to ask. She needed to see that confidence in her sister's eyes.

So when Yang's lilac gaze turned to Ruby, full of vim and vigor, Ruby felt her own confidence bubble up.

"Alright Yang, we'll trust you… now, Weiss, let's get past this guy!" Ruby and Weiss readied their weapons, as had Weiss, while Yang prepared a shot from Ember Celica. Given this guy had been ordered to deal with them, there was no way it was going to be easy to just get past him. So, with a deep breath, Ruby and Weiss made a break for it while Yang reared her fist back, ready to cover Ruby and Weiss' breakthrough. The stranger's eyes narrowed, his hand twirled his gun in his grip and his other hand reached for his hat…

Whereupon he stepped off to the side and allowed Weiss and Ruby to pass. The partner pair nearly tripped over themselves but, luckily, kept on going, while even Yang had seemed surprised by the gestured. Weiss' gaze lingered on the back of the stranger for a long moment… and it was weird. It almost looked like those black lines in his hair were newspaper print. Weirder than that was the pattern on the back of the man's ranger… and his head. Weiss blinded; did he… have a human face tattooed on the back of his skull?

Despite this weirdness, Weiss shook it off and eventually took the… opportunity afforded to her and Ruby and ran off, slamming the door to the train car behind them as they did so. Yang eventually shook off her shock as she gave the stranger a bit of a grin.

"Huh, you know, for a guy who's supposed to 'deal with us' you sure have a funny way of showing it." Yang remarked glibly as she recovered from her surprise, the stranger just dusting himself off lightly as he shrugged.

"I'll grant you that little miss, but something you're going to have to understand is that, well, to me I figure that three Huntresses are gonna be a problem, no matter how young they might seem. The fact that you gals got Torchwick in such a twist in the first place shows that well enough." The man licked around the back of his teeth as he brought his revolver back up. "Three Aura Awakened folks in a group, in this cramped space… yeah, my mother didn't raise a fool. Even with what I got up my sleeve, that would be a pretty tricky ask." With a flick of his finger, the stranger sent the revolver forward as he took Yang in.

"Now… taking on 'one' Aura Awakened lady? That seems like the kinds of odds I can handle and handle quickly. Then I can go ahead, turn around and go deal with your friends… or hey, better yet, catch them in the back while they're dealing with whatever Torchwick and my associate have in store." The men presented his revolver, pointing it right between Yang's eyes. "So I'm going to have to apologize if I make this quick little miss, but I do have some other appointments to keep today."

"Aww, that's too bad, but I understand. I've always heard that guys your age tend to have a bit of a problem with your trigger-"

Before Yang could finish her joke, a hail of bullets were rapidly emptied out from the man's revolver, rounds upon rounds soaring through the air toward Yang. The blonde brawler, having been more than ready for this, ducked the initial shots as she rolled across the ground, pumping Ember Celica as she did so. She looked back over her shoulder as she watched the rounds impact the wall… and then blinked as they sunk 'deeply' into the metal, twisting it around them..

"Woof, Gravity Dust Rounds huh? That's nifty; I would've figured you'd go for Flame Dust, it's what I use myself." Yang countered as she immediately kicked off the ground, the stranger just frowning as he jumped back and reloaded.

"'Fraid I can't make that kind of allowance here; if I were to fire off Flame Dust rounds, well, I'd probably blow us and this entire train to Kingdom Come… speakin' of-"

"Yeah, gotcha, probably should hold back on that myself." Yang grinned as she ran forward, forgoing the shotgun blast she had been preparing and instead set herself up for some good old fashioned close quarters combat.

"Much appreciated." The stranger remarked as he finished reloading. Almost the second he had, the man turned his gun back on Yang and fired off another successive series of rounds, which Yang had ducked around-

Only to have to immediately jump as another round of bullets almost immediately impacted the ground she'd ducked to.

"Woah there, I didn't even hear you reload!" Yang cried out as she watched the stranger reload his gun… seemingly at the same pace as the first time.

"Huh, weird innit?" The man brandished his revolver again and, rather than duck or dodge to the side, Yang bit the inside of her cheek as she dived forward, the move having slightly surprised the stranger as the bullets ricocheted just behind her. The stranger grit his teeth as he did his best to jump back, bullets sent flying from his hands into the chambers of his revolver as he sought to get his ground back. Yang, however, kept her eyes peeled and kept her gaze trained on the man's gun hand. The stranger grimaced as he took aim however, rather than focus fire into one general shot, the man sprayed his bullets in a small area, the six rounds having been meant to cover Yang's possible means of approach.

To say that he was surprised when Yang, instead of backing off, just jumped straight up into the air, and twisted around so that her foot, very lightly, touched against the ceiling had been an understatement. Yang grinned; she hadn't pulled a stunt like this since the fight with RHCP… four days ago.

Wow these near-death situations really had just been stacking one right on top of the other, huh?

"Gotta say, mighty impressed. I'd heard that you Aura Awakened folk had the strength of five people, but seeing this is throwing me for a bit of a loop, admittedly." Yang grinned as the momentum of her initial jump pushed her further against the ceiling, the young woman having bent her knee to absorb the energy of the jump and prepare a second.

"Heh, five people huh? I think it might be a little more than that, but dang if it doesn't sound close. Glad I could impress!" Yang remarked with a wide grin as she pressed off the ceiling, firing herself off like a bullet as she made a line directly for the stranger.

"A little more huh? Well, so long as it's just a little, I think I'll be fine." The stranger remarked, his eyes obscured by his wide-brimmed hat as Yang reared her fist back for a punch. To her surprise, rather than having tried to dodge or get away from her punch, the stranger just brought up his own hand to block. A gutsy move, and one that Yang had been more than willing to meet. Yang 'felt' the weight shoot through the man's arm as her fist impacted his palm, the young woman having landed roughly on the floor as well as her body arced through with her punch. However… Yang hadn't expected the man to stand his ground against her punch. No sir, Yang hadn't expected that at all.

She'd also been pretty well thrown for a loop when, as she looked over at his hand, she saw… five, ten, fifteen, twenty… thirty something fingers that wrapped around her fist instead of just five.

"You see, I'm a fair few more than five men myself." At that moment Yang had felt something distinctly cold and metal press up against her exposed midriff… a few somethings, at that. A glance down with her lilac eyes showed that three revolvers, not one, had pressed themselves against her exposed stomach. Yang swallowed a nervous lump in her throat before-

 **BA-BAN-ANG-NG-BA-B-AN-NG-BANG!**

The breath had been 'violently' driven from Yang's throat as she felt nearly a dozen Gravity Dust rounds pound into her midsection, the force of the shots and the gathered Dust having been enough to loosen Yang's fist from the stranger's grip and send her flying off back to the other end of the train car, where she landed with a massive 'thud'. The lilac eyed young woman cried out as she held onto her stomach, pulling her arms back to inspect the damage. She winced; those had been some deep bruises leftover, even if they had been healing over… though not as fast as usual. A consequence of her lack of sleep no doubt. Yang bit the inside of her cheek, a momentary shock that had been meant to distract her from the pain, as she forced herself back up to her feet and looked at her opponent.

Those fingers all slowly crawled back up his arm and around to his back, seemingly melding back into his flesh as they did so while his three additional gun arms that had sprung from his side tossed their guns back into the… main gun? It was so weird to watch happen as the other arms pulled the same trick as those… fingers, hand? As they all went back into…

"Okay, what?" Yang's mind had been having trouble absorbing exactly what she'd been looking at. It looked, for all the world, like some kind of surreal painting as the man seemingly melded back into himself.

" **[Tatoo You!]** " The stranger intoned as he shook off out his hand. "God's sake little lady, even with about eight other hands takin' that hit, I still feel numb there. You weren't kiddin' when you said you were more than five men put together." Yang's mind slowly but surely fit the pieces of the puzzle together as she frowned, dusting off her gut as she took a long look at the stranger.

"I'm guessing you were being more than just a little cheeky when you asked that… and that you are man to spare with your…" The stranger nodded as he reloaded his own revolver.

"Stand, little lady, Tatoo You! Is my Stand. You're also right, I wasn't exactly just jokin' around when I was asking that… then again, I'm more than a little familiar with the answer myself." He slammed the revolver's chamber shut as he brought up his gun again. "Tangoed with more than my fair share of Aura Awakened folks down in Vacuo… I think you can imagine that the reveal of my little stunt is usually enough to put them on their back feet." Yang grunted as she nodded.

"No kidding… though I do wonder, why the restraint there? I mean, you had the opening…"

"Cause, Miss Xiao Long, I'm actually familiar with how your Semblance works." Yang ground her teeth together as her ruse had been so easily pulled out from under her. " A self-strengthening Semblance that depends on you taking heavy hits in relatively short order so that you can get the most out of it. I 'could've pumped even more lead into you, like I usually do… but I get the feeling that you would've just gotten right back up, tossed that lead in my face and it wouldn't matter 'how' many men I was made of at that point."

"Well, you've got perspective, I'll give you that." Yang slammed her fists together as she spoke, the man just having nodded as he aimed his revolver again. "So just one more thing there cowboy… who exactly am I fighting? I generally like to know who I'm going to kick the crud out of before I do so." The man just gave a small grin at that, though he returned to his more even, professional expression soon after.

"Name's are pretty things but useless in my line of work… still, I suppose you did ask, and I can't rightly deny a woman her request entirely." The man pulled back on the hammer of his revolver once again.

"How about we go by my work name… Ten Men. Sound good?"

"Sounds good, and thanks for the tip."

With that the two went at it yet again.

* * *

Man came from Dust. As far as most people in Remnant knew, that was the beginning and the end of where humanity came from in the big picture of things. That, somehow or another, the human race had been born from Dust and, thus, explained why they had been so keenly intuitive to, eventually, finding out how Dust worked and how they could use it for their survival. However, that statement had been such an oddly vague one and, indeed, it raised a question among many minds; if Man came from Dust, where did the Faunus come from.

Now, the most rationally minded among people would insist that Faunus obviously came from Dust as well. They shared human's natural empathy with Dust, shared the human ability to awaken their Souls into Aura or, well, Stands. Shared most physical traits with humans, even. However, because they didn't share 'all' of their traits with humans, because there were those 'singular' traits that stood out, there were those among humanity who insisted that 'no', Faunus couldn't have come from the same place as humans. After all, to sully mankind's birth with the knowledge that they shared it with 'The Faunus', of all things, was something to be spat upon in some circles.

So a popular theory that gained traction were that Faunus, rather than being born from Dust, had been created from animals who, looking upon humanity's interaction with Dust, copied it and, thus 'accidentally' ended up taking on similar traits. That was the kind version among racists. Worst versions insisted that The Faunus just came from animals entirely and that it was only because ancient humans 'gave' Faunus the ability to work with Dust and Awaken a Soul that they had these gifts and that these were the reasons why Faunus had been subservient to humanity for so long; after all, why not pay back humankind, whom had awakened your potential, with your eternal service and enslavement?

The fact that many Faunus could, often times, take on 'more' than just the physical aspects of their animal link, that some, like Blake herself, even 'acted' like their animal at times gave 'credibility' to this theory among those who sought a reason to justify the ill treatment of Faunus. Needless to say, Blake Belladonna had not been a big fan of this theory or the many, many, 'many' abuses that had been allowed to go on in its name.

However, at that particular moment… well, Blake had never felt closer to her wild side or, at the very least, she'd felt closer to it than she'd felt in ages. It was a strange sensation; giving yourself over to your Faunus attributes. Widening your eyes so that you could take in every last little bit of light so that your night vision could pierce through the inky blackness, your pupils narrowing until your eyes barely resembled that of a human's at all. Closing off your more innately human senses of smell, taste and touch so that your ears could pick up on every last little sound that they could, from the scattering of rocks to the scurrying of little feet…

And that scurrying. The shuffling of claws against ground. There was something in that sound that 'thrilled' Blake. Not in the same way she had once felt a thrill with Adam, or when she took to reading her… books. No. This was a 'primal' thrill. Something that made her mouth water and her mind go hazy. Something that drove her soundless footsteps across the broken buildings and concrete of Mountain Glenn as she stalked her prey, constantly just out of sight or making so little sound that there was no way the little furball could've possibly heard her; hearing it take potshots at a location its sense of smell told her she had been coming from.

She didn't have claws or fangs. She didn't have great tufts of fur or a long swishing tail… but in that moment, she felt like her hair was standing on end, her body was tense and thrumming with energy and there was this voice, way down in the most base part of her mind, what must have been the very first building block that Dust had shaped when making Human and FaunusKIND, that echoed out at her. That whispered such sweet, sweet nothings into her cat ears and made them twitch with anticipation. That when she got her hands on this rodent, when she got her hands on this morsel, that she would rip and tear at it until it was dead.

That this Stand User, animal it must be if her senses told her anything, was her quarry and, if captured, 'her trophy' and that she would be free to do with it as she pleased.

It was with a deep, shuddering breath that Blake pushed these thoughts back to the base, mammalian part of her brain as she took another series of silent steps which head lead up to a jump that allowed her to clear another building. Because as much as there was that animal in every Faunus, there was a reason they deserved equality with humans; they were more like them than they were the animals they shared features with. That mind of hers, more than instinct, was worried; worried about her friends, worried about the fate of Vale and this mission and, most of all, worried about her survival. If she messed up, if she shot the gun, then she would die. If she listened to these animalistic urgings that echoed so far back in her mind they went back centuries, then she would be toast.

This wasn't quarry. This wasn't prey. As much as the rat was running, it wasn't running just to hide; it was looking to reposition. It was looking to make 'her' the prey. This wasn't a one-sided hunt between predator and prey, this was two hunters dueling it out, one with Aura and one with a Stand. The loser would die and then move on to do what they could to either harm or help Blake's team.

Blake Belladonna, the young Faunus woman, was not about to let this rat be the one who'd move on from this place alive.

Though if Blake had been determined to ensure that she'd make it out of here alive, then the rat had been doubly determined, fueled by an actual primal instinct… and more. Having its Stand awakened, having been given power… before that, the rat had been just a normal wild animal, at the mercy of the elements and the Grimm that had made up Mountain Glenn and had taken roost there. Every day had been a grind for survival, an attempt to carve out a meager existence while larger, predatory animals circled around. The Grimm, worst of them all, hadn't even been active hunters; no, they had only concerned themselves with humans.

They had just not given a damn if their steps or their hunting patterns had ruined the rat's nest, or had scared off potential food, or had 'destroyed' places for the rat to have hidden from its own predators. The rat had known what it had meant to be prey, and had known it for so long.

Then the arrow had struck, and it had transformed the rat's very existence. No longer merely prey for the larger beasts, no, now the rat had power. 'It' was the predator and it wielding this new power with abandon. It had killed 'everything' within its territory, Grimm, human and beast alike. It had devoured what remained of their corpses and it had made 'very' sure that everything knew that none were free to step within its domain.

The hunted had become the hunter…

And then this 'thing' appeared. This thing that walked like a human but smelled like a beast. For the first time in months, the rat had been reminded of what it had meant to be prey. It had run, claws scraping against the concrete of its territory, as it sought to hide or get away from its pursuer. It had run when, for the longest time, things had to run from it or face complete and total destruction. The hunter had become the hunted… and though the rat lacked the intellectual heft for it, on a more primal level, the rat 'hated' that it had been reduced to this again. It refused to go back to being prey after it had preyed upon its own predators.

It had power now. This 'thing' would be reminded of that. With a quick focus of its animalistic mind, **[Ratt]** materialized in front of the rat, its cannon pointed directly at where the rat's sense of hearing and smell had told it that the predator had been running toward. With a quick turn, the rat entered the body of its Stand and, with a quick bite, it had fired off another round.

Blake's eyes had gone wide at this as she quickly jumped up and out of the way, having heard the shot before she'd even remotely seen it impact the wall nearby. Before she could have gotten her bearings, more shots came out, which left Blake cursing; as she had thought, her opponent had just been repositioning itself, using the prolonged chase as a means to understand her movements before it turned on her with its Stand. From there, it had become a run and gun affair, Blake having sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her while RATT had swiveled in place, taking shots as quickly as it could as it forced Blake into its own planned affair.

Though Blake, having more than an animal's mind, had seen this coming; the Stand had been funneling her toward a dead end, a position where several collapsed buildings had intersected in such a way that climbing them with the speed necessary to have dodged the Stand's assault would've been made impossible. In addition, thanks to the angle that the Stand had set itself up in and the angle Blake had approached from, if the black haired Faunus attempted to course correct now so as to avoid being pinned in, she'd be hit by multiple rounds of the Stand's fire in the attempt, the only way back was to have walked right into the line of fire.

It had been clever but, at least Blake liked to think, she was far more clever than just some wild animal. So, with a sigh to clear her mind, Blake continued to run up to the corner, content to have let the rat think it had trapped her in a corner… much like a rat, ironically enough. As Blake ran, she eventually came to a halt, forced to stop by the collapsed buildings. There had been a focused, peaceful expression on Blake's face as she turned her eyes toward where the shots had been coming from… and there it was; the glint of that things scope. Blake had found her prey once again.

And then Blake had been struck. First in the neck, then in the gut and then square between the eyes. Several rounds of this Stand's rapidly fired shots had buffeted Blake's body, the young Faunus having been sent flying back into the wall from the force. The rat's mind had become elated, pleasure and relief evident in its mind. It had gotten its prey, it had shot it, it had killed the would be predator!

Then, the most complete and utter confusion an animal could have felt ran through the rat's mind as, rather than melt into a jelly of flesh and bone for it to devour later, the predator just disappeared into… nothing. Its projectiles had fallen into the ground with a clack and, for all the world, there had been nothing left of that predator that the rat could have seen. The rat's little eyes blinked and its ears twitched, its nose lifted up into the air as it sought any sign of the predator. Where had it gone? It had been there, all of its rat senses had told it so but… where had it gone? For all the rat had known, its predator had disappeared into thin air.

 **BANG BANG BANG**

Up until a bullet had carved its way through the rat's ear, a terrible pain having erupted which caused the rat to scream, dissipate Ratt and run. Blake's other bullets had caught the Stand itself, the way the thing had been made having given the rat just the smallest bit of shielding from Blake's bullets. The would-be ninja, having used her Semblance to draw the rat's focus while she maneuvered, cursed under her breath as she reloaded. She'd actually caught a direct look at the Stand and rat at this point and, having seen both, needed to change her plans. She had thought that what she had been facing was a simple sniper of some kind, apparently fired by a rat, and that just getting a shot off from a little to the side or even from the front could have ended this fight.

However, as it turned out, the Enemy Stand was more than just a gun; it was practically an artillery set piece, a large cannon set into the ground with a shielding screen that faced forward. The only reason Blake had managed to catch the thing in the ear in the first place had been because the rat had raised its head in an attempt to sense her location. Thanks to its raised head, the bullet she had fired that just 'barely' scraped the top of Ratt had ricocheted into its ear… it wasn't much of an injury, more of a nuisance for the rat than anything, but it had at least been an injury. Now, having spotted out Ratt and how the Stand had been constructed, Blake knew that she needed to get in behind the Stand and its User. A shot from behind had been the only place that her gun, weak as it was, would've stood a chance of actually killing the Stand User. A shot from the front would've just bounced off of Ratt itself, the Stand having been pretty tough, as it turned out.

So Blake resumed her chase of the rat, her teeth grinded together as she focused in as close as she could. The rat had continued making squeaking noises of pain and misery as it had run, a trail of little blood had shined in the slowly but surely rising dawn and the sounds of its panicked steps had all alerted Blake to where the rat had been running. This was it, Blake had thought. This was her moment; she'd be able to kill the rat then and there, panicked and against the wall as it was, and then she'd be free to move on to help her friends. As she and the rat turned a corner, Blake bit her lip slightly as she saw that Ratt had been raised once again some ways off in the distance, the rat having quickly jumped up into the cockpit of the little cannon as it took aim at Blake. A shot fired and, to Blake's surprise, she hadn't witnessed another come at her rapidly like before. Still, Blake hadn't been about to look this gift horse in the mouth.

The round struck Blake again but, once again, Blake herself had disappeared and replaced herself with her Semblance, a shadow of the Huntress having been left behind before it disappeared. Again, the rat's confusion mounted as this impossible trick had now not only been pulled off once but 'twice'. The rat's eyes darted about, desperate to find the predator so that it could have turned its cannon on her… and it succeeded. On the first count, at least; the rat had found Blake Belladonna.

The would be ninja had managed to use the confusion of her Semblance to circle around Ratt's shielding, a move that had placed her right in direct line of sight of the rat that had been her prey for the better part of an hour. Gambol Shroud's pistol had been aimed true and careful, Blake's left eye closed as she took careful aim. This had gone on long enough; her friends needed her and they needed her then and there. This Stand User had eaten enough of her time; now was the time to end it.

She wouldn't feel too bad about it though; it was just a rat, after all.

Blake had been shaken from her thoughts as a shot had been fired… but not from her gun or from the cannon of the rat in front of her. In less than a second, Blake's eyes had traversed from the rat she had been targeting and moved toward the source of the sound… whereupon they had gone wide in shock and horror.

Another glint, another sign of an almost gold coloring… another Ratt. Blake's mind had gone at a mile a minute, her neurons had fired rapidly as the machinery of her brain had gone into overdrive to understand what exactly it was she had seen. Suddenly, in one single moment, it had all clicked for Blake. This rat… it hadn't been firing at them more rapidly than a cannon or a sniper rifle might've, even if it had been a Stand. No… what had gone on, beyond their notice, was that a second Ratt had been hiding further in the ruins of Mountain Glenn.

There had been two the entire time… and now Blake had been caught out. The thought had caused Blake's throat to dry as she could've practically 'seen' the projectile approach her. She'd 'just' then used her clone to protect herself from one hit… she hadn't been ready for another ne so soon, in such short order. She was in mid air too, having jumped so as to get around Ratt's shields and get a good angle on the first rat she had been chasing. She couldn't maneuver back around and she couldn't swing Gambol Shroud's ribbon out to pull herself out of the way in time.

Not with the shot having already been fired.

Blake choked as tears threatened the corners of her eyes. This was it.

This was how Blake Belladonna died. To a couple of rats… couldn't say that she didn't deserve it on some level. She hadn't been done in by The Fang for what she'd done, so might as well let a couple of wild animals exact that toll, right?

So, with little hesitation but a great deal of remorse, Blake Belladonna had closed her eyes and prepared for the pain of the shot; she had to imagine that being melted would have hurt like Hell, so she might as well brace for it. Indeed, as the seconds passed, Blake Belladonna 'had' felt a pain that she hadn't anticipated. The pain of having fallen right into the concrete with a solid 'thud'.

'What?'

Blake opened her amber eyes, blinking in surprise as she stood up and looked forward. The rat she had been chasing had paused momentarily as its own Ratt had disappeared, before it ran off, its Stand having appeared again some distance down the way. The second Ratt, she had to have assumed, had been at the moment taking its time to reload. She didn't understand though; had it missed? There was no way; she was wide open! She didn't have anything protecting her and she 'didn't' feel a bullet hit her Aura which meant that it hadn't just bounced off her… it had missed entirely.

But… but how?

"Bark bark!"

… Bark bark?

Blake's eyes turned down toward the ground in front of her and, for her trouble, she felt a rough tongue slobber over her face as 'something' jumped up to lick her. She gasped in shock and disgust for a moment as she used her hands to bodily push whatever had just jumped up on her off, wiping off her face and removing what spittle she could from around her eyes as she blinked in an attempt to take in what, exactly, had just…

"The mutt?!" Blake fought, and fought 'hard', the urge to jump back and away from the dog that had just seemingly appeared right in front of her, the little black and white corgi just having stood there on the ground as it panted up at her, a goofy expression on its face as it tilted its head to the side. "Wha-but-huh? What the heck are you doing here!? Why are you here?! Why aren't you with Yang or somebody… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, IT'S DANGEROUS YOU DUMB ANIMAL, GET LOST!" Blake's thoughts had come at a mile a minute as she had looked down at this little dog that stood right in front of her. If Zwei had understood one word of what she had said, it hadn't made any obvious sign that it had. It just continued to stare up at her with that vacant expression it wore.

Blake resisted the urge to facepalm; this wasn't the time for this! Two dangerous Stand Users were nearby and ready to kill her, and this dog had just been standing there! It could get killed! Gods' sake, if Zwei got killed because it had ran into the middle of a fight in order to lick her face, Yang would 'murder' her, regardless of whether she'd been reduced to jelly. Yang Xiao Long would reach into the afterlife, grab her little Faunus soul, and proceed to murder her all over again. This dog, it needed to get out of here, it needed to get away, it needed-

Simultaneously, two shots fired at once, Blake's amber eyes having gone wide as she looked up. The two Ratts had fired off their canon at the same time, two projectiles immediately flying in toward Blake and Zwei with no sign of stopping. Blake panicked; there hadn't been time for this! She quickly scooped up Zwei in her arms and tried to ready her Semblance as fast as she could; she couldn't be sure she'd make it in time… but at the very least, she could keep this stupid animal from getting killed because it'd wandered in on her fight. As Blake attempted to focus her Aura into her Semblance in order to save this dog, a funny thing happened.

Something else had saved the two of them instead. Blake watched, again thoroughly surprised, as a cloud of… she couldn't even tell at the moment moved in between her, Zwei and the projectiles, the bullets having impacted the body of whatever it had been and had been, thoroughly, caught. Blake's jaw had gone slightly slack as her amber eyes blinked, the black haired Faunus having strained them to try and take in what exactly this cloud had been made of that had saved them…

Dust. Dirt. Debris. That had been what it was made of. In Blake's surprise she looked up and, lo and behold, in between where she had been and where she'd been initially fired upon, another smaller cloud of the very same material had been manifested, just having sat up there pretty as a picture.

If you could have believed it, that's when things got 'really weird'. Blake, in her moment of shock, had been forced to let go of Zwei as the little dog had shimmied out of her grip, a goofy grin still on its face as it turned to face the direction of the two rats. The dog just panted and yipped as it stood there, its legs spread in what was supposed to be a vaguely threatening manner that just did not fit the little corgi's disposition. Then… then the clouds of dust and debris started to swim together. More and more poured in from the surrounding buildings, years of decay and neglect having swam forth into their general area as a mess of dirt just collapsed into the cloud that had 'just' blocked the two shots from the Ratts. As the debris and dust clumped together, the black haired Faunus could only watch in numb surprise as something took shape.

Two back wheels with their axles extended out far from the body, a metal form that made up its torso, two long, metal paws with sharp claws that extended out as the forelegs, a beak with fangs that sat atop a face the shape of an ancient headdress, ten feathers having encircled the entire head. When the form had come together, the coloring had set in, the very form itself having appeared as though it was 'made' of those materials rather than having been made of the dust and debris that Blake had seen fly into it.

Blake Belladonna, having been pretty sharp, hadn't taken long to recognize the shape of the thing in front of her from Nora, Ren and Jotaro's story.

" **[The Fool]**?"

If Zwei had been 'terrible' when it came to putting on a war face, the Stand that had just assembled beside them had practically been a 'pro'. The Fool spread out its legs and lowered its lower body and roared, its voice having echoed throughout the empty streets of Mountain Glenn. Blake's mind quickly ran over all the possibilities and all the explanations… how? Iggy was dead and Zwei was just a puppy! It had been well over a decade since the Stardust Crusade, there was no way that-

Yang had said that they picked up Zwei's dad from Vale before. She'd remembered something to that effect. That it had been around the time that the Vytal Festival that occurred when The Stardust Crusade had passed through. The dog had been a puppy then and had been quite old by the time it had Zwei. Blake palmed her head as she shook her head. That was one mystery solved; not Zwei's dad, but 'grandfather', that's what Iggy, apparently, was.

Still, that had left the manner of this surprise; The Fool, right in front of her. She supposed that had been easier to explain; after all, Semblances were inherited between members of families multiple cases spread out across Remnant. Heck, Weiss herself had come from a family with a lineage Semblance that stretched back so long that it seemed like it'd been going on forever.

Heck, she was 'fighting two rats who had the exact same Stand'. Combining these two facts together, Blake soon found that she really shouldn't have been all that surprised that a Stand could potentially be inherited from down a family line.

Plus, well… Blake had said before that she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and, boy, if this wasn't about the best gifted horse she could've gotten in that moment. Blake looked over The Fool again as it continued to snarl in the vague direction of where the two rats had been… but then her gaze turned down to Zwei and she couldn't help but shudder. Would she really take the help of a 'dog' in order to do all of this? It seemed so wrong. So completely and utterly wrong…

Still, Blake just bit her tongue. For her friends, for her life and for the fact that she needed to get out of here as soon as possible… Blake Belladonna would work with a dog.

There was no way that anything, God or man, could make her 'like' having to work with a dog, but she'd work with the mutt for now.

"Alright… Zwei…" Blake muttered, the calling of his name having caused Zwei's little head to perk up as it turned to Blake with that dopey, cutesy expression that Weiss liked, a fact that Blake hadn't been able to wrap her mind around. "How about we go ahead and hunt down some rats… that sound fun… boy?" If it had been possible for the dog to have a noticeable change in expression, it seemed as though Zwei had only grown more excited as it hopped around in place, giving quick barks and yaps before it turned back forward to face the two rats.

The two rats, with Stands born around the same time, had watched their predators multiply right in front of them; from one tricky one to three… no, the four legged one was much like them; the monster that formed beside it had come from it. If they killed the four-legged one, they would kill the monster. The two rats had dissipated their Ratts as they prepared to move around and maneuver… this fight between hunters had been far from over, and a hunted had not yet been completely decided.

Still, if the rats had anything to say about it, then the interference of another animal would just add to the pile of flesh they'd soon be ready to devour.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 6)**

* * *

 **A/N: I'm surprised that, as many people guessed that Zwei was Iggy's kid despite the fact that dog years wouldn't line up (Zwei is just a puppy, after all) that no one came to the more obvious conclusion that the set up about Iggy having left a bitch behind was meant to leave a more grandpaternal connection behind.**

 **Ah well, hopefully that just means it still comes off as a surprise that was well enough set up that people won't call bullshit. Anyway, GET READY FOR SOME OF THE CRAZIEST ANIMAL FIGHTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA!**

 **Hopefully I'll see you all in five days, though I'm going to be moving around sometime soon. If that ends up hurting my writing schedule, I'll be sure to let you all know. Till then, have a good weekend!**


	51. January 16th Update

Yo, quick update before a lot of you go to sleep and before the rest wake up tomorrow.

Was writing this update in the middle of moving a lot of stuff back into my apartment after the break finally ended (my neck of the woods has been hit with some pretty terrible weather which made both travel and moving back to my own abode pretty difficult, not even speaking to the fact that my car's heater doesn't work so... you know. That drive was fun) and after I suffered a bit of a nasty spill while walking around setting stuff up for my return to university. Needless to say I've been a bit scatterbrained these past five days and that seeped into my writing for this particular update; it's not 'terrible' but I'm not liking how I've structured it so far. I'm going to go ahead and call a mulligan, salvage what I can, scrap the rest and just move the update to the 21st.

Which is a shame because I was actually looking forward to this update because, two days ago, this little story finally turned a year old... but at the same time I'd rather not mark that occasion with an update I wasn't happy with.

So sorry it's coming in this late but, well, you only really know if something just doesn't come together right when you're almost done with it. I'll see you all on the 21st, hopefully after I no longer feel sore and when I've had time to just settle in without worrying about moving or if I'm missing anything.

Once again, I apologize, and I hope you all understand.


	52. The Breach (Act 6)

Yang Xiao Long had been angry before in her life. Downright furious even. It wasn't hard to imagine. After all; she had a shitty biological mother who ran off on her and her dad shortly after she was born and who 'hadn't' made a single appearance in her life since, her 'actual' mom, the one who raised her, Summer Rose then went 'missing in action' while on a mission, which even a very young Yang had known to basically mean 'Summer Rose somehow got killed by Grimm'. She had been mad at herself for her screw ups with Ruby when she was younger, she'd been mad that so much of her youth had been spent holding up her own household while her dad had gotten his life back together, an anger that thankfully had lessened over the years, and she 'hated', absolutely 'despised' anyone who so much as plucked a single one of her hairs from her head. More recent events involving the Stands or Josuke's relation with Joseph Joestar had ruffled her feathers as well, though Yang had been quick to bounce back here.

Most were serious examples, however, if Yang had been perfectly honest, she was capable of getting 'really' irritated over annoying things, especially if those annoying things came with high stakes. When your life was in the hands of how you handled a situation, it tended to put you on edge… when Yang was 'further' put on edge by the thing she had to wrestle with being annoying as all Hell, that had been where a line was crossed and Yang quickly crossed over into being pissed. Sticky Fingers and Red Hot Chili Peppers were fine examples of this. Sure, you might say that Yang wasn't so much 'angry' at these two Stands as she had been scared but… well, no, Yang had been 'furious'. She'd been upset that she rushed in and pretty much got immediately bodied by Sticky Fingers by having her arm snatched from her, and very nearly her head, she'd been 'enraged' that Red Hot Chili Pepper had made such fools of her and her friends with its abilities. Sure, she might've been terrified for her life on one level or another, but… well, Yang was a big enough person to admit it, it was 'easier' to feel angry in those situations. Rather than give in to despair, anger let her keep on trucking forward and even fueled her combat spirit a bit.

Now, was it smart? Hell no, and that's why she'd been taking such lengths to 'try' to fight smarter ever since these things called Stands had entered her life. Sticky Fingers had been a lesson well received and those lessons had paid massive dividends towards her eventual beatdown of Red Hot Chili Pepper during the dance. Had this, thus, meant that Yang had been completely over her anger? Well, no… as much as Yang recognized that her temper was a bad thing and only helped her in a 'very' limited way that also probably hurt her in equal amounts, Yang couldn't help her temper.

Now, why bring this all up now? Well, because at that moment in time, Yang Xiao Long had become so furious, so spitting angry, that the girl practically hadn't been able to see straight. Even without the activation of her Semblance, her lilac eyes had turned red as she roared and continued to try to fight. Why?

Because Yang Xiao Long had encountered something she had, just days before, considered utterly impossible; she had come across an opponent who had been more annoying, more 'bothersome' and more downright infuriating than either Red Hot Chili Pepper or that little ice cream bitch had been… and for Yang, that had spoken 'volumes' of how much of a pain in the ass she had found it to be to fight Eleven Men and his Stand, Tatoo You!. Why, you might have asked, would Yang Xiao Long have found herself in this situation? What had made Tatoo You! and its Stand User so infuriating? One simple matter of fact; the blonde brawler had found it damn near impossible to nail this guy down.

It hadn't been for the reasons why she had similar troubles with Red Hot Chili Pepper. No, she 'understood' why she hadn't been able to lay a finger on Red Hot Chili Pepper for most of a normal fight with the Stand; under the right circumstances, Red Hot Chili Pepper was faster than light. Yang Xiao Long had thought 'very' highly of her combat prowess, but even she had been willing to admit that she hadn't been about ready to literally catch lightning and bottle it. That Yang had been fully ready to understand and move past, especially because, in the end, she had been able, with help, to beat the everloving 'shit' out of Red Hot Chili Pepper in her fight with it.

The same thing had been 'very' cathartic for Yang's fight with the ice cream midget, but there had been other factors involved as well. The little bitch hadn't hit Yang like a truck in her quick ins and outs; she had a little blade that had cut up Yang something fierce, but Yang could handle pin pricks and pokes over time, even if it had kept her from kicking her Semblance in 'at all'. Plus, the blonde brawler had managed to activate her Semblance herself and the little bitch, though fast, hadn't been fast enough to dodge out on several of Yang's hits, including the big old rain of punches that had ended that fight… again, having beaten the shit out of an opponent had made them far less frustrating in hindsight.

Tatoo You!? Tatoo You! could suck one-thousand dicks, as far as Yang had been concerned, one hundred for each of these ten bastards that had put Yang's nerves on edge. The guys themselves hadn't been special at all; they were Stand Users! Sure, they had been especially athletic and capable of holding their own and, to a normal person, they would probably be pretty overwhelming, but to someone like Yang, they hadn't been anything special in and of themselves. Yang's mind had screamed at her this entire fight that this 'should've' been easy, that Yang should've pulverized this asshole by now and turned him inside out, dropping out however many other asshole he'd stuffed inside himself.

But no. No. Yang Xiao Long had been forced to watch as someone who had been considerably slower and weaker than her had 'run circles' around her, had kept out of reach of her and had 'pummeled' her with some painful fucking bullets. All because of one Goddamned annoying Stand and its power. Now, from an outside perspective, Tatoo You! hadn't sounded too threatening or like something that should've presented a huge problem to Yang. 'A Stand that lets me concentrate nine other guys in my body' hadn't sounded like a big deal. It had sounded 'weird' and it sounded like it would've made for a tough opponent, but in the end ten men or not, they were all as strong as a normal man by themselves, Yang had determined. From the outside, this sounded like it should've been a breeze. It sounded like it should've been a fight that Yang had complete control of and should've been able to determine the ebb and flow of.

But no. Because fuck you, that's not the 'entirety' of how Tatoo You! worked.

It was indescribably, the frustration of fighting this man and his Stand. The thing that was the worst about it, Yang thought, was the fact that she was always 'so close'. That every single time she went in to trade blows with the gunman, that she was 'so close' to having knocked his block of. That every time, his status as a normal man, his normal strength and his normal speed, had been evident to her. Yes, of course this time she would land a hit. Of course, this time, she would meet her mark and break his face. Yes, of course, he couldn't have possibly gotten away from her. Which had been when Ten Men would spring his Stand's ability. For you see, the ten men that had apparently made up this man's body were quite well coordinated thanks to the power of Tatoo You!.

The men had been capable of separating from Ten Man at almost any given moment, and the defusion had almost been instantaneous. There had been several times where Yang had attempted to punch the guy right in the face to try and break his nose, only for his head to, seemingly, split up; the truth of the matter had been that one of the Ten Men inside of him had 'bodily' pushed him out of the way when splitting, though their waists would remain connected so as not to completely divide their presence. Other times, when Yang would have him right in front of her, her fists held together as she looked to bring down the hammer, one of the Ten Men would pop out from her main target's back, grab a hold of him and 'pull' him out of the arc of her attack, swinging him around and away before disappearing back into him.

Oh, those hands, those hands that would just spring out. Try to get in a good punch when you've flanked him, eight or so hands would just launch out from his back and grab your arm. Try to sneak up behind him, watch him get pushed out of the way. Try to just absolutely bum rush him and the symphony of hands and fists would just rocket out to be an absolute pain in her ass… and always, and Yang meant 'always', whenever she saw these extra men and hands, before she could've done 'anything' about them, they would disappear back into Ten Men. That was just Ten Men on the defensive of course… best believe that Tatoo You! wasn't so limited that it could only be used to protect its user.

Which, come to think of it, the blonde brawler would probably have readily admitted was 'actually' the biggest pain in the ass about this guy; his fucking gun. No, not 'his gun'. 'Their guns'. The ten revolvers, loaded with six bullets apiece, that this asshole and the whole collective of other assholes had on them. For every time that Yang had previously described when Ten Men managed to evade her attacks, Ten Men wouldn't just sit there and be satisfied with having dodged. Oh no, he would turn it on her and immediately look for his own attack. Attacks with Gravity Dust loaded bullets.

Now, if you've never been hit with a Gravity Dust bullet, just imagine being kicked in the face by a mule. Now, if you thought that having Aura surely would make a mule kick feel like little more than the sweet caress of a loving dog like Zwei, you'd be right… that, however, hadn't changed the fact that Gravity Bullets felt like Yang might as well have not bothered with having her Aura up at all when taking that mule kick. He splits himself off to dodge a hit, two hands pop out from his sides to shoot a couple rounds into her gut. She tries that hammer blow only for him to be pulled away, three hands will take that opportunity to unload a few rounds directly into her face while her hands are too busy to properly protect her. Try to overwhelm him, well, you'd best believe that while you're busy trying to get through eight hands, eight other hands are just busy having gotten ready to fill you full of lead after he manages to get some distance.

The worst about it, the 'absolute' worst about it was that he hadn't been fighting this dumb. If he'd just kept firing at her nonstop, Yang would've considered the pain a short term trade off in exchange for powering up her Semblance so she could just laugh and laugh and laugh while she stomped ten mud holes into this guy. However, not only had Roman likely tattled on Yang and told this jackass what exactly her Semblance did, but this guy had used that information to make sure 'she didn't get a chance to get off a good burst of her Semblance'. It would always be short bursts of gunfire, enough to seriously put a hurt on Yang, but not enough to do the kind of damage that Yang needed in order to just drive herself into a Semblance induced power spike. Even at her most exposed, Ten Men seemed to pay attention and took care to not overdue his own assaults, the man having always let up after a short burst of gunfire. It also conserved his ammo and allowed his other hands to quickly reload which meant that Yang couldn't have even found an opening to attack this guy while he was reloading his stupid guns!

Red Hot Chili Pepper was a pompous asshole who thought that his Stand Ability made him too hot to handle and that absolutely nothing could touch him and ice cream bitch had been cocky, even to a degree that surpassed Yang's own self-confidence… but Ten Men? No, Yang recognized Ten Men's attitude. She recognized the cold, calculating way he operated, the firm control he'd had over his abilities and his actions. She recognized the way he handled this as if it were just an average day of business and that Yang was just another step on the ladder for him to move on up. She recognized the fact that, if he could help it, he wasn't going to allow her to have a singular chance to fight back and actually harm him if he could help it.

She recognized it because it was the 'exact' same thing that Bucciarati had done to her. No stupid overconfidence, no arrogance that made him believe too strongly in his own abilities, no brash decision making that allowed him to make stupid mistakes, no underestimating her to the point where he'd let her get an opening just out of carelessness… and an obvious amount of experience that helped inform his every action. Ten Men was just like Bucciarati; a professional, someone who'd been doing this sort of things for 'years', if not 'decades' and had gotten very good at it by being 'very' smart about how they handled it. This wasn't a complete new player who just happened to be strong and it wasn't a little midget who just thought a little too much of herself.

No, people like these… they knew who they were. They knew their limitations and their strengths and, if they knew yours, they were going to exploit it for every last possible advantage they could have possibly rung out of it. Perhaps in the end that was what had made Yang the most furious in her fight with Ten Men. That he had reminded her of her lowest moment these past several months in the form of looking her in the eyes and making her only see Bucciarati's cold gaze. That he had dredged up that old fear in her… that, however far Yang had come in becoming a smarter fighter, she still hadn't been ready for men like Bucciarati or Ten Men.

That Yang still had such a long way to go. However, one fact remained clear to Yang; before Sticky Fingers, she wouldn't have stood a chance. Not just against Ten Men and Tatoo You!, but against the ice cream midget and Red Hot Chili Pepper as well.

Yang might have had a ways to go, but she had grown, and now was the time to put that growth to the test. For as infuriated as Yang had been, as angry as the blonde brawler had gotten, she had been taking her time to try and get the rhythm and patterns of how all ten of these men fought. It was well-coordinated and well organized, and the group of men inside Ten Men clearly deeply connected by whatever power their Stand had, but still, they were ten men. They had human emotions and understandings; they weren't super-humanly aware or intelligent. So as Yang ground her teeth in annoyance as another round of fighting went poorly and she and the assassin in front of her broke off their engagement, Yang watched Ten Men's brow arch as she moved to empty out Ember Celica… and then replace the shells.

"Now, pardon me if my memory fails me there miss, but I don't believe you've fired a single shot… and I do believe we've established what happens here if you 'were' to try using your ammunition within this here train car." Ten Men declared as he, too, took the lull in the fight to reload his revolver. Yang just shrugged as she finished reloading both chambers of Ember Celica, the blonde brawler having thrown out her arms so as to properly pump them.

"What can I say there Ten Men, you've backed me into a bit of a fine corner here. Better to go big and try to score a win rather than just let death come straight for me, don't you agree?" Yang responded with a bit of a wide grin, her lilac eyes taking 'careful' attention of Ten Men's movements. Ten Men just frowned a bit as he spat off to the side, his revolver spun in his hand as he took his foe in.

"Can't say I agree with that line of reasoning. After all, just as likely to get you killed if anything. Don't get me wrong, technically it makes my job easier…" Ten Men cocked the hammer of his revolver as he grimaced as Yang. "However, I can't say I very much like the idea of getting taken down in a suicide attack by a young woman who doesn't know any better." Yang just scoffed as she shook out her hair, ready for round two.

"Well then; I suggest you just go ahead and take the bullets then there, chief." With that, Yang reared back her right fist and swung forward, the red shells of Ember Celica bursting forward as she did so. Ten Men's eyes went wide as he ducked off to the side, the red shells impacting the door just behind him and exploding in a small shower of Flame Dust.

"Shit!" The assassin practically spat out as he glared back over at Yang, the blonde brawler having begun her charge as she glared right at him. It was an almost unnoticeable change in the fight, but Yang had taken notice of it almost immediately as it had formed a deviation in Ten Men's pattern that she'd gotten a hang of before. Before then, Ten Men had usually been pretty loose and free about how he dodged; he pulled off all sorts of maneuvers and tricks with his Stand and the other men in him, all in wild fashioned as he sought to avoid just about any hit Yang could've reasonably hoped to land on him.

Now though? Now Ten Men's movements were stiff and 'very' limited, and the blonde brawler didn't need long to figure out why. WIth the way he limited his dodges, the way he tried to hold back from moving too much, Yang was always punching in the same general direction; straight forward. Any punch that might set off Ember Celica would always stray to just behind him if he dodged, never aiming off to the side to where one of the Dust barrels might've been. Ten Men had very specifically adjusted his movements patterns so as to draw Yang's fire away from the Dust around them, an attempt to control the movements of the fight as he tried to prevent Yang from blowing them to smithereens.

Yang had been all too happy to let Ten Men control his movements in such a matter, always having lead with her right fist as she fired shot after shot at the man, her blows having come so close to landing on him as he cussed up a storm underneath his breath. By forcing his dodges to focus more on 'preventing' a massive explosion than his own safety, Yang had effectively cut off his means of escaping her assault. It was clear he was quite annoyed.

"Can't say that I think your darlin' little sis will be happy if you end up blowing yourself up there ma'am…" Ten Men uttered as Yang just grinned.

"Ah, she'll forgive me, especially if I take you with me." Yang's voice was steely and even as she continued to press this advantage, round after round of explosive Dust having been fired off from her right bracer. Sweat had formed on Ten Men's brow as Yang pressed her advantage, the young Huntress pushed herself more and more as she sought that crack in Ten Men's movements, as she sought to 'force' her way through him. Finally, a moment came… though, at first, it hadn't seemed like a moment that had been particular fit to benefit Yang. Another punch followed through from her right as she jabbed forward, this one having grazed Ten Man's shoulder as the man winced from the blow… yet wince was all he had to do; no explosive round went off.

In Yang's energetic assault, her right Ember Celica had run empty. At first, a smile had crept up onto Ten Men's face as he seemed ready to dip completely out of Yang's range… only for that smile to immediately dive into a frown as Yang swung her left fist around in a 'wide' circle… a wide circle that was fit to slam into one of the Dust barrels of Ten Men happened to dodge out of the way.

"You crazy bitch!" Ten Men exclaimed as his eyes darted between the barrel and Yang's fist, the two only separated from each other by some space and Ten Men's head. Yang's grin stretched ever more as she watched Ten Men split up… leaving one head right in the path of her fist, fit to block her swing at the barrel. Yang's fist drove home into the side of the Ten Men's head, a more stylish goatee having adorned this one, though that seemed to hardly matter as Yang clocked him. Ten Men himself winced as he watched his near double get clocked, expecting an explosive round to have blown up right in the man's face…

Ten Men was surprised yet again as instead of that, Yang's fist just drove the Ten Men's head right into the barrel, no explosion having gone off. A shot had but it was deeply muted, the bruise from Yang's fist probably leaving a deeper mark than the shot itself. Ten Men frowned, his eyes narrowed… when he noticed the color of the ammunition that had been tucked into Yang's left bracer.

Orange, not red. Whatever these rounds were, they weren't explosive and posed no threat to having blown up the entire train car around them. He hadn't even noticed the colors, so busy with the young woman's theatrics and her 'very' legitimate seeming threats at the time.

"Yeah, I beat up on some goons at a bar who didn't have their Aura unlocked. Seemed psychopathic to blow them to smithereens, if you asked me… so I usually carry these around." Ten Men's eyes circled around to Yang's, a deep shade of red as she stared right at him. "Turns out, they make for a good bluff as well. Gonna have to thank JoJo later; guy's got a surprisingly good poker face that rubbed off on me." With that, Ten Men gasped as a fist was driven right into his gut.

"Now then… ORA ORA ORA!" With a loud battlecry Yang had immediately lunged at her opponent, having created her opening by disorientating him and effectively knocking out one of his men, or at least 'deeply' disorientating him, Yang now sought to press her assault, and press it she had. Yang Xiao Long barreled forward, her fists flying in time with her borrowed battlecry as she went through full hog with the attack. Ten Men's footing, having been lost, quickly ended up seeing him out of position against Yang and doing his damndest to try to get back on it. Men drew out from his back in large numbers, a desperate attempt to stymy Yang's forward thrust and bring the fight back. Yang, however, had found her opening and exploited it; the men were out of position, having to come out from the awkward place that Ten Men himself had found himself in thanks to Yang's bluff. Their coordination had been shot… and Yang had been dead set on exploiting that.

The man behind her was already effectively out. When two attempted to bum rush her, she slammed their heads together and pushed them off to the side. Three. It seems the ten men were done with trying to small steps as, in a burst of motion, six heads and accompanying torsos launched themselves at Yang all at once. Yet, without the advantage they had enjoyed at the beginning of the fight, with Yang off her footing and them on theirs, these six men who might've earlier on been trouble for Yang had soon found themselves beaten and battered away, a series of punches and kicks having delivered for the blonde brawler a 'wide' opening.

Nine. Nine of them had tasted Yang's knuckle sandwich… and the last one, number Ten? Oh, the Tenth Man, Ten Man himself, would be getting a whole sandwich platter of Yang had anything to say about it. To that end, Yang reared both her fists back, her battle cry heightened in pitch as she prepared to lay an absolute 'beat down' on Ten Man. There was nothing to save him now, nothing that could stand in her way, he was number…

At that moment, a hand shot out from behind Ten Man… and it hadn't been one of his. In fact, it'd been carrying its own revolver, a fact Yang had been certain of because, from the corner of her eyes, she could see Ten Man's revolver still in one of his own hands…

Eleven?

 **BANG**

Yang cried out in pain as a Gravity Dust bullet nailed her right between the eyes, her head having snapped back from the force of it as she stumbled.

 **BANG BANG BANG BA-BA-BAN-ANG-NG-BA-AN-ANG-BANG!**

Soon enough ten other revolvers had joined in the chorus of gunshots as Yang, once again, found her body absolutely pounded by a maelstrom of lead and Gravity Dust. The blonde brawler cried out in pain as she had been thrown back into the opposite side of the train car, slamming into the door as the force of the shots carried her all the way. Yang gasped a bit as her hands did their best to grab various spots on her body, based upon where she had felt the worst of the pain, the young woman having winced as she slowly forced herself back up onto her feet. Yang ground her teeth together as she glared over at Ten Men, as the nine men she'd delivered 'very' solid punches to, plus the additional man, had slithered their way back into Ten Men himself, all holding their heads or somewhat stumbling from the force of the blows Yang had delivered.

"So, 'Ten Men' huh?" Yang practically spat out as she pushed herself off from the door, having winced every step of the way as she'd done so.

"You expected perfect honesty from a professional assassin?" Ten Men, or perhaps Eleven Men, had said as he dusted off his hat, before having carefully placed it back on top of his head. "Besides, you can't be too mad; that trick's gotten me out of more tight spots than you might think… or maybe you are thinkin' just right." Eleven Men shrugged as she reloaded his revolver. "Either way, doesn't really matter. It did what it needed to do… and it seems like so have I." Yang gave a grin as she tried her best to stand defiantly.

"Tch, what are you talking about? We haven't even gotten started yet. You think Yang Xiao Long's done? Buddy, do you… do you have another… oof…" Yang stumbled forward on her footing for a moment, a deep breath having been released from her body as a sense of vertigo momentarily overtook her. The blonde brawler resisted the urge to collapse and take a knee as she kept herself to her feet, though the young woman had been all too ready to admit that it had taken 'a lot' of effort to do so. Eleven Men just watched as he brought up his revolver, scratching at the space between his eyes with it as he looked down at her.

"You might want to clean yourself off there miss, blood in the eyes tends to be bad for a fight." Yang's lilac eyes went wide as dinner plates as she reached a hand up to her forehead. Sure enough she had felt something sticky and warm trickling down from the spot right between her eyes and, upon having brought her hand down for inspection, the young woman saw her blood as it ran down her fingers and onto the palm of her hand.

Yang's gaze narrowed as she looked down at her torso; sure enough, similar trails of blood slowly trickled down the various spots on her body as she forced herself back up to her two feet. Now, she could feel her Aura doing what it could as it patched up these spots, the blood slowly to a dribble and then to nothing at all as the bruises slowly, 'very slowly', healed up afterward. Yang pressed a hand against her forehead as she felt a Hell of a headache slowly come over her. What had been wrong with her? She'd taken punishment worse than this before. Sure, it was Gravity Dust and it was bound to hurt like a bitch, but for for it to have pierced her Aura to any degree? There had to be something wrong with her, there… there…

How many hours of sleep had she gotten before going on this assault? Two? 'Maybe' three, or four if she really tried her best to shrink the amount of time she'd spent talking to Blake, Weiss and Jotaro to the smallest amount unrealistically possible? Slowly, Yang recognized the lightheadedness and exhaustion that had swept through her body; it hadn't been exertion that had decided it would tax her physical form now… no, it was sleep deprivation. She'd spent almost the entire day before having fought hordes of Grimm, beating them to a pulp, which had admittedly left her pretty sore and pretty wiped. Eight hours of sleep under Jotaro's plan had sounded 'quite' nice to the blonde brawler at the time.

In truth, she'd probably only gotten a fourth of that before she threw herself, along with the rest of the squad, into the situation with the sniper Stand User, all these White Fang, Torchwick and now Eleven Men. Yang was operating on two hours of sleep in what was probably a twenty-four hour time period… and unlike Blake's extended period of sleeplessness, she'd been 'exceedingly' active, throwing all of her energy and stamina into fighting all kinds of things. Yang's throat had gone completely dry as she looked up at Eleven Men; she'd gotten so little sleep and spent the past twenty-four hours fighting so much… that now her fight with Eleven Men hadn't been bound to be decided by a contest of their skills… but by the fact that Yang hadn't been able to properly take care of her body's needs by letting it rest after all this fighting.

She'd hit her wall… and by the looks of it, Eleven Men was quite well rested himself.

"Can't say I exactly understand what's causing your Aura to throw in the towel this early… but I can't say that i'm disappointed either. That was a mean trick you nearly pulled off; if I didn't have a whole other self backed up just in case, I probably would've gotten my block knocked off and you'd be able to move on." Yang ground her teeth together as she kept herself locked onto her feet… for all the good it did. Her Aura was still desperate in its attempts as it patched her up and her head felt like a solid fog had overcome it. She had been in no condition to take this fight to Eleven Men again… not after everything she had gone through.

"I'll hand it to you; you did well, for a beginner. Had you gone on to do your job for long enough, you might've been a bit of trouble by my reckoning. A shame you had to get involved in the wrong business. Ain't nothin' against you… just business. Though, I suppose that might be a bit of a hard pill to swallow given the position you're findin' yourself in." Yang bit her lip as she reached up and brought her fist into one of her bruises, a desperate attempt to get her body to psyche itself up with adrenaline so that she could properly respond. She needed a kick 'any' kick, in order to avoid what was coming.

The worst part was, with her Aura so threadbare and exhausted from these past twenty-four hours, she couldn't even take advantage of all these injuries that Eleven Men had inflicted on her in order to activate her Semblance. She had just been too far gone, too exhausted, in order to pull it up. So Yang had to depend on her body's natural fight or flight instincts, had to try to psyche herself up and push out some adrenaline so that she could avoid the coup de grace coming her way.

Yet as Yang against tried to deliver a solid punch to her side, a gunshot had knocked her arm back, sending shocks of pain through her as blood, this time from a wound on her arm itself, dribbled down her fingers and splattered onto the floor. Yang ground her teeth together, a practically guttural roar having escaped her throat as she tried to bodily throw herself at Eleven Men… instead, however, ten sets of hands reached out and grabbed Yang at various spots on her arms, neck and head, the combined force of it all having been enough to force the utterly exhausted Huntress to back off from Eleven Men himself as he spun his revolver around in his hands.

"Now now, none of that… you did good, don't go beating yourself up over it." God if this hadn't been such a dire situation, Yang would've laughed at the inadvertent pun this guy had just delivered. Still, Yang hadn't found itself in her to laugh about it as, slowly but surely, the barrel of Eleven Men's revolver was pressed against her forehead, Yang's blood having dripped onto the end of the barrel and staining the metal as it pressed into the initial wound that had signaled the end of this.

"Sorry you got twisted up in this. Believe it or not, I don't take much pleasure in killing kids, even if it's part of my job." Eleven Men reached his thumb up for the hammer of his revolver as his eyes met Yang's lilac ones, hints of red still having deeply tinged them. "From where you're standing, you must be feeling like you've been cheated out of one Hell of a jackpot after that last gamble of yours fell through." With that, Eleven Men pulled back on the hammer of his revolver, the weapon cocked as he dug the barrel more into her forehead.

"Truth of the matter is, you were; I had this little game rigged from the start." Yang bit into her lip hard enough to draw blood as she pressed against the various hands holding her in place, desperate to so much as bite this guy. She hadn't been ready to give up, she wasn't going to just sit there and take this! However, it seemed Eleven Men had intended just that, as his forefinger moved to the revolver's trigger.

With that, the sound of metal flying through the air sung out in the train car.

* * *

" **ORAAAA! ORA! ORA ORA, ORAAAA! ORA ORA-ORA, ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA, ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA-OOOOOOORRRRRRAAAAAAAA!"**

A couple White Fang heads slammed into the top of the train so hard that they punched straight through. A few more that hard been nearly sent flying off the train entirely, only to have been caught at the last minute out of a vague sense of responsibility on Jotaro's part. Several more having just been beaten so bad they had practically collapsed where they stood, deep purple bruises and broken bones having formed through their Auras under Star Platinum's sustained assault. All of this probably amazing to look at from someone outside of Jotaro's realm of experience but, for the white capped Huntsman himself, such sights had long since lost their luster and had trailed a bit more into the realm of the mundane. Or, at the very least, that had been how he felt about the sight of Star Platinum on the warpath for a long, long time now. A sight that had inspired awe in many and fear in dozens upon dozens more had just become a normal thing for Kujo Jotaro.

Yet still, he wasn't going to deny that he didn't feel a 'deep' sense of satisfaction when the warpath was done and he and his Stand could dust their hands off of the affair and take in the damage. In this case, no matter how many dozens upon dozens of men and women had been thrown their way, no matter how many White Fang had tried to arrest their progress, he and Star Platinum had crumpled each and every single one of them and had moved on to their current position in the train; there was another train car just in front of him before the train opened up into a wide open series of cars, no ceilings or walls on them. It made sense; the dozens of Atlesian Paladins that had been stacked onto those cars probably wouldn't have fit into an enclosed area.

Still, despite there being 'one more' enclosed car, it had no further White Fang goons on top of it waiting to assault Jotaro. The Joestar descendant narrowed his gaze as, instead of continued traversal over the top of the train cars, he'd decided to jump down from his position, landing onto the platform that had been just outside the doors between the two train cars. A muffled 'eep' had reached Jotaro's ears as he turned to look over his shoulder, Ruby Rose having looked, surprised, through the train car window as she approached it. He must've landed just as she had been about ready to open the door.

"Jotaro!" Ruby's face immediately lit up as she recognized the giant of a man, the young woman having quickly opened the door after having recognized he was no threat. A quick glance showed Jotaro two things; one that there was a veritable carpet of unconscious White Fang goons that lay strewn behind Ruby, likely taken out by the young girl herself, and second…

"Where's Weiss and Yang, Ruby?" Jotaro inclined his head at the absence of the white haired Huntress, Ruby having just nodded as she jabbed a thumb back over her shoulder.

"Oh, uh, we ran into this guy in one of the cars who was supposed to try and stop us. Yang thought she'd go ahead and handle him herself and he let Weiss and I pass." Jotaro nodded, that having been simple enough. "Weiss said she noticed something off about him though… she think he had a Stand of some kind, and he felt… I dunno, pretty dangerous." Ruby looked back over her shoulder. "A couple train cars ago, Weiss and I agreed that she should break off and head back to help Yang if she needed it; since we were getting so close to the front of the train we figured that I could just meet up with you and everything would be fine."

"The three of you really should've stuck together and handled this guy if he came off as so much of a threat… not for nothing, but I'll be able to handle myself just fine against Torchwick." Ruby deflated a bit at that as Jotaro readjusted his cap. "Still, I won't fault your plan in the moment; if it involved anyone else, it would've been a smart play." With that, Jotaro turned his gaze forward as he looked at the door to the next train car; this one suspiciously absent of windows. "Still, if you're here then we might as well keep going. Eyes and ears open, we can't know what Torchwick might be up to now that we're almost right up in his face." Ruby, though slightly disheartened by Jotaro having seemingly written off her plan to rejoin him for backup, nodded in understanding as she fell in behind the more experienced Huntsman. With a curt nod, Jotaro slid open the door to the next car, the duo having more than readied themselves for some kind of trap.

Surprisingly, no trap had been sprung immediately; no explosions had gone off in their face, no mess of White Fang Goons were waiting to engage them, no hail of bullets to signal their arrival. Despite this, the pair remained on edge as they moved forward into the train car, each ready for just about anything to spring up and at them. The two slowly entered, Crescent Rose at the ready and Star Platinum primed to burst forth from Jotaro's soul to engage in a brawl. Yet still, even as they fully entered the car, they found nothing waiting for them, nothing that had been setup to surprise them. With that, the two did relax just a little bit, though only so much as to allow them ample focus as they looked around the train car.

In a lot of ways, the train car wasn't any more or less unusual than the others. Crates and drums of Dust had been stacked almost to the ceiling, leaving only so much room for the duo to have traversed down the central path of the train car. There had been a few things from the outside that had tipped them off to some weirdness; most notably, as Jotaro had seen before entering, that this car in particular had no windows on it. The reason for such seemed to be cleared up almost immediately as the pair took a look at what had occupied the very most center of the train car.

Before them sat a series of drums that had been tied together, undoubtedly a large amount of Dust having been concentrated inside of those drums. This was no small amount; the barrels had been stacked practically three Jotaro's high and, if Jotaro's math had been correct, about twenty-one barrels of Dust had been pulled together into this one little area. It had been a makeshift bomb, if the two had to wager anything… except a couple things had been off about it. The first was that there had been no obvious source of ignition; no wires that dipped into one of the barrels or between them for some switch to activate, no giant clock that had been strapped to a smaller explosive. For all intents and purposes these barrels had just been placed together and then tied with some rope.

The second odd thing was that… well, there was 'something' aside from the rope that had been pressed into the barrels here and there, but Jotaro and Ruby had a hard time fully accepting what exactly they had been looking at. When they did… well, it had left them even more confused. Watch faces had dotted the barrels, not digital watches like you might've seen on some people's wrists or digital faces like on a Scroll, but rather old-timey watch faces that had been imprinted into the barrels themselves. It had made for such an odd sight, had made for such an odd distinction, that the two had been momentarily thrown for a loop.

It hadn't taken Jotaro long, however, to put two and two together and Ruby hadn't been far behind him.

"This must be the work of an Enemy Stand." Jotaro muttered as he rubbed his chin, Ruby having nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Roman doesn't exactly come off like an arts and crafts sort of guy." Ruby muttered to herself as she looked from around Jotaro. Before the two could've continued, a light chuckle had reverberated from a speaker just over the top of the other exit to the train car, which had surprised the pair.

"Ah, Miss Ruby Rose, Mr. Kujo Jotaro. So good to have you here. Took you all long enough but I suppose I can grant you that these White Fang can be a pretty bothersome lot. Now, allow me to get straight to the point; what you're both very likely seeing right in front of you, on those barrels? Yes, that is the result of a little Stand Ability that I've gotten to be 'increasingly' familiar with these past few days." Roman clucked his tongue as a means of keeping their attention over the speaker. "Don't get any ideas about pulling those off as a means of disabling these makeshift bombs. I'm afraid you'd only make things considerably worse… consider that your only warning." With that, Jotaro frowned as he placed his hands in the pockets of his jackets, as he walked around the barrels to take a good look at the speaker itself.

"Alright Torchwick, enough is enough. We've been going through this game of cat and mouse for months now and I'm about sick of it. So how about you get over hiding and come out and let us decide this right here and right now." Jotaro stated this all with a firm resolve, the experienced Huntsman having laid down his ultimatum. Ruby nodded in firm agreement, ready to see this nightmarish chapter in her life ended as well; once they had Roman in custody, things could actually start going their way.

There was dead silence on the other end of the line, before eventually Roman spoke up again.

"No doubt you and Miss Rose declared some heroic speech or ultimatum that basically ended with me handing myself over to get my teeth kicked in. Sorry to say but I don't actually have any way of hearing either of you two from in there." Jotaro grunted in annoyance as Ruby frowned, though the speaker continued. "However, if that 'is' what you all said, then good news; I'm more than willing to meet that sort of contest. Just step outside and I'll be more than open to settling this here and now. Ruby, we've simply gone at this for too long… and Jotaro, you've been a fresh new pain in my ass like nothing else I've known these past few months. You and that Stand of yours." Jotaro looked down at Ruby whose silver eyes met his, both of them having looked equally questioning of all of this.

"Still, a two-on-one doesn't exactly sound fair considering what kind of power you're both packing. I'd ask if you minded if I had someone step in to help me out, but well, I really couldn't give a shit." Ruby actually flinched at that, kind of blown away at Roman's language. Not that she hadn't heard the words before but… well… "Anyway, get on out here and we'll settle this." The speaker immediately went dead afterward as Jotaro just heaved a sigh.

"I swear, everyone I end up fighting turns out to have some kind of flair for the dramatic…" Jotaro heaved a sigh as he adjusted his cap. "Alright, let's get going. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can stamp out this particular threat to Vale." Jotaro took a few steps out towards the door, but stopped when he hadn't heard Ruby's footsteps fall in behind him. The older man turned to look back at the young woman, who had just stood where she'd been as she cupped her chin in her hand, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Ruby?"

… Something wasn't quite right. The adrenaline of her initial capture had left her in no position to really take notice of it before but… no, with this second encounter, she was quite sure; something was up with Roman. Something… weird. Something in the way he was acting and the way he spoke… but… well, it was just a feeling, right? Plus he was in a high pressure situation now, right? Surely that would allow for a little weirdness from the guy…

Still, Ruby couldn't put her finger on it, but there was just something off about it all. Something that really stuck in her craw. It was on the tip of her tongue.

" _R-"_

"Ruby." The silver eyed Huntress jumped up in her spot after Jotaro raised his voice, the slight increase in volume having been enough to knock Ruby out of her own thoughts and back into the waking world.

"Oh, uh, sorry there Jotaro. I was… kind of a world away." Ruby admitted sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head, Jotaro having just nodded in slight agreement.

"Keep your head in the game. We've got a potential Stand User on hand and Torchwick right in front of us. If we lose focus now, then we're bound to end up in a great deal of trouble." Ruby nodded in agreement as she readied Crescent Rose, pushing thoughts of Torchwick to the side as… well, thoughts of 'beating up' Torchwick came to mind. The two turned their attentions back to the door and, with a careful timing out by Jotaro, Star Platinum threw a punch into it and knocked it off its hinges, exposing the outside world to the pair. The Atlesian Paladins, all lined up in their rows, greeted them as they had previously greeted Jotaro. For Ruby, the sight of the Paladins had ended up dredging up memories of the fight under the highways… and had caused her to swallow a bit.

Now, the fight with the Paladin had been fine while her entire team was assembled but, at the moment, it seemed like most of them were split up in various spots. Still, she hadn't been 'too' terribly nervous. She was with Kujo Jotaro, some big old hero who saved the world like his grandad. There hadn't been too much to worry about, by her reckoning. So the two slowly stalked off onto the next train car, their eyes peeled for any sign of Torchwick, a Stand User or a Stand. Their efforts hadn't needed long to bear fruit as, within moments of having stepped out onto the new car, one of the Atlesian Paladins whirred to life. Both Ruby and Jotaro immediately stiffened and fell into stances, Star Platinum having fully manifested itself, as the Atlesian Paladin slowly but surely stepped around and revealed its front. Right in the cockpit, in a sight that had proven all too familiar for Ruby, was Roman Torchwick, a grin on his face as he nodded at the pair.

"So good of you two to join us; we'd been waiting for you ever since you all arrived. Sorry to say that it seems my other guest isn't quite ready to join us… I have to assume you all had something to do with that." Ruby frowned, having already figured that Torchwick had meant the weird cowboy guy from before. "Still, I think the four of us should be just about enough for this all to be settled in good order. Hey, we'll even be able to handle the rest of you too as soon as we're done here." A fierce frown had formed on the young Huntresses face as Torchwick spoke so casually about 'taking care' of her team after he dealt with them.

"For all this talk you have about this Stand User you have with him, he's been a bit conspicuous as a no show Torchwick." Jotaro spoke up, having drawn Roman's attention to him as the gangster just grinned casually. "We're all tired and we all want to get out of here as soon as possible… so how about you and your friend either put up or shut up." That had certainly been no lie; the lack of sleep hadn't done Jotaro's patience or his temper much good. While he generally felt himself in much better control after all these years, simmering underneath the surface remained a bit of that old Kujo Jotaro who could beat down a man who figured himself invincible simply because 'he pissed him off'. A lack of sleep tended to be a good start to triggering Jotaro's temper… and it meant 'very' bad things for is ability to use Stopped Time multiple times in a short order. He wanted this done soon, not just for the sake of his temper, but for the sake of not having the fight drawn out.

"My my my, your patience is quite thin Mr. Kujo." Ruby and Jotaro flinched a bit as their attention was drawn off to the side, where a figure dressed in… some kind of cloak could now be seen. The cloak, purple, covered most of the man's body with an odd-stitched design having made up the surface of it. That having been said, the entire left side of the cloak seemed like it had been torn off, revealing the man underneath it, at least in part; pure white skin with a series of tattoos was revealed to Jotaro and Ruby, with a common motif of most of the tattoos seeming to be clocks. Upon closer inspection, Ruby and Jotaro found it hard to distinguish between makeup or natural paleness as having been the cause of the man's skin.

Though, in that particular moment, Jotaro had been in little mood to care much about a detail like that. Aside from all that, a hat slightly obscured the man's face, along with his long, dark hair that cascaded about. Jotaro just heaved a sigh as he turned to face the man fully, his brow furrowed.

"I take it you're our Stand User then."

"Indeed, Mr. Kujo. Hired on by Mr. Torchwick here as part of this entire operation he's had going… or, well, at least for some of it." The man's cadence was oddly… calm and slightly melodic. He hadn't been aggressive or challenging to either Jotaro or Ruby quite yet, as Torchwick had been. For all intents and purposes, the man had seemed quite passive. "More or less, I'm here to neutralize you and your Stand, Mr. Kujo." With that, Jotaro furrowed his brow as he reached a hand up to adjust his cap.

" **Yare yare daze** … is that right?" Jotaro spoke in an even tone, not having given away his intent, as the man in front of him just nodded.

"Indeed; you'll forgive me if I wish to get this over and done with; like you said, we all have places to be, and that is quite true for me as well. As soon as this assignment is done, I have other things I must get to." The man reached a hand up for his hat, seeming ready to readjust it. "Fair warning Mr. Kujo, do not take my boasts lightly; if you do not care for my Stand's ability, you'll find yourself-"

 **THUU** UUuuumm…

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

Was it anticlimactic to use Stopped Time in order to deal with this asshole before he could make any use of his Stand? Sure it was, and even Jotaro had to admit that it felt more than a little uneven to abuse his power in such a way. However, the simple fact of the matter was that they 'didn't' have time to deal with this. This train was on a one way trip to Vale of some kind, the threat it posed evident but… still unclear. It was clearly rigged to explode but to explode what, where and why, he still had no idea.

Furthermore, Torchwick was right there. While the Atlesian Paladin looked intimidating, Jotaro knew from talks with Ironwood that between Star Platinum and Ruby's abilities that it'd be easy enough to take care of. The only uncertainty, the only thing that stood to make this fight uneven or otherwise prolong the danger to Vale was this man and whatever Stand Power he had. To Jotaro, that had simply been unacceptable. So he tapped into Stopped Time, the mere effort of doing so having already been enough to wind him slightly due to his lack of rest, as he moved just enough so that Star Platinum would be in range of this guy.

Jotaro heaved a slight sigh as he leaned his posture back and brought up his right hand, pointing it 'right' at the guy's head. Star Platinum had been all too willing to oblige Jotaro's silent order.

" **ORA!** " With its signature battlecry, Star Platinum reared a fist back and, with little hesitation, plowed it right into the side of the Enemy Stand User's head, a good, solid blow having been landed. However, as Star Platinum brought its fists back, ready for a more forward assault, Jotaro had taken notice of something… something that caused his breath to hitch.

On Star Platinum's right fist, several clock faces that, he could now see, stood at the top of pins had embedded themselves in his Stand's right hand, seemingly without his notice. The Stand's motions continued as it brought both of its arms back, ready for a violently, flurry of energetic punches. However, in that moment, Jotaro had felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Something wasn't right.

That something had only been further confirmed when he watched as the pins slipped out of Star Platinum's fist mid swing.

"STAR PLAT-"

 **BOOOOOOOOM!**

… thuuUU **UUUM!**

tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK!**

Ruby winced as her silver eyes immediately shut close, a bright explosion having gone off that caused her to snap her head away. A pained yell from Jotaro had informed her that something had gone 'very' wrong and, as soon as she felt the pain dissipate from her eyes, she turned her gaze back to the site of the explosion. A sick feeling formed in the pit of her stomach as she heard Kujo Jotaro take deep, pained breaths, while another voice just chuckled slightly.

"-disarmed. Should've let me finish there, Mr. Kujo… or maybe you shouldn't have. I really couldn't care either way; I'm sure Mr. Torchwick will be quite satisfied that the playing field's been evened out." Silver eyes went wide as Ruby flinched back at the sight that was exposed as soon as the smoke cleared; Jotaro's right hand, and moreover a good deal of his right side, had been turned into a mess. While Ruby hadn't been entirely sure what happened, Jotaro had been all too clear on the issue; the explosion had occured at Star Platinum's right hand… the 'only' thing that had saved Jotaro from losing his own arm, and likely his entire right side, was the fact that Star Platinum was a Stand; it could take punishment.

Still, Jotaro winced as blood ran down his arm and the right side of his face as he carefully cradled his own very much damaged right hand. While he wouldn't have described it as ruined, it had looked like it'd gone toe to toe with… well, appropriately enough, a hand grenade. Jotaro jumped back away from the Stand User in question, Star Platinum having followed, as everyone watched an odd display; the 'cloak' slowly shifted across the man's figure as, from behind his back, a head adorned with two discs slowly rose up and over his own head, the face of a shoebill revealed to everyone as its beady eyes stared at them all. The 'cloak' which had covered the Stand's body, most notably missing a good chunk of its left side, slowly formed over the Stand itself, as the young man was revealed in his full glory.

His own hand, having been placed upon his hat, moved the garb up, revealing his face; a netted veil had covered most of his face and a lot of makeup, made up of the colors and symbols of Vacuo, had been painstakingly painted onto his lips and around his eyes.

"You should've taken better care to listen, Mr. Kujo. Now though? Now… you can just **[Listen To My Rhythm]**."

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 7)**

* * *

 **A/N: Like I said in the announcement five days ago, this one had gotten a bit away from me as I tried to decide how best to structure the chapter. The original draft had included 'a lot more' cutting between Yang's fight and the slowly developing situation with Jotaro and Ruby, however, I instead decided to restructure it into the current form. There was a lot of stuff that needed to be cut out to make the original cutting back and forth possible and some new dialogue to keep the scenes consistent, internal or otherwise, needed to be written. I'm a lot more satisfied with this than I was the original, and so here we go.**

 **Also, since I didn't get an opportunity to mark the occasion on the 16th: congratulations everyone, it's been a year and a week since Remnant's Bizarre Adventure was first posted. ~600,000 words later, 50 some odd chapters, and ~200,000 views when combined with the hits from Spacebattles, this fic got a lot more attention than I thought it would, especially considering you already have so many other great JoJo crossover fics for everyone to wet their appetite with. To everyone who's left a like, favorite, commented or reviewed, I want to say thanks for your support and for having been so vocal. To those of you that haven't, I'd still like to thank you for just taking the time out of your day to stop by and read this silly little story; it means a lot to know that this story is being read by people. As much fun as it is to write this story, it still is very rewarding to know that other people are enjoying it.**

 **Here's to another year everyone!**


	53. The Breach (Act 7)

It had been too late that they had realized that their prior prey had gotten them used to a certain way of hunting.

The pair of them, formerly at the bottom of the food-chain and now towering at the top, had become used to a certain behavior from prey, a certain way that it operated in response to them or their abilities. With the large, black and red prey, it had been fairly standard; the pair just never bothered with them that much. Sure, their stomping around could be aggravating, but there was no point in a fight with them. The black and red prey never really saw them as something to be attacked, unless the prey was provoked first, and the prey in turn never sustained the pair. The gift of their power was to turn any prey they encountered into food that was easy to eat and lug around. It created bounty for the pair that, for so long, had to subsist on the meager scraps they could find around this shell of a place. However, the black and red things didn't react the same way; they didn't turn into food at all. They just… took the hits. If they were far enough away, the prey would just continue on with its business.

If they were too close, the prey would suddenly become hostile to them and try to hunt them. It thus became a policy of the pair to leave the red and black prey be. Then there were the things like them. The things that walked on four legs or soared through the sky. They had intelligence if they were old enough to be up and walking about. It was a game where they slowly cornered them, the prey using its intelligence, so similar to the pair's, as they tried to outmaneuver them or to get away. Some would succeed, most would fail and be turned into food. It had ingrained in the pair the idea that their prey had a certain self-preservation instinct.

This was even more true with the two leg prey. The two leg was 'very' insistent, it always tried its hardest to make it out of every encounter unscathed. They were ticky, very tricky, and had so many tricks and distractions to keep the pair at bay. Even their own weaponry that attempted to threaten the pair's power from a distance. Yet, it was for not; their power was too great for even the weaponry of the two leg prey and most who wandered into their domain had died horribly. In time, the two legs seemed to just learn the extent of the pair's territory and avoid it all together. A source of food gone, but the pair had not cared a lick; just so long as all things that had once viewed the pair as prey had learned their lessons and learned who now stood at the top of the food chain, the pair would be satisfied devouring other four legged prey.

Then there was the prey that they had encountered not too long ego. It was… both, in a sense. It walked and sounded like a two leg, but the way it moved, the way it hunted, it acted like one of their former predators, one of the things they had feared so long ago. It was wiley in a way that the pair hadn't anticipated at first, with a strange gift and that weapon that had threatened the elder of the pair so very closely. It had shorn part of the elder's ear and left it a bleeding mess… but it hadn't killed it. The new prey hadn't been intelligent enough, hadn't been 'able' enough, to surmount the superiority of the pair on the food chain. To keep them from their rightful place. As strange yet familiar, foreign yet similar it had been to them, these strange qualities too it hadn't been enough to displace the pair from their usual patterns of behavior.

No. Not it had not been the strange hybrid prey that had done so. It had been the new prey, a purely four legged prey. Something they had thought themselves prepared for. Even its powerful ability, so similar to their own, hadn't been what knocked the pair out of their comfort zone, hadn't been what had made them so utterly unable to handle the four legged thing. They had grown used to a certain level of intelligence out of their prey: either animalistic and instinctual in such a way that matched their own capabilities, non-caring until provoked like the black and reds or, in the case of the two leggers, something… altogether new and different. All of this had made the pair all too used to prey that tried to play 'around' them, that tried to avoid them and sneak away or, at best, pitifully tried to turn the tables on them by having snuck up on them.

So when they had encountered prey with 'none' of these qualities…

" **BARK, BARK BARK, BARK!** "

"Bark, bark bark bark bark, bark, bark!"

It had thrown the pair for a complete loop. The pair of Stand empowered rats ran for their lives as they skittered through the ruins of Mountain Glenn, panic evident in their ratty squeaks and quick, jerky movements around terrain as they fled as fast as their four legs could have carried them. Shortly after them, the giant legs and black wheels of The Fool pounded after them, the fanged beak of the giant dog-like creature emitting barks and hollers as it gave chase to the two tiny things. Trailing after The Fool, full of as much energy as the Stand had been, was Zwei, the tiny legs of the corgi having done their best to allow him to keep pace with his giant, monstrous stand, his excited yips and barks having bounced his entire body off the ground as he bounded after the two rats and his Stand. Indeed, the pair of rats had gotten used to prey that tried to intelligently, either on an instinctual or cognitive level, outmaneuver the pair, prey that had gotten used to hunting in a certain way, or hunting at all.

If The Fool had been in the hands of Iggy, former Stardust Crusader, they might've had something to go on; the dog, while exceedingly clever, would've found its slow maneuvers to the benefit of the two rats, as they would've taken the opportunity to set and reset their Stands in advantageous positions to take advantage of the dog. No doubt that Iggy would have succeeded in the end, as the mongrel could boast an intelligence far in excess of most of its animal kin, but it would've been hard fought.

The Fool, however, was not in the hands on an experienced Stand User or exceedingly intelligent dog. Zwei, while clever, was one thing that the rats hadn't necessarily had to have chased, hunted or be hunted by before; a very excitable puppy. A very clever puppy with 'very' doe-like eyes that drew you in, to be sure, but a puppy nonetheless. This puppy, in this time, had been told by one of the funny human things to go and 'fetch' the two little rats. Two squeaky, jumpy, prancy little rats that just bounded and jumped and ran and ran and ran and all of this motion and excitement just got the little puppy and, thus, its Stand into a blur of motion and energy. Thus, rather than try to overthink the battle, maneuver around his foes or try to trap them… Zwei and, thus, The Fool ran headlong for the pair of rats, intent on fetching the little squeaky things so that he could have even more fun.

And so it was with the reckless abandon of youth that Zwei and, thus, The Fool charged for their prey. The two rats, having kept their eyes out for a way to turn this fight in their favor, took notice of the lumbering motions of The Fool in its full glory; being made up of a giant pile of sand and dust, it had made The Fool a bit rough to turn around corners. The pounding of its feet suggested it had been quite heavy as well. Dormant instincts in the two rats, having laid low since their jump up the food chain, reignited. If they were being chased by a big, dumb predator, then they had ways that they could have used to escape the predator… or, better yet, put their hunter on bad footing itself.

Thus the two rats quickly scurried about, the pair having kept their eyes peeled for 'just' the right bit of terrain in order to take advantage of their plan. Four rat eyes scanned about their potential paths until, soon enough, the elder of the pair squeaked out and bolted forward, its lesser rat having quickly followed in its footsteps. Zwei, utterly excited that the chase had now gotten even 'faster' just gave a quick bark, one echoed immediately by The Fool, as Stand and Stand Master bounded after the pair of rats… well 'bounded' in the case of The Fool, its tires having bumped up and down off the ground in following with the energetic leaps taken by its front paws. The little puppy kept up the chase, tongue having rolled out from its mouth as it panted excitedly, its eyes peeled on the two playthings that ran just a ways in front of it and its Stand. It was gonna catch them, and then it was going to play with them and jump and bite and pounce and then they'd start the chase again and it was going to be fun!

The puppy, caught up in his own excitement and youthful energy, failed to notice the sharpness of the turn that the two rats had sprinted toward, only taking something of a notice when the two suddenly took a sharp turn and bolted for another direction. Zwei just yipped and barked as he continued to bound forward, ready to take the same turn with The Fool. However, as The Fool did its best to quickly throw itself into the turn, disaster struck. The Stand, a large mass of dust and sand clumped together that had been 'quite' heavy itself found that its weight, its momentum, kept it from drifting straight into the turn. Indeed, for all its efforts to try and take a turn that hard that fast, The Fool had instead been rewarded with its back wheels skidding out from underneath it, causing the giant of a Stand to topple and roll over repeatedly until it slammed into a nearby building that formed the opposite 'wall' of the turn, collapsing into a giant pile of sand and dust as it did so.

Zwei, meanwhile, yelped as the little corgi did his best to stop, but short little corgi feet, while 'very' cute in a chase, hadn't exactly been made for sudden stops. What transpired instead was that Zwei ended up sliding face first into the pile of dust and sand. However, while most other dense piles like this may have caused someone some amount of energy from slamming straight into it, it seemed more like the pile of sand and dust dispersed slightly, softening itself so that, upon impact, Zwei just ended up drilling a ways into the dust and sand, his blow having softened considerably before he came to a stop. Moments later, the little corgi's head popped up from the dust and sand, shaking the debris off of it as it gave a few panting breaths, uninjured for the most part.

Uninjured… unless the rats had something to say about it. Seeing the giant of a Stand having been demolished completely and utterly, the pair of rats immediately turned on Zwei and set up their Stands, the two Ratts, as they took careful aim at Zwei's little head. With most of his body still buried in the debris of The Fool, Zwei had effectively been trapped in place, leaving the two rats with a sitting duck, as far as they had been concerned. Without hesitation the two rats triggered their Stands, the two cannon-like Stands having immediately fired off a round of their deadly bullets that soared straight on toward Zwei as he finally caught sight of the two rats again.

To the animalistic rage of the rats, a wall of sand and dust rose up in front of Zwei's head and caught the two bullets, the projectiles soon tossed off to the side without a care in the world. The rats scampered back away from their Stands, watching in an instinctual horror as they watched the suddenly formed wall of sand and dust turn back into the head of The Fool, the Stand howling in a primal excitement as the head immediately started flying towards them. Soon enough the rest of the sand and dust that had made up the collapsed Fool flew back toward the head of the Stand, reforming the body of The Fool in short order as the chase began again. Zwei, shaking off the remnants of the debris on him so that it could fly off to rejoin the Stand, barked in his own excitement as he scampered back off toward the rats.

The two rats balked as once again their shots were left with no purchase, having been rebuffed by this odd Stand and its stupid dog User. The two rats withdrew each of their own Ratt as they prepared to run again. It seemed that damage inflicted on The Stand itself was of little consequence to the owner; they hadn't shared a direct link, much like the rats hadn't shared a direct link with their Ratts. Though the rats hadn't been directly cognizant of such an idea, they had instinctually thought that slamming the predator up against a harsh surface on a sharp turn, like a tree in a densely packed forest, would have at least stunned the Stand and Stand User in pursuit of them. Such designs had obviously gone unrewarded and, now, the rats found themselves having to prepare for another round of the chase.

As they set to begin their flight form the dog again, the two rats couldn't help but twitch their noses up in the air. While their animal minds had limited them to, for now, worrying over the dog that had chased them with its mighty Stand… their memory hadn't been so short that they'd forgotten the 'other' prey that had attempted to outwit them not so long ago. Noses pointed in the air and tried to get a hint of a stench as the rights scurried away from The Fool and Zwei, who began the chase again. Eyes, which momentarily looked around for some sign of the prey, returned to jumping between keeping a close eye on the dog and on the path in front of their. Their ears, as ever, had not been able to pick up on the all too silent footpads of this prey.

Deep down in the core of these animals, a primal fear of the unseen and the unheard predator rang out inside of them, warned them to keep aware at all times even as another chased them. What prey or predator was unseen was a dangerous one.

The only problem had been… between the dog and its Stand, they'd had no idea where the prey had disappeared to. Where it had gone. Not until it was far, far too late.

BANG BANG!

Two shots, fired out from a nearby dark corner that the rats hadn't even thought was occupied, suddenly rang out. The elder rat ducked, an instinctual pain flaring in its ear from the memory of having been tagged by these attacks of the prey before. A shrieking squeak, a cry of pain erupted from its side as the elder rat looked over, an animalistic dread filling its chest.

The younger had been caught in one of its front legs by the bullet, the limb having been completely blown off by the sudden attack. The elder rat, driven by instinct to survive, neither mourned or nor sought to check on its fellow Stand User and, instead, continued to bolt, looking to be the faster of the pair now that its younger had been crippled. That hadn't been a hard feat to manage as, after having gotten its leg blown off, the rat immediately stumbled due to the pain of the blow and the speed it had been moving at. It rolled, face first, across the ground as it gave out several squeaks of pain and instinctual panic, its mind already focused on what it knew would happen next.

On the jaws that gleamed like metal that suddenly closed in around it.

For Blake, it was quite the sight to see; much like a giant puppy dog with a new chew toy successfully locked into its jaws, The Fool began bouncing around on its legs and wheels, the head of the animal shaking every now and then as deep, rumbling growls and half-howls that, in a smaller, actual puppy dog, might've sounded 'playful' emanated from the thing. The Fool shook its head violently back and forth, as if shaking a sock that had gotten stuck on its cheeks and Blake could 'hear' the bones and muscle of the rat in its mouth breaking and tearing as little specks of blood began to fly across The Fool's… beak, muzzle, whatever you wanted to call the protrusion on The Stand's face that contained its teeth, and the ground. Eventually Zwei caught up and, with a few excited barks that caused the little corgi to bounce around itself, it pawed at The Fool's leg, tongue lolling out as it sought to play with its toy as well.

Blake watched as The Fool looked down at the little Stand User that controlled it and, very quickly, leaned its head down and dropped the rat on the ground, little more than a mess than an actual living thing. The black haired Faunus hadn't known 'a lot' about Stands, after all she hadn't spent her entire life studying them, but she'd learned a few things about them in her time with Josuke and the others. Stands were extensions of the person using them, or at least, Good Stand Users made their Stands extensions of themselves. It was pretty evident when you listened to Josuke and Crazy Diamond: Stand and Stand User spoke with the same voice. This was true even of Jotaro and Star Platinum, it was very easy to tell that those two men and their Stands spoke using the same voice. They weren't separate, they 'were' the same being, but in separate forms.

Still, she'd gotten used to a certain behavior out of Crazy Diamond and Star Platinum that reflected their User's behaviors; cool and collected, up until things started to get violent or when either User got 'very' pissed off. Even The Hand, a Stand that was 'very' evidently meant for a person with a lot more brains than Okuyasu, ended up reflecting the scarred teen's very blunt, very forward personality and way of thinking despite how out there its ability could be. So it was strange for Blake, having heard Nora and Ren talk about Iggy and The Fool and the limited ways that the Stand and its User behaved, to see the same Stand behaving so very differently.

Strange, but not a mystery; Zwei was obviously a different beast, pardon the phrase, than Iggy. However, in this case it was clear; The Fool, whatever it had been with Iggy, was something different with Zwei… that much was clear as the puppy picked up the dead rat and shook his head about, bounding around at having successfully 'fetched' the thing. As Blake approached and Zwei took notice, the dog's ears perked up and it dropped the rat, sitting around and waiting for it to run off to begin the chase again.

…

After a moment of the rat's body not moving, Zwei's ears slowly flopped forward as it nudged its nose at the rat's body.

…

"... Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee~"

A low whine escaped Zwei's muzzle as the dog's ears completely folded forward onto his head, a downright 'sad' look in the puppy's eyes as it stared at the little thing. Now, Blake hated dogs, she would've asked that 'everyone' remember that. So as Blake looked on at the scene in front of her, she would've wanted everyone to be reminded of that fact. Because Blake hadn't felt 'remotely' bad for the dumb mutt in front of her nor found those soulful eyes of it to be heart wrenching as the puppy seemed to come to terms with the idea that the plaything in front of it wasn't ever going to play again.

Blake did not feel sympathy for a dumb dog. Perish the thought.

"Hey, come on now… you had to expect it right? I mean, look at the size of that thing compared to this itty-bitty rat. You couldn't possibly have…" Blake frowned as Zwei just continued to whine and whine, a high pitched little sound of sorrow as the dog just continued to nudge at the dead rat. Blake fretted for a moment, not because the sight of a sad dog was in any way making her heart drop in her chest, but because her overwhelming juggernaut of a Stand User that had made half of this battle far easier than it had been before now seemed intent to wallow in sadness over a 'dead rat' of all things. So Blake bit her lip slightly as she glanced around, dropping down until she had practically sat on her heels as she leaned over Zwei. "Come on now boy… don't feel too bad, I mean… he's going up into that… big… rodent motel in the sky?" Gods, she 'really' wasn't any good with this, not at all. Feeling a bit sick to her stomach, from the thought of having to do this mind you, Blake eventually just sighed as she slowly reached a hand out to comfortingly pet Zwei across the back of the head…

Only for the little corgi to immediately jump up into her arms and start licking her face.

"AH, BLARGH, SHIT, GET OFF ME YOU ANIMAL!" Blake, after a few moments, finally forced Zwei back down as she shook her face off, reaching down to produce a small cloth that she'd normally use to wipe dirt and sweat off of her in order to get the drool off. As she did so she glared down at the little corgi in front of her, Zwei having happily waved his tail around as he skittered about her excitedly. "You… you little mutt. You weren't upset at all! You were just trying to lure me in with all that!"

"Bark bark!" The corgi's tongue slid out of his mouth as he hopped around in place, Blake having just shook her head at the sight as the last bit of dog spit and rat blood was cleaned off her face.

"Should've known better… damn dirty mutts… I hate dogs…" Blake muttered to herself as the scene continued to play out. The jovial tone, however, soon dropped as a loud 'bang' erupted across the empty buildings of Mountain Glenn, and The Fool's sand and dirt body moved to intercept a round that had been headed straight for Zwei. Immediately Blake perked back up and Zwei, while still goofy looking and full of energy, turned his head over to the direction of where the shot had been fired, the sight of Ratt dissipating just barely out of their line of sight in the distance. With a sigh, Blake shook her head as her ears once again twitched and moved on her scalp, having already picked up little sounds here and there from the rat.

"Zwei?" The little corgi looked back up at Blake with those big, soulful eyes of his, as Blake just shook her head and, with a 'very' small smile that had you pointed it out to her she would've fervently denied ever existed pointed out in the direction that the last rat had run. "Fetch."

With a howl from both the little corgi and the giant Fool, Stand and Stand User immediately broke out into bounding leaps again as the chase resumed, Blake combing a hand through her hair as she slowly sank back into the shadows.

Well, even if she had to put up with a dog for this fight, in the end even Blake could admit that it was worth it. After all, by her estimation, it had been far better to be on the winning side of a fight than the losing one.

* * *

"Grrr… urgh… Dammit…" Jotaro winced as he felt pain rocket up and down his arm as he stood somewhat defensively, his other hand just barely hovering around his bleeding, broken limb as he stared at the man responsible. How… how had that even been possible? Jotaro had been in Stopped Time; whatever Stand Power this guy had, it shouldn't have been able to affect him while he was frozen in place, right? Jotaro's mind turned its wheels as it tried to think of the possible answers but, understandably, it was hard to do so while most of your arm was a bloody mess. The only reason Jotaro's arms hadn't been reduced to giblets was because Star Platinum's arm had been the source of the explosion and Jotaro knew that… but that had been small comfort given that his, and Star Platinum's, right arm was now taken out of commission.

Ruby, on the other hand, just stared in horror at the display. Sure, Ruby had seen her friends and other people get hurt before. She was a Huntress fighting against some truly evil creatures and people who were out to kill them, it would've been crazy lucky for her to not see injuries on the part of her friends and family. However… Ruby hadn't ever really seen harm befall someone she considered a friend or, at the very least, one of the good guys before in her life. She's seen Yang's head bleed when it was smashed through concrete, she'd seen the result of some injuries that Weiss or Blake had taken in various fights… but none of them produced so much blood or looked nearly so painful as Jotaro's wound.

Even Yang having lost her arm hadn't produced the blood and gore of the scene before her, Sticky Fingers' Stand Power having produced clean cuts separated by zippers that very specifically didn't bleed. Even Josuke's wounds during his fights with Bucciarati and Pyrrha hadn't been so severe. The fact that this had happened to 'Jotaro' of all people just somehow made it even more of a sticking point. Jotaro's seeming invincibility, that aura that screamed of confidence, of the fact that you couldn't hope to touch him, had made him seem like such a larger than life figure, like someone you couldn't hope to even injure no matter how hard you tried.

Combining the above with the most gruesome injury that the young woman had ever seen inflicted on another person in her entire life had left her momentarily shaken; it hadn't been a pretty sight.

"Hmmm, you know, I had thought that Mr. Torchwick had been exaggerating when he described your Stand's Power, initially." Both Ruby and Jotaro quickly glanced up at the man in front of them, his bird-like Stand hovered just behind him as he took out a long, slender cigarette holder, puffing on a cigarette as he looked down at Jotaro. "I mean, Stopped Time? You have to admit, from an outside perspective, that sounds insane. What's the range of it? Is the entire world stopped or is it just around you? Can one Stand stop time? Could the Gods allow something so powerful to exist outside of them?" The man took a few careful puffs through his holder as he allowed some smoke to lazily drift out from his mouth.

"Well, seeing is believing I suppose; the Gods did give you some manner of favor in ordaining you with this power, Kujo Jotaro. Sadly, Star Platinum's power has been checked by my own Stand Power: Listen To My Rhythm." A cruel smile slowly formed on the pale man's lips as he watched Jotaro force himself into a standing position. "You must be wondering, I know I'd be wondering; how is it possible? How did this man's Stand Ability trigger in Stopped Time? How was my own arm blown to near bits when all I did was touch him? How did he attack me in Stopped Time?" The man chuckled as he took another drag on his holder, the cloud of smoke around him thickening.

"You see Mr. Kujo, this is why I in particular was sought out as part of Mr. Torchwick's negotiations; my Stand power can be triggered consciously, sure… but to a degree, when I wish for it to be active, it has a certain… automatic trigger." The man raised his finger slightly as a fly whizzed on by his head, the man tapping the fly ever so slightly as he did so. "You see… so long as I'm willing my Stand's Power to be active, Listen To My Rhythm attaches to anything I touch a bomb." Ruby and Jotaro's eyes went wide as they saw, the moment the fly left the man's finger, one of those clocks be embedded into its body, weighing the fly down until it hit the ground and dislodged the explosive.

At which point with a minor 'bang' the fly was no more.

"I was prepared for whatever your trick was Jotaro. If it was just great speed disguised as Stopping Time, it wouldn't have mattered how fast you were… but, even as you have demonstrated that you can genuinely Stop Time, it didn't matter; so long as it is my will that whatever I touch be made into a bomb, a bomb will be attached… and because your Stand's arm, presumably unaffected by Stopped Time itself was made into my weapon-"

"The bomb and explosive was able to trigger inside of Stopped Time because it came from Star Platinum…" The man nodded as Jotaro interjected and finished his sentence, the mercenary going for another puff on his cigarette holder as Jotaro raised his uninjured hand to readjust his cap. "Yare yare daze, that's an annoying Stand Power." The man just laughed a bit as he looked down at the giant of a man, hunched over slightly from the pain he was in.

"Perhaps from an outside perspective, but I tend to find my ability quite useful in successfully following through on my missions." Jotaro grunted to himself as he ground his teeth.

"I can imagine…" With that, Jotaro's attention was suddenly brought to his side as there was the sound of grinding gears and hulking metal moving nearby.

"Hah, no kidding! Man, when I heard of your power Oyecomova, I hadn't been quite sure what to expect. It sounded powerful but… well, let me say that I'm impressed! You've done exactly as advertised… finally, someone able to do so." Roman Torchwick seemed quite evidently self-satisfied as he chomped on the end of a cigar, the man now identified as Oyecomova just sighed as he quickly flicked some of his hair behind his shoulder.

"Naturally; I take all my missions quite seriously, Mr. Torchwick. It's the Gods' work, after all." The two hunters tensed slightly, bending into more defensive postures as they stared at the two. "Now then, would you prefer for me to handle this myself, Mr. Torchwick, while you enjoy the show, or-"

"Oh, as if I'm missing out on an opportunity to earn myself some credit by taking these two out."

The Paladin whirred to full life as Roman Torchwick grabbed onto the controls, Ruby and Jotaro having quickly dashed back and away, the latter with the help from Star Platinum, as it seemed the fight had been set and raring to go, though Oyecomova had seemed as complacent as before, still having smoked his cigarette through its holder as he turned to face the pair.

"Very well sir, you're free to do as you wish as my employer, just be sure not to get in the way of my work." Oyecomova paused for a moment as the cigarette on the end of his holder burnt out, the man quickly moving to replace it before the fight began in earnest. Meanwhile, the young Huntress and the experienced Hunter both looked on at the pair they were getting ready to fight, Ruby having swallowed a nervous lump in her throat as he eyes roamed to look up at Jotaro.

"So… Jotaro, what's the plan you think? That guy's ability, it sounds like it does a lot to put you on the back foot in the fight. The Paladin isn't much of a joke either, it took my entire team working together to take it down way back when we fought one under the highway. You have to have some kind of plan for dealing with them both" Ruby clenched her fists around Crescent Rose, her silver eyes having moved between the three as she spoke. Indeed, her own mind ran with the thoughts of what could be done in this situation: Oyecomova did do a lot to essentially defang Star Platinum as any attempt by the Stand to directly harm either Oyecomova or Listen To My Rhythm would likely end with more bombs placed on Star Platinum's body and, thus, more of Jotaro blown into being bloody and broken, if not killed. Heck, Ruby hadn't been entirely sure how Jotaro hadn't passed out from all the blood he'd lost so far already.

Then there was the Paladin: while it was far more straightforward than Listen To My Rhythm, it was no less intimidating or strong. It was a War Machine and, yes, though she expected that Jotaro and Star Platinum at full tilt could've handled it easily… no, neither of them were at full tilt. Not with that arm and not with how much pain they were both likely in. It stretched the limits of what Ruby thought the two could do together in this situation; she'd need to keep an eye on Jotaro and he'd have to find some way to pierce through Listen To My Rhythm's abilities.

In all honesty, Ruby herself 'did' have an idea: split up. She could do her best to handle Oyecomova and Jotaro could handle Roman and the Paladin. It'd be hard fights for both of them, Ruby would be all but guaranteed to be sticking with Crescent Rose in its sniper form, which wasn't great at short ranges, while Jotaro would be fighting with, essentially, one hand against an Atlesian Paladin, but… well, it was the best she could think of. Maybe Jotaro could have Star Platinum throw things at Oyecomova really fast, but it seemed like Listen To My Rhythm could just body block those kinds of things pretty easily, even as strong as Star Platinum was. No, if Jotaro stood a chance of overpowering anything, it was the Paladin.

Still, Jotaro was the leader here, the senior Hunter, not Ruby… and he was 'wildly' more experienced than her. Even if this was the best idea she could come up with, she'd defer to-

"I can't possibly fight Listen To My Rhythm in my current state. Even under the best conditions where I haven't essentially had my right arm crippled, its Stand Power is pretty much a direct counter to most everything that Star Platinum is capable of. With Aura making Listen To My Rhythm durable on top of everything else, even what few ranged options I can come up with are probably pointless. So no, it isn't about what 'we're' going to do against them."

… Oh no way. No way! This moment wasn't about to happen! This wasn't about to be-

"We're going to have to split up; you'll take Oyecomova and Listen To My Rhythm and I'll take the Paladin. Ironwood's given me some idea of its capabilities so I think I know how to handle it about as safely as can be expected."

-ONE OF THE MOST AWESOME MOMENTS IN RUBY'S ENTIRE LIFE! Ruby barely held herself back from squealing in excitement over what just happened: she'd just come up with the same plan as a senior, experienced Hunter in a short amount of time and even thought it all through before he could even vocalize it! A Hunter she'd already come to respect from stories told and by the prowess he'd shown had also just confided that he was going to depend on her to handle one of their more dangerous opponents! It was like everything that she could've possibly thought of in her play scenarios back when she was a kid!

Well, it would've been way cooler if she was having this moment with her mom like in those imagined scenarios from way back when, but hey, Jotaro couldn't help not being nearly as cool as the most amazing Hunter who ever lived.

Still, Ruby held back from fangirling all over the place as she kept a serious expression on her face, having nodded as she looked over at Oyecomova. "I'm guessing this is strictly a ranged fight, right? I can't get close to him at all without threatening to have his Stand Power triggered on me, after all, so I'll need to keep pace around him and take what shots I can." Jotaro paused for a moment as the young Huntress seemed to take the words right out of his mouth, but nodded afterward.

"Right. Your Speed Semblance should also work wonders with keeping you outside of any danger zone he or his Stand might be able to produce. Keep light on your feet and you should be able to whittle him down from a distance." Ruby nodded… although hesitantly. The realization that Jotaro might've expected her to try to take shots directly at Oyecomova having shaken her just a bit. Sure, Ruby had taken shots directly at people before but… well, those people had Aura. They could take a round or two from Crescent Rose without actually being hurt by the bullets. She didn't actually… well, really badly injure someone like that before. The fact that Oyecomova didn't have Aura, it meant that if she took one of those shots at him… well, not only was that bullet going to hit directly, it was probably going to punch straight on through the guy and, if Ruby hit him in the… in the wrong spot, it could probably kill him.

It would probably kill him.

Ruby shook off this line of thinking in short order, however. Ruby hadn't needed to shoot Oyecomova directly in order to wear him down or chip away at him like Jotaro had implied. She could take shots at his Stand and slowly break down his fighting spirit and energy until he just had nothing left in him to resist Ruby with. Then they could… well, force him to surrender. After all, if his Stand couldn't fight back and he was forced to exhaustion, he'd surely just give up right? No point in resisting at that point. No point in dying over it.

"Sounds like a plan to me Jotaro. What about you? I know you could probably take the Paladin on if Star Platinum and you were up to full strength but… well, are you gonna use Time Stop or…" Jotaro shook his head, the white capped Huntsman having just stared Roman and the Paladin down with a grim expression.

"Not if I can help it or if it won't secure me an 'very' quick advantage." Ruby blinked as Jotaro phrased it like this, on top of the fact that the giant of a man was now whispering. "The truth is… Stopped Time puts a lot of pressure on my heart. Whenever I use it for too long or in too quick a succession without proper rest… let's just say it probably isn't good for me." Jotaro glanced back over to Ruby as he explained this. "I can push my limits if I need to; I've kept in good enough shape and kept in good enough practice over the years that doing so probably won't cause me to fall over and… pass out." Jotaro shook his head as he looked back to Roman. "However, right now isn't a great time; I've already use Stopped Time a couple times here and there and… well, I haven't exactly gotten a proper rest from everything we did yesterday.

"If I can find a moment where a second or two in Stopped Time would wildly swing the fight in my direction, I'll take it, I can handle that much… however, a full five seconds in Stopped Time might just take me out of this fight entirely." Ruby swallowed a nervous lump in her throat as Jotaro explained the situation so bluntly. However, that nervous energy slowly dissolved as Jotaro reached up and readjusted his cap, his voice no longer in a whisper. "However, I really don't think it matters. Even without Stopped Time and with one arm down, Star Platinum can still tear that tin man to shreds and be done with him in pretty short order." The confidence in Jotaro's voice as he said this lifted something up in the young Huntress, while Roman just scowled slightly at that.

"Oh, you think so there Jotaro? Well, how about we go ahead and test that! We'll see how confident you are when this Paladin's digging you out from the grooves underneath its feet." The older Huntsman just stared at Roman, unflinching, before he glanced back down to Ruby.

"You got the plan?"

"Yeah, I got the plan…" In fact, she had been way ahead of him, in a sense, which again just caused Ruby to smile. Mistaking the smile for full confidence, Jotaro just nodded as he and Star Platinum slowly started to move in Roman's direction, while Oyecomova just raised his brow at them.

"... Huh. Are they ignoring me? Odd tactic to be sure, but one I won't say no to-"

BANG!

Oyecomova visibly buckled as a powerful shot was fired at Listen To My Rhythm, the Stand and Stand User skidding back a ways as Oyecomova grabbed onto his right arm, a deep bruise having formed on the surface from the connection with his Stand. With a still calm expression, Oyecomova brought his hand up and took a deep draw on his cigarette as he looked over at the origin of the shot, Ruby Rose with her Sniper Scythe having cocked out the empty round to replace it with a fresh one.

"... A child hmm? I wonder, is Mr. Kujo trying to play to my sympathies." Oyecomova took another drag on his cigarette as he stood up, brushing off the damage done to his arm through his Stand as he and Listen To My Rhythm squared off against Ruby Rose. "Poor choice if it is; I'll blow you to bits as I would any other man or woman… perhaps more easily than most considering your inexperience." Ruby bristled at that, a deep frown on her face as she kept her gaze locked on Oyecomova.

Honestly, Ruby would've been more shocked many, many months ago by such a statement. However, after having met Roman Torchwick, after having seen the White Fang attack, after having gone through so much… the fact that there were people out there willing to kill just about anyone hadn't surprised her. Her Team's story about Red Hot Chili Pepper and the battle royale she'd been part of in the City of Vale as part of Ozpin, Jotaro and Ironwood's gambit to get Joseph Joestar to Vale safely had taught her well enough that there were truly evil people out there.

The fact that she'd gotten used to such an idea, that it had started to become downright 'plain' in her mind… it did sicken her to a degree. People weren't supposed to fight like this. Humans and Faunus were supposed to unite together and fight the Grimm, the real threat to all man and Faunuskind.

That this man and others like him could so casually speak of murdering men, women and… well, she wasn't a child but he clearly considered her one, it caused a deep ache inside of Ruby.

"How can you say something like that so casually? Do you really care so little about people that you'd treat killing them like it was just part of your job?" Oyecomova arched an eyebrow at that, taking another drag on his cigarette as he did so.

"Now now, you mistake me. It's not 'just' part of my job that I kill people. Little girl, the people I kill, they're part of a big picture." Oyecomova spread his arms out as he spoke. "You, that man over there, the City of Vale, everyone and everything that I've ever killed or destroyed as part of a mission… it's been 'part' of a greater purpose. A purpose and mission assigned to me by the Gods above. It is their will that I have killed so many hundreds of men and women as part of my work, and it is their will that has guided me here, to this place, at this time… to kill you and, should Roman take too much of his sweet time, to kill Mr. Kujo. No, little one, I do not think little of the people I kill… it is just part of a greater picture, planned for and constructed by the Gods above."

"That's even worse!" Ruby shouted, more angry than sickened or shocked by Oyecomova's words. "You think that you'd be put on this planet along with the rest of us just to kill everyone you can? That's horrible!"

"To a youth, perhaps, but it is the truth. It was the Will of the Gods that I came to this place, and it is their Will that you will die. Simple as that." Ruby just ground her teeth together as, finally, the young sniper took another shot. This time, having paid attention to the direction of the barrel and her body language, Oyecomova and Listen To My Rhythm were able to quickly duck behind an Atlesian Paladin, the shot having banked off the metal before it flew off into the distance.

"Fat chance! There's a reason why we split up like this! Jotaro might need to be close up in order to knock you out, but I don't: your Stand's Power is dangerous, but so long as I don't get up close to you, then I don't have to worry about your ability!" There was a pause as Ruby said this, Oyecomova chuckling just ever so slightly as the scythe wielder spoke so vehemently.

"Oh, is that so? It seems you've taken on a decidedly mistaken version of my abilities." Ruby flinched slightly at Oyecomova's casual tone, the young woman in the middle of emptying Crescent Rose's chamber as Oyecomova came back into the open, taking a 'long' drag on his cigarette as he did so.

"My dear, 'anything' that I 'touch' becomes laced with Listen To My Rhythm's bombs…" Ruby squinted her eyes, confused at the focus of his words as, suddenly, Oyecomova exhaled harshly, blowing a wide cloud of thick smoke that, thanks to the movement of the train, was moving hastily in her direction.

Silver eyes went wide in shock as Ruby noticed at the last second: little ticking clocks, the symbol of the presence of Listen To My Rhythm's bombs, had stuck themselves 'into the cloud of smoke', despite how utterly impossible the feat should have been.

"Anything." A huge explosion erupted at the back of the car holding the Paladins, many of the metal behemoths having been knocked straight off the train car while fire and heat scorched the area Ruby had stood.

* * *

The sound of metal flying through the air sung out in the train car and, after a moment had passed, Yang Xiao Long had carefully opened her eyes. There had been a lot of things Yang had expected to see when she did: perhaps a view of Heaven where her mom would be waiting for her with a big old smile on her face as she told her that everything was alright… or, Hell, maybe she'd be in Hell with Raven and the two could finally have some kind of talk, if Raven Branwen had indeed 'died' sometime in the years that her father and uncle had last seen her. Or maybe she'd see nothing at all and any worries she might've had would've been for nothing at all.

She might've expected blood, at the very least… but it would've been her own blood; not the blood currently shooting out of the stump of an arm that the main Eleven Man now possessed, his gun and forearm having fallen to the ground beside her.

"AAAH, SHIT!" Immediately the ten pairs of arms pulled back away from Yang as Eleven Man turned to face behind him, Yang having tilted over slightly to see just what had struck him from behind. Both fighters had immediately balked; standing there, with a blade that not only glowed red but had been absolutely 'coated' in the oozing red blood of Eleven Man, was a woman. She stood just a little bit shorter than Eleven Man himself, and right about Yang's height. She had long, black flowing hair that flowed out from the back of a bone-white helmet, one that looked 'very' similar to the face of a Grimm. An outfit, roughly in style of Mistrali clothing, in black and red decorated her, matching with her overall color scheme.

Yang's breath caught in her throat; she didn't even have first memories of this person. Hadn't seen them in all her life… but just by looking at this person, by looking at the style of their hair, not dissimilar to her own, and just the way she dressed and held herself… what few things she'd ever asked her dad about… 'her' seemed to ring true.

But it couldn't be, right? She couldn't just 'be' here… how… where?

"I won't ask how you suddenly dropped in behind me miss…" Eleven Men said, his teeth bared slightly as he reached down for his pistol. "Clearly, you've got some tricks up your sleeve…" With barely even a flicker of movement, Eleven Men took several shots at the woman with his gun, the woman having deftly dodged out of the way of the bullet before swinging her blade in the air… several bullets having them fallen to the ground after the show. There was no sign of her eyes behind her mask, at least one that Yang or Eleven Men could make out… but nonetheless, both could 'feel' the hateful glare that she had sent Eleven Men's way, the palpable anger that basically radiated off of her. "A lot of tricks… pretty fast too…" Eleven Men brought his revolver up to his hat, scratching against his forehead as he seemed to take this woman in.

Whatever plan he'd been hoping to make up, it seemed the woman had been in no mood to allow him the time to execute it as, nearly as fast as Yang had seen Crazy Diamond move in a fight, the woman 'dashed' forward, he blade ready to run Eleven Men through as he ground his teeth. That was when Eleven Men once again surprised Yang and, presumably, surprised the woman; Eleven Men ran forward…

Well, One Man ran forward, and another man with nine other arms sticking out of him, all holding onto their revolvers, immediately took to aiming at the ceiling of the car and firing off rapid volleys. The man who had broken from the pack, the partially disarmed one, ran himself through on the woman's blade and practically shoulder checked her, catching her blade in his side and knocking her slightly off her feet. The man quickly moved his revolver up to the woman's mask, hoping the element of surprise enough; however, instead, the former main body of Eleven Man soon found himself being carved out by the woman's blade, slicing out of his side and them immediately carving him up into bits as blood scattered around the car. By the time Yang and the woman knew to look back at the rest of the formerly Eleven Men, they watched… well, something simultaneously well organized and impressive and kind of ridiculous at the same time.

Springing up from his core body, several men jumped up, landing on each other shoulders as they appeared from Tatoo You! on their backs. When they reached the top of the car, where a hole had been blown open thanks to their concentrated fire, the other Eleven Men were subsumed back into the one who had managed to climb his way up through the hole, effectively having bought the rest of them their escape.

"One last thing Miss Xiao Long, something you probably should've considered when the fight turned sour; knowing when you've gotten yourself licked by a superior opponent." Eleven Men adjusted his hat at the pair. "Now if you two don't mind, I got an associate to try and catch up to!" With that, Eleven Men ran across the train car, up towards the front of the train. Yang ground her teeth together as she tried to force herself onto her feet in order to catch up with Eleven Men… or Ten Men for real now, but found her legs collapsing under her as she fell face first onto the floor. Yang ground her teeth together as she looked up at the woman in front of her… Ruby, Weiss and Jotaro were ahead… if Ten Men caught up…

"What are you just standing around for… go after him! He's going after everyone else!" Yang shouted after the woman, who just stood there and watched Yang for a moment. There was just silence between the pair, Yang glaring at her, as if such a move would actually get her to get up and move up the train car after Ten Men, while the woman stared down at her through that mask. A pit formed in Yang's stomach as, instead of moving up the train car, the woman instead cut her sword across empty space… and produced a deep, black and red hole that floated in the air. It hadn't taken long for Yang to guess what this was… after all, it was the only thing that made sense for how she would've gotten into the train car out of nowhere in the first place.

A portal.

The woman sheathed her sword, her body language now loose and calm. It was clear she wasn't preparing for another battle, for another round. No, she was just moving on… leaving…

"So that's it huh…" The woman just kept moving toward the portal as Yang spoke up, the young woman clenching her fist against the train car's floor as she woman walked off. "It was 'this easy' for you to show up… for you to get here… and now that you're here… you're just gonna go off again. Even though we need your help." The woman just kept on moving, but Yang felt something deep within her… something toxic and vile that was pushing up to her chest.

"Do you think this makes up for it? That just showing up out of the blue to save my skin is going to make up for everything? News flash: your brother, my dad and my sister do that all the time and they stick around!" The woman actually hesitated at this, stopping just in front of her portal as Yang forced her elbow forward, crawling across the blood floor as she sought to try to force herself closer to this woman. "You're here… you're finally here, and in a position where you can actually help us, help your family… and you're just running again… without saying a single Goddamn word." Yang ground her teeth together as she glared up at the woman's back.

"Do you think the whole 'silent' thing fits an image or something? Or are you just too chicken-shit to actually say anything?! Is that it?! Do you just have nothing to say to anything that you've done!? To all the horrible shit you've done to our family?! No 'Hi Yang, how are you, sorry for abandoning you, leaving your father a completely broken emotional mess that only got worse over time and just being a complete non-factor in your life, I swear, I had my reasons'!" Years of bitter resentment built up in her… but the anger, the hate, the absolute 'venom' in her hadn't been what stung most in Yang. It hadn't been what caused her the most pain and grief in this moment.

No. The anger and rage she felt, that she had felt, was fine by her. She 'hated' this woman for what she did, hated Raven Branwen, wouldn't even deem her as her own actual mother. She'd gotten used to these feelings...even if she wanted answers, they weren't positive answers. No, she knew ever since she was four that they weren't going to be positive answers. They weren't going to make things better, she knew this. She was prepared. She'd gotten used to this reality…

And then…

And then…

 _"-that I would finally have the chance to meet my son face to face."_

She didn't understand how Josuke could've handled it. She didn't understand why he would've allowed for it to be part of his thoughts. Because here and now, Yang felt it in the bile and the venom and the hate she felt for Raven Branwen and it 'killed her'. The sight of Joseph Joestar, a man who so 'absolutely' wanted to be part of his son's life but couldn't, who had hoped beyond hope for a chance to meet him face to face… and how cool and hip Josuke tried to play it, even with that smile at the corner of his mouth…

It wasn't the hate that was causing Yang so much pain right now. It was the hope. The sight of Raven… of her biological mother, after all these years, seeming to come out of the blue. Seeming so full of fury and rage as she cut down the man that had been about ready to take her life. Something that she'd attributed only to her family and closest friends. Something that touched her on some level… that made her feel protected and safe. While this woman was around… Yang knew there wasn't a force on Earth that could touch her. That much was clear. That Fire and Fury that existed within Yang as well, that she saw mirrored in this woman… it wasn't going to let some random gunman take her out.

If only that were the end of it. If only that were how this ended. If only she didn't know… because in the end It was knowing, 'knowing' for a fact that those thoughts were ridiculous, in not understanding how she could possibly allow herself to feel this way, just like she couldn't have possibly understood Josuke giving Joseph a chance… but still feeling that hope rise in her chest… and then feeling as it was crushed by the indifference, by the fact that this woman was walking away again.

Tears of frustration and grief pooled in the corners of Yang Xiao Long's lilac eyes as she stared at the back of her mother's head.

"... Are you really just going to walk off without saying anything? Without even 'telling' me why you're not staying… why you aren't helping us… why you aren't here instead of wherever… why…"

Raven Branwen stood in the opening of her portal. Not saying a word, not moving a muscle. There was a tension to her shoulders, to her entire body, as she stood still. For a long moment that stretched on for what felt like forever, silence dominated the pair.

A step… a cautious step backwards. It wasn't even a step actually; it was more like a shifting of the woman's foot in Yang's direction. But she'd seen it…

Just then Raven Branwen's head snapped towards the front facing entrance/exit to the train car and, without a moment's hesitation, she passed through the portal and it snapped shut behind her… leaving nothing behind.

Yang ground her teeth and buried her head into the floor underneath her, blood pooling against her forehead and bangs. She felt the hot tears sting the corners of her eyes as she held them back and slammed her fist into the ground.

Whatever. Just… just fuck it. She had more important things to do right now. Everyone else was in danger. Everyone else 'needed' her… and because they needed her, she'd be there. She just had to get up… just had to-

Not even a second later, the door in front of her flew open and Weiss Schnee ran through, Myrtenaster at the ready as she looked around the car.

"Yang, I'm here! I heard a lot of shots going off so I rushed… to… help… you…" Weiss' words died on her tongue as she slowly took in the scene in front of her; blood was scattered all around the train car, the mercenary she'd left Yang behind to deal with was now in chunks on the floor and Yang Xiao Long had quickly snapped her head up to look at her, blood dripping down her forehead as tears threatened the corners of her eyes.

…

"YANG, WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO?!"

"WEISS, HOLD ON, I, JUST GIVE ME A MOMENT TO EXPLAIN!"

The others could wait a moment; Yang was a wreck, in many different senses of the word, and had been in no position to fight. Weiss needed to tend to her… and then the pair could move to help the rest of their group.

Just as soon as Weiss got done hyperventilating over the mutilated corpse she'd just walked in on.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 8)**

* * *

 **A/N: To the crew who doesn't really get around to checking on the Spacebattles thread; yeah, sorry about five days ago. This chapter and its structuring has been giving me some hard times to I ended up postponing the update a bit so that I could fix it up. The reason I didn't make an announcement on here was partially because it hadn't really crossed my mind at the time and because, even if it had, I'd really rather not crowd the chapter select thing with these announcements so soon one after the other.**

 **On that note, sorry for the inconsistencies of these past couple chapters, they've just been somewhat difficult for me to really solidly get down in a way that I felt satisfied with. I hope you all understand and that you enjoy this chapter, as it did finally get to a point where I felt like it was up to snuff.**

 **In other news, Remnant's Bizarre Adventure just got its own TV Tropes Page. Thanks to FF's policy on outside site links I can't really hand that over to you all but if you search TV Tropes and this fanfic's name you'll probably find it pretty easily. Thanks again to Space Cowboy for having set it up and being a cool guy and, once more, thanks to everyone who's read, reviewed liked or otherwise commented for this fic. I appreciate all of you and I'm really happy that you all have enjoyed the ride so far.**

 **Till next time!**


	54. The Breach (Act 8)

The streets of Vale. Quiet, peaceful, especially in places like these. Somewhat busy with a friendly officer on the corner and a Hunter almost assuredly somewhere in the crowd. Eyes kept peeled for any sign of a criminal or other villain who could possibly rise up to disturb the peace. It was meant to feel like no one could be touched… but it was plain to see that the illusion was shattering. The people who looked so confident and calm that their lives were in no way in any danger had been thoroughly shaken by the prison break not days ago. For the first time in a long time, much of Vale had been out of the control of the Government Council, the Police and the Hunter's Academy and the city had needed their defenders to reach ouch and stomp these villains, these horrible monsters, back into the ground. Even after having done so, however, it didn't bring the illusion back. After all, an illusion so thoroughly shattered was not going to be built back up in a matter of days. Confidence that had taken generations to build and had been destroyed in a moment had not been ready to come back just because peace had, temporarily, been allowed to reign again. If he could sense all this, then surely the Grimm outside the city wall's surely felt that…

Which, if that was the plan, then that was exactly what that lady with the crazy eyes wanted. He walked down the streets, going completely unnoticed due to what he was; he wasn't some violent criminal, not some obvious miscreant. Sure, he could have been annoying and caused trouble, but people expected that of folks like him. It hadn't been uncommon behavior and most people ignored it. The crazy lady said that's what made people like him somewhat valuable, in the right conditions. He didn't get the full grasp of it, but what he did get had made him excited; bottom line, if he followed her orders and did what she wanted, powers the likes of which he could've only dreamed of and the opportunity to live his pastime to the fullest, without ever having to worry about anything else, were his. In all honesty, it had been hard for him to care much one way or the other; though he wouldn't have had a notion of it, people like him had a hard time stepping outside of their own little worlds and realizing what impacts their actions, or the actions of those who promised what they wanted, would have. All he had known was that what the lady with the crazy eyes had promised, and what he had gotten, had been something to relieve his boredom. Something that'd make his past time all the more fun and all the more interesting. All he had to do for the lady afterward was one little thing. One little favor, one teeny tiny exertion of his abilities.

Honestly, he'd been stoked. Now, today was the day for him to set up; today was the day that he'd have to make his move. It had been easy enough; no one figured to look in his direction or stop him to ask where he thought he'd be going. Even if he told them, what people in their right mind would care? Sure, go to the Walls of Beacon. See a little bit of the city's grand architecture and appreciate it. People like him needed to learn things about where he lived both so that he could appreciate them and so that he could know what to do in an emergency situation.

No one minded the almost vacant way he'd stared off whenever they ran their mouths, disinterested in everything but the potential to do the one thing he loved… and while they did stare, everyone had either been not curious enough or too polite to ask the young man about his wound, so obvious and pronounced, that everyone could see it. Again, even if he'd told them the truth about it, they'd probably have laughed it off as the wild imagination befitting someone like him.

So as the scratched the hole in his cheek, the thing having itched whenever he'd not played his favorite game in a while, he picked up his pace as he approached the Walls of Vale. Time to do what crazy eyes wanted… and then he could have some real fun with his Stand.

* * *

"Ruby!" Jotaro exclaimed as he felt the heat of the explosion suddenly rip at his back, the man having turned to face the sudden onslaught of fire and smoke as he covered his eyes slightly. Jotaro couldn't have said that he expected this outcome, that he thought that Ruby would've gotten caught in the first turn of her first solo battle with a Stand User so quickly. Yet, here they were; the smoke cleared and, on the train car, an empty spot stood, a bit of scorched metal having been all that marked the spot where Ruby Rose had been. Jotaro ground his teeth slightly at the sight, though his righteous fury hadn't had time to properly express itself as a shadow fell upon him.

"Oi, Kujo, don't go looking for barbecued runs while your own ass is still on the line!" Jotaro grimaced as he turned back toward his own battle, the great Atlesian Paladin having raised both its limbs up in the air as Roman Torchwick readied his mech to slam Jotaro's body into the metal frame of the train car. As the arms of the Paladin swung down, Star Platinum immediately formed in between Jotaro and this assault and, with its one good hand, the Stand formed a fist and reared it back.

" **ORA!** " With a mighty ringing sound the Stand struck the Paladin in its extremities, the force of the blow having been more than enough to cause the Paladin's arms to swing back and away from Stand and Stand Master. Before Jotaro had much time to respond, Roman righted the Atlesian Paladin and took careful aim, its machine gun pointed straight at the cap wearing Hunter. A volley of bullets flew towards Jotaro and Star Platinum. The experienced Hunter scowled slightly as he broke off into a sprint, all the while Star Platinum kept in front of him. " **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~** " Without its second hand, Star Platinum wasn't able to release a volley of blows that would've been fast enough to deflect all the bullets that Roman had been ready to send the Stand User's way. Jotaro knew that his only strategy at moments like these were to limit the number of bullets overall that would've come for him; force Roman to either lead or follow with his trail of bullets, with those that formed the vanguard being all that Star Platinum had to punch away while the rest ricocheted uselessly off the floor of the train car.

"Well… I have to admit, I hadn't expected much and even with that low of a bar, I find myself disappointed." The assassin for hire, Oyecomova, remarked dryly as he took a long drag on his cigarette, the long piping having allowed ample smoke to build up before he expelled it. "Listen To My Rhythm is a surprising Stand, of course, but I might've expected much more out of a girl with such a loudmouth. Though I suppose that served me-"

"Who're you calling a loudmouth, jerk!" Oyecomova flinched, as had Roman, as the all too familiar voice rang out across the train car. Before Oyecomova could respond, another loud, booming shot echoed from Crescent Rose's sniper rifle function and, within a second of the sound, Listen To My Rhythm's torso again crumpled as a strong force impacted it dead in the chest, Oyecomova having gasped, choking on cigarette smoke, as the injury was reflected back into him. Aura kept the bullet from having punctured Listen To My Rhythm, but a few ribs had more than likely been bruised in the attack. The Paladin's gunfire ceased as Torchwick took a moment to try to get a hold of the situation, however briefly, which allowed Jotaro some time to look for the source of the noise himself. Jotaro's frown lessened into his usual, calm exterior as he finally spotted the source; Ruby Rose, Huntress-In-Training, stood on top of the previous train car, he feet just barely on the edge of it as she kept Crescent Rose pointed at Oyecomova, its barrel still smoked from the previous shot.

"I mean really! I'm not going to sit here and be insulted by someone who thinks that the Gods tell them to murder people! Seriously, what is 'wrong' with you?!" Oyecomova grimaced at the sight of the silver eyed Huntress as she, again, cocked Crescent Rose, a spent shell having been sent flying out of the gun's chamber.

"I thought I caught you off guard in my explosion. I see the speed of your Semblance hasn't been understated… you must've been moving quite quickly to avoid being caught in the blast in that short span of time you had been allotted." Oyecomova spoke calmly as he assessed the situation, taking another drag on his cigarette even as he still gasped in pain from the chest shot his Stand had taken.

"Seems like that's two abilities you didn't take as seriously as you should have… and this time you don't get an opportunity to treat me like an idiot by tricking me into getting blown up!" Ruby declared this, hand on her hip, as she puffed out her chest… though soon enough it seemed that Ruby's natural nervousness slowly perked up as she glanced over to Jotaro, an apologetic look on her face. "Hehehe...no offense Jotaro, I don't mean anything by that! I mean, sure, he did technically trick you but that doesn't mean I think you're an idiot for being tricked, even though I did just say what I said, I didn't mean it as an insult to anyone who did get their arm blown up, please don't be mad!" Ruby quickly corrected herself as she called out after Jotaro, the older man just having shaken his head slightly.

" **Yare yare daze** … the kid follows up doing something cool by spazzing out like that." Jotaro's eyes glanced back over to Torchwick, the man having seemingly gotten over his immediate shock as he ground his teeth together and, with a dramatic flair, swung the Paladin's arm in such a way that, if it had fingers on its gun arm, it would've pointed at Oyecomova.

"Hey, do your job and kill her! I'm not paying you to screw up! Hell, I don't even pay the Faunus to screw up!" Oyecomova took Roman's attitude in stride as he took another hit of his cigarette, just calmly staring at the man as he did so.

"From what I understand you don't pay the White Fang anything, but I concede to your point, my employer." Oyecomova turned his attention back to Ruby as he blew smoke into the air. "You aren't paying me so that this little brat can live." With that, Oyecomova blew out another cloud of smoke, the speed the train had been moving at kicked up wind powerful enough to have sent it flying back towards Ruby. The young woman grimaced as she saw yet more clock heads embed themselves into the smoke and, with another blink, she moved out of the way of 'another' explosion that tore apart the train car she'd been standing on.

A smirk slowly formed over Jotaro's lips as he watched the display, which seemed to have caught Torchwick's ire as Jotaro had to, with Star Platinum's aid, quickly move out of the way of the Paladin's gun arm as it slammed into where he had been.

"I wouldn't be so quick to crack a smile if I were you Kujo Jotaro. Ruby Rose just got lucky there in avoiding old Rhythm boy's Stand Power. The guy's versatile, he can turn anything he touches or that touches him into a bomb. The girl won't be able to keep up forever." Jotaro's smirk dropped slightly at that, as he adjusted his white cap.

"If you honestly think that then you've either deluded yourself into wishful thinking or you aren't the clever planner and fighter we took you for." Torchwick ground his teeth together at this, an annoyance born quite deeply in the man's eyes that, if Jotaro had time to think of it, would've seemed out of place for such a minor insult. Still, the man had to focus on the battle in front of him and behind him, to ensure that neither combatant would've tried to take advantage of him while he hadn't been paying attention.

"I'll readily admit that you found a Stand that countered my ability: Listen To My Rhythm's ability to turn myself or Star Platinum into bombs ourselves effectively nullifies our advantage in Stopped Time. Pretty much every way Star Platinum has for hurting someone seriously comes from getting in close, whether it be a finger or its whole fist… but I guess you hadn't taken into account that I'd be bringing in my own surprise." Jotaro leaned back slightly, a sort of pose taken up by the Stand User as he pointed up to Torchwick. "Oyecomova's ability is limited because he requires something to be up close to him or his Stand for it to first be turned into a bomb… and no matter how quick the ability might be able to fire, it can still only move as fast as the thing carrying the bombs can move and just as randomly.

"Ruby Rose might not be a greatly experienced Huntress… but she's already tipped into one important aspect of fighting your little friend." Jotaro watched as Ruby blinked across the train car; from surface to surface, avoiding clouds of smoke that Oyecomova blew her away as she did, each blink having taken her away from another explosion, all the while in the few moments where Ruby was in view long enough to be clearly seen, she seemed to be readying Crescent Rose, prepared to take another shot when she thought she'd have the opportunity. "She's never going to stop moving. Because of where we are, because Oyecomova can't control the exact trail of whatever smoke he sends her way, his attacks are going to be predictable. The kid's going to see him coming from a mile away… and him?"

Jotaro's last word was punctuated by another round of Crescent Rose having been fired, a bullet drilled itself into the shoulder of Listen To My Rhythm, the force having caused Oyecomova to practically spin in place as he raised a hand to hold onto his bruised shoulder.

"Hell, I doubt he can even tell where she actually is half the time." Indeed, though Oyecomova remained calm and collected the entire time, his eyes having carefully scanned his surroundings, it had remained clear that Ruby Rose's Semblance had just allowed her to move too quickly, too fast. With that, Jotaro returned his focus back to Roman, the man having scowled at Jotaro as he laid this all out for him.

"You, on the other hand, I've only not just beaten into a bloody pulp because I'm effectively having to fight with one hand behind my back." And without his Stand ability while he allowed his heart to rest, to boot. Jotaro, and Star Platinum soon after, clenched their own good fist as they stared Roman Torchwick down. "If I'd had both hands, you'd be an unconscious mess of broken bones and a bloody lip right now Torchwick. If you lacked Aura, I promise that you'd be eating through a straw for months." Torchwick had done his best to smirk back at Jotaro as several latches on the back of the Paladin popped open.

"Well good for you, you can block bullets one handed. Let's see how you deal with some more explosives, you really seemed to enjoy those!" With that, a small barrage of missiles flew out from the pod on the back of the Paladin and soared through the air, as they reached the pinnacle of their flight, it had been clear that the munitions were ready to descend right back down for Jotaro and Star Platinum.

"STAR FINGER!" Only for Roman to watch, jaw agape, as Star Platinum 'pointed' up at the missiles and extended its middle and pointer finger out, the two digits having stretched an absurd distance before they swung across the various missiles, having torn them to shreds before they combusted. The metal bits that remained of the missles slowly tumbled out of the sky and rained down onto the pair as Jotaro scowled slightly, Star Platinum's finger having returned back down to its regular length as the Stand shook off the sting of the explosions, Jotaro's own fingers slightly bruised from the experience.

"I'll have to hand it to you, that was 'almost' as unpleasant as Oyecomova and his Stand Ability. Then again, I haven't exactly had to tank a lot of explosions in my time with Star Platinum's Aura. Still, this just goes to show Roman…"

"What's that exactly, Kujo…" Roman Torchwick growled slightly as the pod on the back of the Paladin closed, Roman having turned the war machine's guns backs onto Jotaro and Star Platinum as the Stand User just leaned back, ever so slightly, in place, while he pointed his bruised fingers Roman's way.

"Why I'm going to tear that Paladin limb from limb, drag you out of its cockpit, and then beat you senseless with one hand, Torchwick. Because of one simple fact. That even sixty years after Stroheim bore witness, that Mantle's Technology still has nothing on Stand Power. If you're having a hard time wrapping your mind around that lesson… well, don't worry." With those words, Kujo Jotaro reached his bruised fingers up towards on edge of his cap's bill and, with a graceful swipe, brought it across the rim, the motion having caused the rim to give a quick 'shine' at having been polished in such a manner. "Because I'm a teacher by trade, so I'll be more than happy to school you."

…

To the two grown adults, having bared witness to Kujo Jotaro's attempt to sound like a big, cool tough guy, could only just stare at him for a moment. Kujo Jotaro had the build and demeanor of one of those silent badasses to begin with, much like the star of an old Vacuoan flick. Yet here they had seen the man attempt to polish that image with a line… perhaps the corniest, most goofy line either of them had heard in their entire lives. It was silly and ridiculous and, had it come out of the mouth of any other man on Remnant, would've earned only derision from the pair.

Had Blake or Weiss been there, they would've likely either gaped in shock that a man like Jotaro would've said something like that or rolled their eyes. Yang would've likely appreciated the joke… and as for Ruby Rose?

"... That was the coolest thing I've ever heard in my entire life… oh man, does that mean all the cool one liners only go downhill from here? Oh wait, or maybe they get even better!" The fangirl over Hunters that she had been, Ruby found herself momentarily enthralled in what she thought as a true blue heroic one liner delivered by an experienced Hunter.

"Perhaps pay less attention to that drivel and more attention to the battle." Ruby was snapped out of her reverie as Oyecomova spoke up, the man having billowed more smoke at the young woman before she blinked off again.

"Hey! I'll have you know that cool one liners aren't drivel! It's the kind of stuff heroic Hunters say that helps reassure people that everything's going to be alright!" Ruby spoke back, as if insulted on behalf of Jotaro for Oyecomova's derisive attitude, as Ruby just narrowed her gaze at him. "Besides, I have to right where I want you! With my speed, your Stand's Power can't keep up with me! All I have to do is keep landing shots and you'll go down just luck any other Stand User we've come across!" Oyecomova 'hated' being belittled. Though he maintained his calm, professional exterior, the man couldn't have helped but allow Ruby's attitude to rankle him. The fact that it had come from such a young girl, who had clearly known so little about the world, had only made it more insulting, having been so readily blown off by a young child.

The fact that it hadn't been entirely false had been something else that rankled Oyecomova. The man was proud of his work, as should be any man who had their duties ordained by the Gods themselves, but that hadn't meant that Oyecomova was a man who was overconfident or allowed his pride to obscure his vision of the truth. No, assassins who allowed that 'died' sooner or later, and Oyecomova had not been about to allow that to happen to him. The truth hadn't been far off from what the young woman described… in terms of power and ability, the girl's Semblance had indeed checkmated Listen To My Rhythm to some degree… though, it hadn't only been that.

Yes, there had been the obvious weakness in comparing Listen To My Rhythm to this Speed Semblance… the fact that the girl was able to avoid so many of his explosions with just a thought and a flare of her Aura had been absolutely aggravating. However, that alone shouldn't have caused the end all be all of the fight. One could adapt and adjust their strategy… the problem lay in the environment as well. Oyecomova performed at his best when he had a myriad of materials and means of transporting his bombs. Smoke was useful but water, lengths of rope, plants, animals… heck, he'd once set bombs in 'bees' of all things, all of these things could have and often had served as conduits for his Stand and its ability. Yet, here he stood, effectively checked by this young girl not just because of her speed… but because Oyecomova 'lacked'.

He lacked other materials other than his smoke or direct contact with the enemy. He couldn't blow up these Paladins, lest it start a chain reaction that blew 'everyone' on this train car up, himself included. Same reason he couldn't blow up the train car itself. Because these tunnels had been abandoned, there was no wildlife for him to have taken advantage of and, with a sealed ceiling, no rain or water for him to quickly use as a medium. More than most times in his sordid career as an assassin, Oyecomova had been greatly limited by the outline of his job, what he was meant to protect and what he had available for him to use. The fact that this girl could do so much hard to him from so far away had proven to be all the more frustrating because Oyecomova had, in one move, effectively crippled the man he considered far more dangerous, Kujo Jotaro.

Now here stood this idiotic young girl who threatened to derail a mission that, up to that point, had gone 'perfectly' all because she had a rifle and an ability while he was limited in how he could've approached his problem with Listen To My Rhythm. It had been a conundrum to be sure… however, if there was one thing that had been certain, it was that Oyecomova had gotten himself out of far stickier situations than this. The assassin had not lived for so long and accomplished so many jobs without having pulled some strategies he needed out at the last second, or having thought of a creative means of using his environment to kill his target with Listen To My Rhythm…

Hmmm… perhaps he'd been too busy looking 'outward' for a means of killing Ruby Rose with his Stand's Ability. Yes… this girl, she didn't have 'that' kind of resolve. He could safely attempt to pull something like this off without much care. It'd hurt, it'd hurt like a bitch, but she wouldn't go for anywhere that had been sure to kill him. A slightly changed gameplan in mind, the assassin blew out another cloud of smoke and, once again, the black and red Huntress just vanished, almost into thin air. Oyecomova waited, his body braced for impact. Indeed, much as Oyecomova expected, another Sniper Round drilled into Listen To My Rhythm, this time it's almost non-existent left shoulder, and Oyecomova flew back with the blow.

What Ruby hadn't expected was the sudden spout of blood that shot from Oyecomova's shoulder, having still expected his Stand's Aura to tank at least another couple hits. At that, Ruby Rose stopped moving around at her heightened speeds, the young woman's feet having practically skid across the ground as her silver eyes went wide. The assassin reached up and gripped his shoulder, hand holding onto his slightly bleeding wound as he kept his head down slightly. As much as Ruby's sense of heroic justice was sickened by this guy, she hadn't wanted to nearly or accidentally kill him. That wasn't heroic and that wasn't for the best; he needed to be brought in for justice. So to see that she very nearly blew his left arm off, which probably would've killed him, caused the girl to halt in place for a moment as she watched Oyecomova suck in deep breaths of air.

"H-Hey! Are you…" Ruby shook her head, now wasn't the time to ask the bad guy if he was alright, now was the time to get him to surrender! If his Stand's Aura was so far gone that her shot could now actually drill into it and cause some serious harm, then she had the high ground in this scenario. Now if she kept up her assault, she could seriously injure him. Surely he would've taken that into account and do the sensible thing and surrender, right? Then she could go help Jotaro, they'd beat up Roman together and then hey, that'd be that. So right now, Ruby needed a tough face.

"Alright, uh, villain!" Ruby did her best to scowl as she pointed over at Oyecomova, Crescent Rose still at her side. "You've been bested! Your Stand's Aura has failed you and you're injured… you're just lucky that I didn't… blegh… blow your arm off…" Ruby more whispered the last part of that than anything, the girl's face obviously turning a little green at the thought of such a thing. Still, she shook it off and continued on with the tough act. "So how about you go ahead, give up and put your Stand and its power to the side so we don't have to… really badly injure, o-or kill, yeah, or… kill you…" Ruby coughed into her fist slightly, but even after that stumble, she placed a hand on her hip in a vague imitation of her sister's own standoffish pose as she looked at him. "So let's get this over with before 'you' get hurt worse!" Ruby declared with a stern expression on her face.

Oyecomova had to admit, the amusement he had felt was almost enough to make him forget about the bullet wound. 'Almost' because, Gods above, this wound 'did' hurt something fierce. It was easy to forget, with how Listen To My Rhythm could usually take these hits for him, that pain like this was still very much a threat to his own existence. Still, if allowing for a slight bit of pain meant that he could get the drop on this girl again, then so be it. With that thought clear in his mind, Oyecomova just sighed as he first dropped his cigarette holder on the ground, cigarette still burning, and then raised both hands in the air, Ruby having flinched in surprise as she watched the display.

"Well, I certainly can't argue with that hard resolve and such a serious threat. Very well little one, I tip my hat to you… you win." Oyecomova bowed his head slightly as he kept his hands in the air, Ruby having just narrowed her gaze for a moment as she watched him carefully. After a moment of him not trying anything, Ruby just blinked in surprise as she nodded.

"Wow that worked! I almost can't believe it!" With that, Ruby swapped Crescent Rose back into its Scythe form, just in case he tried anything while she was close up, as she approached Oyecomova. The man just watched her approach, very carefully, as her footsteps rang against the floor of the train car. Louder and louder as she got closer and closer. However, before Ruby could get within direct contact of Oyecomova, she stopped, her eyes narrowed as she seemed to realize something.

"Wait, how exactly 'am' I supposed to secure you without you putting bombs on me?" Oyecomova just grinned at this, a cruel and amused one as he nodded.

"Well, I'll hand it to you, you're certainly one of the few people who actually think that through enough to realize that. Sadly, I did have a backup plan in case you suddenly came to your senses." With that, Oyecomova swung his bloody hand at Ruby Rose, a wash of blood having been sent flying toward the young girl's face. Ruby Rose didn't know how she'd seen it. Honestly, it was all a bit of a blur of action and motion for her as she realized that Oyecomova had just tried to play her and play her hard. However, somehow, someway, she had been able to pick them up. Her eyes focused in on the rivulets of blood as they approached. While most other people likely would've closed their eyes and flinched, having figured it to be nothing… Ruby saw more.

She saw little clocks within the blood, pinned into the substance that was now rapidly approaching her face. Ruby Rose, in that split second, did two things. She began spinning Crescent Rose as fast as she could right in front of her and she tapped into her Semblance. Both actions would be cause for Ruby to sigh in relief soon after as an explosion immediately ripped out right in front of her. While her Semblance did its best to carry her off, it wasn't going to outpace such an immediately close explosion. But Crescent Rose, her ever faithful weapon, her child, and its spin allowed Ruby to push off at least some of the energy and fire while her Semblance 'really' got moving.

In nearly a split second another explosion ran its course on the train car and Ruby Rose had, yet again, disappeared. On the other side of the train car, Roman Torchwick had been growing more and more frustrated and more and more angry. This guy, this bastard right in front of him, the pompous asshole who had been causing everyone so much trouble these past couple months, who they all had to tiptoe around lest her pummel them into the ground, was effectively crippled. He had one hand damn near blown off and made completely useless, a condition reflected back on his Stand. He should've been a piece of cake; even a Hunter would find that the pain of such an injury combined with the steady assault that Roman had been putting this guy under would've been too much pressure, would've been too much for them to handle.

So why was it that it was the left arm of his Atlesian Paladin, STATE OF THE ART MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, that gave first?

" **OOOOORRRAAAAAAAAAAA!** " With a mighty battlecry, Kujo Jotaro slammed his fist into the left arm of the mech and the arm and its gun, having taken so much punishment from Star Platinum having defended itself or having occasionally struck back when given the opportunity, finally folded. The metal bent and buckled, collapsing in on itself as Star Platinum drove its fist deeper and deeper into the weapon. Before Torchwick could've even thought to have withdrawn the machine's arm for safety, to get it 'away' from Star Platinum so he could've at least kept something on hand to defend himself while he shot at the Stand with his other gun arm, Star Platinum opened up its hand, still buried inside the metal of the arm, and 'grabbed' on, metal folding under its grip.

Roman had done his best to maneuver the Paladin's other arm to point down at Star Platinum, to fire at it while it had its only useful hand full. However, Star Platinum just glared up at Torchwick and 'pulled'.

" **ORAAAAA!** " The sheer force that Star Platinum pulled caused the entire left side of his Paladin to go tugging along with the Stand, Torchwick having quickly had to readjust the footing of his Paladin so that it didn't fall flat on its face. The change in posture and positioning had caused his usable gun arm to swing wildly away from Star Platinum or Kujo Jotaro.

It had also giving Star Platinum just the right position to dig its own feet in before it violently swung its arm, still holding onto the Paladin's left, 'away' from the mech's body.

" **ORA!** " With the tearing and breaking of metal and wires, Star Platinum bodily tore the left arm of the Paladin off of the mech, a shower of sparks and electricity immediately having shot off the hole in the mech where its arm had previously been attached, loose wires immediately having dangled down and swung around from the force. Roman gasped and did his best to move away from the left side of his cockpit, the stray, live wires having swung precariously close to the position where he had been. That...that wouldn't have been a pleasant experience.

Then again, neither was what he was about to experience.

" **ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!** " It was an almost comical sight to see but, sure enough, everyone had been there to witness it. Star Platinum, still gripping onto the Paladin's left arm with its own good hand, immediately turned on Torchwick and began 'swinging'. The heavy metal arm of the Atlesian Paladin started to pound away at the rest of the mech, being swung around like a baseball bat or a cane as the Stand clobbered the mech with its own arm. A shower of nuts, bolts, sparks and sheets of metal fly everywhere as the Stand just went to town on Torchwick's Paladin. Roman was being sent rocketing around his cockpit with each blow, his head banging against various surfaces as each his caused his Atlesian Paladin to violently swing around, its frame denting and breaking. However, given that one hunk of metal had been slightly more punished than the other, it was Star Platinum's makeshift weapon that actually gave first, the arm of the Atlesian Paladin having broken into dozens of pieces as it laid scattered on the ground.

Now, Roman might've wanted to take advantage of this, might've wanted to turn his gun barrel around and just start shooting Jotaro and Star Platinum as quickly as he could… however, Roman Torchwick was currently sporting perhaps the worst headache he'd ever had, as he held onto his head. Furthermore, the damage had been done; a great deal of the Paladin was dented or otherwise broken, pieces of metal having either buckled and driven themselves into key bits of the mech or having broken off entirely and lodged themselves into gears and pumps and mechanisms that had been important for the giant piece of technology to function. While the mech was mobile and certainly dangerous, it wasn't 'heavily' armored. There weren't thick plates that had covered every last inch of the mech and easily protected all of its wiring and all of its more functional pieces.

So having been essentially beaten down by a piece of itself for several seconds had done the Atlesian Paladin no favors in actually having been able to stand upright and move around. However, Torchwick had also been to slow to realize this as, by the time he attempted to get the Paladin to respond to his orders and commands and he had found that his own weapon had been, effectively, made unresponsive, a shadow fell across his cockpit.

A shadow that belonged to none other than Star Platinum as the Stand 'glared' down at Roman, its fist reared back. Before Torchwick would've done much of anything, the Stand punched the outer wall of the cockpit and completely broke it, creating a large hole through which it grabbed onto Torchwick. In a 'very' painful maneuver, Torchwick soon found himself bodily pulled from his cockpit, forced to bend slightly through the harnesses that he had secured himself into the cockpit with, before he was bodily thrown out of it and onto the train car outside. Roman groaned and cursed as he hit the metal floor of the train car hard, having winced as he forced himself up onto his feet. Alright, so he was outside, no problem. All he had to do was get into another one of these Paladins, fresh as a daisy, and then continue the fight. Sure, Jotaro might've tried to run interference, but that was okay. With his cane, he would've…

His cane, where had… Roman Torchwick's eyes went wide as he turned back to face the cockpit he had just been tossed out of. He'd left his cane off to the side, not having had time to grab it before Star Platinum had bodily pulled him through his harness and tossed him out like yesterday's trash. There he saw Star Platinum as it held onto his cane… and then quickly snapped it in half.

Well Hell, at least he hadn't paid for that cane, but still, that had left him with a problem that-

"So, seems that you're increasingly out of options here Torchwick." Roman's eyes went wide; it figured that, as short as Star Platinum's range had been, that Jotaro would've been close by. What he hadn't noticed was that the giant of a man had practically been right behind him, his shadow having been obscured by the Paladin's. Roman ground his teeth together for a moment before, in a quick fit, he swung around and threw his fist into Jotaro's face.

Only to be met with Star Platinum's hand as it blocked his blow, having grabbed onto it. The Stand had dissipated in the moment he turned away from it and had reappeared by its Master, the Stand's hard eyes having glared down at Torchwick, now caught in its grasp. Roman's eyes went wide as he realized where his hand was and, for a moment, he struggled to get his fist out of the iron grip of the Stand…

 ***Crunch***

Through his Aura and with its own great strength, Roman Torchwick cried out in pain as Star Platinum finally let go of him, the career criminal having stumbled back away as he held onto his broken hand, having been shattered in the grip of the incredibly powerful Stand before him.

"I have to wonder what kind of man you are that it took less time for me to break one of your bones than it did for me to break the bones of that girl you sent to Beacon's Dance." Roman's skin began to shine as sweat poured down it, the man having turned to face the giant of a man before him as Jotaro reached up for the edge of his cap. "You know… the assault you called for that would've killed or captured numerous students that I've been watching over, three of which are kids I've known for years." Jotaro dipped his cap's rim down so that it obscured his gaze, shadows having fallen over the upper portion of his face. "Though really, that's not even what I'm most mad about when it comes to you Roman Torchwick… no. I think attempting to murder my grandfather 'really' takes the cake in that regard." Jotaro took a step forward as Roman Torchwick desperately took a step back.

"If you ever come across a man named Steely Dan… you should ask how doing 'that' works out for people I get my hands on." Roman swallowed a huge lump in his throat, the man having attempted to grin despite it all.

"C-Come on now, you and I both know you're not going to kill me. Y-You've got to be on orders to bring me in. After all, I know so much, right? I'm such a valuable wellspring of information for you all." Roman seemed to have parroted this information, as if it had been something he'd been keen to remind himself of this entire time. Jotaro just nodded slowly.

"You're right… I'm not going to kill you. I am going to bring you in. But-" Jotaro slowly raised his head so that Roman saw his eyes and found a cold, almost stone-like gaze that met his own. "That doesn't mean I can't beat you into a pulp before I drag your sorry ass back to get fixed in a prison cell. I think they'll understand if I say that I needed to do that in order to 'secure' you." Star Platinum fully formed in front of Jotaro as he said this, the career criminal before him having gasped out as he tripped back, leaning against the leg of his Atlesian Paladin for support as he raised a hand defensively.

"Wait, wait, wait, you… you don't…" Roman seemed keen to say something in that moment as he bit his lip, Jotaro's gaze having narrowed in momentary interest as the orange-haired criminal looked at the experienced Hunter with both hate and panic. However, it seemed Torchwick had thought better and, instead, opted for simple begging. "Look, I'm a rich man, surely you and I can-"

" **ORA!** " A fist had suddenly been driven into Roman Torchwick's face, Star Platinum's knuckles having practically lined up with Roman's front teeth as an explosion of blood flew from the corners of the man's mouth.

"You and Steely Dan really would've gotten along…" Jotaro began as he leaned back slightly. "You're both truly scum." With that, Jotaro just pointed his good hand at Roman Torchwick, a single finger extended.

And Star Platinum got to work.

" **OOOOORRRRAAAAA! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~! ORRRAAA! ORA ORA OOOORA! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA - OOORRRAAA!** "

Several of the most painful seconds the man had ever felt in his entire life passed before, with a final punch, Roman Torchwick had been sent soaring through the air before he skittered across the ground. Bloody and broken, Roman Torchwick just spasmed in place for a few moments, unconscious and unable to do much more than that, as Jotaro just heaved a sigh of relief as he let go of his cap.

"Finally." Jotaro whispered under his breath as the experienced Hunter turned back to the situation with Oyecomova and Ruby, the former having ground his teeth together at the sight.

"I swear, they say good help is hard to find these days, but that's more true of reliable employers… not exactly our best moment here…"

"OH MY GOD!" Still, the assassin did crack a smile as he heard Ruby Rose cry out in obvious anguish, having figured that his gambit had managed to catch the girl off guard. Oyecomova turned to look at the source of the voice and, while he did admit that Ruby Rose has been scuffed up ever so slightly, it looked like her Aura had pretty much absorbed most of the damage his explosion had done. Her clothes had been a bit scorched but otherwise, she looked fine. The only thing that looked like it had taken some actual harm had been-

"CRESCENT ROSE, MY BABY, WHAT DID THAT MONSTER DO TO YOU!" Having used her Sniper-Scythe as part of her own maneuver to try and get away from the explosion, Ruby knew that part of this had been her fault. She could've very easily just tried to get away from the explosion without putting her weapon at risk but even Ruby was fully cognizant of the fact that such a thing would've been a bad idea. The explosions were 'powerful' and in a fight where her speed meant everything, being hurt or being forced to slow down would've potentially been a death sentence. So she used Crescent Rose as a bit of a makeshift shield as she spun it around to deflect some of the heat and force from her…

However, that heat and force had just ended up scarring the front of her beautiful weapon! Now Crescent Rose was scuffed up and scarred, a few deep burns having formed on the face of the blade and on the pristine metal work. For so long, Ruby Rose had worked hard to keep her weapon in pristine condition, always cleaning and repairing it whenever she needed to so that her baby shined.

Now the silver eyed Huntress could only cradle her weapon in her arms before she glared at Oyecomova. The assassin grimaced as he looked around at the situation… this hadn't looked good. Torchwick was down which meant Kujo Jotaro had been effectively freed up. While he hadn't needed to worry about the man coming up to him and punching him, he 'had' needed to worry about him potentially throwing stuff at him as makeshift projectiles. Listen To My Rhythm would've been able to tank the blows, surely, but between that and the girl's sniper rifle, he would've found himself truly whittled down.

Oyecomova cursed under is breath. If he wasn't so limited by his environment and the bylines of the agreement, if he could've been in a place with more ready materials or if he could've blown up this train, he would've been in a better spot to handle this battle. Hell, if the direction of the wind thanks to the train's movements hadn't been so harsh and he could manipulate his cloud of smoke more, he might've had an easier time. Or if his employer had actually been somewhat capable, perhaps he wouldn't have had to stress over all this.

Yet Oyecomova could only grouse over what could've been for so long. Truth was, while he was here to kill these two, it wasn't necessarily his end all be all goal. Sure, it would've been good, but he was here primarily for defense. To stall for just long enough for-

"Looks like you're in a spot of trouble there." Oyecomova sighed in some relief as he turned his gaze up to the top of the train car where he spotted his associate, Eleven Men, standing. Ruby and Jotaro immediately turned their gaze to the new arrival, who just looked at the scene with some bemusement as he scratched his forehead with the edge of the barrel of his revolver. "Torchwick's down, that Paladin looks like it's seen better days and… well, not for nothing, but the kid here and Mr. Kujo over there don't look particularly dead. I figured you could've handled another kid…" Oyecomova sighed as he adjusted his own hat.

"I'm afraid that her Semblance proves to be a challenge for Listen To My Rhythm, especially with the current environment I've been forced to fight in. I trust that you've had better luck." Eleven Men just frowned as he shook his head.

"Fraid not, though not for lack of trying; almost gave that blonde girl a new hole in her head but… well, we've got some trouble onboard it seems." Oyecomova knew that, if Eleven Men described it as 'trouble', then it was likely so.

"Perfect…" Oyecomova groused as, very quickly, they all heard from a couple train cars down that some doors had been rapidly opened and closed. "It also sounds like we're set to have more company very soon."

"Which means it sounds like you all are about to get your butts kicked!" Ruby cried out as she readied Crescent Rose. "Jotaro can probably take this guy here and meanwhile my Team can just shoot your Stand until you give up! You have no chance!" For the first time in the fight, Ruby saw genuine frustration on Oyecomova's face as he took in her words, the man having bent down to pick up his cigarette holder as he took a drag on it.

"Sadly I don't think she's wrong there, we're pretty well licked if we stay here I think. I've lost… a fella." Oyecomova's eyes went a bit wide; he 'did' meet some pretty hard trouble if he actually lost one of his men. However, from Eleven, or Ten he supposed, Men's position, he looked out across the tracks… and he saw his associate crack a grin. "Though thankfully, I do believe this is our stop."

There was a brief moment where Oyecomova needed to run that line through his head. After he'd done so, however, a grin formed on his face as he took a much lighter drag on his cigarette.

"Is that right? Well Eleven Men, we should probably go ahead and get off then. We 'do' have a schedule to keep, after all." With that, Oyecomova started walking over to the edge of the open train car, the scenery flying right past him as he walked over to the metal guard railing that separated him from being completely off the train. Ruby and Jotaro both tensed up as they watched this, Oyecomova having just looked so casually at the pair of them. "Well you two, I can't say that these past couple weeks haven't been fun but, after all this, I'm exhausted. I spent a great deal of time traveling to get snuck into Vale, I spent time having to deal with Torchwick and the others, I lost 'a' rousing game of Rock Paper Scissors and now I've had to deal with the two of 'you'." With that, Oyecomova took a drag on his cigarette as he blew out some smoke. "If I could offer a friendly word of advice, I'd get off this train as quickly as you could… or don't. No skin off my nose if you all die." With that, Oyecomova swung a leg over the railing and, in that moment, both Ruby Rose and Jotaro moved into action.

"Star Platinum!" The experienced Hunter called out for his Stand, the great hulking behemoth having formed as, with its good hand, it reached down to grab a bolt from the ground. Jotaro's intent had been to throw the bolt as hard as Star Platinum could at Oyecomova, in an attempt to knock him out or incapacitate him so that he'd either 'not' get away… or at least they'd never have to deal with him ever again. Instead, having gotten his Stand's only useful hand full, Jotaro had to take a series of painful blows to his body as Eleven Men took the opportunity to fire round after round of gunfire his way, which Star Platinum had to body block to prevent Jotaro from taking serious harm.

Ruby, however, had far more fortune; with Eleven Men having focused on Jotaro, Ruby had been free to transform Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle form and point it right at Oyecomova or, more specifically, his Stand Listen To My Rhythm. She had her shot, she just had to take it; if she shot his leg or perhaps a shoulder, he'd flinch and, rather than roll out onto the speeding terrain outside, he'd probably try to throw himself back into the train car. He'd obviously let her bullet pierce through his Stand's Aura to get some blood so he could pull off his trick, so it had to be able to take another one… even if it couldn't, she'd be aiming for spots where just a 'little' puncture wouldn't do much harm. Just cause some pain and make him rethink going over the side of the train car.

That had been Ruby Rose's plan… up until Listen To My Rhythm disappeared, having been called back into the sea of Oyecomova's soul.

Ruby's mouth immediately dried. Her silver eyes fell upon Oyecomova, the assassin having just stared intently at her. There was a goading look to him, a knowing smile on his face. Without Listen To My Rhythm, there was no Aura protected target for her to take shots at when it came to Oyecomova. The assassin was just there… and he was just a normal person. A sniper rifle round from Crescent Rose, from such close range… it'd just tear right through him. It'd blow off an arm or a leg and… and he could bleed out and die. Anywhere she shot at him had the potential to kill this man.

But… but was that bad? Ruby knew that this guy was an assassin. That he was a criminal who killed people and all because he thought the Gods favored him in doing so. He was a crazy, violent murderer who would've stopped at nothing in order to see his work done. Heck, he'd tried to kill Jotaro already and had attempted to do so to Ruby several times in the course of their fight. He wouldn't have hesitated to kill Ruby Rose right then and there, to end her life before it could even really begin. It… it wouldn't have been bad of her to shoot him and potentially kill him. Most people would probably just consider that justice, right?

But… no… that wasn't the right thing to do. That wasn't the heroic thing to do. You brought people in and found out what they knew. Heroes… heroes didn't kill humans. Humans shouldn't kill humans, not when the Grimm are out there. It wasn't right. It wasn't smart. The Grimm were monsters… the Grimm were the enemies.

As bad as Oyecomova was… Ruby couldn't find it in her own moral compass to potentially kill him, to take the risk of taking his life. So, Oyecomova's grin grew ever so slightly as he watched Ruby Rose lower her sniper rifle, the girl's silver eyes having gone wide with some tension as she watched him just shake his head.

"A child is a child after all. Well, I can't say that it's been a pleasant experience to meet you all… so I won't." With that, Ruby watched as Oyecomova threw himself over the side of the train car, Listen To My Rhythm forming as he did so. Presumably the Stand would absorb the brunt of the fall and make sure that the landing was safe for Oyecomova. Meanwhile, Ruby watched as the other guy, Eleven Men, ran for the side of his own train car and just jumped, nine other men forming out of him as, collectively, they all grabbed onto some debris hanging off the ceiling, the collective strength of them all having grabbed onto it having kept them all from losing their arms. With that, the train continued to speed away from the pair, the two of them increasingly becoming little dots at the limits of Jotaro and Ruby's visions.

Ruby heaved a heavy sigh, a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding, as she drooped down slightly, her posture sagging even as a heavy weight had felt like it'd been lifted off her shoulders. Jotaro just sighed as Star Platinum disappeared back into him, the man having readjusted his cap as he took a good look around. A few seconds later, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long burst through the door of the other train car, Weiss having looked about as fresh as she had previously while Yang…

"YANG, OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

"Ruby! Are you okay, you're safe right!?"

"YEAH I'M FINE BUT YANG YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE SO BADLY HURT!"

Immediately the two sisters were on top of each other, checking over the other for any sign of harm. Weiss had, for the moment, kept her guard up as she glanced around, Myrtenaster at the ready as she kept an eye open for either Eleven Men or anything else.

"They're gone… they managed to get away." Jotaro had spoken somewhat solemnly as Weiss turned to look at him, a horrified look on his face.

"They? Does that mean Torchwick too?" Weiss, focused on the mission as she was, looked Jotaro in the eye… though the experienced Hunter just shook his head as he nodded over back behind him, Roman Torchwick's unconscious form having been splayed out onto the floor fo the train car still.

"No, we've got him and we can pretty easily secure him. The other two though, some hire ons apparently, they've gotten away…" Jotaro responded calmly as he reached into one of his jackets pockets and pulled out a stick of gum, having popped it into his mouth. Weiss frowned slightly as she narrowed her gaze, looking out across the train car.

"That seems… odd. From what Yang described, the guy she was fighting was very serious about seeing his job through, even if he did retreat for a moment. He didn't sound like the sort of assassin who'd just… well, turn tail and run." Jotaro nodded, having gotten much the same vibe from Oyecomova. However insane the guy was, he did believe that he had the Gods on his side, and usually people took that kind of force behind their work seriously.

"It is weird… but the guy just stood on top of the train car, looked out and said that he saw their stop. Then they both moved to leave…" Weiss nodded slightly as she looked up at the top of the previous train car. With ease, Weiss quickly kicked off the ground and jumped up to the top of the previous train car, whereupon she turned on her heels to look out over the rest of the tracks…

Jotaro watched as Weiss' eyes went wide with horror, her terrified gaze having immediately turned to the rest of the group.

"WE NEED TO GET OFF THIS TRAIN RIGHT NOW OR WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Everyone immediately snapped their heads over to Weiss as she screamed out this warning, the young woman immediately forming Glyphs in an attempt to give them all a means to get off the train safely. As she did so she didn't take the time to say why they needed to get or why they should've hurried… but, never having seen Weiss in such a panic before, everyone immediately took towards getting off the train, with Jotaro having grabbed Roman Torchwick before they all departed.

For what Weiss had seen, she had immediately identified as a threat. For on the train tracks not even a minute away from their current position was a pile of rubble that 'choked' the tunnel in front of them. It looked secure and strong, enough to keep the train from breaking through… which meant that the train would plow right into the wall and, with all the Dust and explosive materials on board, would cause a horrific storm of destruction.

While Weiss had been quick to identify that… there had been things that the young woman hadn't been able to identify. Thing she couldn't have known. She couldn't have known that the rubble had been placed there on purpose. That the rubble had been placed with the distinct idea of having the train crash and explode 'then' and 'there'. That above them stood the Walls of Vale, that had stood proudly for hundreds of years, protecting the city from the Grimm threat that constantly nipped at humanity's heels.

What they couldn't have known was that, even as they jumped from the train for their own safety that, dozens of minutes before, a young boy with a hole in his left cheek had been at that section of wall. That he ran his, and his Stand's, left hand across as much surface of the wall as they could, which had absolutely covered it in ticking clocks that had much the same make and design as Oyecomova's.

What they couldn't have known was that a plan had been put into motion that none of them could've expected, most of all because no one in Vale or Beacon had known about a Stand User that Cinder Fall had kept up her sleeve.

One that had been a fan of Rock, Paper, Scissors… and one who had been guided to set Vale up for its doom.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 9)**

* * *

 **A/N: For those of you who don't frequent the thread, yeah, I had trouble with the previous update owing to a chest cold I've been wrestling with. Sorry for the delay and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!**


	55. The Breach (Act 9)

How does one measure the worth of walls?

It was a question posed on and off during the Post-War Period of Remnant, when roving armies and bands of bandits no longer roamed the countrysides of the Kingdoms and organized, militarized resistance was no longer the concern de jure of the governments of the major cities. The grand walls and defenses of places like Vale and Atlas were world famous and considered to be hot destinations for members of other kingdoms, looking to take a peek at the designs of these cities, settled in such geographic zones that required artificial defenses. For someone from the city of Mistral, it must've seemed quite quaint. After all, in Mistral, there were no great walls surrounding the mountain city. Of course, there were walls within the city to separate districts or to create boundaries where property lines were drawn, but the city itself had no grand defense that encircled it.

Mistral had no need of that; for its walls were the mountain ranges that surrounded the city, effectively making the capital of the Kingdom all but impenetrable to any army. The only way to access Mistral in any reasonable manner with a large army was through the sky… and while Mistral did not possess a physical wall to protect it, it had a metaphorical wall in the hidden anti-air encampments placed throughout the city, ready to tears holes through any threatening force that tried to come at the city by air.

As for Vacuo, well, its wall was the high dunes that surrounded the city, the dry air that continued on for miles and miles without interruption. With the only source of water for miles around, a deep oasis, centered within Vacuo itself it made the attempt to get to Vacuo a slog for any marching force. One would be more guaranteed to die of thirst and heat stroke than to die from bullets or saber wounds. So it was that it was only Atlas and Vale that had invested in great walls for their capital cities… and yet, now in this age, it seemed to trite.

Yes, the absolute value of those walls, the ability to defend against foreign aggressors, could not be said to be fulfilled at all. In fact, by the time our story has taken place, it could easily be said that the cost in maintaining these great structures far outstripped the value that had been gotten out of them…

That is, should their original purposes have remained their only measure of value. For how does one measure the worth of walls in the feeling of safety it inspires in people? In the sense of relaxation and good will that is built upon by those who live within the stone boundaries of these great structures. In the hope and believe that tomorrow need not be a day you need fear for you life so long as those great behemoths of stone and iron stood tall on the periphery of your vision. A esoteric measurement, perhaps. However, in the age of Grimm, when the monsters of the night that fed and sensed human misery, anger and fear were constantly on the prowl, even these esoteric thoughts and feelings could not be discounted. How many lives in Vale and the surrounding area had been saved merely because the lack of negative emotion, drowned out by the pride and security one might feel staring at their city walls, ended with no Grimm drawn to attack human populations? More directly, how many people had been saved from Grimm attack 'because' they had a home away from home to hide behind, great walls of stone that would have done more to save them from the Grimm than the wood and rock that made up their homes outside the city.

Many credited the advanced nature of the cities of Vale and Atlas partly to this. The people were safe and need not fear 'any' attack from the Grimm, so the thinking went. They need not worry about scouting or defending their borders; they could instead look to improve within and grow, secure in the knowledge that they and their children would be safe. How does one measure the worth and value earned by artists, engineers, scientists and musicians who grow up able to pursue their craft without fear of the monsters from their fairy tales knocking down their doors, ready to devour them. Can one even measure such a distinctly human experience, something obviously worth no value in terms of what nature might see as necessary for survival but that makes human and Faunuskind so distinct.

These were the values of walls… these were what they protected. It had been why, for so many years after the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution, so many decades after the Great War, that the walls around Atlas and Vale still stood. More than shows of a military might of an age gone by, they stood now as guardians of the prosperity and peace that both Kingdoms enjoyed and as the promise to the people of these cities that they needed not fear for their lives, that no force of Grimm or nature would intrude upon their homes or their livelihoods.

It was a serious promise. A solemn promise. One that held within its hands the lives of many hundreds of thousands of people. One that held those human and Faunus' hopes and dreams in its hands. The confidence of the people, their safety, their believe in the worth of their homes and their leaders, all rested in this promise. An oath is a serious thing. Confidence something that takes ages to build up. Faith in institutions and buildings generations to be turned into the sort of myth, the kind of larger than life power, that can inspire people towards giving up their fear and insecurity and in believing that things would be alright. These things were invaluable in the age of Grimm, in a time when those monsters waited for just the shortest show of weakness, for a single sign of fear.

What took ages to build, what took generations to make solid, however, was all too easy to bring crashing down in a single moment. All too easy to destroy with just one act. With one show of force. With one 'crack' in the illusion. Cinder Fall was well aware of this power; she abused it in order to obtain the loyalty of those lesser than her, by presenting an unstoppable front that could not possibly be challenged. An image of someone who could never be beaten, who could never be forced back. Who her lessers would be safe so long as they swore their undying loyalty to her. She also used this to 'break' people; to shatter them well beyond what any physical wound could do. Scars and gashes heal, burns eventually scar over. Time tends to mend the physical. However, if you can break someone's spirit, if you can well and truly shatter their belief in everything they'd ever believed in, in every concept they'd held dear… well, that's when you truly destroyed someone. There would be no coming back from such an assault, no man or woman, by Cinder's estimation, had the strength to return from the very depths of hopelessness, from having their lives and their dreams taken and broken before them. That, had been the plan behind The Breach from the beginning. It had been Salem's vision and Cinder's purpose.

So it was for that reason that she had held back 'one' Stand User in particular. One with an interesting talent. Why, when Oyecomova had come to Vale with his associate to take the job, she had asked to… borrow that special talent of his. Why at that moment, Cinder sat on the edge of a roof of one of Roman's warehouses, a beverage carefully held in her hands as her golden eyes scanned the horizon. She would've 'loved' the irony of witnessing this from Beacon Academy, however, her team was supposed to be out on a 'mission', which her infiltration into Beacon's systems would surely see completed… if they even cared to check after what was to pass.

The sound would reach her ears before the sight would reach her eyes. A powerful, cacophonous blast that visibly shook the windows the very building itself, despite the warehouse's distance from the very center of the explosion. She smiled as the vibrations ceased, only for her eyes to behold a great column of smoke and dust begin to rise from one section of the city. Miles and miles into the air it rose, a cloud of destruction that beckoned the eye. The black haired young man popped the top of the beverage and took a long, cold drink, the satisfaction of the ice cold liquid that ran down her throat having not even begun to match the satisfaction she felt as the sirens cried out into the air.

The follower of Salem tilted her head back down, a slight smack to her lips as she savored the flavor… and savored the sight as the cloud of dust and debris settled. The Walls of Vale, having stood so proudly for many centuries, had held up despite everything. These proud structures, these monuments to the power of mankind, still managed to withstand not only the metric tons of Dust that had been exploded just underneath them thanks to the train, but from having been transformed into literal bombs at their base thanks to **[Boy II Man]** having borrowed the power of Listen To My Rhythm. For Cinder, it had been most impressive; indeed, a worthy structure to the goal of protecting this city from the forces of both other countries and their militaries and the Grimm. However, Cinder Fall watched cracks and fissures continued to form in the stone walls, climbing higher and higher as time had went on.

Cinder had not panicked when the Wall hadn't immediately crumbled. Structures of such size and magnitude were slow to give even when their roots were destroyed. It was true of humanity as well, after all; despite how rotten to the core the human and Faunus had become, they still remained an ever present thorn in her Mistress' side, rotten tree that still had plenty of strength left in it to stand. However, time was the master of all things. Salem's immortality, her mastery over time, ensured that she would see the end of mankind had she just waited, denting them just enough in the meantime.

So had Cinder been patient as she watched the great walls of Vale slowly crack, chunks of them having peeled off to fall to the very ground beneath. With what mortal damage had been done, it would've only been a matter of time. Cinder had only needed to show patience. Indeed, for Cinder, that patience had been rewarded. With one last 'thunderous' crack, various chunks of the Walls of Vale split, shattering into several large hunks that slid out of their place in the wall. It had been like watching a tower of cards slowly but surely fail; as one piece fell from the structure and crashed into the ground, the rest soon followed in a shower of stone, dust and debris. Even the wail of the sirens soon found themselves drowned out as the great' boom' echoed across the entire City of Vale as the greater part of Vale's wall collapsed and fell to pieces, Cinder herself having felt the building beneath her shake as the tremendous amount of energy shook the very city to its foundation.

But while these sights had been quite uplifting for Cinder who, after months of having various thrusts checked by Ozpin's group and the children that followed them around, had become bitterly annoyed at the opposition she had faced, it hadn't been what Cinder had decided to sit on the roof and wait for. No, Cinder had been waiting for something far more substantive. Something that she could 'feel' in her bones. Something that would define this day for the rest of the history of the world. She perked an ear up and listened. She listened and listened well; it would likely be far away from her position when it would start but it would carry over until it echoed across the entirety of the City of Vale.

Her patience was rewarded in short order; for within moments, a rolling wave of noise slowly boomed out from deep within Vale, a sound that brought pleasure to Cinder's ears as a sign of a job well done… and a sign that her plan as far as The Breach had been concerned had been about to come to fruition. For what carried over the breeze and came in so many different tones and pitches had been the panicked, horrified screams of the civilians of Vale, the confusion and chaos that the city would soon be plunged into set deep within these voices. The swirl of negative emotions that had inspired these screams would emanate out far beyond even the sound of these screams… and it would draw the Grimm en-masse to Vale for the first time in centuries.

This was Cinder's victory. The golden eyed young woman smiled and smiled wide as she leaned back, taking another drink. All had been going according to her plan. Now was time for her opponents to act… and they had but one option at their disposal.

The Fall Maiden.

In a matter of moments hundreds, if not thousands, of Grimm would pour through the hole created in Vale's Walls, beasts hungering to feed upon the panic, the fear and the broken spirits of the city's population. These people, who had for so long placed their faith in the walls around their city and the Council that maintained them, would soon find themselves without hope, without anything that could have numbed the negative emotions that would draw the Grimm in. From there, thousands, if not tens of thousands, would die, all before an evacuation could even be dreamed of.

There would be only one option for Ozpin and his crew. Only one way for them to possibly combat this flood of Grimm and keep the citizens of Vale safe. The Fall Maiden, even as weak as she would be without half of her soul, would be the only single thing to possess the power to push back the Grimm and force them past the Wall. From there, who knew what their plan would be… perhaps it would've just been to stall out for enough time to step up an evacuation, perhaps they would've dreamed that they had some way of actually fixing the hole in the wall so that Vale itself need not be abandoned.

These plans of their mattered little to Cinder. What mattered to her was that the Fall Maiden would be brought back out into the open. Whether it be through a 'new' Fall Maiden who had gained powers from the previous or through Amber herself, fixed by that obnoxious brat Higashikata Josuke, The Fall Maiden was sure to make a new appearance here on this battlefield, if only because they hadn't any other choice. From there? Well, all Cinder needed to do then would be to kill the Fall Maiden and, naturally, her power would transfer directly into Cinder, rejoining its lost other half. That would be Cinder's objective taken care of and, if that alone would've been what she accomplished, then Salem would've been most pleased.

Ah, but there were those 'other' matters weren't there? Of Whitesnake and his own goals. Kujo Jotaro and little old Team JOJO. They would still need to be secured if Whitesnake was to feel satisfied with his end of the transaction. Indeed, it would've been most cruel if, after having dedicated so many resources to having helped Cinder achieve her ends, if her little 'accomplice' didn't get his own…

Yes, delightfully cruel. Cinder chuckled to herself as she ran a hand through her long hair. Kujo Jotaro would've been easily taken care of and killed once she had the power of the Fall Maiden. However strong Star Platinum might be, it was no match for the strength of a full Maiden. As far as the others were concerned? Well, Cinder hadn't needed worry about children. No, all that Cinder cared about was that she got what she wanted and that Whitesnake got 'nothing'. It was the only way to be sure, after all. It had been beyond clear that Whitesnake wasn't loyal to Salem. No, his continued dealing with her master hadn't been in the name of falling in behind the only truly powerful force left in the world.

No. He was still loyal. Loyal to that… that…

" _Tell me young one… do you know why you're shivering like that? It's a very human response, to show fear to what one knows as their better. Their superior. Their master. Your instincts scream at you to show deference… but you're afraid to, at least, in company with our dear host here. I wonder, could Salem, who has never spent a day as a human, know what it is that you want deep in your soul? In the pit of your heart? Mmmmhahahaha~... tell you what. I'll give you the choice to join me instead. Just take two steps forward and I will allow you to join me… you'll know pleasure and power the likes of which only someone who was once as human as you are would 'know' you appreciate."_

…

" _Hahaha, it seems you're quite eager."_

She had shivered that night of the attack on the Dance. It had been a long time since she had felt that… that coldness run up and down her spine. When Emerald had taken in all the details she could've provided about him. When Cinder had run her through his way of speaking. His voice. His 'face'. His… Stand. That Stand that managed to fight her master to a draw.

 **[The World].**

Salem had not seen the pair in years… and until this very moment had not thought about the moment she'd witnessed this thing meet her master. Yet that night when Emerald had shown her hard work in using her illusion to create a simulacra of him, and now having thought back to that night… Cinder could not help but feel the fear she felt then. The terror that there was something out there that, though weaker than her master by itself, was possessed of a power that allowed him to so confidently stand before her.

That… that was why she would see to it, to her last effort, that Whitesnake would not get what he desired. Because whatever plans he'd had in mind, they weren't his plans. Whatever vision he'd had, it hadn't been 'his' vision. No, what vision he had, what things he wanted to arrange, they wouldn't be done in Salem's name or interest. No.

They would be done in the name of DIO.

Whatever plans had been laid past that thing's death needed to be crushed. Whitesnake was useful, a man with tools that could be used and abused… however, now that the Fall Maiden was nearly in her grasp, it was time to move into preventing whatever plan that DIO had laid in motion that Whitesnake now sought to complete.

Salem was the only one who deserved to rule this world, empty of all mankind. Whatever Whitesnake thought that said otherwise… well, it simply had to be removed. There was no other option and no compromise.

Still, Cinder allowed these thoughts to pass through her mind as she smiled as the sounds of chaos erupted throughout the entire city, screams from the innocent and the guilty alike intermingled to create this orchestra of terror and pain. For Cinder, this had simply been music to her ears and she adored it.

She's worked hard for this moment… why not take a second to enjoy it.

* * *

The soldiers had never been more terrified in their lives. As soon as they'd heard the powerful explosion, as soon as Ironwood's ship had 'rocked' from the tip end of the shockwave that had come from the City of Vale, the alarms had gone 'crazy'. Immediately, every last emergency call and alarm had been sent off, soldiers having scattered from their posts in order to answer them. The vast majority of them, almost every single last Atlesian soldier in Beacon or on Ironwood's ship, would have immediately left the deck or come to the air docks in order to be transferred over to The City of Vale. This hadn't been a drill and this hadn't been a test.

The Walls of Vale had come crumbling down; the city had now become wide open for an attack from the Grimm… what's more, it had become more vulnerable to an attack from the Grimm than anytime since the Walls had gone up. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives had suddenly been put right on the frontline of the war between humanity and The Grimm and the innocent and well trained alike were now threatened with death. It would be up to Atlas and its soldiers in order to stem the tide and protect the civilians. It had been their promise and, having come here, their sacred duty.

Yet these two soldiers had not been ordered to leave. These two soldiers were not to be sent off, potentially able to turn the tide their own actions. No, these two soldiers had been ordered to stay 'on the ship'. They had been ordered to stay in the prison area. Why? Because there were still nearly a half dozen, if not more, prisoners of interest to Ironwood aboard his ship and he hadn't wanted any possible breakout to occur while this emergency had been forced into his hands. These prisoners, to varying degrees, had been high priority and all of them needed an eye kept on them.

None more so than the prisoner whose cage they stood in front of, guns at the ready and still in their position. The young woman of short stature, pink and brown hair with eyes to match, had been behind them, locked away in her prison containment unit and still held securely aboard the ship. Ironwood had been 'especially' critical of keeping this prisoner on board, had been 'especially' clear that whatever happened, that whatever had been set to pass, that this prisoner needed to stay on board. She'd been too close to Roman in the past to have not known anything, however ignorant she may have acted when asked questions. She had been vital… this also made her a potential target in the chaos.

She could've been rescued or killed by agents of Torchwick and whoever he had been working for in order to ensure her silence remained permanent. If every soldier had simply left the ship and such an effort had been underway then it would've been a simple matter of just walking in, grabbing the girl and walking out. To let such a high priority target slip out of their hands with no contest had simply not been an answer in Ironwood's or Ozpin's mind. Thus, these two soldiers remained behind. Perhaps their guns and skills would've been useful on the growing field of battle in Vale, perhaps not. However, what was entirely certain was that their presence was valued protecting the prison area and that girl's cell in particular. Just by having been there they acted as a deterrent and, if worse came to worse, they'd fight off whatever attempted escapes may come.

It had been a tough call, but one that Ironwood and Ozpin had made knowing the stakes. Until Joseph Joestar had a chance to use Hermit Purple on the girl, she 'needed' to stay in her cell. Thus, that had been the situation up until that point. What had worried the pair much more so than the tremendous weight of their responsibilities had been the fact that the girl had been… quiet. Usually she walked around her cell or did small, distracting tasks as a means of annoying her guards or entertaining herself. However, as the attack hit and chaos swallowed Vale and Beacon whole… there had been only silence from the girl's cell. She had just sat in the back of her cell, tiny legs having swung back and forth off the edge of the seat/bed provided as everytime the guards looked in they were greeted with a coy smile and a wave.

This behavior had only worked to further unnerve the guards as they stood stock still… this girl had something up or, at least, knew something was up. She had to if she had that kind of mocking grin on her face. She had been taunting them… well, whatever she had been up to or whatever was planned for her, the two guards hadn't been about to let it come to pass. They'd followed Ironwood's orders to the t, no matter what. Which is why it had been such a surprise to the pair when, seemingly out of the blue, Ironwood strode confidently into the prison area, his arms behind his back and his chest puffed out, as he looked over at the two men.

"You two, prepare to open the cell and keep your guns at the ready, we're moving this prisoner." Ironwood's voice had been crisp and clear as he spoke yet still the two guards looked at the General as if he'd grown a second head, the pair having looked at each other in confusion before they glanced back to Ironwood.

"Err… sir. I'm sorry but your orders had been to make sure this girl 'didn't' get out of her cell. What's caused the sudden change in position, sir?" One of the pair asked, genuinely confused and curious, as the other merely kept silent and awaited an answer.

"While I don't appreciate your doubt soldier, I understand your concerns. The situation in Vale is spiraling out of our control faster than we'd anticipated. The Grimm are pouring through the open hole in the Walls of Vale at a faster rate than might've been expected and have thus far been able to overwhelm what scant few lines of defense we'd managed to set up in the fact of the wall's sudden collapse. We need every man we can get on the field and that means you two as well." The soldiers nodded as one of them looked back at the cell.

"I can understand that much sir, but what about moving-"

"If you'd allow me to finish, 'soldier', I'd explain." Ironwood's rough emphasis caused the Atlesian soldier to flinch slightly as the General readjusted his tie ever so slightly. "Seeing as how we can't very well allow her to stay here without any guards, Ozpin and I have made a decision to move this girl to a more secure position within Beacon Academy. There are secret, high-security holding zones within the campus that can be used to get the girl inside and ensure she 'stays' there. They aren't on the grid, so no one, not even someone with a building plan of Beacon itself, would know where to find them and they're so tight that there's no way she'd be able to break out of them short of blowing up the cell while she was inside it. Because of this combination, we'd feel safe in leaving her in this cell while we put every last available man and woman on the defense in Vale. Is that clear, soldiers?" The two soldiers immediately saluted as they finally came around to Ironwood's train of logic.

"Crystal clear, sir!" The two declared in near unison as Ironwood just nodded his approval.

"Very good. Now, as I ordered, prepare to open the cell and keep your guns trained on the girl. Make sure she doesn't try anything funny. If she does, well… as valuable as she might be, we can't very well risk an escape on her behalf. You both are authorized to use deadly force if need be." Ironwood then turned to look at the cell. "You hear that in there? I'm perfectly willing for these men to put you down if you try anything, so I'd suggest you come along peacefully." The girl inside just placed her hands on her cheeks and silently gasped before she rolled her eyes, giving a quick jerk off motion as the soldiers growled slightly and slammed the butts of their rifles into the prison cell, causing a loud 'clang' that made the girl wince.

"Show some respect to the General. All things considered he's going through a lot of trouble when it probably would just be easier for us to put you down for your crimes against Vale and then leave it at that." The soldiers attempted to show some bravado, having been backed up by their General, as they went about the process of actually opening the prison containment unit. After a few minutes of having fiddled with the door's controls and sliding a card key in, the two soldiers raised their rifles so they pointed at the position of the girl's head as she continued to sit in her cell, a coy grin on her face as she looked pretty as a picture. A short buzz went off before a bit of rush of air slipped out between the opening cell door, the device having raised to allow the soldiers to step inside.

"Alright little lady, you heard the General, move it or lose it. We 'really' don't have time for anything right now so we suggest you get up off your rear end and get moving to your new holding cells." The girl just continued to grin coyly at them as she crossed her arms in a bit of a pout, the young woman having defiantly kept her keester parked right on her seat as she stared the two guards down. One of the guards just shook his head as he looked over at his compatriot.

"Fucking stupid, I tell you. Look, keep your rifle trained on her." The other guard nodded as he did just that, the first guard having sneered as he reached a hand out for the young woman. "Alright you stubborn little brat, you wanna play it like that? Fine, guess we'll literally have to drag you along if you're going to act like a spoiled-"

Before he could finish his sentence, his hand had phased straight through the young woman's arm, as if it had gone through naught but thin air.

"-brat?"

An Atlesian soldier was essentially a tin can carrying around some of the most advanced and wonderful toys this side of Remnant. The rifle, the pistol but, most important for her purposes, the sword they carried were made of some tough stuff… though one might've just how tough it was. Could it take a round from an Atlesian rifle with ease? Could it block one of their sword strokes without even trying. These would've been pressing questions for her had she not had two things. The first was the element of surprise, these two thick assholes having been completely absorbed in demeaning 'her' to have really let the situation sink in.

The second was the fact that whatever dumb bastard designed Atlesian Armor had left a big old 'fuck my face' hole in their helmets. So before the Atlesians could have realized what they were in for, an invisible Neopolitan quickly reached her hand out from her little corner of the containment unit and grabbed the sword off of one of the soldier's sides. Looking at the back of the Atlesian's helmet, she noticed a small patch of block cloths on the back of their head; probably there so that they could actually bend their heads to look around and allow for some flexibility.

That had been awfully considerate of the designer. Neopolitan quickly raised up the folded in blade to that spot on the back of the Atlesian's head and, with a thrust and a flick of a switch, stabbed it right through the back of his skull, immediately having killed him. Nice, quick, simple and easy. As he started to drop Neopolitan used the sword's handle to spin him around a bit, presenting her with his rifle that still had been secured in his rapidly loosening grip. Neo had smiled as she plucked that big old gun from his hands and as his little friend turned in an attempt to respond Neo just put the mouth of the rifle right into that face hole of his, grinned from her position of invisibility and pulled the trigger. His brains had been splattered into the back of his helmet within moments and death soon followed.

Neopolitan heaved a 'very' satisfied sigh as she dropped the rifle, kicking one of the Atlesian guards in the ribs as she did so. That had been immensely satisfying after having put up with their bullshit for the better part of forty-eight hours. Neo rolled out her neck and stretched out her arms as now freedom had effectively been won, the short assassin having turned her head to look over her shoulder at 'General Ironwood' with a wide smirk. Honestly, the panic and chaos caused by Cinder's little plan had made this all almost a little 'too' easy in hindsight. She should've included some stupid condition or side goal to her little escape to have made it at least a little bit more fun… then again, considering everything at stake, could Neo have really afforded that?

The ice cream girl sighed as she shook her head. No. There were still things she needed to do; she needed to get her things, she 'needed' to get the security camera feed so that there wouldn't be any available proof of 'how' she got out and then getting back to Roman to make sure he would be alright… if he was still with Cinder at all at this point. Neo shivered at the prospect of him having been out in that hellhole of Mountain Glenn on his own this entire time while she'd been in prison, but she forced herself past that. For now, it was time to get a move on; her illusion had covered up her little show of force and there was not a soul on board left to stop her… well, except for perhaps 'maybe' one security officer watching the various camera feeds but, hey, that's why you had illusions.

Thank you Koichi, months of stalking you underneath Beacon's security system had been about ready to pay off handsomely.

She's use 'Ironwood and her guards' then to keep the cover up. However, that raised another question… now that she had an out, what would she have needed to do about the other prisoners. As she poked her head out of her cell to check the other prisoners, she saw that while a few of the Stand Users had been shoved in here, a handful of other 'important' persons of interest had also been contained within these little units. On the one hand, she could've just left them to their fates. They hadn't actually known anything too important and they had completely and utterly failed at both their initial jobs and at breaking out, so they could've rotted in their cells for all Neo particularly cared.

However… well, that would be just the tiniest bit more chaos and just the tiniest bit more of a distraction to have served her needs while she got what she wanted before she moved on. Yeah, they could serve her that well, at least And hey, it seemed as though Ironwood had actually gone through with executing Angelo, so it's not as if she would've been letting 'that' psychopath back out into the world, so as far as Neo was concerned there was no real hard repercussions or any reasons she'd have felt particularly bad about letting these assholes out. As Neopolitan worked up two illusory guards to take her out of her unit, she nearly slapped herself in the forehead. Ah, of course, how could she have been so stupid. She'd nearly forgotten the most important part of all this.

Thus, when people finally would've gotten around to checking the prison containment units later on after the chaos settled, they would've found nothing but empty cells… save for Neo's former cell. In that particular holding unit, they'd found two dead guards, arranged into a sixty-nine position with their heads buried in each others' crotches. Their armor had been too finicky for Neo to have removed in any reasonable amount of time, so she settled for just getting their heads 'really' deep in there. There had been some awareness that something had gone wrong when several soldiers in the middle of the battle received a photo in their Scrolls of this little happening, Neo having plucked the Scrolls from the dead soldiers as she sent a picture of the act to all the contacts on it.

Hey, when Neopolitan planned her petty little victories, she did so with the full intention that they'd be followed through no matter what and boy, had she been waiting for this one. With her ego satisfied, Neopolitan sauntered off, 'handcuffed' by her two guards and Ironwood, as they escorted her out of the chambers, as far as the various cameras had been concerned. Though, not before Neopolitan ensured that damn near every cell had been opened before she left.

* * *

"W-What? The Wall's down?"

"I'm afraid so Mr. Arc. We'll need to return to Beacon Academy immediately; our mission has been changed from ensuring that whatever attack comes doesn't stir up the Grimm in the Emerald Forest to assisting with the defense and evacuation… at this point, there's no way just the five of us are going to make a difference in the Emerald Forest, not with how many souls back in Vale are going to be drowning in negative emotions. No, the best thing the five of us can do now, especially me with my manly physique and reassuring confidence, is get into Vale and assure the people that we'll be there for them."

Team JNPR nodded in understanding, though just barely. In all honesty, when the call had come in that they would needed to return to Beacon 'immediately' to be transported to Vale, they hadn't been 'entirely' surprised. Even from as far away as The Emerald Forest, they'd heard the explosion and they'd felt the very slightest tip of the shockwave as it rustled the leaves in the trees. They could only imagine the sheer power of the explosion at the actual sight of the blast. While they hadn't learned 'immediately' what the danger had been, as soon as Port had filled them in… well, they couldn't have believed it. Months, and for Ren and Nora 'years' of living in Vale and attending Beacon had gotten the group of teens very much used to the idea of The Walls of Vale as something insurmountable and indestructible. They'd felt as safe behind those walls as the civilians that those walls had been meant to protect.

And now that shield had been 'gone', utterly and completely destroyed following one of the most powerful explosions that Team JNPR had ever heard in their lives. They'd been forced to listen as 'immediately' after the shockwave passed that the far, distant echo of panicked screams began to reach their ears as an entire city, a metropolis of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people crying out all at once, The only thing that had been more disheartening, that had made the four young teens' hearts sink deep into their stomachs, was the fact that they'd watched as the Grimm of the Emerald Forest completely ignored them now. No, those bloodthirsty animals passed by them as if they hadn't even existed… the Grimm had been on the march and they were moving toward Vale.

Team JNPR could have only imagined what a mass of negative energy that the City of Vale had been acting as at that moment. It must've been damn near like a magnet, pulling the Grimm in without any sign of resistance. While they may have only been Hunters-in-Training, and first years to boot, Team JNPR knew that they were needed back in Vale. Knew that they were needed by the people of that city. As worried and scared as Jaune felt by this prospect and, Hell, even Pyrrha, Ren and Nora couldn't have exactly said they weren't worried at all by the sheer scale of the destruction that had been awaiting them in Vale, they all swallowed that fear and negativity as they realized that this had been the moment they had been training for, this had been the moment that Stand Fight after Stand Fight had prepared them for. It had been time for them to step up. To be the heroes they had signed up to be.

Sadly, as the group of five returned to Beacon Academy, they soon found that they'd have other matters that they'd need to deal with first. For, having returned to Beacon's Campus, what they found hadn't been the peaceful, secure place they'd left but rather a pit of chaos in and of itself. While the buildings themselves had been, for the most part, been placed on lockdown after most of the staff and soldiers left for Vale, there had been a considerable number of buildings and places that were either out in the open or couldn't have been locked down. Such locations included the air docks, the main plaza of Beacon and indeed a good number of buildings scattered about the campus. Fires raged on as remaining staff, soldiers and students fought in an attempt to contain the chaos.

What had been the embers that had ignited this chaos and threw Beacon into a semi-state of Anarchy, one might've asked? One hadn't needed to look further than the crowd of ruffians that had overrun a good deal of Beacon's campus. It hadn't been hard to recognize them either; each and every single one of them had been some crook or criminal that had been captured previously by the group and taken aboard Ironwood's ship, the airship itself having several fires lit onboard as the various security and fire systems worked at their hardest in order to contain the flames. What had been equally, if not far more, irksome had been the presence of some of the captured Stand Users that had previously been put down. Most notably…

"That's right you motherfucking bastards! You thought you could put me in a fucking cage, well look who's locked in with me now you shitheads!" A facsimile of one of Beacon's Staff pounded his fist into his 'real' self's face as Toshikazu Hazamada stood behind his stand, grinning in a crazed sort of elation as he had finally been let out of his holding cell and allowed to enact his 'revenge' on the people who had 'abused' him. Various other criminal Stand Users had employed their various Stands and Stand abilities as they sewed chaos in the ranks of Beacon's staff and the few remaining Atlesian soldiers, people having dropped to the floor fast in the midst of the fighting.

Scattered across the fighting grounds, a few people had been immobilized with locks on their chests as well, large and growing hunks of metal that weighed down various defenders of Beacon. While Tamami the rat had been nowhere in sight, it had obviously been his handiwork. As Port and JNPR looked on the scene before them, they all grimaced as Port wiggled his mustache ever so slightly.

"Well now, this 'is' a problem… hrmmm. Change of plans students, we can't exactly get to Vale without securing the air docks and if Beacon remains in this state, control over the air docks will be… loose, to say the least." With that, Port brought out his trusty weapon Blunderbuss as he spun it around a few times, ending with him wielding the weapon as an axe. "So let's say that mission parameters are, for now, the containment of these criminal scum and reminding them exactly why they don't mess with Glorious, Valorous Huntsmen and Huntresses!"

"Now that's something I can get behind!" Before Port had even a moment's notice to give the order to go, Nora Valkyrie gave a battle cry as she leaped into the air and charged into battle, wielding Magnhild like some kind of terrible Hammer of the Gods as she immediately got to swinging, cracking heads as she did so.

"My goodness, one can only feel inspired by the spirit on display! Well now lads and lass, we can't very well let Miss Valkyrie have all the fun. Tally-ho!" Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha eached gave their own affirmation as they rushed into battle, the three Hunters following their teammate and professor into the frey. While Port and Ren had focused on far more general targets, Jaune and Pyrrha… well, they had a bit of an 'additional' score to settle.

Toshikazu soon learned that the price of freedom was sometimes getting beaten up by the two 'very' pissed off teenagers that you had left for dead and/or tried to rape. To say that it had been a cathartic experience for Pyrrha and Jaune before they had dug into the extremely difficult task of winning back control of Beacon from the malcontents that had sought to overrun it had been an understatement. Had it not been for the seriousness of the situation, it might've even qualified as a first date for how calming putting the smack down on Surface's Stand User had been for the pair.

* * *

"Holy fuckin' shit… I think I nearly went deaf. What the fuck…" Okuyasu groaned and moaned in pain as he held onto his ears, the teen's head having spun around and around from the sheer noise and force that he'd been subjected to not even moments beforehand. Before Okuyasu could've groused much more, Josuke quickly reached over and placed his hand on the back of his friend's head, the scarred teen having immediately felt the fixing quality of Josuke's touch pass through him as the feelings of nausea and pain passed. "Woof, thanks Josuke. For a minute there I thought I was going to throw up or something."

"Yeah, no problem Okuyasu." The pompadoured teen blinked slightly as he spoke, his own head having still spun ever so slightly as he walked over and pulled the same trick on Koichi. Having actually been in the city with Profe-Doctor Oobleck at the time of the explosion, Team JOJO and company had been pretty well fully exposed to the force and sound of the explosion that rippled throughout the city. Their Stands had protected them when windows and other glass structures had shattered under the forces they'd been placed under and, soon after, Josuke had set about fixing his friends and the Doctor accompanying them so as to get them back on their feet. For his part, Josuke had found that he just needed to face the fact that he'd have to ride this out… it hadn't been unusual for him, to be honest and it hadn't even been too bad. Having spent his entire life unable to fix himself, Josuke had built up 'quite' the pain tolerance over time, his having easily equalled Jotaro's after a certain point.

It hadn't necessarily made Josuke ecstatic to know that he'd had so much pain inflicted on him that now his skin was nearly as thick as Jotaro's, after all that had been a lot of nights spent in some pretty bad pain when things had gone really south, however in this situation he'd be grateful for it. The less time he spent with a splitting headache as a result of what had just happened, the sooner he and the others would have been in a position to actually do something about it.

Speaking of, the trio of Stand Users had turned their attentions on the blown up section of wall, an open hole in the usual concrete and steel barrier that they had become all too familiar with now showing them an open scene of the sky and the forests just outside of the City of Vale… a sky that had been rapidly filling with numerous, numerous Nevermore as the panic overwhelmed the city, Team JOJO having heard the various cries of panic and terror that had soon become the background track to this dire part of their adventure.

Oobleck, having been possessed of Aura, had managed to take most of the brunt of the energy without too much harm, the man having shaken off the stun as he removed his broken pair of glasses and replaced them with ones he had kept in a solid metal container. The man had been prepared for just about any circumstance if nothing else. After having replaced his broken glasses, Oobleck soon moved on to pulling out his Scroll, looking to get new orders as to what he should've been doing and, perhaps more importantly, what Team JOJO needed to be doing.

The estimation of Ozpin and the others… well, it hadn't been good.

"Are you sure? I very much doubt the boys are going to like it, they've been quite eager up until now to assist in these matters." Oobleck muttered into his Scroll as he adjusted his spectacles, Ozpin having sighed on the other end of the line as he shook his head.

"Be that as it may, our enemies have made a strong move… and thanks to the attack on the Dance and the actions of the Enigma boy, we know that the three of them are targets of our enemies. As much help as the city of Vale is going to need… well, we can't split up our resources keeping an eye on them. We'll have… other things we'll need to keep a secure eye on if we're going to see Vale through this dark chapter. There's too much at stake." Ozpin looked up into Oobleck's eyes through the Scroll, a firm look on his face. "The boys will be of better use helping us prepare evacuations. There they'll have any number of eyes kept on them by the other soldiers and Hunters who'll be set to this duty while freeing up other personnel in the field to handle… other affairs." Oobleck raised an eyebrow at how evasive Ozpin had been in this conversation.

"You have some kind of plan, Headmaster?" Oobleck asked, a slight tilt to his head as Ozpin just nodded grimly.

"I do… sadly, I wish it needn't come to this but it seems we've not been given an option in this case. All the more reason for Josuke to be brought back here to school… hopefully another work over by him will put everything in order." Ozpin rubbed at the bridge of his nose, an 'I hope' muttered underneath his breath as he gave Oobleck a very stern look. "Those are your orders for now, my friend. I'll see you all soon."

"Of course Ozpin, Oobleck signing out." With that the green haired professor closed his Scroll, the man having sighed as he rubbed at his forehead. How he wished that there had been some coffee left in his weapon. The caffeine headache that had been coming on combined with the stress of the situation had left him well and truly aggravated. A little bit of the brew would've been just what the doctor ordered, if he did say so himself.

While Oobleck had spoken on his Scroll with Ozpin, the three young teens had just stood together, the trio having stared at the broken down section of Vale's Walls as they considered the situation. Having overheard the conversation thanks to Echoes, the trio all had some kind of frown on their face; Okuyasu's had been one of annoyance, Koichi's one of worry and Josuke… well, his was focused, a serious edge having overcome the usually jokey and lighthearted teen as he stared long and hard at the gap through which Grimm were pouring.

"Can't fuckin' believe it… that's honestly the best they think they can do with us? Fuckin' please…" Okuyasu spat off to the side as he said this, Koichi having just swallowed nervously as he looked up at the scarred teen.

"I know it's frustrating but… well, it's a direct order from Ozpin of all people… and if Ozpin gave the order, he probably did it while Mr. Joestar was with him, so he probably has his back up on that. We might be given leeway when we're on our own but…" Even Koichi hadn't been able to fully stomach the words. He knew as well as anyone what exactly was on Okuyasu's mind and, to a lesser degree, what was on Josuke's mind. He knew what must've been running through their heads; after all, Koichi had been a very sharp young man.

The pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place in his own thoughts probably before even Okuyasu's… but still, orders were orders. Okuyasu just scoffed a bit as he reached a finger into his ear.

"Maybe so… but well, I'm just a grunt. I follow orders sure… but mine also end up coming down from someone else." Okuyasu said with a hoarse tone as he grinned, looking over at Josuke. "Well, how about it. You think you got it in you?"

That had been the million Lien question, hadn't it? As Okuyasu posed this question, Josuke heaved a slight sigh as he looked down to his side, Crazy Diamond's hand having materialized just beside his own. The light eyed teenager reached into one of his pockets out of habit; after all, the force of the blast had probably messed him up a fair bit.

"I honestly don't know. I've always thought back home in Morioh that if a situation ever came down to it, that I'd be able to do it no problem. After all, that's my whole deal, right?" When one might've expected the teen to pull out some kind of first aid or medicine for himself, he instead pulled out his steel comb, the pompadoured teen having set about combing his pompadour back into place as he spoke. Indeed, the explosion had sent a few stray strands of hair here and there. If he was going to do what he thought he was going to do, then he was going to do it with his hair looking in order.

"Still, Morioh's Walls aren't quite as… big as Vale's. I've honestly never tried with something the size of these before. I don't even know if I'd be able handle it all at once… or even if I could if I'd have the energy to see it all through to the end. It'd be a task and a half, I can say that much for certain." Josuke calmly combed at his pompadour, his hand running just behind the comb to make sure that everything had been moved back into place.

"... Heh, I'm sensing a but here." Okuyasu said with a wide smile as, slowly but surely, The Hand materialized beside him.

"... But if I don't test it now, I probably won't ever have the opportunity to do so again. Especially not when something 'needs' to be done here and now." Josuke said with a firm tone, a determined tone, as he removed his comb from his hair and slid it back down into his pocket. "Orders are orders, Koichi's right… but in the case of an emergency, it's always been on individual Team Leaders to make the calls they think they need to make to protect Morioh. This may not be Morioh, it might not be the place where we've lived our entire lives… but Vale is the home of others we've sworn to protect. That counts for something." Okuyasu cracked some knuckles as he nodded his head.

"So, what's the order, boss?" Okuyasu craned his head ever so slightly to the side, as if he already anticipated the answer. The pompadoured teen just stood still for a moment as he craned his head to look back at Koichi. The young teen, looking so scared and nervous, stood stock still for a moment as his knees clacked together, a clearly worried expression having gripped his features as he stared back at Josuke. He knew that Josuke and Okuyasu wouldn't have judged. He knew that they wouldn't have looked down on him. He knew that after all was said and done, they'd still be his friends…

But he also knew his friends were about to do something dangerous and reckless… and Brothers help him, rather than try to stop them…

"... Y-Yeah, what's our orders, Josuke?" Koichi did his best to appear as confident as he'd felt way back when Echoes had evolved against Angelo, back when he'd felt so strong and capable… and for a moment, there was a deep reverberation within him. For a moment, he didn't 'appear' as confident… he'd felt it, deep within his soul.

If his friends had been dead set on doing this, then he was damned sure that he wasn't going to leave them hanging. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind for a moment. The moment that Koichi had spoken, a smile had managed to crack Josuke's features, a slight grin as the teen looked back to the Walls of Vale.

"Okuyasu, break out The Hand… we've got a repair job to do."

"Waaay ahead of you Josuke." Okuyasu had grinned as he grabbed onto Josuke's arm, Josuke having done the same with Koichi's. The Hand, having fully materialized beside Okuyasu, grabbed onto Okuyasu's arm with its left hand as it raised its right hand up into the air.

"Alright students, we've gotten orders from Ozpin. We're to retreat to the defensive perimeter around the docks for now to help oversee the… what are you three doing?!" Oobleck, having turned his attention back to the three young men under his charge, found the three young men aligned into a four-person human chain of sorts, one led by The Hand as a bubble of its energy began to form around its hand. Okuyasu just grinned back at Oobleck with that shit-eating grin of his, Koichi having offered up a far more apologetic expression as his scarred friend just shrugged.

"Sorry there teach, but we've got our orders."

"That's Doctor to you Mr. Nijimura, and-"

"Okuyasu, get going!"

" **[The Hand]**!" With one shout, The Hand swiped its right hand through the air in front of and above the three young men. Before Oobleck even had time to react, the three young men simply 'appeared' several dozen feet in the air and away from him, The Hand having swiped away the space between them and the point that they reappeared in. The Hand quickly repeated this feat, pulling its power back out as the three humans and Stand had threatened to drop out of the air. Once again the trio of Stand Users and The Hand had been pulled straight through the air, soaring higher into the air and further away from their original position as The Hand repeated this gesture again and again, a strategy and means of rapid transportation that the Team of Hunters had long since gotten together to think of.

What had started as a quiet day where they had been set to scout the city had turned into an emergency situation. As much trouble as they might've gotten into, the trio had made their decision. Everyone would be doing what they could in their attempt to save Vale… and if Team JOJO hadn't been ready to do everything within their power to protect the people of Vale, then they wouldn't have been worthy of their titles as Hunters.

And so their next stop was the Walls of Vale, the trio having put it upon themselves to fix what had been broken.

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 10)**

* * *

 **A/N: Woo! After some trouble with these past few chapters this one was actually relatively simple to get out. Probably because there was no long ongoing fight scene for me to worry about pacing out well (though we still have Blake to finish up but she wasn't quite an 'essential' to get back to this chapter) but still, finally got a chapter out in 5 days. Paying off some earlier set up here with Neopolitan and setting up for the final climax of The Breach arc with some light foreshadowing and giving our other main characters in this crossover their mission. It's all looking to wrap up nicely, hopefully. I hope you've all enjoyed!**

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	56. The Breach (Act 10)

Chaos ruled the day in the streets. The screams of the guilty and the innocent alike lit up the various corners and alleys as civilians and their families desperately tried to find solace with the Atlesian Military or what Hunters were available to take shelter behind. As dozens upon hundreds of Grimm roamed the streets in packs, having poured through the veritable open door once the great Wall of Vale had fallen, there proved to be little escape for them. Roving packs of Beowolves, led by Alphas keen on the scent of blood and desperation, pounded the pavement as they carved a bloody swath through whatever homes, businesses or corridors in the city they could. Small groups of Ursa, for once settling their usually territorial behavior, moved together, their heavy paws and blunt claws having struck down whatever machines, soldiers or other unfortunate soul to have crossed their paths.

Murders of Nevermore, screeching through the sky in a shape likened to a black thundercloud, their wings having beat against the wind as their talons and beaks ripped and tore flesh asunder and ripped apart the very components of whatever droids that Atlas had put on the field. It was a mess, a bloody mess, one that Hunters and soldiers alike did their part in stemming the tide. However, for every Grimm slain, for every cloud of Nevermore vaporized by a flamethrower or a small explosive, it seemed like three more were ready to take their place. It was simple fact; so long as that hole in the wall remained, so long as there was a way for the Grimm to force their way into the city, so long as the people of Vale had no hope of this assault being stopped, of their lives returning to some sense of normalcy, that desperation of the people would draw more of these monsters in. Whatever efforts were made to stall them, to kill as many as one could, would be for naught under the pressure of tens of thousands of the monstrous creatures marching on the open city.

There was but one win condition, one way to save the lives of as many people in the city as one could, one way to ensure that, for the first time in centuries, a city on the scale of Vale wouldn't be lost to the Grimm. The Wall had to go back up, its hole repaired and the hope of a city restored. That was the only way. Thus, so it was that even with the chaos roaring below them, even with the cries of those who might've needed them ringing in their ears, Team JOJO kept their eyes straight ahead as they continued to be pulled through the sky.

 **THUUUUM!**

The Hand, under Okuyasu's direction as he followed Josuke's instruction, pulled the trio of students through the air, their interlocked hands as strong as the links of a chain as they followed the pull of The Hand's Stand Ability. Given Okuyasu's guts and spirit with the direction of Josuke's sharp mind and leadership, the Stand was being put to its full use and the team was dead set and determined to see that ability used in order to get them to their destination without delay, as they had not a moment to spare if they desired to save as many lives as they possibly could. Already having gone rogue, having bucked the orders of their superiors, the trio of young Hunters had no choice but to succeed and save the day or die and be remembered for their impertinence and haste.

Still, this was easier said than done. The three young men were not heartless, their emotions not yet worn down or utterly destroyed by their profession. In the end, the three still had optimism, still had hope, still had the ideal that it was their duty to protect the weak and the downtrodden. The idea that the mission took precedence, it made sense… however, even something as logical as 'more people will be saved if we don't stop and head straight to the Wall' was hard to keep in mind when the screams of civilians could be heard echoing underneath them.

More than once, their resolve had been tested. Yet still, under Josuke's insistence and Okuyasu's gut stubbornness, and thus Koichi's willingness to follow, The Hand continued to move these trio along. However, despite their persistence, there was one thing they couldn't prevent. It was one thing to silence their conscience in the name of the greater good, to the idea that they had a place they needed to be… however, they could not outright strangle it. They could not prevent their minds from the darker thoughts of the human spirit, especially those that plagued men of good conscience and righteous attitude. Guilt, unease, frustration slowly filtered into the backs of their minds.

They had made a great deal of ground just off the back of them being barely a blip on the radar of most Grimm, that their negative emotions, their concerns and worries and fears, were nothing compared to the sea of despair and horror that roiled underneath them. However, with each cry for help ignored, with each scream that was not answered with their battlecry, with each call that went unheeded, loathing and guilt built in the trio. The emotions were too slow to eat at their resolve, strong willed the members of Team JOJO could be in a pinch…

However, that didn't stop them from radiating these negative emotions, from suddenly lighting up for all the Grimm to see and sense around them. Okuyasu, having been out in front of everything, was the first to grind his teeth, his molars straining under the grind as he saw what was ahead.

"Looks like these bastards have finally taken exception to us being in their space…" Josuke looked up from the ground to see what his friend had pointed out, the pompadoured teen just biting his own lip as he took it in; a huge cloud of Nevermore suddenly collapsed into a dense cloud of feathers and talons a good distance in front of them and, rather than diving to the ground to tear apart some poor soul or another, it seemed that the cloud was on direct course with them. The pompadoured teen's eyes immediately scanned around for a good vantage point and, finding it, used his free hand to point down to a nearby rooftop.

"Okuyasu, get us down there. Koichi, have Echoes set up down there. We're going to need to clear some space before we get moving." The two immediately nodded as the pairs' Stands immediately went into action. On Josuke's command, Koichi had Act 2 form just on top of the rooftop, the Stand having already gone to work on its own tail as it slowly reshaped the ball of fleshy, stretchy metal into a suitable form. The Hand, meanwhile, had cut through the air in front of them again, this time having brought the trio into the space immediately above the rooftop. With their momentum having been forward and up previously, the trio had hit the highest point of their rise and, then, tumbled down onto the ground, having popped up close enough to it that the fall had been short. A well practiced maneuver, by this point. Okuyasu cracked his knuckles as The Hand stayed out in the open, Josuke having dusted himself off while Koichi looked over Act 2's work.

"Is it gonna be ready soon, Koichi?" The young man just nodded at his leader, the little guy and his green Stand having presented the reshaped tail for Josuke's inspection. The golden tail had been reshaped into a metal looking ball, with several symbols that had begun to smoke and heat up having been formed on the metal orb's surface. The leader of the group had grinned at this, patting Koichi on the head as Crazy Diamond formed just behind him.

"Alright, going to be a little different than before Okuyasu. The Hand's aim is really going to need to be good for this." Crazy Diamond moved to take Act 2's tail from the Stand, holding the metal orb in its own hands as the group of Stands and Stand Masters moved over to the edge of the roof, closest to wear the Murder of Nevermore had swarmed and was now diving straight for them.

"Please, like you even need to worry." With Okuyasu's confident growl and the energy of The Hand's Stand Ability having reformed around it, Josuke just gave a short smile as he looked up at the cloud of Nevermore.

"Great" As if spurred on by this one word, Crazy Diamond immediately tossed Act 2's tail into the air as the metal orb glowed hotter and hotter. As the ball hit its zenith and began to fall back down, Crazy Diamond reared back its fist, its eyes having gleamed as Josuke pointed out the direct center of the Murder of Nevermore.

" **DORA!** " With a tremendous battlecry Crazy Diamond let loose its fist, 'slamming' into Act 2's tail as the blow immediately sent the hunk of hot metal flying through the air, the metal orb having practically screamed as it tore through the sky and punched straight into the middle of the avian Grimm. A moment or two passed and then-

 **BOOOOOOM!**

The sound imprinted onto the outer shell of Act 2's tail, a gigantic explosion, tore through the ranks of the Nevermore, a nearly smokeless explosion having produced a huge wave of force that reduced most of the Murder down to only feathers and dissipating flesh as the Grimm were torn asunder. A huge mess of the creatures were killed almost instantly and, as soon as Okuyasu spotted something amidst the chaos, the scarred teen grinned as he pointed it out for his own Stand.

 **THUUUUM!**

Immediately a smoke hunk of slightly deformed metal had been called back into the palm of Crazy Diamond's hand, the Stand having moved to intercept the rapidly flying chunk of metal as it was torn from its place amidst the Grimm by The Hand's Stand Power. The Murder of Nevermore, having had most of their ranks decimated and their own senses momentarily disoriented by the sudden explosion, hadn't moved an inch in the time that the trio had made this maneuver, which allowed Crazy Diamond to pass the tail back off to Echoes, the little green Stand having immediately gone to work reshaping it.

"Gotta say, this is a step up from just throwing your crazy ass and then dragging you back toward us." Okuyasu remarked with a dry laugh as Josuke just lightly combed a hand through his own hair, settling it back into place after the trip through the air had disrupted it.

"Yeah, gotta say, feelin' real good to actually have some options for dealing with these things now other than waiting for them to come to us. Act 2's gonna come in handy; good work Koichi." The young, short man had immediately blushed under Josuke's praise of both himself and his Stand, the little guy having just sheepishly scratched at the back of his head as he chuckled.

"W-Well I'll do my best, Josuke! As Koichi spoke, Act 2 had finished resetting its tail,.the hunk of metal slowly smoking and glowing red again as Crazy Diamond picked it back up. By this point the Murder had reformed and seemed ready to try and dive them again. However, just as before, the Grimm found the hunk of metal punched into their very midst and, again, a huge explosion tore through them, this time leaving not but a handful of stragglers to scatter through the air. Again, The Hand pulled the hunk of metal back in… and the trio just gave each other a set of big old smiles.

"Holy cow, I can't believe that worked as well as it did! I mean, I can, I totally get what you guys were going for when we discussed this, but damn, that was fuckin' awesome!" Okuyasu belted out a loud laugh at that as the rest of the team just nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I think we can safely say that-"

The celebratory mood, however, was short lived. Despite the undeniable success of the new tactic, the trio's ears immediately picked up on a new sound… well, not so much a new sound as a 'much' louder version of the sound that they'd heard coming before. Their eyes immediately scanned the horizon and found that ill fortune was about to befall them; whereas only one Murder of Nevermore had threatened the trio before, now they saw several forming in the horizon… and these Murders weren't just made up of tiny Nevermore either. There were some larger ones, roughly the size of a person, beginning to form in and come together. While not all of these Murders were coming for them, it was beyond clear that if they tried to move through the sky again, they'd be an easy target; especially as more Nevermore could be seen beyond the horizon of Vale's Wall.

"-... we're not going to be able to finish this trip in the air…" Josuke finished his sentence as the pompadoured teen rubbed at his forhead, Okuyasu just having scoffed slightly as he stared at the clouds of Nevermore hanging about in the air.

"Fuck me, I honestly don't think I've ever seen this many birds flying around before. The city's really in the fucking dumps when if they're calling this many Grimm to this spot at once." Koichi nodded in agreement with the scarred teen, though a heavily sympathetic look accompanied his gesture.

"Can you really blame them though? Imagine if Morioh's wall suddenly came crumbling down? I don't think, even with all our preparations and the assurance of having someone like Jotaro around, that we'd be able to keep the panic down." Koichi swallowed somewhat nervously as more and more Grimm could be heard around the city. Despite the abysmal atmosphere around them, Josuke just took a few steps out to the edge of the rooftop and looked down into an alleyway just beneath them all, his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah; Morioh hasn't really faced that kind of a threat in a long time. Not since Dio resurfaced before the Stardust Crusade… and that was small potatoes compared to what's going on here." The pair behind the teen nodded in agreement, even as their leader offered them a reassuring look. "Just means we don't have time to sit around and complain about it. Just gotta keep moving to our objective… Koichi, I'm going to need you to brace our fall." The silver haired young man's face twisted into a slight look of determination, though one marred by slight fear, as he gave a nod and ran over. The tiny Hunter cast his gaze over the side and, much like Josuke, found the alleyway beneath them to be relatively empty.

"Act 2…" Koichi muttered as quietly as he could as The Stand again reshaped its tail, though this time a very distinct set of symbols formed on the tail, up to the point where instead of having been a hunk of metal the tail had shifted into a colorful set of those symbols. Act 2, upon completing its work, immediately dropped the symbols down off the side of the building where, after a moment, they hit the ground beneath them and stuck to concrete, shaking and quivering slightly as they did so.

"Okuyasu, would you be so kind as to get us down most of the way? Even with that, I'd rather not hit the ground at full speed." The scarred teen just grinned as he grabbed onto his two friends and as The Hand grabbed onto him with its left hand, its right having glowed with energy once again.

"Say no more, Josuke."

With little more than a step off from the roof for all three of them, The Hand swung its titular limb through the air and dragged the trio down closer to the ground in an instant, no momentum having been built up as part of The Hand's ability. Thus, even as they sped up and even as they hit the ground, they did so slowly. This impact was further softened as the concrete, which should've smashed them against itself, 'gave' out from underneath them, squishing and deforming like rubber with a soft 'boi-yoing' sound. The trio were lightly catapulted off to a somewhat more solid section of the ground, Josuke having landed neatly on his feat, Okuyasu having fallen forward onto the ground while Koichi fell flat on his ass.

"Damn… why did you have such an easy time hitting the ground…" Okuyasu cursed under his breath, to which Josuke could only shrug.

"You get used to it after being manhandled by The Hand for so long." Josuke shivered slightly; indeed, before Act 2, Josuke and Crazy Diamond were often the 'bullets' that took advantage of The Hand's special ability and what it could pull off. "Anyway, get yourselves back on your feet. We're hoofing it the rest of the way to the Wall… try your best not to get discouraged. It's going to be even tougher down here than it was up in the air." Koichi and Okuyasu both grimaced as they realized what Josuke was talking about. It wasn't necessarily the Grimm that had made their trip through the air difficult, after all.

"... Well Hell, i suppose I've seen and heard worse before…" Okuyasu growled out slightly, annoyed and agitated by their situation. Four eyes turned on Koichi, the young man having frowned as he looked out toward the entrance of the alley, where distant screams could still be heard.

"... I only promise to do my best…" Koichi muttered slightly, clearly unhappy with the situation. Still, if that upset Josuke or Okuyasu, neither of the older teens showed it. Hell, Josuke offered a sympathetic pat to Koichi's shoulder as the young man spoke, before the pompadoured teen turned his gaze back forward.

"Alright then, let's move." With that, the three were off again, tearing a path through the various alleys of Vale as they made as best a bee line as they could for the broken section of wall. There were several close calls throughout their journey; many times when they needed to peek out in order to reorient themselves, they were nearly spotted or otherwise sensed by the Grimm. Other times, they could've sworn that someone was coming their way, someone who needed their help, only to find that it was more the result of their fevered imaginations, having been assaulted by the sounds of the innocent, and combined with the tremendous footsteps of the roving hordes of Grimm. Indeed, having been on the ground, surrounded by their enemies and down in the depths of the despair that now palpably gripped Vale, the three teenagers had felt the pressure to a much greater extent than they had while traveling the air.

Yet, to the trio's credit, it wasn't this which ended up interrupting their journey. Even little Koichi, still with such a soft spirit at his core, managed to do his best and hold himself back, managing himself even in the midst of this despair. There had been no doubt that the trio would break sooner or later, indeed they expected it, each in their own way, as their emotions raged inside of them, their sense of justice agitated by this attack on the innocent by the monstrous Grimm and those people, for it could have only been people who would've blown a hole in the Wall of Vale, that had allowed the monsters to trespass in this place of safety for man and Faunuskind.

No, the trio of teens' emotions hadn't betrayed them. Luck had. As the three of them ran through the various alleys with their twist and turns, they turned a blind corner and immediately dug their heels in to halt their forward movement, hesitation having stopped them. For a large, powerful Beowolf Alpha had stomped into the alleyway in front of them from a different blind corner. For a moment, a desperate moment, the trio had dared to hope that they hadn't been spotted, that the beast would turn its gaze elsewhere or would move on from this spot with haste, going off to some other part of the city. Their hesitation is what would cost them; for the Beowolf Alpha had 'immediately' taken notice of them and, in their moment of hesitation, raised its head up towards the sky.

Before Crazy Diamond could punch a fist straight through the throat of the beast, it had let out a blood curdling cry, a howl that echoed through the air. As Josuke grimaced while the beast slowly slid off of Crazy Diamond's fist, its flesh dissipating into the air, they heard it; the sudden rush of paws and claws beating against concrete and the beating of wings.

The Beowolf had given away their location… and if the Grimm had any doubt as to their location, the sudden panic and anger that gripped the trio at their mistake had almost certainly lit them up like beacons.

"RUN!" The simple, one word order hadn't been questioned for a second as, immediately, Okuyasu and Koichi sprinted off, following their leader as he made a break for it as well. Team JOJO made a mad dash throughout the alleys, the teens having hoped that the twists and turns of the city would leave enough space between them and their pursuers for them to make a clean break. Such hopes were torn asunder as a whole pack of Beowolves burst out from a blind corner, having slammed into a nearby wall as the momentum of the mass had kept the creatures moving forward. Josuke ground his teeth together as, without warning, Crazy Diamond flew forth from his form and toward the mass of creatures.

" **DO-RARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA-DOOORAAA!** " A pulp of fur and bone and Grimm flesh immediately splattered against the walls of the alley, a small path having been carved in the pack of Grimm as Josuke turned back toward his best friend.

"Okuyasu!"

"WAY AHEAD OF YOU!" The Hand immediately took form beside Okuyasu as yet more Beowolves attempted to claw their way through the alley that the others had come through, intent on tearing the trio of teens apart. With one swipe of its right hand, The Hand immediately sealed the alley, the stone structure of the buildings surrounding the scraped area having been forcibly fused together, as if an empty space had never existed there to begin with. When one Grimm had taken the step to try and burst through the wall, its fist breaking through one of the weaker parts of the fused structure, Josuke growled as Crazy Diamond rushed forward.

" **DORA!** " Crazy Diamond's fist drove the claws and paw of the monster into the wall, the Stand's Power having 'fixed' the Grimm's limb to the wall, effectively having left it unable to separate itself. As other Grimm tried this very same feat, Crazy Diamond repeated the gesture while the three teens made a break for it, the Stand only having stopped once it had been forced to disappear back into range of Josuke.

Still, the three teens couldn't have felt too accomplished as they watched Beowolves climb over the makeshift wall and into the alley behind; no doubt the monsters had climbed over the bodies of their fellow Grimm, now fused into the very wall, in order to make it over.

"Want me to repeat that Josuke, I can make another!" Josuke just grimaced as he shook his head.

"There's no point; it'll buy us a little more time from them but there's no telling how many more Grimm are closing in on our location. We need to just keep moving and hope that these guys are the closest to us."

It was a smart plan; after all, the Grimm could've been closing in from who knew how many sides. Nevermore from above, Beowolves in packs from the side or other terrifying monsters from who knew where. Great Ursa that could've been powerful enough to break through the stone walls that surrounded them couldn't have been far off. Every second they wasted trying to erect a barricade against the Grimm behind them was a second gifted to any other Grimm that might've been looking for them. All things considered, it was their best bet, their smartest bet, the move that made the most sense in context.

Sadly, no plan survived contact with the enemy. So it was that, as Josuke turned his head back forward to navigate himself and his friends through the alleys, hoping to drive them forward to their goal and out of this most immediate danger they had found himself in, that Josuke's blue eyes went wide. An Ursa slowly stalked out from around a corner, its great paw raised and its eyes shining with hatred.

"JOSUKE!" A pair of screams rang out from behind him as the Ursa's paw made its arc. In a second, Josuke's uniform was in tatters, the shredded remains scattered about the alleyway as the young teen stumbled back away from the Ursa, a surprised gasp having echoed from him. To Okuyasu's and Koichi's horror of horrors, it had looked as much like a direct hit to them as anything they'd seen Josuke suffer before.

" **DORA!** " Before anyone could even blink, Crazy Diamond had rushed forward and slammed its fist into the side of the Ursa's head, driving the beast's skull into the nearby stone wall and splattering it against the hard surface, instantly having killed it. Even amidst all the danger, even amidst all the threats, Koichi and Okuyasu ran right up on Josuke, the two teens at his side.

"Josuke, bro, are you alright, you look like you-"

"I'm fine!" Josuke answered quickly, surprising both Okuyasu and Koichi. Indeed, as the two teens looked down at Josuke's torso, his uniform had already been completely fixed, any sign of blood or anything that might've hinted at a wound having been nowhere in sight. They even looked at Josuke and, despite his pale complexion, it seemed more like from the shock of the situation than any severe pain. "Don't worry about nothing, we need to move, now!" Indeed, as the trio could see that, from the alley that the Ursa had run through, more monsters were pouring through, ready to try to slaughter them. The trio grimaced and immediately made a mad dash for it, trying to get away. The chase was on and the Grimm were intent on having their prey; through alleys and tight corners the hunt was on, Team JOJO having had monsters nipping at their heels nearly the entire way, even as their Stands did their level best to try and force the beasts back momentarily here and there.

Eventually Okuyasu had The Hand form another wall, swiping at the space between two buildings and fusing a great chunk of them together,, even above Josuke's order, which the Grimm 'slammed' into bodily. They all growled and howled as they immediately did their best to rip and tear through the wall, their eyes having been met with one simple fact; there was only one way out of the immediate vicinity for these kids. For the monsters, this would mean that their prey only had one way to go, one way which they could easily follow. So the Grimm turned their gaze upon the only open alley left…

Only to find it completely empty, devoid of any human life and with only a large dumpster having sat off to the side of it. The end of said alley had another The Hand formed wall at the end of it, the two halves of the building having been freshly stitched together by the Stand's Power. The Grimm slowly worked their way into the alley; monsters though they may have been, the Grimm had a limited intelligence and, with that, even they could tell something was up. Snouts were in the air, sniffing about for their pray as they stalked down the alley. For most, the answer was immediately obvious; the trio of prey had formed this second wall behind them to allow for their escape. It was a way for them to buy more time. Thus, almost immediately, most of The Grimm had either climbed over or broke through the wall, intent on chasing down their prey, and other squishy humans and Faunus, throughout the city.

Others however… stayed. They stayed and waited, their snouts slowly taking them around. They could still sense the 'faint' trace of these humans, their stink, the stink of their blood, sweat and desperation… they felt closer than what the others had assumed. Very, very close…

"AAAAAAH!" A blood curdling scream erupted from not too far away, the remaining Grimm having perked up at the sound of it. The monsters, in the end, gave in to their baser instincts and left the alley; better to pursue prey so near and so available rather than chase after difficult prey that had given them the slip, after all. After a minute or so of silence, the lid to the dumpster slowly but surely bumped and banged a bit before it was 'very' carefully open, a trio of eyes having peaked out from underneath.

"... They gone?"

"Looks like it… Koichi?" The third set of eyes glanced up to the roof where Echoes had returned from planting the sound of the scream so far away. The little Stand gave a quick thumbs up before it disappeared back into Koichi's soul, the little guy having then pushed the lid open the rest of the way as he waved for the others to climb out.

"Fuck me, way too many of those bastards in too tight a space." Okuyasu grumbled as he slowly forced himself out of the dumpster, having dusted himself off and picked off various pieces of trash from his person while Josuke followed soon after.

"Yeah. If we had more room to fight without them crowding in around and above us, we might've had a better opportunity… hopefully we'll find that at the Wall when we get to fixing it. For now, thank the Brothers that Vale didn't take out its trash before today, otherwise they probably would've sniffed us out right away."

"Yeah, thank goodness, 'really' glad for that." One of Koichi's increasingly common sarcastic remarks dropped unintentionally as he pulled… ugh, something off of his uniform, patting off the remains of it as the trio reconvened. "Echoes got a good look while it was traveling, we're still on our way to the Wall but we'll need to break down some of these other ones to make progress." Okuyasu nodded as he placed his hand on his chin.

"Good idea, I doubt people are going to raise that much of a fuss about us breaking through their homes all things considered."

"... You know what Okuyasu, that's a surprisingly valid point." The scarred teen just grinned as he brought out The Hand, taking a moment to follow Koichi's general directions before he sprinted off to one of the other parts of the alley. As Josuke got set to follow him, Koichi grabbed his leader by the back of his uniform, dragging his attention back. The little guy, again, took a long look at Josuke's front… he could've swore that he saw and heard it. Amidst the scraps of destroyed uniform that there had been blood… and that Josuke's cry had been one of pain.

"Something wrong, Koichi?" Josuke remarked, the pompadoured teen blinking in confusion as Koichi just sighed and shook his head.

"No, it was nothing Josuke, I just… well, I thought you got hurt was all." At that, his leader grinned down at Koichi as he tousled his hair ever so slightly.

"You kidding? Pfft, an Ursa wasn't about to land a cheap hit on me like that. I'm fine, Koichi." The confidence in Josuke's voice, the certainty with which he said it, caused Koichi to smile as he nodded. "Now quick, let's get back to Okuyasu before he tears open a hole in someone's house that we 'don't' need to get through." With a pat on his back, Koichi nodded and ran off after Okuyasu. Josuke just stood there and sighed for a moment, his eyes glancing down to his torso as he placed his hand on his side.

With a quiet hiss, Josuke withdrew his hand, a splotch of thick blood having stained the front of his uniform and the palm of his hand from the contact. The fix had been makeshift and quick; he'd transformed his undershirt, or the bits of it Okuyasu and Koichi couldn't see, into a series of bandages and fixed both his uniform jacket and his blood; once outside of him, his blood no longer counted as 'himself' and so could fall under Crazy Diamond's ability like anything else. With a bit of focus and a 'much' lighter touch on his jacket, the blood that had collected both on his makeshift bandages, his jacket and his hand were fixed into an increasingly dry bit of blood that fit into the palm of his hand, one that was quickly tossed into the nearby dumpster.

Now wasn't the time to have his friends worried about him. They were in the middle of probably one of the most high stress situations they'd ever find themselves in and with 'everything' at stake. If they had their minds wandering to a wound on him, of all things, then he risked distracting his friends at a critical time… at a time when their lives were on the line. Worse yet, they might take this as a sign that they needed to turn back, that continuing to move forward might be some kind of risk to his life. He'd forbid it and they'd follow his orders… but he knew them. They'd worry and that worry would only draw more Grimm and it'd only weigh on their thoughts.

It was better this way; they'd get their work done sooner and Josuke could just get back to safe ground and get himself a nice hospital bed after. Peach would probably be pissed if she had to take care of him again, but hey, it'd be worth it if this gamble of theirs paid off. Besides, it wasn't as if the wound was 'that' bad anyway.

It was this last thought that echoed in Josuke's mind as he ran off after his friends, a constant, stinging pain in his side as he ran. Yeah, it wasn't 'that' bad…

* * *

It was a bitter struggle to have made it this far. The trio had made their way around what buildings they could and through them if necessary. If their only other option was to dip back out into the open to get around, Okuyasu would have The Hand, as quietly as it could, carve open a hole in a building using its Stand Power, whereupon it'd then use its ability to fuse the hole back closed using the two open sides of the building once all three were through. Just busting a hole through a wall, they realized, would make far too much noise in their pursuit of getting to The Wall as quickly and quietly as possible.

Though far safer than their earlier paths, the trek was still bitter as the trio often found that they'd have to crawl, practically on their stomachs, in order to duck around windows that might've exposed them to errant Grimm. Josuke, the entire time, kept his composure, occasionally fixing his uniform and makeshift bandages to hide any sign of blood that might've come about. They were close, so close, he just needed to get his team there.

Finally, the trio had made it; upon opening one last hole in a building they found in front of them a vast, open space… well, formerly open. The distance between the last building of Vale and The Wall of Vale had been kept wide for a while, in order to prevent any accidents or sudden attacks from dropping huge chunks of the tall structure on top of any of Vale's other structures. This foresight had proven itself as the thing that Team JOJO had found in front of them immediately after The Hand scrapped open a hole in the wall was a huge, shattered chunk of Vale's Wall. The trio looked around and saw a similar sight all around; while none of the three doubted that smaller pieces of The Wall were probably blown further afield, there was no doubt that most of the structure was too big or too heavy for most of the pieces to make it too far.

Indeed, judging from what they had seen, it seemed that the Wall of Vale had more been shattered by whatever tremendous explosion had rocked it, its pieces them falling and scattering much like a Jenga tower. Huge chunks of stone and debris had fallen about this open space and, despite the foresight of keeping distance, some buildings had found themselves pelted by small bits of rubble or thoroughly crushed underneath huge ones.

Still, that paled in comparison to the wide open space that greeted them once they looked at the Wall itself. A 'huge' hole was open in the ground underneath where the structure would've been, likely the very source of the explosion. Closer inspection would show… some kind of train tunnel? Odd but there had been no time to seriously consider it, especially as yet more Grimm were making their way around that hole and through the Wall in order to attack the city.

A lot of Grimm, at that. The trio stood their ground as they waited, teeth grit as they watched the procession of Grimm funnel into the city. It was a large group though, thankfully, it seemed like it was just one large group entering. As more and more Grimm came in from further and further afield, they'd probably be more like this than the initial wave of Grimm; large packs rather than a swarming mass of monsters.

"Should we take care of them now?" Okuyasu quietly growled, The Hand's right hand glowing with its Stand Power as Josuke tapped his finger against his chin.

"... Yeah, I think we do. If we wait for them to sneak past and then try to make a break for Vale's Wall, they'll probably notice what we're doing and then turn to deal with us soon after. Better to break them now and 'maybe' start drawing attention while there's still three of us free to deal with them than to wait for them to come back and leave you two to deal with them alone." With that said, Koichi quickly summoned forth Act 2 in order to reforge its tail along with Crazy Diamond.

"Same as before, Josuke?" Koichi asked quietly as Act 2 put the finishing touches on its tail. Josuke considered this for a moment, his eyes glancing over to a nearby building… a good chunk of it had been destroyed by the falling debris of wall. It was on its last legs…

"Not quite Koichi. Take aim at that structure over there… Okuyasu, have The Hand ready to pull me back in." The two nodded, not bothering to question Josuke's strategy, as the teen immediately rushed out, taking himself somewhat closer to the half standing structure before his feet dragged against the ground. "Oi!" The pack of Grimm stopped in their place, dead silent where before there had been grunts and growls of anticipation, as they looked over at the pompadoured teen as he stood out in the open. "You monsters have run amok here for long enough! Come and get me if you're so hungry!" With that, Josuke brought Crazy Diamond to his side, the Stand having stood proud and tall next to its User.

The Grimm puzzled for a moment. The creatures were at least vaguely aware of the squishy, bloody things called humans and Faunus and their survival instincts. Yet here was a person who had just ran out into the open to challenge them. To the slightly older members of the pack, it felt like trouble. However, in the end, the hate and anger which animated the Grimm took over what little survival instinct they had screaming about how wrong this situation felt and the pack charged. Josuke gave a quick nod as Crazy Diamond reared its fist back and, immediately, began to pummel the ground some distance to the side of Josuke.

" **DO-RARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA~!** " The hot pink Stand let loose on the concrete around it, kicking up mounds of stone and dirt as its fists flew. The Grimm continued to run forward and, when Josuke was satisfied, he turned to his friends and teammates.

"Okuyasu!" With little more than the call of his User's name The Hand immediately swiped at Josuke, the move having caused the pompadoured teen and his Stand to immediately be 'teleported' back into the vicinity of his three friends. The Grimm pack, having charged, took some time to drag their feet against the ground in order to halt, having been left slightly stunned by the sudden bait and switch. As Crazy Diamond's powers went into effect, chunks of the concrete it had beat and pummeled began to rise up and 'fix' themselves into a small wall, tall enough to keep even the largest of the Grimm's number from just hopping over it, as Josuke pointed out the building to Koichi.

"Koichi, fire!" The small Hunter just gave a quick shout as, with a rapid spin, Act 2 slung its tail over into the last supportive structures of the nearby building, blowing them to bits and catching a good deal of the Grimm in the explosion as well. However, the main course hadn't even been properly served. Critically damaged on one side, the steel and stone of the building gave entirely, collapsing onto its side as it tumbled down right where Josuke had once stood and where the Grimm had charged into. The beasts, suddenly aware of the danger they were in, moved to try and get away. However, between the sheer number of them and the curved wall that Josuke had left behind to corral them, the monster had soon enough found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

In mere moments, the hard place won; steel pillars slammed into Grimm, instantly crushing or breaking them, glass shard separated limbs from bodies or even wholesale decapitated the beasts that were unfortunately enough to be caught by them and stone and concrete 'buried' the rest. In a matter of moments, the entire pack was either buried under rubble or dead… which suited Team JOJO just fine.

"Think that other Grimm will just think that was an accident and not come around here?" Koichi asked, almost desperately, as Josuke just ground his teeth together.

"Let's not wait to find out. Let's go, we have our opening." The entire team, secure in its purpose, made a break for it. As they sprinted around various blocks and chunks of stone they kept their eyes and ears open, always having kept aware of any sign that they were about to be attacked. Thankfully, the trio made their way to the base of the wall free of any trouble, smiles all around as Josuke summoned Crazy Diamond back into the sea of his soul and clapped his hands together.

"Josuke… are you really sure you can fix this?" Koichi asked, sounding cautious, as the pompadoured teen shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"If I'm being perfectly honest? No idea; this could be way too much for me to do for all I know." Josuke cracked his fingers slightly as he took a deep breath. "But I'd say it's a little too late for second guessing. Either I can do it and we'll be able to hopefully keep Vale from falling or I can't and we'll have to find a way to get back to safety while we're at the source of the problem."

"Yeah sounds about right to me." Okuyasu muttered as he rolled his shoulders. "Just get this thing back up and whole again Josuke. We'll back you up, no sweat." Josuke smiled at his friend, appreciative of his support. Koichi, in short order, offered his leader a kind smile as well, affirming his own loyalty.

"Alright… well, let's do this." With one last, deep breath Josuke reached his hands forward and planted them on one of the broken edges of the Wall, doing his best to pump the very essence of his soul into the stone as he sought to fix it like he would anything else. Crazy Diamond was within him, burning with power, as Josuke's very body glowed with the might of his Stand and its Stand Power. For all too long, that light show seemed to be the very limit of what Josuke was capable of as a few stray rocks and pieces of rubble slowly floated up and back onto the Wall, resealing themselves and fixing themselves into place.

That was, until, a similar glow surrounded a nearby 'gigantic' chunk of stone that rose up into the air, traveled above the teens' heads and planted itself into the side of the Wall of Vale, sealing itself back into place as it it had never been damaged in the first place. Soon after, a huge series of rocks and stones followed in the same path, each slowly making their way up to various parts of the Wall as they melted themselves back into place, secure again. Okuyasu and Koichi couldn't help but smile and even Josuke, stressing and straining himself as he was, cracked out a grin at the sign of this progress. However, those smiles soon faded as they heard the sounds of wings and paws beating against the breeze and cement slowly begin to rise.

Josuke's Stand Power was being pushed to its very limit, the light of his soul shining as bright as it ever had before. That had transformed the young man from mere human and potential target for the Grimm and into a living, breathing beacon of soul energy. A light that shined all too bright for the hungry, ferocious monsters that had made their way into the city. Koichi and Okuyasu, not forced to keep their gaze locked on the Wall, watched as a crowd of the beasts stormed towards them from the city, Murders of Nevermore flying through the sky toward them. All the while, Josuke's repairs weren't going fast enough; chunks of the Wall were flying up at a time, yes, but not at the speed and not with the consistency to ensure their work would be done soon enough.

Nowhere near soon enough.

Koichi's breath caught in his throat at the sight of this; for the first time in his entire time of having been teammates with Josuke and Okuyasu… this would be the first time one of them would be well and truly down against the Grimm. Going one on one against human opponents? People he could outthink and outsmart? Sure, now a days he could handle that thanks to Act 2. However, these were the Grimm and they were out in the open; there was no more tricky alleys for them to duck into, no hiding place for them to take advantage of, no trick of the eye to deceive them with. He and Okuyasu were out in the open, without a third of their team, as a whole swarm of the beats approached.

Koichi's resolve and his panic conflicted within him, even as Okuyasu spat off to the side and dug his heels in. "Well shit, looks like we've got some company coming for us." The scarred teen cracked his knuckles slight as The Hand made itself manifest again. For a moment, it seemed like Josuke was about to pry himself from the wall, to let go, when Okuyasu barked out angrily. "Oi, Josuke, you let go of that fucking stone and I'll kick your ass! Don't let all the noise fool you… it's a bunch of pissants coming our way. Koichi and I can handle them. Just do your damn job."

There was a silence there; Josuke knew the sound of a 'whole' lot of Grimm when he heard them… as a leader of a team, he felt the urge in his gut to help them. To do his best to try and help them overcome this obstacle. However, the fact remained; most of the progress he was making was only because his Stand Power was still applying to the Wall. If he let go now, several unsupported pieces of stone would crack and break off again, essentially forcing him to start all over. No, if he had any hope of actually finishing this, he needed to keep on it and keep fixing it.

So, not as a leader, but as a Hunter, Josuke grimaced in grim determination as he kept his eyes forward on the fruits of his labor. "Okuyasu, Koichi, first sign of things getting bad…"

"We'll dig in our heels even harder Josuke." Okuyasu barked back, a vicious smile on his face as he turned his eyes toward the upcoming rush of monsters. "Koichi, just back me up by tossing in as much trouble as you can. Echoes is still pretty soft… The Hand can handle any of these assholes that come up close, all right?" Koichi nodded, perhaps all too readily, as Act 2 once again readied its tail, The Hand having kept its right hand primed and ready as he waited. "Deal with those fucking birds first Koichi. Hate having to swing about to get them." With that, the battle was on.

It raged on for several minutes; as stone after stone slowly rose through the air and connected itself to the Wall of Vale, slowly bringing the structure back to its full form, Hirose Koichi and Nijimura Okuyasu waged a relentless fight against the Grimm that had come to slaughter their friend and devour him. Koichi, true to Okuyasu's order, stuck behind the scarred teen, letting him take on whatever Grimm came in front of them while he and Echoes attacked from the back. Time and time again, Koichi would have Act 2 ready its tail as a makeshift explosive and toss it into where the ranks of the Grimm were thickest, annihilating scores of the beasts before they could even get close to their marks. Okuyasu, having kept his eyes peeled, would then use The Hand to pull Act 2's tail back in to hand off to Koichi… along with a Grimm that he would summarily scrape out of existence.

Despite this tactics, the flood of Grimm proved to be too much at times; scores of them would get right into The Hand's face, necessitating that Okuyasu's Stand would fight head on. The Hand, while nowhere near as fast as Crazy Diamond or Star Platinum, played out its role as defender 'excellently', clobbering heads, smashing int torsos and scrapping Grimm into nonexistence until Koichi could form a countermeasure, turning Act 2's tail into a great gust of wind that would blow as many of the Grimm as it could away while Okuyasu was standing by The Hand.

The process repeated itself, again and again, with the pair following up on Josuke's new strategy for the group. Again and again, explosions and torrents of air flooded the square, Grimm corpses being scattered about before dissolving into nothing as the two Stand Users held their ground.

However, their strategy could only work for so long; exhaustion began to sneak its way into the pair, the exertion of so repeatedly using their Stand Powers having slowly eaten at them and their Stands. However, it wouldn't be mere exhaustion that would cost them a dire opening. The Grimm, while stupid, did have some basic instinct and the older they were, the more intelligent they became.

Intelligent enough, in some cases, to recognize a pattern when they saw one. A great, old Ursa Major watched as Act 2's tail soared over to a particularly large group of Grimm that it had been apart of. Hundreds upon hundreds of the beasts were pouring into this square, looking to kill the things and, especially, the bright human soul that had attracted them. It had watched as this flying object had, numerous times now, deposited itself amongst its fellow Grimm and, with some foul, unknown power slaughtered a great many of them, leaving them unable to overwhelm the defenders. Now, the metal object soared through the air toward it, ready to repeat this feat.

No more. The great Ursa Major reared back its paw and, with a might swing, bashed Act 2's tail away, sending it flying through the sky where it eventually exploded, its 'fuse' having gone off.

"OH NO!" Koichi's cry of panic was clear and, had Josuke been completely aware of his own surroundings at the time, would've even alerted him. The pompadoured teen, however, was too deep into fixing the wall now, too deep into his work… to much blood had been spilled from his torso onto the ground beneath his feet. It took all he had for Josuke to keep his focus on his task. He could spare no more.

Okuyasu, however, took immediate notice of this and cursed and swore out loud, the scarred teen's mind, dull as it was, raced as it sought an answer. A horde of Grimm far too large for him to handle was now bearing down on them. It threatened to surround him, to overwhelm him, to get back to Koichi and, worse yet, to get back to Josuke. Even if he continually swiped at the horde with The Hand, he'd only catch so many and for so long… eventually, one would find its mark and cut him or his Stand down. He couldn't afford to just keep swiping mindlessly, he needed a plan.

An idea, a rare idea, formed in Okuyasu's mind.

"KOICHI, KEEP ACT 2 READY!" Before Koichi could respond, Okuyasu had The Hand swipe at Act 2's tail, dragging the thing back to it as he handed it back off to Koichi.

"Okuyasu, I'm not going to be able to get it ready before they hit us!"

"Yes you are, just do it!" Before Koichi had room to argue, Act 2, as if acting on instinct, took hold of its tail and started working at it, as if Koichi's innate resolve and courage had taken hold of The Stand. Koichi watched, his eyes wide in shock, as The Hand 'planted' its feet firmly into the concrete and just swung away.

 **THUU-THUUU-UUUM-UM-THU-UUUU-THUUU-THU-UUUM!**

With so many swipes of its hand, all kinds of space immediately collapsed into the area in front of The Hand. The horde of Grimm that had sought to collapse on the group were immediately brought in front of Okuyasu, practically compacted as the multiple swipes did their work. Despite this, Okuyasu and The Hand kept on, the Stand's hand flying about as it scrapped away various Grimm in front of it. Soon enough, Okuyasu turned his gaze back to Koichi.

"Koichi! You're going to toss that bomb right into them! It's the only way to get them all at once without them breaking through!"

"Okuyasu, are you an idiot! They're too close, if I do that then you'll-"

Before the argument could fully break out, the Ursa from before, its arms long and powerful, took a swipe from around the cluster of Grimm that The Hand had created, slashing at the Stand across the chest. Blood poured from Okuyasu's mouth from the attack as Koichi's eyes deadened for a moment.

If Okuyasu stopped swinging now, the Grimm that weren't scraped away would just fall back. They'd get back up and then they'd swarm them as before.

This was the only way to nullify their numbers.

With grit teeth and panic clear in his eyes, Koichi gave out his own battlecry as Echoes Act 2 tossed its tail amidst the practical 'cloud' of Grimm that Okuyasu had created by dragging them in. The scarred teenager just grinned as The Hand jumped in front of him, doing his best to cover for him.

In mere seconds, an explosion tore through the Grimm and impacted The Hand, the result having utterly decimated the ranks of the beasts even as the force of the explosion blew Okuyasu and The Hand dozens of yards back.

"OKUYASU!" Immediately, Koichi ran up to his teammate and friend, checking the teen over for damage. Thankfully, Okuyasu's scheme hadn't ended up killing him, the teenager having just chuckled hoarsely as he slowly forced himself back up. His uniform was damn near ruined, even with The Hand having shielded him, and it was clear he had severe burns on him now… but he was still able to eventually get to his feet.

"Damn… gonna have to get Josuke to fix me up when we're done here. That hurt like Hell…" An equally hoarse chuckle made its way from Josuke's lips, his head just 'barely' craning back to look at his friends.

"Sounds like it…" The trio chanced a glance up to the Wall in front of them; while it had been hard fought, their efforts to buy time for Josuke had succeeded. A great deal of Vale's Wall had been fixed and, within minutes, Josuke would surely be done, the wall sealed and the Grimm done for. The hole in the ground that had likely started this entire affair had 'already' been filled in, after all. Now all that remained was the stone structure itself.

For a moment, overwhelming pride filled Team JOJO's chests. They'd done it.

That pride, however, soon died as what sounded like loud war trumpets had echoed across the air. Three pairs of eyes turned their gaze to the hole in the Wall itself, one that gave a clear shot to the world outside of Vale. While Josuke's position hadn't allowed him a clear line of sight, both Koichi and Okuyasu visibly paled at what they saw.

Goliaths, a herd of them. The gigantic creatures slowly stomped through the forests and plains that surrounded Vale, the gigantic, black, tusked monstrosities having slowly approached the Walls of the city. For decades, ever since the fall of Mountain Glenn, these creatures had waited. Humanity had not sought to clear them out or chase them away, judging it a waste of resources. So long as they weren't a problem in the then and now, they had been safe enough to ignore.

The Goliaths, perhaps the most intelligent of the Grimm even in young age, had been all too keen to take advantage of this. Slowly but surely they bought their time… and now, they had thought their moment upon them. However, upon seeing the Wall of Vale slowly but surely fix itself, their opening into the delightful despair that could be felt in the city closing, many of the elderly Goliaths had stopped. Their chance, it seemed, had come and gone. They had been too far away to take advantage of it. However, as most of the herd slowed down one Goliath continued to stampede forward. It was a younger member of the herd, brash and arrogant, without the age of its elders to calm its more base nature, the nature of all Grimm.

However, more importantly to it and the elders, it was faster than the lumbering monstrosities that it followed. It would be able to reach the Walls of Vale before they closed. So, the elder Goliath waited, trunks and tusks at the ready. If the youngster could break open a new hole or, better yet, keep it from closing outright… then their slaughter of the humans and Faunus of Vale could begin in earnest.

Okuyasu and Koichi could only watch as a monster that was easily ten times their height, if not more, stormed towards the opening. It was all too clear to them as well; the beast would breach the Wall before Josuke could finish fixing it.

It would kill him.

Koichi stumbled back for a moment, his fear having momentarily overtaken his resolve, as he watched the monstrous creature stampede, seemingly right at him. There was no way, they were done. The smaller Grimm, the lesser Grimm, they could handle those. But a Goliath? The Goliaths were Grimm that required, 'required' the presence of someone like Jotaro, or at least a tremendous group of Hunters, to take down just one. No, the three of them, the two of them actually considering how drained Josuke would be even if he stopped now… there was no way. No way. No-

"Koichi… when Josuke finishes, you take him and you run."

The young man's eyes stopped, his heartbeat having frozen in his chest for a moment, as he slowly turned his head over to Okuyasu. The scarred teen took a deep breath as he wrenched himself free of Koichi's supportive grip, The Hand having instead appeared to keep Okuyasu on his feet.

"Oku… Okuyasu, you can't. There's no way. The state you're in, that thing-"

"Will probably kill me. Yep." Okuyasu commented dryly, a smartass grin on his face. "That thing's way too big for me to scrape away all at once with The Hand… and what scrapes I do get in will probably just piss it right the fuck off. It'll probably stomp me into a fine puddle before moving on. That's not what matters here though." Okuyasu pointed to The Wall, so near to completion, so very close to being fixed. "What's important is that we're nearly done here… Josuke only needs another minute or so to get this fixed. If we can give that to him… then we've done a good job." Okuyasu offered a wide grin as he coughed slightly into his fist. "I think I'm a bit of a pain in the ass, so I'd like to think I could manage it."

…

All at once, Koichi's head lowered and he tightened his fists. He felt the fear, he felt the worry in his chest. They would die. If they stuck around here, they would die. He 'knew' that. He knew that deep down inside. Okuyasu's guts, his courage in trying to buy enough time… maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. But… but he knew it too. He knew he wouldn't make it out of this alive with that plan. It terrified Koichi. Terrified him right down to his very core. He didn't want that. He… he felt like he wanted to run. With all of them. That all of his friends could be safe… but he knew he couldn't. It was knowing that which caused him to bite his lips.

When Okuyasu didn't hear an answer, he turned his head back, intent of reprimanding his junior Hunter.

Up until he saw the look in Koichi's eyes. Not terrified, but angry. Frustrated. 'Infuriated'. Not at the Grimm that threatened them… no. At 'himself'.

"This… this isn't right. I'm fine, I can still fight, but you're the one who's gonna walk off and die? While I run and hide like some kind of coward… I'm… I'm so fucking pissed off by that idea. That isn't right. It shouldn't be like that! We shouldn't even have to run in the first place!" Koichi's hair, though lulled into a slight series of spikes from his previous encounter with Angelo, stood on end as he turned his determined gaze from Okuyasu to the Grimm.

"Why should we be running, crying for the Brothers to help us, over some measly Grimm?! I don't get it! Why are we running like we're the hens running from the fox?! WE'RE THE HUNTERS, THEY'RE T HE PREY!" Before Okuyasu could even move to stop him, Koichi broke out into a sprint, running past his injured friend toward the opening in the wall.

"Koichi, you fucking moron, what are you doing!?"

"Doing what I have to do to keep you from killing yourself you idiot!" Koichi shouted back as he looked on toward the approaching Goliath. "I don't know what that is yet… but it doesn't matter! I just 'have' to do it! That's all there is to it! **[Echoes Act 2]**!"

…

When silence had met the declaration, all eyes turned on where last Echoes had stood. Needless to say, both Okuyasu and Koichi were absolutely stunned, flabbergasted, when they saw the brown, mottled remains of Act 2 simply laying on the ground.

…

"OH MY GOD, I'M DEAD?! HOW!? WAS IT THAT LAST EXPLOSION THAT WENT OFF!?" Okuyasu slapped his forehead at the sight, having figured much the same thing, as both he and Koichi momentarily panicked. Eventually, however, better sense won the day as Koichi realized one simple fact. "Wait… I'm not dead and… and something like this happened before! Back when Echoes… ah! No, it couldn't be!"

A loud, trumpeting panic was heard some distance from the pair. The smoke and debris that the Goliath kicked up in its charge floated into the air, dust obscuring its bottom as 'something' caused the great Grimm to panic. Eventually through the haze, a shadow emerged. When that shadow was close enough, 'just' close enough it leaped several dozen feet into the air and through the sky, as it approached Koichi's position. The young lad's eyes were wide open at what he saw… his mind could only come to one conclusion at the silver humanoid that floated before himself and Okuyasu.

"A-... **[Act 3]**?!"

 **-To Be Continued- The Breach (Act 11)**

* * *

 **A/N: Woof, okay. So for those of you who only read here, here's the skinny; I didn't update on the 20th because it was actually during the week of my birthday and I decided hey, since I remembered it this year and my family was coming down to celebrate, why not take a break? The 25th was just straight up because I had difficulties with securing this chapter and the next in the outline, because these are the final two chapters of The Breach Arc, and they're fairly momentous in their own ways. I finally got this one down to how I liked it though and, thus, ta-da!**

…

 **God it's going to be so good to have this Arc over and I can do some little stuff again. Big action arcs are not my cup of tea.**

 **Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and I'll, hopefully, see you all on the 7th! Until then!**


	57. Mid-Semester Papers, Exams and Comps

Swinging by to give you guys the skinny: big stuff has come down the pipeline for my Graduate Work this semester. My professors have decided to switch things up and that, instead of having the usual mid semester work and exams due after Spring Break, that they're to be done before. Today I'm busy at work on one of the major ones and will be periodically busy with the second throughout the week. So despite my high hopes for an update on the 12th in order to keep up my pattern of managing to get something done in ten days even when I delay, that's not looking too hot right now with this stuff having poured right down onto my head.

Second, my Comprehensive Exams for my Master's Degree are being crafted as we speak and I'll be working on them from the period of March 16th to April 1st. While it isn't entirely necessary that I pass this time, as I will be going for another couple semesters for my second Master's Degree, it would be nice to get this one out of the way so I might be able to have a better job while attending to a second degree (6 Dollars a month on P a treon shall only get me so far, after all). As you can imagine, these probably aren't going to be easy.

Now, I take a lot of time and put in a lot of work to these chapters to make sure that everything syncs up right. There's an outline to the story that needs to be followed and I like to make sure that everything is in its right place. I take my time and I take what time I need and, in this case, my time will in some ways be dedicated elsewhere thanks to these papers and exams. While I'll try to get chapters out for you all in this time, I think I'll give you all a bit of a warning that the schedule is not going to be nearly as pretty as it way previously with either 5 or 10 day update windows. I apologize, sincerely, for this and promise that once things slow down on my end and I'm not constantly having to write to keep my academic career moving forward that I'll try to put this train back on track.

Until the next time I can crack out an update, I hope you all have a good time and I do apologize for bearing such poor news.


	58. The Breach (Act 11)

"A-... **[Act 3]**?!"

Floating in the air several feet above and away from either Okuyasu or Koichi was, indeed, a Stand. A silvery-skinned humanoid who, though the features of his arms and feet vaguely resembled that of Act 2's, now stood out on their own as part of a fuller style. A pair of shorts now adorned the Stand that went down to its knees which gave the impression of a broadly naked, save for its shoes and shorts, human boy roughly the same size as Koichi. However, this impression was more broadly shaken up by the various, muscle-like spots on across its body that, stranger still, were green in color. However, the most obvious feature that had worked itself over from the previous Echoes were the Stand's eyes, still so very bug like and golden as before. The Stand posed in mid-air for a moment, as if squatting, as its hand lightly brushed against its lips.

"... HAHAHAHAAAA!" Okuyasu barked out an echoing laughter, despite his injuries, as he looked up at Act 3, the scarred teen having just grinned as he looked over at the little guy next to him. "Of all the times for you to crack out a new Stand! Fuckin' great timing Koichi, this is exactly what we were looking for!" Koichi's eyes couldn't help but shimmer a bit before a smile grew on his face as well.

"I… I did it again. I grew as a person again, right? That's what it means to have this new Stand… and you're right, I did it now of all times!" Koichi chuckled but, despite himself, he felt like this was probably a various obvious time to do it. The last time Echoes had evolved into a new form, it had been at a dire time when Koichi 'needed' to be more than he was, when he needed Echoes to be a better Stand than it had been.

Despite all appearances, it really had seemed like Koichi was the kind of guy who thrived under pressure.

" **Give me orders.** " Both Okuyasu and Koichi flinched a bit, brought out of their reverie, when Act 3 spoke, the first time Echoes had ever spoken in its entire life. The voice was very nearly robotic with, appropriately enough, a slight echo to its voice that helped it carry. The Stand slowly floated on down next to Koichi, now standing straight up with its hands at its sides, as it looked to its Stand Master. " **Give me orders.** " The Stand repeated as Koichi still seemed to be slow on giving it what it needed.

"O-Oh right, yeah, of course!" Koichi was a bit flummoxed, the little grey haired young man hadn't ever really gotten used to Stands actually talking, a rare breed. He'd more or less become accustomed to Stands like his friends', Crazy Diamond and The Hand, or a Stand like Star Platinum, all of which spoke very little if at all. To hear his Stand speak to him was a bit of a surprise. "Uh well… protect us from-"

A mighty trumpeting roar ripped through the air as the Goliath, having recovered from its momentary surprise, immediately moved to charge at the wall again. Despite the time bought by Act 3's sudden appearance, it would still arrive well before Josuke could successfully close off Vale's wall and keep the thing from breaking in, so Koichi immediately panicked as he pointed toward the massive, if young, Grimm.

"That! Protect us from that thing! You can do that, right? You can help save us from that, can't you?" Koichi asked, honestly unsure of just what Act 3 was capable of on its own. Still, as the Stand heard Koichi's orders it just nodded its head as it turned to look back at the Goliath.

" **I'll have to ask that you follow in closely behind me, Master. My range is much shorter… but these orders are acceptable**." A smile grew on Koichi and Okuyasu's faces as Act 3 spoke so confidently and, in little time at all, Koichi obliged his Stand by running forward as it floated on towards the wall, the pair actually going all the way through it using a hole that Josuke hadn't yet closed up. The pompadoured teen tried to move his head to look at his friend, to wish him luck… but the pain rocking his torso and the immense pounding in his head kept him from vocalizing… he'd show his support by keeping his focus on the task at hand.

As Koichi got within a suitable distance for Act 3's purposes, the Stand immediately planted it's feet firmly on the ground before clapping its hands together.

" **[Act 3]: Three's Freeze!** " With a cry that accompanied its gesture, and a slow turn of its hands, Act 3 immediately flew off, closing the distance between itself and the Goliath. WIth a 'burst' of speed, one which ended up nearly knocking Koichi off his feet for all the wind that it kicked up. The Stand seemed to move nearly as fast as Ruby, though that had only been Koichi's estimation. As the Stand reappeared in front of the Goliath, the Grimm reared back, having been momentarily surprised by the tiny being's sudden reappearance. With a loud battlecry Act 3 reared its fists back and, in imitation of Star Platinum and Crazy Diamond, unleashed a volley of blows.

 **KERBAM BAM-BAM BAM KERBAMBAM-BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAMBAMABMABAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM~**

Sounding for all the world like a series of gunshots being fired off in rapid succession, Act 3 viciously pummeled the forehead of the Goliath with its fists, striking again and again at the beast. While Koichi and Okuyasu, from his position behind the wall, stared on in some awe and excitement. Those good feelings, however, soon ended up folding into shocked despair as, with no effort at all, the Goliath Grimm swung its trunk around and struck Act 3. Koichi, for a moment, expected to be knocked back as well… but instead found that Act 3 just stumbled about through the air, flipping around before hitting the ground and practically rolling his way back to position next to Koichi.

…

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT BULLSHIT?!" Okuyasu called out from behind the wall, wincing as his burns and injuries acted up from the sudden declaration. Koichi, similarly, just blinked in surprise as he stared at his Stand, now positioned on its back with its legs hanging comically over its head.

"O-Oi, Act 3, what 'was' that?!"

" **It seems the Grimm is too strong for a frontal assault. I cannot defeat it by myself**."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T?!" By this point even Koichi seemed fit to start panicking as he looked down at his Stand, Act 3 just having wiped at its chin slightly as it stood up.

" **This Goliath has some heavy power is all. S-H-I-T. I can't hope to push against it and win.** "

"Can't hope to- I ordered you to protect us Act 3, you can't just bail on that at the first sign of trouble!" Koichi screamed as Okuyasu started to choke on a combination of fury and panic from his position, equally worried about his friend but now deathly annoyed with Act 3. Everyone involved watched as the Goliath continued to approach, charging across the terrain and shaking the very ground with its movements.

" **Ah, but Master, I have finished protecting us, just like you ordered**."

"OH YEAH, YOU'RE REAL FINISHED PROTECTING US, ASSHOLE!" Okuyasu screamed as he immediately summoned forth The Hand. "Koichi, brace yourself, I'm going to pull you back in, alright?!"

"I can't believe it, we didn't grow at all, you're completely useless!" Koichi's panic was full-blown at this point as, despite Okuyasu's words, there was an understanding that such an action was too little too late. The Goliath was practically right on top of Koichi at that point and, even if Okuyasu pulled him back by scraping away space, chances were he'd end up pulling the Goliath closer as well. As the Goliath stomped forward, mere meters away from Koichi, it all seemed like it was over. It'd crush Koichi under its foot, it's break through the wall with its strength, killing Josuke and Okuyasu in the process, and then the rest of the Goliaths would charge into the city and wreak havoc.

That was how the situation seemed to be going, that is, up until the Goliath suddenly paused in its steps, shook a few times, and then unceremoniously fell into the ground producing-

"HOLY SHIT!" Koichi was knocked up into the air as a mound of dirt kicked up from underneath him, propelling him with the force of the Goliath cratering into the ground. A huge mound of earth now surrounded the Goliath as it had seemingly 'fallen' deeply into the ground beneath it, cracks and upturned Earth having formed as the Grimm was now up to its stomach in the ground. For a moment, it seemed like the Goliath could move a bit better as Koichi got slightly further away, however, as the Grimm attempted to get close to him once again, it just buried itself even deeper into the ground, the earth itself having gone up above its head.

"Wha… what the heck is happening?" Koichi muttered to himself as he looked over at Act 3. "Act 3… how are you doing this?" With but a simple flick of its wrist, Act 3 brought up its right hand, three fingers extended upon it.

" **I have rhymed the words 'Three's' and 'Freeze' in order to create this effect. Three's Freeze.** " The Stand explained simply while Koichi just gaped for a moment.

"Y-Yeah okay but… what are you doing to it that's causing this? What does that do?"

" **It doesn't take that much explanation Master. I have massively increased the weight of the enemy Grimm, such that it can't support itself under its own weight…** " As Act 3 spoke a tremendous 'snap' could be heard from the Goliath, causing all attention to be on it. One by one the tusks of the massive monstrosity were breaking between their own weight and the surface tension of the ground itself and, shortly there after, the breaking of bones could be heard from within the Grimm as it seemed to fold in on itself, the Goliath's eyes slowly going dark as the entire monster slowly started to dissolve. " **The weight was too much for its form to support, and it broke. I have protected us, as ordered.** "

"... Holy crap…" Koichi muttered to himself, before a shout from Okuyasu drew his attention back to the wall which, to his surprise, now only had a very small doorway open to him to get through.

"Yo Koichi! You can gawk at how at the Hell your Stand killed that thing later! Get through here now while Josuke's keeping a door open for you!" Immediately Koichi nodded as the young man and his new Stand immediately made a break for the door, the young Huntsman having looked back over his shoulder to see what the remaining herd of Goliaths were up to. If they seemed bothered by the death of one of their young, the monsters didn't show it. Though they stood there and stared for a long, hard second, a loud trumpeting sound eventually echoed from the herd as the great body of elephantine Grimm slowly turned and began to walk away. Their chance to enter the city and wreak havoc had passed them by; too slow to run in the first place but for the efforts of their solitary young one and now with the human ready to slip back behind the repaired walls, the monsters knew their time was up.

However, they also knew they lived long, long lives. They would have an opportunity to answer this slight. So the Goliaths trundled on off as Koichi easily slipped through the last hole in the wall, Act 3 following him in just as Josuke and Crazy Diamond sealed the wall shut.

From every angle in the city and from any distance, it had been easily seen that the Wall of Vale, having been destroyed only an hour before, was now standing tall, proud and whole again. The veritable wave of relief and joy that this sight inspired could be felt across the city, even to the three young Hunters as Koichi collapsed onto his rear, taking heavy breaths as he grinned over at Okuyasu.

"Brothers… I can practically feel it in the air…" Koichi muttered, smiling as, in the distance, the odd cheer and praise for the mercy of the Gods could be heard from the citizens of Vale, even amidst the still ongoing battles.

"Holy shit… you know, I didn't honestly think we'd pull this off but you know fuckin' what? We did… we really fuckin' did it." Okuyasu grinned for a moment and, at the time, it seemed like Koichi and Okuyasu had been ready to extend their celebratory patting on the back to Josuke and each other…

Up until the small tremor of footsteps knocked them out of their reverie. The pair immediately turned their heads over to the open grounds around them that slowly folded into the various buildings and alleys of the City of Vale. Sure enough, one by one, those openings, streets and alleys were being filled with Grimm, Beowolves, Ursa, Creeps and others slowly churning themselves out from their locations as they looked on at the sight before them. The Wall closed, their exit gone and the entrance for their reinforcements cut off, and only three little humans there that still stood…

The Grimm were all too aware of who they had to blame for this, animal intelligence be damned. Immediately Koichi and Okuyasu were off their asses, despite the latter's wounds, as they immediately turned toward Josuke who had, of the three of them, been the most conspicuously quiet about the entire affair.

"Josuke! Us fixing the wall must've brought the Grimm here! They… they don't look pleased, not one bit! We need to form back up so that we can get out of here! Act 3 can… can… J-Josuke?" Koichi's voice died in his throat as the little guy took the time to take in the state his leader was in, Okuyasu's own eyes having narrowed slightly as well as the reality of the situation had sunk in.

Despite the time between having fixed the wall and then, Crazy Diamond had remained in full form beside Josuke, the young man having kept one hand at his stomach while the other continued to lean against the wall of Vale, the vestiges of Crazy Diamond's Stand Power having remained there, glowing ever so slightly. Finally, there was a loud 'splash' that both Okuyasu and Koichi plainly heard and… well, the sight that accompanied that splash wasn't pleasant.

Josuke hacked out a veritable mouthful of blood as rivulets of the crimson liquid sprung through the gaps of his fingers hanging onto his stomach. It was clear that, on some level, Josuke was trying to use his other hand to 'fix' his jacket, to get rid of the blood so it wasn't be pooling so deep and so obviously and overflowing from the confines of his jackets and through his fingers. However, the glow of Crazy Diamond's power wouldn't spread there. A moment later, Crazy Diamond itself faded from view, dissipating into the air while Josuke slowly slumped up against the wall, his head having practically crashed against it. Josuke's eyes were vacant and glassy, the young man taking deep, labored breaths as blood continued to trickle out from his mouth.

It'd been too much. The stress that having fixed the Wall of Vale had put on his mind and spirit had been one thing, but his body had been an entirely different monster as his Aura, focused in Crazy Diamond it might've been, was tremendously sapped away in the name of fixing the wall of saving Vale. The combination of his old wounds from Red Hot Chili Pepper and the wound inflicted on him by the Grimm in that alley way, the former of which had been torn back open by the stress he had put his body through just getting here and then putting so much stress on his Stand, and the latter having gotten 'worse' from the lack of attention paid for it, now resulted in a critical injury. Josuke had studied up enough about the human anatomy so that, when healing his friends or other Hunters, he could always do it right.

If Josuke still had clear thoughts running through his head, he would've realized that he was bleeding out. As it stood… it felt cold. So very cold. A familiar cold. One that had gripped at him before.

A cold like that night in the wilderness, all those years before.

He was dying.

'Gods… Peach is going to kill me…' The hazy, half-formed thought barely seemed to recognize the reality of the situation as Josuke collapsed onto his knees, his face having dragged down the side of the wall as his pompadour was ruined from the direct contact.

"JOSUKE!" Immediately Koichi and Okuyasu were right on top of their team leader, Okuyasu having ignored the scorching, burning pair that surged through him as he ran up to his best friend, the teen's fears having pushed all that to the side as he knelt down next to Koichi.

"Josuke… you jackass! Why didn't you say anything, you asshole?! We would've turned around and gotten you help if you were this bad off you dumb motherfucker!" Okuyasu kept his hands on the lapels of Josuke's uniform, the scarred teen's panic and worry having converted, as it often did, into anger as he looked down at his team leader, his skin paling as he did his best to stare up at the two of them.

'Had to… had to…' Josuke's mouth moved slowly as he tried to speak, though the words only echoed in his minds as his blood starved body refused to formulate those words. He'd had to do it. This was the one chance they had to save the city and keep more lives from being lost… that's what he owed to people as a Hunter, right? That's what he needed to do for both his home and for all of humanity.

It'd been the price that pompadoured man had paid way back when to save his life, right? So what right did he have to deny a similar trade. His life for the lives of others.

"Okuyasu, calm down, you're not helping anything!" Koichi stopped Okuyasu as he looked over at Act 3, the Stand having looked back at the wave of incoming Grimm. "Act 3. Can't you, like, rhyme something to save Josuke's life?! That's your power or something, isn't it?" Act 3 frowned slightly as it continued to watch the Grimm approach.

" **This early on it's hard to say. I am not completely familiar with my own abilities myself… however, even if I could, I likely would not have powers similar to Josuke in that regard. With the Grimm approaching, even a temporary fix would leave him unconscious and weighing on us…** " Both Okuyasu and Koichi nodded at that… despite the situation, they were well aware of what Act 3 meant.

Josuke was out of this fight. They hadn't been able to protect him on the way here and now he was out. They had been in this situation before and it had always been a stressful time… now though, with literally hundreds of Grimm rushing toward them, it was by far the worst moment they'd faced. Josuke didn't even seem like he was remotely able to call Crazy Diamond forward at all, meaning he couldn't even protect himself or help them fight off the Grimm.

They both knew what the smart option was. They both knew what decision would spare their lives in this scenario. Which decision would let them survive.

"... Act 3… what are the odds of you and The Hand being able to fight off these Grimm together? What do you think?" The Stand glanced about at all the Grimm, frowning slightly as he did so.

" **None of these Grimm are as tough as those son of a bitch outside the wall, so my strength might be able to handle them… however, unlike my previous form, I don't have a way of dealing with them all at once. Furthermore, Act 2 would be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. I… would not give us good odds, but we might be able to do it.** " Koichi and Okuyasu considered that for a moment.

Just a moment.

"Well Hell… when have we let long odds keep us down…" Okuyasu grinned as he slapped Josuke lightly across the face to keep his team leader from fading out. "You just sit tight Josuke… Koichi and I will deal with these guys and then get you to a hospital. Just… just hold on." Koichi took a deep, shaky breath as the young man nodded along with Okuyasu, the pair standing up as they turned to face the Grimm, The Hand having formed alongside the burnt, scarred teenager while they all faced off.

" **... S-H-I-T…** " Despite the exasperation in Act 3's tone, the little Stand quickly raised its fists, ready to defend itself, its Master and its Master's companions as it saw fit. For a brief moment, Okuyasu and Koichi shared a glance, the two teenagers giving each other a knowing, frightened look.

They knew what this was. What was coming. There was no hiding from it.

So why not take Okuyasu's approach and run straight for it.

While Okuyasu gave a wide, boastful grin befitting his features, Koichi still seemed nervous and scared, despite everything. Still, upon the little guy's face, a grin of only slightly lesser calibre sat on his lips.

"Let's… let's kick their asses, Okuyasu!"

"Speaking my fuckin' language, Koichi!"

With that, the pair of friends turned on the Grimm who had rapidly closed the ground around them.

" **[THE HAND]**!"

" **[ECHOES ACT 3]**!"

" **[STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD]**!"

 **THUU** UUuuumm…

 **TICKTOCK** TICKTOCK TICK TOCK tick tock tick…

They'd been helping him make his way quickly through the terrain while on their way back here. They'd managed to sneak through the hole in the wall when it had initially gone done, their objective at the time having been to reconvene with their superiors in Ozpin, Ironwood and the old man in order to figure out just what they were going to do. Whether they'd evacuate and pick Blake back up later or if they were going to fight for the city and then pick up Blake afterward. There'd been too much on the line at the time, too much at stake in Vale to move back after the train had crashed.

At least, that had been the thought process up until they started to see the Wall begin to go back up, its various pieces being fixed back into place. At that moment in time, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the four of them had known what they were going to do. What they needed to do.

"Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi…" As a giant of a man dropped onto the ground, the unconscious form of Roman Torchwick still hanging over his shoulder, Kujo Jotaro couldn't help but spare a moment to look at the three young men before him. Determined, battered, bruised and near death… but alive. Alive and having successfully saved an entire city of people from whatever fate the Grimm would've seen fit to put them through. Jotaro sighed in relief; Weiss' Glyphs had done good work in getting them here as quickly as possible.

"You three really have grown so much in the time that I've known you all…" Jotaro adjusted his cap as he stood back up to his full height, looking down at the three young men, two of whom he'd known since they were little more than boys who had freshly acquired their Stands. "I'm proud of the men you three have become. You did good work here… now then…" With a quick swipe of his finger across the rim of his hat, Jotaro had turned his attention to exactly 'why' he and the other members of Team RWBY had been in such a hurry. The reason why, despite how many times he'd already done so in the past twenty four hours, he had activated Stopped Time once more.

The Grimm.

" **Yare yare daze.** It looks like we arrived just in time." With little more fanfare than that, Star Platinum ripped itself free from the sea of Jotaro's soul, the Stand rushing forward toward a giant Ursa Major that had, before time stopped, been leading the charge of its fellow Grimm. With one punch the Grimm's head was caved in, the bone plating having been beaten right down into its neck with one blow.

"One second has passed…" Jotaro whispered under his breath before taking a long, deep breath to balance himself. There were a lot of Grimm here and while he knew Ruby, Weiss and, to a lesser degree thanks to her injuries, Yang would be able to handle them… with how Josuke looked, Jotaro wouldn't want to waste a second. So, as he exhaled, a serious, angered expression crossed Jotaro's features.

He was just going to have to make every second of Stopped Time he had count, then.

" **ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA~** "

All at once, heads were sent flying, limbs were torn off only to be used as a cudgel to beat other Grimm into bloody pulps, larger specimens among the Grimm were used as makeshift weapons in order to decimate a whole group of them and, most of all, fists went flying, pounding body parts into little more than sludge as Star Platinum went to town on the enemy of mankind, its battlecry roaring out and echoing in Stopped Time as it tore through the ranks of the Grimm in front of it. As time passed, the herd was thinned considerably. There would still be a good number of the Grimm remaining… but the others would make short work of them. As one last Creep was slammed into the pavement beneath it, Star Platinum's fist having driven down several inches into it, Kujo Jotaro took one last deep breath as he reached a hand up for his heart.

"Five seconds have passed… time resumes."

… thuuUU **UUUM!**

tock tick tock TICK TOCK TICKTOCK **TICKTOCK!**

Before Koichi and Okuyasu's very eyes, even as they tried to process the shock of hearing, of all people's, Jotaro's voice so suddenly, their other senses were assaulted by the sight and sound of a great number of the Grimm around them being completely pulverized into little more than paste or being broken into several pieces. Furthermore, even as Jotaro stood there taking deep breaths with his hand to his heart, the two young men were further surprised when, out of the blue, several of the Grimm lost their heads in the blink of an eye, dozens more were burnt to cinders and many were frozen into blocks of ice, fit to never move again.

In the next moment, Ruby Rose appeared, a trail of rose petals having followed her as she popped out of her Semblance and Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee, the latter having supported the former, hit solid ground, a loose round of Yang's explosive ammunition held in hand as she quickly replaced it in Ember Celica.

"Hey there, you guys looked like you could use some back up." Despite the grim nature of the situation, Yang's lighthearted, joking tone flooded both Okuyasu and Koichi with relief.

"Hell yeah we did, fuck are you three a sight for sore eyes!" The scarred teen howled with excitement as Ruby and Star Platinum turned on the Grimm, the young Huntress and the powerful Stand quickly moving about the body of Grimm, carving a path through them with fist and scythe. Koichi, after the moment of celebration, quickly snapped back to reality.

"Oh Gods, Josuke! You guys have to have something to help him, he's really badly hurt!" The duo of Yang and Weiss nodded, Jotaro having allowed them to get closer while he and Ruby worked on clearing a path for them to escape the Grimm. With little effort Yang reached down and ripped the front of Josuke's uniform off, the whole group wincing as they saw the bloody wound on full display.

"Gods, he's been walking around with this? What kind of idiot… you know, no, I don't need to ask what kind of idiot, I've been surrounded by idiots for months now!" Weiss called out, the others barely even able to feign insult as the young Schnee Heiress got to work. With Myrtenaster in hand Weiss took a deep breath and quickly drew a Glyph in the air just above Josuke's stomach. Once completed the Glyph glew hot and red as small tendrils of it fell down onto the various, gashes on Josuke's stomach. For a brief moment Josuke came to life in a slight bit of movement, a harsh gasp of pain being released as smoke rose from the portions of his skin where the Flame Dust had settled, effectively cauterizing it.

"I know it hurts Josuke but you're going to have to deal with it. I'll ice it over to help with the pain but not before… I actually have to do my best to close this beforehand to staunch the bleeding…" Sweat dripped down Weiss' forehead as she looked down at Josuke's wound. It had been a fun little fact she'd been made keenly aware of; while icing over a wound would reduce pain, it wouldn't actually staunch the bleeding and, furthermore, doing so would do more harm than good. She needed flame to staunch the flow of blood out of Josuke's body by cauterizing what she could. In time, Weiss backed off with the first Glyph, allowing it to fade into nothing as she did what she could with Josuke's wound. The pompadoured teen was still writhing in pain following this but, moments later, his motions slowed and eventually calmed as, with some Ice Dust and her own hand, Weiss applied a very small layer of ice over the wound.

"This is going to be the best I can do, I'm no doctor after all. Still, this should at least stem the bleeding while we get him to people who can actually help." Weiss frowned as she looked over at Yang. "Looks like you and Jotaro are going to have to wait your turn to get fixed up…"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure that we're real torn up about that with JoJo in the state he's in. Let's get 'him' fixed first, then he can focus on the rest of us." As Yang spoke, the blonde brawler shifted herself off of Weiss' shoulder. The Schnee Heiress looked on with concern while Yang just grinned. "It's okay Weiss, I'm better now. Thanks for the help though."

"Pfft, someone has to have a modicum of sense and make sure you idiots don't hurt yourselves." Despite the words, there was a smile on Weiss' face as Yang reached down and tucked one of Josuke's arms around her shoulder, Koichi having quickly reached down to do the same. Ordinarily this would've been Okuyasu's job in their group… but given the scarred teen still had his own wounds to look after, Koichi, his confidence buoyed by Act 3, decided to take up the mantle in this moment.

"Looks like you three could've used some of Weiss' attention too, eh? Swear to God JoJo, you're supposed to be the smart one out of you three and here you are walking around like this. I'd slap you upside your head if it wouldn't do more harm to your do." Despite the situation and how dire it seemed, Yang's words and attitude kept the others around her lifted up. The easy going words and the scrappy tone of her jabs at the pompadoured teen had an effect on her fellow Hunters, raising their spirits even with Josuke looking so poor off.

"... Sorry…" It was weak, almost inaudible, but Josuke responded nonetheless, his body having shivered ever so slightly form the slight chill the ice put through him.

"... Suppose we can't be too mad at you. Saved the city after all there, JoJo. You and that haircut of yours are gonna be 'famous' by the time this is all said and done…" Ruby glanced over her shoulder at her older sister, watching her joke and take with such ease the situation put before them. The silver eyed Huntress knew this Yang all too well; she was the one who was always there for her, or their dad, whenever things got rough while they were growing up. Confident, strong, always ready with a joke or a quip, a continual, unending font of positivity and good nature that just… pervaded you. That made you feel like the world was going to be just fine. It was just something Yang was good at, Ruby could attest to that from years of experience with her older sister…

But years of experience gave her other insights too. You didn't spend so long with someone without noticing things about them. WIthout knowing their ticks.

Yang was just as panicked as the rest of them were before she started working her magic. Her lilac eyes never stopped moving back to Josuke's wound to check it and the ice now formed over it over, the young woman never stopped chatting away with their friends… but not necessarily for their sake either. Josuke would respond and nod to it every now and then and, whenever there'd be a time when it seemed like he wasn't doing anything, Yang would insist, she'd speak up, to try and draw something of a response out of the injured teen, only ever easing back into her more layered out conversations with Weiss, Okuyasu and Koichi when Josuke finally did nod or shake his head, however weakly.

Her sister was doing her best to make sure her friends didn't worry… and was going nuts because she knew for a fact that Josuke's life was on the line and that, aside from keeping him awake and walking faster, there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was out of her hands…

As much as Yang wanted to do her best for everyone, tried her best to make sure nobody else would have to worry about anything… Yang worried the most out of all of them. It was just the type of person she was. That was her nature… it's what made Ruby look up to her sister.

So, with a determined glint in her eyes, Ruby turned her attention back on the Grimm and got 'swinging'. They'd only be able to move faster if their path was clear. They'd get Josuke to safety, they'd make sure he'd be fine… and then they could all stop worrying.

After all, after Josuke fixed The Wall and Yang kept them from fumbling about in a panic, a little helping hand was the least that could be offered…

Well, she supposed technically Jotaro was the one who needed a helping hand out of all of them, seeing as how his was still messed up…

You know what, Ruby was just going to focus on killing lots of Grimm. As she did so and as she got tremendous help from Jotaro, who with Star Platinum's one good hand continued to smash a whole mess of Grimm, Weiss turned the full attention of her blade and her Glyphs on scores of Grimm, either burning them to little more than ashe or freezing them all solid and with the occasional aid from The Hand and Act 3, the group of Hunters managed to cut their way through the horde and burst forth on the other side of the body, slaying a huge number of the Grimm along their way and continuing to pick off stragglers who attempted to chase after them as they made their escape to a safe zone.

Through grit and determination, the group of seven had managed to win the day.

…

"Oi, Jotaro, who's the guy you've got hanging over your shoulder anyway?"

"You're just now asking that, you idiot?!"

* * *

 **Several Hours Later**

Joseph Joestar took a long sip out of a cup of tea that had been procured for him, the elderly man having released a slight sigh of relief as he felt the warm liquid running down his throat. Today had been a… full day, to be sure. When the events of the morning had occurred and the city seemed fit to explode into upheaval, Joseph, in his position with Ironwood and Ozpin, had a front row seat to the major strategic decisions and considerations being made by the two most powerful men currently in The City of Vale as to how to defend the city. It had been hectic, panicked and had very nearly resulted in a few close calls as it concerned the use of… unorthodox resources, such as the Fall Maiden, but everything had ended up working out…

Still, that being the case.

"Now cheer up you two. The City of Vale stands today, the Grimm are being exterminated from every last hiding place they could've snuck into, Roman Torchwick is detained and unconscious in a holding cell and all things considered everything has gone far better than we could've expected. This should be a moment for you two to relax and collect yourselves before your next meeting with Beacon's Governing Council, not to sit here waiting till your tea gets cold before touching it."

General James Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin, the latter's head resting on his hands as he looked down at the table and the former leaning back on it, arms crossed and one leg kicked over the other while he stared down at his own tea, just sat there for a moment, their eyes glancing over at Joseph Joestar as the man continued to drink his tea.

"... And people tell me I have nerves of steel…" Ironwood muttered to himself as Ozpin just nodded his head slowly.

"I have to agree with James, Mr. Joestar. What happened today… the entire City of Vale was nearly compromised by our enemies. Millions of people almost died today and thousands 'did' die today. Several Hunters, irreplaceable soldiers in this game between us and our enemies, had to give their lives and… well, more have to stay in the hospital for quite a while before they'll be ready to move on. We nearly lost everything and very nearly had to bring Amber out from her rest in order to try to coerce her into saving the city. She's still in no condition to act but…" Ozpin sighed as he reached one hand up to remove his glasses while he used the other to just rub at his face.

"I understand being calm and collected in the fact of fire, Mr. Joestar. That is often my job and has been for a long time. This is a moment to stay calm and to be stoic in the face of our opposition… but still, this is hardly a cause to celebrate, especially considering that the Governing Council is likely to rake one of us over the coals." James nodded in agreement with Ozpin as Joseph just continued to sip on his tea.

"Mmm… perhaps in my old age I've simple gotten desensitized. Once you've seen everything a man my age can and has seen, you tend to find that things aren't often as bad as they might seem, especially when compared to the alternative." Joseph set his tea down, the aging Joestar folding his hands together as he looked at the two younger men before him. "You can't control everything that happens in the world around you. No man can. That isn't our place. No matter how well you might prepare or how many barriers you put in the way of catastrophe, catastrophe tends to have a way of sneaking through and striking you where you're most vulnerable. One should always be vigilant, of course… but no man should shoulder the blame for an act that was entirely out of their control.

"Roman Torchwick and whoever his benefactors might be managed to use long forgotten train lines, ones that the Council of your Kingdom has done its best to erase from history, in order to pack a bomb filled with thousands of pounds of stolen Dust into the Wall of Vale… Dust that by most rights most people would think would've stayed in the city. You can't hold yourselves responsible for not having perceived a plan that was so far out of left field, especially when you hadn't the information to put the necessary pieces together.

"The fact that despite the complete and total element of surprise that your enemies have failed to destroy this city, despite having given it their best effort, is a testament to the preparations you 'did' make. The fact that you trained Hunters brave and strong enough to go above and beyond the call of duty to save the civilians they were sworn to. That soldiers of Atlas and the technology it's long been famous for formed a line against the swarm of Grimm and, once established, gave not a single inch, giving the people of Vale safe haven to hide in where the Grimm couldn't touch them. That we picked a team that went into the very heart of enemy territory and snatched one of their prime leaders out from under their noses.

"Don't feel ashamed because catastrophe snuck up on the both of you… feel proud that your preparation, and the strength of those men and women who serve under you, managed to avert this danger with as little loss of life as possible. That is all that can be asked of leaders in a time of crisis."

The pair of leaders, one of the world's largest military and the other of the world's most prestigious Hunter's Academy, stared down at their cups for a moment, taking all of this in.

"... Mr. Joestar, Josuke… your son nearly died. I still don't-"

"Yes, Ozpin. My son very nearly died today. Higashikata Josuke, going against orders and common sense, threw himself and his team into danger because he saw an opportunity to save as many lived as possible. Risking his own life beyond what anyone could have reasonable asked of him, he succeeded. My son nearly died a death fitting of a member of the Joestar Lineage… but he did not. My son is alive and well, Ozpin. Now, I can either sit here and mope like you two are doing… or you, as you should be doing, you can do as I do. Be proud of what Team RWBY was able to accomplish. Be proud of what your soldiers were able to accomplish…" Joseph smiled as he took another sip of his tea. "Because I know I'm proud of what my son was able to accomplish."

"Still, it wasn't a total win. Thanks to that little one we brought aboard my ship, we had a massive break of the prisoners we kept aboard. We're honestly lucky to have only lost track of her thanks to Team JNPR's timely intervention in the break away, otherwise we could've seen most of those Stand Users and other persons of interest lost." Ironwood just shook his head. "... I can only imagine what would've happened if we didn't take care of Angelo after we learned he had no useful information. To have that psycho be free again would've been a nightmare." Ozpin nodded slightly; though he had been against it at the time as unnecessary… he couldn't lie that the fact that Angelo was dead had proven to be a saving grace in this case.

"True, that is a setback. The mute girl had been a potential source of information… but still, this isn't anything to be too worried about." Joseph remarked as he set his empty tea cup to the side. "We have a far better source of information now in the form of Torchwick and that girl was the only one out of all the prisoners to escape. I'd call that a net gain if anything. The city hasn't fallen either, and won't, so… who knows? Perhaps we'll catch her tomorrow. Perhaps not." Joseph smiled as he looked at the two gentlemen. "The point is that we'll have the opportunity to correct it tomorrow, and the day after, because everything went better than we could've hoped for today.

"Now… I don't know everything about Beacon's Governing Council. Yes, it may very well be that they'll try to rake one of you over the coals or exercise their influence by putting pressure on the two of you. However, it seems to me that if you go into this with that attitude, they definitely will…" Joseph took a hold of his cane as he spoke. "It occurs to me, however, that if you both were to stop dreading this and stand as a united front over how your precautions saved the city, you'll have less to lose… certainly won't have as much to worry about going forward, at least. After all, working together and compromising worked out as far as forming a strategy to capture Roman Torchwick and keep Vale safe, correct? Couldn't hurt to try again?" With that, Joseph forced himself to his feet using his cane, giving the two men a wave goodbye as he sought his own exit, leaving the two men to their own thoughts as they sat across from each other, tea having grown cold.

As Joseph exited the room, he found Glynda Goodwitch and his grandson on the other side of the door, both having waited for someone to pop out. Jotaro's hand had been fixed up, one of the few moments of consciousness that Josuke had enjoyed following his arrival at the hospital having been spent fixing Jotaro's hand, the worst of the wounds inflicted on either himself or Team RWBY.

"Mr. Joestar." Glynda remarked, the woman having readjusted her spectacles as she watched the elderly man approach them. "Has the meeting started?"

"No, I'm afraid not Glynda. Just thought I'd give those two a bit of advice from an old hat when it comes to these things. Stubborn couple of men you got there, in their own ways… but I think they'll find something that'll work." Joseph remarked kindly as Glynda nodded, palpable relief on her features, as Jotaro just sighed.

"Thank the Brothers. If those two stirred up anything else… Hell, this day's gone on for way too long already for more of that." Joseph chuckled at his grandson, the elderly Joestar nodding in agreement with the younger.

"Indeed. I think we've all earned ourselves a little rest and relaxation after everything we've been through." That the two adults could easily agree with as they moved to help guide Joseph over to the elevator. "I know the youngsters certainly earned it. With what they all had to go through, they'll probably be sleeping this off for weeks. Between their injuries, the extended fighting all of them have gone through, the length of time Team RWBY's been awake and Miss Belladonna's wait on a rescue, they've had a busy week."

…

As Joseph continued to move, he couldn't help but notice that Glynda and Jotaro had 'stopped' moving, a look of realization having come over there face.

"... What?"

"Gods, we didn't actually…"

" **Yare yare daze….** "

* * *

 **Mountain Glenn, Around The Same Time**

Blake Belladonna, head in hand, sat on the side of a building, her amber eyes twitching in annoyance while one of her fingers tapped impatiently against her cheek. Beside her, that mutt Zwei was still hopping and playing about, thrashing around the corpse of the second rat like a plaything while the dog seemed utterly and completely unaware of the world around him. The sun had slowly begun to dip in the horizon, night coming against to Mountain Glenn. Blake had been forced to spend this entire day either fighting the rats or doing her best to make sure the mutt wouldn't mess with her while she waited for someone, 'anyone' to either come and help her get out of here or to at least tell her what was going on back in Vale.

No sign of her team, no sign of Jotaro, no sign of any White Fang or any of the people she'd come here to ostensibly fight. She'd found a 'whole' lot of unconscious people laying about, having been beaten down, and had burnt some considerable time hiding them so that the Grimm wouldn't get them but, aside from that, 'nothing'.

…

"WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYONE!?"

* * *

 **Atlas Maximum Security Prison, Meanwhile…**

"Man, where is this guy anyway? I know this was last minute but the higher ups put a pretty good word in for him. The guy's supposed to be on the line 'today' and… well, he's requested his last rites." A security guard, leaning his elbow against the table as he impatiently rapped his fingers against the metal bemoaned as he looked out to the elevator, as if willing it to produce the man that they had been set to meet here. A prisoner had requested last rites and that meant they'd needed a priest. However, their priest seemed to be running late, a rather funny thing for a man who considered stuff like this to be his holy mission or whatever the fuck these religious type people actually thought these days.

"Relax. It's like you said, this was last minute; the other locals ended up getting called off or are supposed to be pretty sick and this guy was the only one the boss could call in on such short notice. Be patient man; not like you're always on time yourself." The other guard just snorted derisively at his friend who had taken to standing up and tapping his foot.

"Whatever. I'll tell you what, this whole 'last rites' stuff is a load of bull-"

Before the man could blaspheme further, a dull 'ring' from the elevator alerted them to a new arrival. As the metal doors opened up… well, a rather remarkable figured made his way through the doors. A man of above average height, the figure stood with rather wide shoulders, though not overly muscular ones, as his trim figure seemed well fitted to the robes that he wore, a cross born on the chest as he held a book carefully in his arms. The more striking features of the man, however, were his pure white hair, short but with patterns seemingly shaved into it, with some very odd facial hair that defined his facial features. The white hair stood out quite prominently against his dark skin as the man's brown eyes stared kindly at the two men.

"Good evening gentlemen. I do have to apologize for my ill-timed arrival; I'm afraid doing the Lord's work can be quite time consuming and it took me a little while to get here. I'd ask that you forgive me for this." The two men blinked, having been slightly blown away by not only the stranger's kind demeanor but also his, seemingly, sincere apology.

"Ah… don't worry about it, er, Father…?"

"Pucci. Father Enrico Pucci, my good man." The understated charisma of the man in front of them seemed to work its magic as the two guards relaxed, their earlier misgivings, or rather the misgivings of the impatient one, having slowly slid away as they nodded.

"Ah, of course, Father Pucci. Well, if you'll just come this way we'll relieve you of-"

 **RING RING RING, RING RING RING!**

All three men jumped in some surprise as the Scroll in Pucci's pocket suddenly rang, Pucci having just smiled apologetically as he brought the Scroll up to check on who it was.

"I'm sorry gentlemen, but I'm afraid I must ask for a moment more. I must take this call." The two guards nodded understandingly.

"Well if that's the only thing you have on you Father, then when you're done if you hand it over we can be on our way down to where we're keeping the prisoner." Pucci nodded and, taking a moment to excuse himself, quickly walked into a nearby restroom to get himself some privacy. Checking around for cameras or anything that could pick up on his conversation, the even, calm and somewhat kind expression of Pucci evened out as he popped open the Scroll. He'd long kept the video function of it turned off, deciding that no one who had known what he looked like needed that information given to them by looking in on a call.

Especially if Cinder's minions, or anyone else, would be watching their conversation from her end.

"Hello Cinder. I suppose this call means that your plans in Vale have fallen short of your goals?" He'd known that this conversation would be coming for a few days now. Tohth had solidified its predictions as time had gone by and, when he'd seen the story of The Breach play out in his book, he'd known it was as good as over. After all, Tohth had only been inaccurate a scant few times in its many pages… and all those times it had been inaccurate in a way that favored the Joestars.

That it showed a straight victory for their side basically ensured it would come to pass, such was the luck of the Joestar Lineage.

"Sadly so, Whitesnake." A slight quirk of Pucci's lips followed this. He could tell Cinder was annoyed, likely by his accurate prediction of why she had called. Cinder Fall, a woman who had always done her best to hold herself above and beyond other people, as their superior, one of the few fit to serve that Witch, Salem, was a cocksure and confident woman above all else. To have her precious plans fall through in any way, even if she had backups, was surely an annoyance to her. One he could easily sense in her voice. "That precious 'Joestar Lineage' you continually warn us above ended up breaking the plan almost as soon as it had gotten off. The Wall of Vale stands again and the Grimm are being exterminated in the city as we speak. The Breach has fallen through…"

"I had warned you to not underestimate the Joestar Family, Cinder. Now, perhaps, you'll be more careful of them going forward." In all honesty, this was a non-matter to Pucci. He had known that Cinder likely would continue to spurn his advice, even if she wouldn't do so openly. It was part of who Cinder Fall was; confident beyond a rational capacity. Too clever by half. She would again take the Joestars for granted once given the excuse to… which meant that Pucci would have to step up his own game. "None of the important resources have been spent, correct?"

"Indeed, nothing's been lost which would've been catastrophic for our cause. We've lost the Dust and the element of surprise but they still seem unaware of our bug in the CCT. With that still in place, we'll have to replace a horde of Grimm running through the Walls of Vale with a far less inconspicuous group… we've already gotten in touch with Adam Taurus and The White Fang will be ready to move en-masse to Vale to get ready for the second plan. Thankfully, we have a few months before the Vytal Festival and, with Summer coming, eyes will be on establishing security for that event. If all goes well, the failure of The Breach will convince them that they have nothing to worry about going forward."

"One can hope…" Pucci remarked dryly as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "101, 103, 107, 109, 113… I'll be sending some additional aid down myself. With our contract with Eleven Men and Oyecomova effectively spent, we'll need another set of hands down there for your plan… at least, for my satisfaction." A slight grunt could be heard from the other end, likely one of annoyance, before Cinder sighed.

"We will, of course, take whatever aid you're willing to lend, Whitesnake." Pucci nodded before he looked across his shoulder back at the bathroom door.

"Now, is this all Cinder? I am quite busy at the moment… there is someone I'm meant to meet here in a few minutes that will be quite important for our little plan to come to fruition." At that, he heard Cinder chuckle slightly.

"My, did you already have someone in mind for if The Breach failed, Whitesnake?" Pucci allowed himself a small smile as he tightened his hold on the book in the crook of his arm.

"I did, Cinder. I did. Now then, if you'll excuse me." With that, Pucci dropped the call and sighed, turning off his Scroll as he immediately turned on his heels and walked out of the bathroom. The man practically transformed on his way out, the more serious expression he wore during his discussion with Cinder having been replaced with the same kindly one he had worn on his way down here.

"Apologies gentlemen but I do believe there should be no need for further interruptions from here on out." With that the two guards nodded and, taking his Scroll, they quickly searched the rest of Pucci's person, just to be sure. Finding nothing else dangerous on him, the two guards opened the gate leading deeper into the prison as they escorted him back toward the very rear of the prison, where the most dangerous criminals were kept.

"I'll have to warn you Father, this guy's a real piece of work. I'd suggest you give him his last rites or whatever and then get yourself goin'. No real point in spending much time on this fella." Pucci turned to look over at the guard who had spoken up, Pucci shaking his head vigorously as he raised a finger to point at the guard.

"Ah, but that is where you are mistaken, my good man. All of us, in the eyes of our most Loving Lord, are open to second chances and forgiveness, provided they follow his ways and walk his path. Glory and **[Heaven]** await all those who are willing to put aside their sinful ways to do the work the Lord asks of them."

"... Alright father, if you say so. Don't say we didn't warn you, is all." The other guard said as, finally, the trio had made their way back to the high security area. Pucci took a long look down one of the halls and focused his mind on the security cameras in specific. Four, not counting his own. He needed to use them in precise combination. He'd had Tohth on hand to make sure his plan would go off without a hitch… now was the time to make sure that everything else was played to part. He watched the walls around the nearby cameras, his eyes focusing in as quietly, subtly, a mouth formed out of the metal of the walls around where the wires were connecting. With a quick bite here and a quick bite there, the cameras had been quickly deactivated. Two.

Picking an electronic key off of his lock, the guard moved to unlock a particular door Pucci placed his hand on the guards arm, smiling gently at him.

"My good man… I tend to find that those who are facing death find that they cannot fully take absolution when they're under the eyes of their captors. Please, I would ask that you give me some time alone with the prisoner, so that I might be better deliver onto him his last rites." The guard flinched back a bit at that, a slight frown on his face as he shook his head.

"No can do, Father. We're here for your protection and to make sure the prisoner doesn't escape. It'd be a dereliction of duty if we were to leave you alone with him." With that, the guards… couldn't help but feel a headache come on. They each rubbed at their heads slightly as they tried to their best to relieve it, only for the pain to intensify greatly.

"Sadly, I knew you would say that, my good man. I'd hoped that perhaps it was a part of this play that might be skipped, but Tohth is rarely wrong. Forgive me, but know that your deaths serve the greater purpose of The Lord." With that, both men fell to their knees as they gripped at their skulls, one man pulling at Pucci's robe as he stared up at him.

"You… how?"

"Gentlemen… even the weakest Stand can be the most terrifying of them all." With that the guard's began to bleed out their eyes and mouths before, finally, they slumped over dead, blood pooling around their heads. Three. With little more consideration for the guards than one might consider for trash on the street, Pucci reached down and picked the card up off the floor, flicking the blood off of it before swiping it in the door's card reader. With a green light and a 'beep' the door slid open, revealing the cell inside. A man sat on the bed, dressed in his 'prison best' before he turned his head to look up at his Pucci.

"Arise now. It is time for you to make up for your crimes and your wasted life. Rise and do the Lord's work… and earn your place in **[Heaven]** …"

The man leaned forward slightly so that the light from the hall could finally be illuminated on him.

By and large, he appeared perfectly normal by Atlesian Standards. Pale skin, light blue eyes and a tall, thin frame. The only things that made him stood out, that marked him apart from other men, was the white hair of his eyebrows, the white fur of the hat adorned on his head… and the two buffalo horns that pierced through that very hat.

Minutes later, when multiple guards would arrive on the scene, having been alerted to some kind of fault in the system thanks to the cameras going dark… they ended up only finding death there.

 **-To Be Continued- Nora Valkyrie's Vision of Cinderella (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Hoo boy! After all those exams and papers we're finally here ladies and gentlemen! The Breah Arc is over and, hopefully, this is an ending that leaves you both satisfied and excited for the next major climax in the story. However, as the title of our next chapter might tell you, we're going to be slowing down the next set of arcs and doing some smaller adventures and character development (as well as some development to the plot). Team JNPR didn't get a lot of love here, after all, and we've got some business to attend to as far as our characters are concerned. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to it! We've hit such a strong series of action focused chapters for a while now that i'm a bit drained. Some more simple, character-driven stuff is going to be really welcome going forward for me and hopefully you all will enjoy it too!**

 **I'd like to thank you all for being so patient with me as far as getting this out has been concerned. You all have been wonderful and, I promise, now that I've got my comps behind me that I'll try my best to update on the more consistent five day or, worst case, ten day schedule that we've been running at. For those of you here on , please feel free to stop by the thread on Spacebattles if you're looking for an update as to when I'll be update and why an update might be postponed if I'm not gonna finish it in five days as I prefer to update the thread there rather than pack this story full of updates (all of which will likely be deleted once everything is said and done and this particular story is completed).**

 **Hope you all have been having a great school year, it is good to have this out and have The Breach done and I'll see you all next time!**


	59. Nora V's Vision of Cinderella (Act 1)

If Higashikata Josuke were still a child, or if he were a far older man, he'd grouse about how much of a rip off the situation between himself and his friends could be as it concerned Crazy Diamond. Upon waking up after a handful of surgeries and blood transfusions meant to save his life, several days after The Breach had occurred and was quickly shut down, Josuke was met with two realities; that his friends were hurt and needed him to fix them and also that he couldn't exactly see anyone at the moment given the condition he was in. Nearly being disemboweled by the claws of an Ursa tended to have the doctor's on edge for any potential exposure or infection, after all. So Higashikata Josuke ended up with the rare pleasure, pleasure being in 'massive', throbbing air quotes, of having his Stand do the work of fixing his friends right outside his door while they did their best to wish him well through the concrete.

It hadn't been his best moment, though as Peach had said rather bluntly, he had kind of brought this upon himself by being so reckless. Going out to fight hordes of Grimm, push his Stand Powers to their limits and get seriously injured while he was still recovering from injuries he'd taken from the attack on the Dance and his fight with Red Hot Chili Pepper?

Okay, he could readily admit that 'maybe' that was a little irresponsible.

So here Josuke sat, a couple weeks after The Breach, laying in bed and just staring at the ceiling. He'd turned off the television in the room a while ago, having grown bored of the mid day broadcasts. Josuke heaved a sigh as he raised his hands to palm his face. It's true that this wasn't all bad; Josuke, along with many of the other Hunters across the city, had been getting letters and cards expressing gratitude from the various citizens of Vale. Josuke, having been the one to actually fix up the Wall with his Stand, had seen a particular avalanche of them. Reading them had lifted Josuke's spirits immensely and it did remind him that, however miserable his time in this hospital was, that he'd done the right thing…

It hadn't, however, been able to distract Josuke from 'all' the miseries of staying in a hospital. Most notably because that reminder was constantly poking him in the damned eyes!

Josuke groused as he pushed his hands up, using the back of them to brush long strands of his own hair out of his face. Weeks now. He'd gone 'weeks' without being able to style his hair. Weeks wear his pomp had just laid flat on his face or, when it felt particularly bothersome to him, was brushed off to the side to tickle his ears instead. The thing with pompadours was that, when you weren't putting gel in them to keep them up… well, you'd grown out the hair at the front and top of your head considerably longer than the hair on the side and back of your head. Of course, in most circumstances, it was going to hang over your face like a curtain.

The fact that Josuke had more than once woken up with stray bits of his hand having gotten into his mouth was more than enough of a reminder of that.

Honestly, he didn't know what was worse; not seeing his friends and team for these past couple weeks, being effectively isolated by his doctors while they made sure he'd be in the proper health to actually handle guests without catching anything or not being able to style his hairdo…

Okay, okay, no, Josuke wasn't 'that' vain about his hair, obviously not having been able to see anyone was worse. All the daytime television in the world hadn't been able to stop the creeping loneliness he'd felt in this hospital room. At least the Dust made it all more bearable, he'd barely felt much pain from after the surgeries and, furthermore, the Doctors had said that the Dust would hasten his recovery to ensure he'd be out in no time, at least, compared to those who wouldn't receive said Dust treatment.

The fact that his friends had just needed to stop in front of his room to get Crazy Diamond to patch them up hadn't been a sore spot at all for Josuke, no sir.

"Great… this is how I wanted to spend my time in the Four Kingdoms alright…" Josuke muttered as he placed his hands behind his head, simultaneously using them to sweep his hair back so that it wouldn't get in his eyes. After a few moments of silence Josuke heard a knock at his door.

"Mr. Higashikata, good news." Josuke smiled a bit as he heard his doctor's voice from behind the door, the teen leaning his head forward ever so slightly.

"I'm good to go now?" The doctor's quiet laughter gave him the answer to that question, Josuke just having heaved a sigh as he slowly but surely forced himself to sit up. Nah, of course not. At best he still had weeks in a bed before he'd be cleared to get out of it, he knew this as well as the doctors knew this by now. No, this was the doctor coming by to check up on him, make sure his vitals were good and maybe perform a few tests on him. As Josuke sat up in preparation for all this his his hair slid out from behind his ears to fall in front of his face, the young man grumbling slightly as the door opened.

"Not quite, not quite. However, it is somewhat related. The last few tests we've been performing have shown some good results for you, so we're a little more comfortable with giving you some privileges that you didn't exactly have access to before." Josuke heaved a sigh at that. What, would he be allowed to walk about or something?

"Like what, exactly?" Josuke just rested his hand on his chin, letting his hair sit in his face for a bit as he waited.

"... Oh my…"

"... Hehehe…"

Josuke's ears immediately perked up to the sound of muffled laughter and snickering. The sound of the various machines around him had drowned out what little noises had been there aside from the doctor and so this was his first sign that he wasn't alone with the doctor. With a swift movement of his hands, Josuke pushed his hair out of his face…

And saw his friends, teammates and mentor all standing in the doorway, all of them staring at him. At least some of them were trying to show good faith in keeping their faces as straight as they could. They were good friends…

Either that or they were terrified that if they visibly mocked or insulted his hair that he'd unleash Crazy Diamond and kick their asses. Which, fair enough, under most circumstances this would be 'exactly' what Josuke would do. However… right now, his hair wasn't 'his hair'. It wasn't the pompadour that he protected and was so very, very proud of. It was nothing like the proud mane that Josuke spent most mornings styling to perfection! They didn't need to know that, though. They didn't need to know either, because for all he knew, that'd start the jokes and the laughter… or, more unbearable, puns from Yang.

"Man JoJo… I feel depressed just looking at your hair."

Yeah, like that one right there…

Wait.

Indeed, for all the lighthearted tone Yang Xiao Long had spoken with, the blonde brawler had her hands on her hips and a frown on her face as she shook her head.

"It feels like someone's messed with the natural order or something. Honestly, I've kinda imagined that you even went to bed with your do still in place… seeing it like this is just kinda sad." Yang nodded sagely as she spoke, the young woman's words doing wonders for getting everyone else to real in the chuckles as Josuke just sighed to himself.

He should've guessed that if there was one person who would've sympathized with his desperate situation, it'd be the other person who understood hair. Brothers bless that woman.

"You're telling me. At least you're not the one waking up with this every morning. It's definitely not great…" With that, the young man smiled as he sat up a bit in bed. "Hopefully some company will change that though! Get in here, I've been lonely." The genuine and excited manner with which Josuke spoke almost seemed to break an unspoken barrier as, immediately, all ten teens gathered outside his room burst through the door, some getting stuck as they tried to shoulder their way in, before they all gathered around his bed. Jotaro stuck by the door and spoke with the doctor while the teens gathered around, the two keeping their conversation quiet while the group of teenagers spoke excitedly around the young man.

"Honestly Josuke, that was the absolute most 'boneheaded' thing I could've expected anyone to do! You nearly killed yourself you dolt! I could expect this from Ruby or Okuyasu, but you? You could've really died!"

"Hey!"

"Eh she's not wrong, if I were in your shoes bro I probably would've done that too… but she's also not wrong that you're supposed to be the smart one out of the two of us bro!" Josuke chuckled slightly, raising his hands in defense of himself from Weiss. Okuyasu spoke more out of concern for the usually pompadoured teen and, honestly, Josuke could understand just where that concern was coming from. They meant well, even if the Schnee Heiress was being quite harsh.

"Hey, hey, I know, but everything worked out didn't it?"

"Barely. It looked like it was going to be over there for a while. An entire chunk of the city's defenses came down and the Grimm were flooding in and with everything we were already putting up with… yeah, not sure I would've been thinking completely clearly either." Blake shook her head slightly, the fight with the rats and having learned just what transpired while she was stuck in Mountain Glenn having very clearly stuck with her. "Really wish I could've been around to help…"

"You made sure your team was able to move on without worrying about this Enemy Stand User following in behind your back. Any amount of help in that situation counts for something." Ren spoke calmly even as Nora groaned slightly.

"Yeah, but still, we could've all been around to help." Nora reached out and grabbed Josuke by the shoulders. "You could've really died there Josuke! It might've taken some time but… well, we would've been ready and willing to help you when we would've gotten into Vale if this was your plan! I mean, come on, this all sounds like it would've been exciting…" Nora sighed, trying to get over the thought of an exciting adventure while she just lightly bat Josuke on the shoulder.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just… well, the situation being what it was, I just didn't really have time to think about it. It was do or…" Josuke flushed a bit as he realized what word he was about to throw out there, the teen very wisely realizing that now was the time to zip his lips.

"Don't get us wrong, we're not saying you made the wrong call. Honestly, even if Weiss meant it the way she put it… well, a lot of us would've probably chosen to be dolts in that moment." Jaune spoke earnestly as the blonde scratched at the back of his neck, the young man never having been particularly good with words. "It's kind of selfish to say that you should've waited for us to be there with you when everything was going down but… well, you know. It wasn't exactly great sitting around waiting to hear if you were going to get better either."

It was the odd balance of things for this group of friends; yes, they all accepted in one degree or another that what Josuke did might've been necessary. Even more, it was probably the right call to make given the proximity of the Goliaths outside the wall. Unquestionably, it had resulted in many thousands of lives being saved and, if the cost of that was one Hunter then logically, professionally, the choice was clear. They could've just been happy with the result…

But human nature was a fickle thing. In the end, caring about one person, one person you knew and knew well, was more natural than caring about thousands. Seeing your friend, bloody and approaching death in your arms, was a harder pill to swallow than even the deaths of completely strangers around you. It was this odd thing, this tense balance between what their chosen profession was and their nature as people that left this meeting feeling bittersweet…

Up until a loud huff drew most everyone's attention.

"Come on… we're here to perk JoJo up with a visit and you guys are hounding him like this? Honestly, you'd think we were a funeral procession with how lively and spirited we're acting right now." Yang Xiao Long, hands on hips as she turned her gaze to each of her friends, just shook her head. "Look; what JoJo did was pretty dumb. It might've even been really dumb. Might've been the dumbest thing he's done in our entire time of knowing him, and this is the same guy who got changed into a piece of paper!"

"... Thank you Yang…"

"Oh hush, I'm not done." Yang playfully scolded the young man before the blonde brawler continued. "Still you all have to admit that this was probably the best dumb decision anyone's ever made! I mean really; wall's patched up, City of Vale's still standing, JoJo's alive, Team JOJO's still up and running, Grimm are dead and the rest of us pretty much slam dunked our work too! Everything's gone 'amazingly' well and instead of celebrating with JoJo to distract him from the poor state of his hair we're, what, commiserating on what might've happened? I say we focus on what did happen; JoJo's fine. Let's be a little more upbeat and actually pat ourselves on the back for a job well done!"

While everyone else muttered among themselves, considering Yang's words, Ruby kept a close eye on her sister. As ever, it was the bond between two siblings that had let her notice the little things. The slight bags under her sister's eyes as she joined the rest of their peer group in wondering just what would be. The firm grip she kept on Josuke's shoulder after having given it a reassuring rub, a reminder that he was 'there'. The way she spoke… well, everyone in the room needed to be reminded that everything was okay and that it was alright if they celebrated.

Everyone.

Thus, as her sister had never led her astray before, Ruby decided to do the one thing she could to help right now.

"Yang's right. We've been training for months so that we could be Hunters, that we could be ready for something like this. Josuke's been at it even longer and he's been on actual missions before. We worked hard for this…" With that, a slightly mischievous look overtook Ruby's face as she leaned over conspiratorially toward Josuke. "The fact that the stuff agrees and have canceled exams because of all this is just icing on the cake."

"Ah, you're serious? I haven't heard anything about that." Josuke uttered, somewhat surprised, as he reached out to grab the change of topic that Ruby had just thrown into the crowd.

"Well… yeah, I mean, after everything that's happened this semester I'm guessing that there's no point in tossing more onto our plates. Everyone not only got through their 'first' mission but we also got through all these incidents, well, it seems natural." Pyrrha still seemed a bit uncertain about this and yet, with the combined enthusiasm of Yang, Ruby and Josuke pushing on the other end, it seemed that the tournament fighter folded to the lightening mood. One by one, the rest of the group followed as the topic of conversation slowly turned from what had happened at the day of The Breach to what had happened since; all the little things Josuke had missed while he'd been forcibly constrained to a hospital bed.

So many little things that'd happened; students going afield into The City of Vale to help with the extermination of the Grimm, Torchwick's crew of criminals having, seemingly, vanished from the city streets, withdrawing into the darkness from which they came with narry even a purse snatching having occurred ever since their boss had been captured, the vocal praise that the staff had given the student body broadly for their show of resolve during these times and, more specifically, the praise having been handed out to each and every one of them.

"Still haven't gotten any cards or flowers though, not like you there JoJo." Yang teased as she pulled open a few cards to peak at them, tossing a smirk over his way. "Gotten any from the ladies there JoJo? Gotta imagine that there's a few damsels looking to be swept away by their knight in diamond armor."

"Sadly, Crazy Diamond hasn't gotten any cards or letters yet." Josuke jested back as the others took part in some of the gifts that had been sent Josuke's way, specifically little snacks that had been tucked away in letters or slipped in as part of small floral arrangements.

"Too bad, poor guy doesn't get any credit… then again, I suppose Crazy Diamond is still you so by you getting all of this he's technically being thanked too… right?" Nora asked, the bubbly bomber having tilted her head to her side. Despite the inane nature of the question on a larger level, it did cause everyone to pause and think about it for a moment, the non-Stand Users having glanced over at Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi to look for an answer… the former two having then looked at the short young man for an answer.

"... I don't have any idea." Koichi admitted in a deadpan tone, everyone else having shrugged it off immediately following that.

"Well in any case, it's not like it would've done him much good! Let's consider this Crazy Diamond's share being split up among the rest of us!" Ruby declared with a chirp as she took a cookie from a plate and bit into it. "Mmmm… thank you Crazy Diamond!"

"What's wrong Josuke, not hungry? I mean, most of this stuff has gone pretty well untouched." Jaune remarked, looking at some of the gifts that had been sent over.

"Doctor's orders, they've been keeping his diet pretty strict to help ensure his recovery. Don't want him to get sick off of something someone sent as a gift." The sudden tone of Kujo Jotaro echoed a bit through the room, having drawn everyone's attention back to the front. The doctor had departed by this point, leaving the hat wearing Huntsman to look over the situation while he attended business elsewhere.

"Pretty much what Jotaro said, yeah." Josuke sheepishly scratched the back of his head as Jotaro finally arrived, the usually pompadoured teen glancing off to the side. "Hey Jotaro, good to see you. Not that you're all not enough company but, seeing you all here, it kind of got me wondering… the old geezer, he not come?" Everyone looked over at Jotaro, many of them curious of the very same thing. They'd expected Joseph Joestar to accompany then to see his son and his absence had been a surprise, though none of them had wanted to jump to a hasty judgement.

"The old man will visit you when he can. Right now he's a bit tied down though." Jotaro readjusted his cap slightly, bringing it down over is eyes. "Roman Torchwick's been hospitalized on Ironwood's ship for the past few weeks. His condition wasn't as immediately dangerous, but the beating he'd taken had ended up knocking him pretty well unconscious. He's only recently begun to show signs of stirring these past couple days. That being the case, they're keeping Joseph on hand so that he can use Hermit Purple on him as soon as he wakes up. Best to get that process started as early as we can." Most nodded at that, though Blake raised an eyebrow as she pointed over at Josuke.

"Not for nothing but it's not like we all didn't line up right outside Josuke's door to get our worst injuries patched up by Crazy Diamond as soon as Josuke could do so, yourself included Jotaro. Why spend all this time on waiting for Roman to wake up naturally rather than drag him here for Josuke to do his work?" Everyone nodded at that, curious themselves, as Jotaro looked out a nearby window.

"With his lacky's escape and the status of our enemies not fully appreciably destroyed, we can't say for certain how safe it would be to transport Roman at this time. His entire organization's gone dark, yes, but that could just be them waiting in the shadows for an opportunity. I can't imagine any of us would be pleased if, after all the work we've done to capture and secure him that he just got away while in the middle of being transported to this hospital. Let's not forget that they have two confirmed people capable of casting mind-altering and perception-altering illusions as well as who knows how many Stand Users that they've yet to fully commit to fighting us. The fact is, it's just too dangerous to let him off that ship, even if it might have presented the possibility of interrogating him using the old man's Stand faster. Right now the ball's in our court and we can afford to play as safe and slow as we please. It's better to take advantage of that than risk losing it in a quick steal."

"Makes sense to me. I'd be pretty pissed if after all that we ended up losing him to that little bitch." Yang remarked dryly as she leaned up against a nearby wall, everyone having nodded in agreement, though perhaps not with the same degree of venom towards the short girl.

"He's still unconscious though? Jeez Jotaro, you really let him have it, didn't you?" Ruby asked, a quick smile on her lips as her amusement rang pleasantly through her voice, Jotaro having just coughed into his fist as he dragged the edge of his cap down over his eyes.

"Well… had to make sure the beating was thorough. I'm not used to having to fight people one-handed so I might've gone a little overboard."

"Might've gone a little overboard with a several week long coma. Ah, that's our Jotaro." Nora remarked with a chuckle, one echoed by much of the rest of the room as the more experienced Huntsman heaved a sigh.

" **Yare yare daze** , pain in the ass brats…" Jotaro remarked dryly, while Josuke just leaned forward in his bed a bit.

"So what happens when you interrogate him? Roman had to be pretty high up in whatever was happening with all this. We'd be sure to get some pretty big information out of him. At the very least we'd know the full breadth of his criminal enterprise." Jotaro nodded, glad for the change in topic, as he looked up at Josuke.

"Indeed. More than likely Ironwood and Ozpin will find whatever information we get out of him suitable for going on an offensive. Once we know who our enemies are, where they're hiding and what they're capable of, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd launch an attack on them to disrupt them and, hopefully, drive them out of Vale entirely. At the very least this should be the definite end of Roman Torchwick's criminal empire here in Vale."

"That's news that the entire city's bound to welcome." Ren spoke with a pleased smile, one matched by everyone else… well, except Josuke. The pompadoured teen just sighed as he leaned back in his bed.

"Yeah… if this guy does wake up soon though, it doesn't sound like I'll be in much of a position to take part in this. If we're being honest, I think the only reason Peach hasn't killed me yet is because this hospital has so much security. If I were to go out again while my injuries were like this… man, I don't think she'd even care about the security, she'd probably be willing to accept life in prison if it meant strangling me." Everyone chuckled slight; Professor Peach, true to Josuke's word, had been absolutely 'furious' with the young man upon seeing how he had stretched and stressed his old injuries on top of inflicting new ones upon himself. The others had figured that he'd been spared the wrath of Peach by virtue of pretty much being unconscious the entire time.

It sounded like, upon waking up, Peach had more than a few words for Josuke about taking proper care with himself.

Many of them likely having been expletives and threats that involved a slow, painful, agonizing death.

"If you're gonna pull some stupid crap about how you're sorry you're not going to be able to tear upon your stitches just to help us, then put that aside JoJo." Josuke flinched a little, Yang having gotten right to the core of what he was about to say, as the blonde smirked at him. "Because, oh yeah, we're going to be 'so angry' with you because you're not going to hop out of your hospital bed and into a wheelchair to help us fight. Seriously JoJo, you did enough when you kept Enigma from stealing most of the student, you did 'way' more than enough when you beat the crap out of Red Hot Chili Pepper and then you went absolutely crazy with Vale's Wall! Seriously, just sit in this hospital bed and get better for us, that's the absolute best way you can help the rest of us out right now. I know you've got some kind of family reputation to live up to but, ye Gods, take the W and relax, JoJo! We got this!"

"She's right, Josuke." With that the young teen turned to face Jotaro, the stern man's expression somewhat softened as he looked down at the man before him. "You've done enough at this point; in truth, all of you have gone above and beyond what most could ask of you and, to be frank, what would've ordinarily been asked of you as students here in the Four Kingdoms. There's no shame in laying back and giving your mind, body and soul some rest while we handle this. Besides, the Vytal Festival might be months away, but if you don't properly recover there'd be the risk that they might not clear you in time for it."

"C-Come on, that isn't actually up for consideration, is it? I've been doing great so far!" Josuke winced a bit as he laid back, the sudden movement having caused some slight pain around his stitches.

"Indeed, but they would like to be cautious; if they sent you in without being confident that you'd properly recovered, the possibility of you getting severely injured even in a controlled setting like the Tournament would be increased. So the best thing you can do to make it easy for them to clear you is to just relax and stop stressing yourself out, Josuke. Yang's right, we have this." A quick glance about at the rest of his friends found Josuke being met with confident looks from some and a series of enthusiastic thumbs up from everyone else.

In the end, you couldn't exactly argue with eleven other people, the usually pompadoured teen supposed. So Josuke heaved a sigh as he laid back in bed. "Alright, alright… I'll try not to worry too much about all this. I swear, you guys better not get up to anything exciting with me though, don't want to feel too left out." Weiss sighed as she rolled her eyes at that.

"Please, knowing our luck?" Okuyasu barked out a laugh at that, the scarred teen nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, given how shit usually works out for us, we probably won't go a week without some crazy shit happening."

"... That is a little weird, isn't it?" Pyrrha asked, mostly talking to herself, as everyone else just kind of laughed it off. Before the teens could continue on much further, a quick knock at the door brought everyone's attention to the doctor, who had returned after some amount of time away.

"Sorry to interrupt but it is round about time for the nurses and I to start taking a look at the patient's stitching, make sure everything's coming along fine. As much as some of you might be interested, I'm sure Mr. Higashikata would like his privacy while we attended to that." A few groans rang out from the teens, the hour spent just casually filling Josuke in having flown by when all had been said and done.

"Well jeez, as much as watching these doctors pick over JoJo's stitches would probably be pretty fun-" Yang rolled her eyes as she said this, everyone shivering slightly at the thought, "-maybe this would be a good time for us to get out of here." Before Josuke could grouse or complain, the young woman turned and gave him a quick grin. "Don't you worry though, JoJo, I think you can expect us to drop by pretty often from now on. We promise, we won't forget you, my friend!"

"Course, after all, not like we got much better to do now that everything's been fuckin' settled. Might as well come by and keep the guy from goin' stir crazy." Okuyasu remarked with a bite of laughter. As his friends all fell in behind this, Josuke just smiled at the group of them; it really had been a relief to have seen them all again, even if it'd only been for such a short period of time. He'd meant it before… compared to how these past couple months had passed, it'd been lonely in this hospital room with just a handful of doctors.

He couldn't have felt more lucky to see them all.

"Sounds good to me. Now you all get going; I'm sure they're counting the seconds it's taking for you all to get out of here." A series of chuckles escaped the group as they all slowly filtered out, Jotaro having been the last one to leave as he offered a quick nod to the young man. Higashikata Josuke sighed as a couple nurses with a tray of medical gauze and various little implements came in after, the young man already psyching himself up to be picked over again in the name of medicine.

Still, if it meant he might get out of here sooner, he'd take this all. After all, Weiss and Okuyasu were right; chances were, his friends would get up to some nonsense without him if he didn't end up better and quick.

* * *

She knew she was lucky. Always had been, to a certain extent. Even way back when they were kids, she couldn't have felt any more lucky than that day they had both hid under the building.

"Jeez, didn't want to say anything up there but Josuke was still pretty pale. Guess he really did push himself way too hard, huh?" Ruby remarked as she placed her hands behind her head, Blake having nodded in agreement as the black haired Faunus walked along with her.

"Yeah, no surprise there though. Given what you guys said about his condition it sounds like he lost a lot of blood before and after you got a hold of him. I'm kinda surprised that he's even up so soon given the state he was apparently in."

"That seems to be a thing with their family, to be honest." Ren remarked from her side, the magenta eyed young man having offered a somewhat nostalgic grin. "The number of times you'd see Jotaro practically bleed out only to walk out of a situation alive and able to get moving again, it's something you just get used to."

"No kidding, the guy's hand practically blew up on the train and he just trucked right along until he could get treatment. I swear, these people are insane…" Weiss remarked and, in the end, Nora couldn't exactly disagree. Still, as much as Weiss said it in a way that made clear her exasperation, Nora couldn't have found it more endearing or great about people like Jotaro and Josuke. As worried as she'd been, as much fear as she might've had that one of her friends was going to die at the hands of the Grimm, those monsters that had robbed her and her best friend of so much already, that usual spunk and grit that seemed to deeply entwine itself with the Joestar family had managed to pull through for them once again.

"You kind of get used to it being around them. They have a tendency to go above and beyond for this kind of stuff… kind of runs in the family, I suppose you could say. Been like that going so far back as Jonathan Joestar, from what the stories say." Koichi remarked somewhat dryly, the young man scratching at his cheek as Yang just laughs.

"Well, can't say I disapprove; that's my kind of family dynamic if I ever heard it. Plus with Crazy Diamond around, you all can afford to get 'really' reckless these days… I mean, except for JoJo. He can't but… gah, that really is such a friggin' rip off that Crazy Diamond can't fix his own user. What kind of drawback is that? Seriously the one person that a Stand can't work on is the person wielding it? How does that work?" Yang remarked dryly as she rolled her eyes, Jaune having looked over at her with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Is it any worse than needing to be damaged to activate your Semblance?" Yang opened her mouth for a moment… paused, thought about it for a moment, and then sighed.

"Touche Vomit Boy, touche." A small chorus of laughter erupted as Jaune groaned, Pyrrha patting her team leader and… something, the status was pretty well unclear to everyone including those two after the dance, before looking at everyone else.

"It really would be better if Josuke would be more careful though… but it looks like that's a long shot at this point." At that everyone was in agreement with. Given everything that happened, it was insane to expect that of Josuke… mostly because it would've been insane to ask that of any of them. As much as they might've batted at Josuke for what he did and worrying them, now that they were away from the hospital room and no longer faced with the spectre of what might've been, the young men and women gathered couldn't deny that it would've probably been a certainty that they would've taken the same risks. From Nora's perspective, the only ones who might've thought better of it might've been Blake, Weiss and Pyrrha. She hadn't meant it as an insult, they just had a tendency to be more careful and planning when they thought things through…

Ordinarily, she might've lumped Ren in that list but… well, with the thoughts running through her mind, with what The Breach and Josuke's stunt had reminded her of, she'd remembered all too well that, in dire circumstances, Ren was just as open to going out of his way to help someone in need too.

Someone like her.

It'd been these memories that had preoccupied her mind while thinking about what happened to Josuke. Kuroyuri, the adventures alongside the Stardust Crusaders, their time spent together in Vale… The Breach had brought a lot of it back to the surface. The threat of Grimm tearing away parts of her life that she valued. The determination of those that she cared about in facing that threat, in saving others.

She was lucky. They were all lucky… because in these moments, at this time, it could've all happened again. She could've been so close to losing everything again.

That thought had been what unsettled Nora the most, what had driven her to be more critical of Josuke than she might've otherwise been in that situation. It wasn't fun to think about… then again, thinking about anything from before the Stardust Crusaders came into their lives rarely was. Still, the bubbly bomber often couldn't help where her mind wandered, scatterbrained as she often could be. It was often more a help than a hindrance, after all, guiding her thoughts to new ways of thinking about problems that she had often found herself wrestling with. Problems that she put off trying to solve or trying to do something about. Things that she was downright scared to face…

Things she might've never gotten the chance to address if The Breach had gone worse. Had gone as bad as she 'knew' these things could go.

Nora looked over at Ren and sighed; she liked Ren. Like, 'liked' Ren. A lot. She'd… probably go so far as to use a much stronger L if she thought she could've reasonably handled that. You spend nearly your entire life with a person, struggling with them, always having them by your side no matter how hairbrained you turned out or how much better he could've done in terms of friends and, well, other potential girls because of how great he was, how patient, how kind, how amazing at cooking! Well, it all tended to get bundled up together and eventually lead to this situation.

Nora had never lied when she said that she and Ren had never been together-together, that was true and remained true to this day… but it was a lie, and a pretty badly told one if she was being honest, that it wasn't what Nora wanted. She'd wanted it for a while too, to be frank… about as long as she'd understood exactly what all these crazy, mixed up feelings meant when she was finally entering her teen years. Something like this had been there even going so far back as when they were kids but… well, it didn't really become a confusing mess of emotions and wants until hormones starting getting involved.

Her and Ren being together forever and riding off into the sunset was the least embarrassing, least awkward thing to think about when she was just a child, thinking about being a Queen of a Castle and having Ren as her consort, ruling by her side as they broke the legs of every bad thing that could come their way.

Now that same sentiment conjured up an entirely different cocktail of emotions that really did make her feel terrible awkward. She would've liked to say that pure embarrassment was the only reason she hadn't really tried to bring this up before and, to be fair, it was a big reason. The other reason was… well, she was comfortable.

It'd been like this for so long. As much as she and Ren weren't together-together… well, it was kind of like they were, right? Sure it didn't involve any of the… fun or fun sounding stuff that actual people who were together-together ended up doing but everything else? They were almost constantly together, Ren cooked for her, they slept in the same room as each other, had the same great circle of friends, he'd always listen to her stories and she was always ready to break anyone who even tried to hurt a hair on his head.

It was easy to just let that kind of thing keep chugging along without changing it! I mean, why risk it right? What if, horror of horrors, she tried to push for more, push for what she really wanted, and he said 'no'? That it wasn't what he wanted? Could they even go back to being friends after that? That's kind of a difficult thing to just shove to the side when two people are both staying in the same dorm room together! You can't exactly ignore being told 'hey listen, it'd be great if we could be in a relationship' when you both 'share a bathroom'! It was too risky, too much… it was just better to let things chug along. To be safe. Hey, who knew; maybe eventually Ren would finally be the one to break out and ask her if she wanted to marry him, right? Or at least date him! She could just wait for something like that to happen. After all… she had time. This was safe, right?

Thus, the Breach had been a deeply unpleasant reminder for Nora of the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter was that nothing about this was strictly speaking safe or guaranteed. The fact of the matter was that she and Ren were both Hunters by choice. Ren wanted to keep anyone from being forced to face the same pain he had, wanted to exact some measure of revenge against the monsters that had taken so much away from him. She had wanted to stay by his side, to destroy the creatures that had to be responsible for her own loneliness as well… that had made her best friend, the person she… really liked so hurt.

That career choice meant that their relationship as it currently stood wasn't guaranteed to last. It wasn't going to safely chug along. To wait for something to happen rather than act on it herself. Because there was always that risk, that danger, that life was going to decide for her. That some Grimm, some monster or, now, some Stand User or dangerous criminal would take that choice out of her hands. Would rob her of 'any' future with Ren, no matter how that future shaped up.

It left Nora with an uncomfortable choice; she could either continue on like she was, push her feelings down as far as she could, insist on not being together-together with Ren and just continue to hope that nothing bad happened, accepting that if it did then Nora was just going to have to sit around and wonder just what could've been if she actually had the guts to try with Ren. On the other hand, she could take that risk; pony everything up, everything including their friendship, on the gamble that she and Ren could be something more. That they could be together-together… that Nora could step outside of her comfort and take a risk…

The only other thing that was getting in her way, that was making her doubt was…

Nora shook her head as she took a breath. Those weren't very Nora-ish thoughts! Nora Valkyrie didn't stop to doubt or think things through when she knew what she wanted to do! She broke legs, she broke Grimm, she broke pancakes and, by the Gods, she was going to do this!

She was totally going to do this!

Any minute now!

…

"Uh, hey, Ren…"

Progress!

"Mmmm? What is it, Nora?" Ren turned to face his near lifelong best friend, the young Mistrali man paying her his full attention… which was in no way helping Nora to keep her nerve. In fact, it had pretty much done the exact opposite. Despite this, Nora sucked in a bunch of air as she tried to keep her spine steeled; she was committed to this! Nothing she'd thought before was any less true just because Ren had turned to look at her! She needed to go through with this! She wouldn't waste another moment! Not after everything that'd happened!

"I was thinking… you know, that with the talks about how we should be celebrating and all… and, well, we do have the rest of the day free… so I was thinking maybe… you and I could hang out?"

…

Okay, so it wasn't her throwing herself onto her knees and declaring her everlasting l-liking! Liking of Ren, but it was a start right?! I mean, sure, they hanged out a lot but… but this time it'd be different! They'd go to a whole bunch of places where couples go! Like a restaurant… which they normally did hanging out as friends anyway! Or maybe a movie? Well they did that too… well, maybe they could watch something romantic- or, or! Maybe they could watch a horror movie… but they did that already too so maybe romantic was better…

Gosh they really were basically together already weren't they? No wonder everyone seemed to be pretty suspicious everytime she said she and Ren weren't together-together.

Still, that all changed at the end of this! By the end of it, she'd totally get all the courage she needed to lay it out there! To ask Ren to be her… boyfr… to date her! Yeah!

All she had to do was to get Ren to agree to hang out! That should totally be easy right? That had been a pretty rock solid case she'd just made for hanging out, if she did dare say so. Ren took a moment to think about it, rubbing his chin slightly.

"It has been a while since we just hanged out. Between preparing for the Dance and then everything that happened after, it's just been one thing after another…" Nora nodded vigorously, not quite trusting herself to speak lest she throw her cards on the table and reveal the nature of her gambit. "You know what, sure Nora, that sounds good."

YES! Perfect! Exactly what she wanted. This, this would go great! This way, she could just slowly but surely build up her nerve as the day went on! She wouldn't have to worry about spurting it out too early or right now, she could just buy time to get ready, to prepare herself, and then, when the moment was finally-

"Yeah, that really does sound great, count us in."

…

'Huh?'

Nora blanched as she slowly tilted her head over so she could look past Ren, her best friend having just turned around to see that the rest of the group had closed in ever so slightly, a wide grin on Yang's face as she clapped her hands together.

"Hell, Nora's right, we can't just say all that good stuff to Josuke and then just go about moping more. There's been enough of that! Let's just go out and have fun! Maybe hit up Tonio's for some dinner!"

"Oh that sounds friggin' great, I'm starvin' over here." Okuyasu loudly proclaimed as Nora just internally screamed a little.

No, no, no, no, no! This couldn't happen! There was no way she was going to be able to build up her nerve while everyone was around the two of them! She couldn't possibly! This had to be just her and Ren! She needed to tell them that she wanted this to be just between the two of them…

"Hmmm, that sound good to you Nora? Sounds like it'd be a good time." Ren uttered softly, looking over at his best friend as she just looked at everyone, just barely able to keep herself from breaking out into a nervous sweat.

Y-Yeah. She could totally do that, right? She was Nora Valkyrie! All she had to do was say 'sorry guys but I really want this to be between just Ren and I' and they'd all be cool with it! Her friends were good people, they'd be more than willing to just back off and let her and Ren have this time alone! Ren would totally understand too, heck, he might even be up for it!

All she had to do was admit this. To say to everyone she'd ever told that she totally didn't have feelings for Ren, that they weren't together-together, that she wanted alone time. With Ren. Just had to admit that to Ren's face too. Her. Nora Valkyrie. The bubbly airhead who loved being around people.

Nora would just have to swallow the stares and suspicions. Gods, Yang would probably have that look on her face. That look that just screamed that she knew it all along. What would they say? What would Ren think!? Would she think she was being creepy? After all, she was…

She could do this! She could totally do this!

All Nora had to do was say…

* * *

"Gods dammit Yang…"

Hours later, hours she'd wanted to spend alone with Ren, Nora Valkyrie now walked along a bit of street in Vale, arms hanging limply down as she let them swing lazily about like limp noodles. Because that fit perfectly; she was a limp, soggy noodle who folded immediately to her own nerves when presented with even the slightest roadblock! Urgh, as much as she might blame Yang for having stepped in, Yang was just being friendly. The blonde brawler would've backed off if asked, even if she would've made fun of her.

No, Nora had ended up screwing this all up. She'd been scared. Scared that it'd come off as weird, scared of what Ren might've thought… scared that she just wasn't 'for' him.

Urgh! She hated this, she really hated this?! Wasn't there a way to just know if she and Ren could be together? Did she really have to put herself through all this stupid relationship stuff?! Why couldn't getting to be together-together be as easy as being friends? She and Ren worked great as friends… right?

Yeah, absolutely. It was just that a relationship with her never seemed to cross Ren's mind.

Despite having been around her for so long…

'That's probably a hint…' Nora groaned as the thought crossed her mind. The steel and will she'd built up in preparation for this had all but disappeared as she kicked herself over this. So much for realizing that the future wasn't a sure thing.

The group had ended up breaking off for the late afternoon once they'd hung out for several hours. Most of the rest of her team had said that they were going to head back to the dorm to really settle in now that everyone knew Josuke was fine and after they'd hung out, but Nora… well, Nora had needed some time to just kind of let this stupid angst ease out. She couldn't be the usual pillar of upbeat energy for her team if she was busy being so down in the dumps. So she said she had some other things she wanted to pick up and her team, just figuring Nora was out to grab some sweets or some stuff for Ren to make into future breakfasts, had left well enough alone.

Alone to be a limp noodle in peace. That's what Nora Valkyrie needed at the moment.

As Nora Valkyrie made her way down the streets of Vale, doing her best to avoid the crowd, she ended up turning a corner and found herself face to face with a pretty interesting shop. She hadn't actually come around this part of the Commercial District before as there hadn't been really anything this way that'd interested her. She'd been, more or less, brought here by her random wandering. Still, that random wandering had led her to this cool looking shop; a nice, bright looking storefront with a big old sign at the top that read 'Cinderella'.

In front of the entrance which had, of all things, a staircase leading up to a carpeted little space which lead to the front door, was a sign. Written in some very fancy looking lettering were the words ' _My makeup will help you encounter love'_.

"Oh, so it's a makeup shop…" Nora muttered, almost all of her interest immediately disappearing as she looked off back down toward the road. Nora had never been much one for makeup; it hadn't felt particularly pleasant to wear and, in all honesty, it felt like kind of a waste. She really wasn't looking to attract other guys' attention and Ren? Well, Ren never seemed particularly won over by whether a woman wore makeup or not, so it seemed like a wasted effort to her. After all, if Ren didn't care about it then there wasn't much point to it, right?

Still, that might've been a difference case if the sign was actually right. Makeup that would help you encounter love? That sounded like a miracle right about then… but Nora was a more realistic girl than that. Stands were one thing, Semblances another and 'crazy' stories involving beating up Grimm were just fun and, hey, totally real from a certain point of view? Makeup that could help you find love? Eh, that's just not how it worked.

"WAAAAAAAAAH!" As the front door to the shop slammed open Nora just winced in sympathy as she heard the cry of some girl. Her first, gut instinct was that it was probably some who 'did' buy into the notion of the magical makeup and just ran in looking for love only to be disappointed. It was heartbreaking to hear someone so sad, they were probably really betting on this, but-

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW LUCKY I AM! SUCH A WONDERFUL GUY PROPOSING TO ME, IT'S UNREAL!"

…

'HUH?!'

Now, Nora Valkyrie wasn't usually a judgemental person. People came in all kinds of shapes and sizes and what they looked like really didn't matter. If they were good people, they were good people. If they liked pancakes, well, they were even better good people!

However, even Nora had to admit, the girl who ran out of the shop… well, she wasn't the prettiest girl she'd ever seen. By a 'long' margin. Her face was pretty much shaped like a box. So to see tears of pure, unrelenting 'joy' just stream down her cheeks as she cried to the heavens, a deliriously happy smile on her face… it pretty much knocked Nora flat on her ass.

"OH GODS DOCTOR AYA, THERE'S NO WAY I COULD POSSIBLY EVER THANK YOU ENOUGH BUT… BLESS YOU, GODS BLESS YOU, DOCTOR!" With that Nora watched this young woman just immediately book it down the street, running off to her destiny.

…

'WHAT?!'

Nora's mind slowly clicked back into place as she blinked, shaking off the shock as she looked back to where the young woman had waved and expressed her thanks. Her turquoise eyes, upon catching sight of the front door, immediately went wide with surprise. Ye Gods… this woman looked 'amazing'. Dirty blonde hair, a couple shades darker than Yang's, was tied up in a long, low-hanging ponytail just behind her, the strands of hair looking smooth and as beautiful as silk as it hanged there, leading down from a slight beehive with bangs that artfully split in half right at the middle of her face and framing it so well.

A figure that easily put herself, Pyrrha and, Gods, maybe even Yang's to shame dressed up in a well fitting pink dress, with a corset and a pair of belts complimenting the woman's amazing figure. Gentle hands with well manicured nails, dainty everything! All of which led up to a face with fine features, plump lips and a warm pair of blue eyes.

Basically, if you wanted a woman to run a makeup shop, 'this' was the woman you wanted. She was basically a walking, talking billboard that probably brought in loads of business all by herself! Honestly, Nora kind of shrank in the face of her, a slight put forming in her stomach. So, this was what…

"Phew…" The woman let out an airy breath, one that immediately brought Nora's attention back to the situation at hand as the older woman's gaze soon locked with Nora's. "I must say… despite what some people might think, a woman's life really is better spent happy and ugly, rather than pretty and uncertain, don't you think?"

…

"Uhhh… sure?" Nora responded slowly, almost as if she was uncertain that it was even her that the woman was speaking to. The woman, presumably the Doctor Aya that the other girl her age had been raving to, just smiled slightly as she gave a slight turn, opening up her door.

"Won't you come in, young lady? 'My makeup will help you encounter love'... the sign's true, you know? Phew…" The woman let out another breath as that warm smile just continued to radiate for Nora. "I don't mean to presume but, well, if you're interested I don't currently have any other customers to help." Nora's mouth went dry as the woman made her offer, the bubbly hesitating ever so slightly as she stared at the beautiful woman, this Doctor Aya.

Despite having seen ,first hand, that there was such a totally satisfied customer that had left her shop, that this woman had a man 'propose' to her… there was a part of Nora that still wanted to reject this.

There was no way, right? A makeup that could help you find love? That sounded like something out of a fairytale. Even in the world of Stands, Semblances and Dust, Nora just couldn't help but hear that little voice in the back of her hair, the voice screaming reason and sense, say that this was pointless and that she should just move on and handle this situation with Ren by herself…

But… there was another voice.

One that told her that this was the solution she was looking for. That if she was being honest, there was no way she'd ever be able to tell Ren how she felt on her own. That any hope of doing so was pure bluster on herself. She couldn't do it and, even if she tried… would Ren even be receptive to it? Wouldn't it just result in all her worst fears coming true?

This, however? This promise, this idea. A makeup that might make Ren notice her. That might make him come to her? Wasn't that the perfect solution for her? Wasn't that exactly what she wanted? Something to make this problem work out. To make Ren notice her. To have this fairytail in her mind finally come true. Her and Ren… together-together, dating as she thought would be so amazing.

Something that would make up for everything she wasn't… and everything she was.

That sounded like something only a Fairy Godmother could offer…

Yet wasn't that what she just saw in that door? Didn't she just see a miracle play out before her very eyes.

Nora Valkyrie swallowed a huge lump in her throat as she turned to face forward, toward the door. With hesitant steps that slowly quickened in pace Nora walked right up to the shop, the bubbly bomber having barely breathed as she prepared to cross the threshold between the shop and the outside world. There was only a moment's hesitation, a moment's uncertainty, as Nora glanced up to Doctor Aya, a look of worry on her face.

"Can you really…"

A kind smile was all that greeted her.

"Of course my dear. I don't make empty promises."

With those last few words Nora took one last deep breath and walked in, Aya having just continued to smile before closing the door behind her. Young women really were just so silly and so stupid sometimes. Some were proud and arrogant, unable to see that it was their attitude that left them alone in the world despite their wants. Some were just miserable and ugly, unable to see past themselves to find the person of their dreams…

Others… well, others were like this girl here.

But for all of them, it would be okay. Aya Tsuji would see to that.

After all, what kind of Fairy Godmother would she be if she didn't?

 **-To Be Continued- Nora Valkyrie's Vision of Cinderella (Act 2)**

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, alright, a little later than I would've liked but another chapter out. For those of you on FF who don't stop by the Spacebattles thread, I had some revisions I needed to do for my Master's degree that are done (and that I'm awaiting news on as to whether they got me from a 'conditional pass' to a 'full pass') and a final paper I needed to write. I'll have one more to go after this before the semester's fully done and then we'll hit summer vacation! Things might get a bit weird as the situation fluctuates but I'll do my damndest to get these chapters out in the meanwhile. 5-10 days under the best case scenario but, if it'll take more than 15, I'll be sure to let you all know.**

 **For now, definitely expect it to be in the 10-15 day window rather than the 5-10. With this next Final it's another big paper so I'll be dedicating some time to finishing it up in the next several days. Still, once that's done, we'll hopefully see a more consistent schedule going forward, at least until the next Semester. Once again I wanna thank you all for being so patient and being so kind and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter as I had fun writing it.**

 **Also, fun fact for the FF crowd; I've recently released little MSPaint-themed first impressions review of The Ancient Magus' Bride on the Inkaster and on a Spacebattles Thread. It's publically available for free on the former but you need to be a member for a few hours before you can access it on the latter. If that sounds like fun to you, feel free to check it out.**


	60. Nora V's Vision of Cinderella (Act 2)

You know, Nora Valkyrie had seen the inside of makeup stores before. Despite how ungirly Nora could be sometimes, she wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the concept. Whenever she and some of the other girls went out, they'd sometimes stop by little shops like that to just shop around for stuff. Weiss and Pyrrha, especially, were fond of various little makeups, Blake seemed to enjoy adding a dab of eyeshadow to help accentuate her intense pair of eyes and Yang lightly added to her features here and there. Nora… didn't really do much of that herself though.

All the above being said, there was a lot about the Salon Cinderella did look like a place that served makeup and worked to apply it and beautify you. There was a nice little desk on the wall with a large, clean mirror that you could seat yourself in front of while Aya, presumably, did your makeup and hair, the room was filled with light, pastel colors that were inviting to the eyes. There was a shelf lined with various little pots and containers, presumably of makeup or perhaps the ingredient to mix it up, and the walls of this room were lined with several degrees of various kinds. Cosmetic Science, Biology, Skin Care & Aesthetics, Health Science… all kinds of degrees were up on her wall. It was actually pretty impressive.

It didn't distract Nora, however, from the operating table and the various bits of electronic equipment that were in this woman's… operating room, makeup shop, office? It was really hard to say as the various elements kind of clashed against one and other, leaving Nora with a slight sense of dread.

"Welcome to the Salon Cinderella. Please dear, do make yourself comfortable." Nora was snapped out of her reverie as Aya spoke, the young girl just nodding her head as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. "I should properly introduce myself; my name is Aya Tsuji… phew, I'm the owner of this place and an aesthetician."

"... I… kind of have to ask, are you okay? Do you need to sit down or something? The breathy way the woman spoke, with the slight gasps and breaths she took in between sentences or even phrases, had Nora a bit worried.

"Oh thank you darling, but you don't need to worry; I might talk like I'm on the verge of passing out… phew, but you can trust that I'm alright and 'very' motivated by my work. Phew." Nora nodded slightly, knowing that she'd just have to take that as fact and move on from it. She watched as Aya slowly approached her, the beautiful woman calm and still smiling very kindly. It was a bit of a surprise when Nora found her almost right in her face, her hands having gently reached up to lightly touch her cheeks with the bare tips of her fingers. Nora wasn't a person who got too bothered by personal space, a relic of having spent so much fo her youth in close proximity around Ren, but this still seemed somewhat sudden.

"You know, I do love when Huntresses come to my shop. It's always so hard to tell whether it's your naturally fit lifestyle or your Aura, but your skin is always so clean and pristine and your bodies in such good shape. Phew. You have taken very good care of yourself." As Aya tilted Nora's head around to get a good look at her up close, Nora couldn't help but smile a bit as she lightly fidgeted her foot around.

"Aww, thanks! I do try to keep in good shape! Gotta be ready to break some legs at any moment!" Nora beamed slightly as she spoke. The bubbly bomber had always taken good care of her body, and she was glad a woman as beautiful as this could notice! She was fit, with sleek, but noticeable muscles across her body that just helped her look the part of a strong, healthy Huntress.

"Mmmm… now then, if you'll have a seat over here, we I need you to fill out a form with your name and address on it before we start." Nora was snapped out of her reverie as Aya gently guided her by her shoulders over to the little mirrored counter, offering her the seat in front of it.

"O-Oh! Well, uh, I haven't exactly decided to go through with this yet… not for nothing, you're definitely someone who looks like they fit the bill of an… aesthetician?" Aya nodded as Nora got the word right. "Cool! But, you know, I'm just not sure yet." The older woman just paused for a moment, nodding as she looked down at her.

"Ah, I see. Phew. A little nervous about my claims, yes?" Nora looked over to a nearby little piece of paper on the counter, a list of prices that the Salon offered… sixty four Lien to marry a celebrity?

"Nervous, yeah… but you know, it just seems a little unreal. I mean, could make up really make me marry a celebrity or something?" Nora scratched the back of her head, Aya just smiling at the girl's attitude as she nodded.

"Yes, that would be a little absurd from an outsider perspective. What you must understand is that what I'm offering isn't just necessarily makeup. I'm an aesthetician; an artist who creates beautiful faces." Nora still didn't get what an aesthetician was but watched as Aya went over to some nearby computer screen and started tapping away at it. "By that, I'm referring to physiognomy, that is the shape of one's face." Aya quickly adjusted a camera connected to the computer screen and directed Nora to look into it.

"Phew. Despite what most people joke about when it comes to women, your face is truly what most people will see and take notice of first. Having a face that can be loved can change your fortune in many ways, including finding love."

…

That made a certain amount of sense to Nora. If you had a pretty face, then people would be more likely to pay attention, right? She glanced back over to the mirror… she'd just been thinking about her body when it came to attracting Ren and, yes, while they were slightly more womanly then her, either being slightly more slender in Pyrrha's case or… well, more womanly in Yang's… when it came to her face…

"Hmmm… your skin is in good health, but it's not hard to see why you might be having trouble. Your face rounds out a bit toward the bottom and, despite how soft your chin and jawline are, it can give the impression of a slightly stronger jawline. Your eyebrows are a bitter darker than your hair because of how thick they are too and your eyes and lips are rather plain. Phew."

Nora swallowed a slight lump in her throat. Yeah, that… her jaw did look a little strong, and… well, compared to Yang, Weiss, Pyrrha and Blake her face was… plain. Pyrrha's face was closest in structure to Aya's, thin and with high cheekbones, Blake's eyes just had this sort of intense look to them with how she generally expressed herself and Weiss and Yang just expressed completely opposite kinds of 'womanliness'. Weiss was refined, soft and small with a button nose and a refined gaze and Yang, well Gods, Yang just looked so adult even with a slightly softer face than Pyrrha and Weiss. Her lilac eyes were striking at that and framed by her hair…

Nora didn't really have any of that. She just looked… well, plain. Uninteresting. Kind of… manly...

"I mean… it isn't that bad right? It wouldn't be that much of a detriment…" Nora remarked as Aya fiddled around with her computer.

"Hmmm… if I had to guess, even if you did love someone they'd be hard pressed to even notice your feelings in the first place. Do tell me if I'm mistaken, of course. Have you not experienced something like that?"

…

Nora just stared at her reflection in the mirror, eyes wide with shock as Aya had so expertly, so precisely, struck upon that nerve. Barely any hesitation, not even a moment's thought, and this woman she had never met before in her life was able to sink right to the core of her issue with Ren, driving a stake right down into it. How… how was it so easy for her, a complete stranger, to see her turbulent feelings and Ren…

Nora lowered her head, her lips falling into a deep frown as she nodded. "... Yes… yes that's… that's been going on for a while now…" Aya Tsuji looked down at the young woman and frowned, turning her attention away from the computer to walk over to the young Valkyrie, putting her hands on the young Huntresses shoulder.

"Phew… you want to talk about it, darling?" Aya asked, softly, gently, and Nora's lips just quivered slightly at this nearly motherly attention that Aya was giving her.

"... His name's Lie Ren and… well, we've known each other almost forever…" Aya kept herself from rolling her eyes; most young women said that about their childhood companions or friends or what not. "We met when we were… Gods, I think five? We've been together ever since… we were both orphaned, you see."

…

"My my, that is quite a long time to know someone. Phew… practically your entire life." Nora nodded as Aya just rolled with this, continuing to keep a supportive grip on Nora as the young girl looked up in the mirror.

"I only really started liking him recently… a few years ago, I think. You know… hormones and all that stupid stuff they tell you about. I've wanted to be together-together with him ever since but… he just doesn't notice. You're right… I l… really, really like him, but he doesn't even look at me like I'm a girl."

"And because of that you're too afraid to tell him your feelings, yes?" A pretty typical story that Aya had heard time and time again, though admittedly this one had a lot more heart in it. Two young people, orphaned at an early age, who spent practically all their time together since? That itself seemed to come right out of a fairy tale.

How appropriate, Aya thought.

Nora nodded her head slowly, Aya just giving the girl a reassuring pat as she walked away.

"Well worry not." Aya walked back over to her computer, fiddling with the program a few more times. Despite a few hiccups caused by her lack of experience with CGI, she managed to produce the image she desired; a slightly more defined face with a weaker jaw, thinned out eyebrows that looked far more dainty, a pair of eyes that invited one to stare longingly into them, a pair of lips that looked far more noticeable and ruby red and more that all still screamed of having belonged to Nora Valkyrie, that still looked, a good deal, like her…

On the one hand, Nora was kind of impressed that Aya was able to pull something like that off. On the other…

"W-Wait, this is plastic surgery right? I-I dunno if-"

"Darling, this is the face that will encounter love. Phew, and it won't be done with cosmetic surgery. Just some makeup and a beauty massage will create this visage." Aya looks down at Nora and saw her continued hesitation. "However… if you're truly worried, then I promise that this will only last for a half hour. You'll see that this is a face that can capture love… if not, then I'll refund you for the cost of it. Just ten Lien… a fair bargain, I think." Nora looked back in the mirror, looked back at her plain face… just ten Lien? Just ten Lien and she could take a chance at having Ren fall in love with her? With being together-together forever and ever?

Yes. Yes that was more than enough of a fair bargain. If it didn't work and she was just cheating her then she could come back for that refund.

"... Okay." Nora gave a firm nod, still looking slightly nervous as Aya placed a hairdresser cape around her shoulders, securing it at her neck.

"Phew… just close your eyes and lean your head back darling. I promise It'll be done shortly." Nora nodded as she closed her eyes, effectively blinding herself to what was going on in the office. Aya smiled, gently, sweetly, as slowly but surely a wave of pink energy poured forth from her back. This power slowly coalesced until it took a vaguely female shape; a clash of pink and white colors made up the body of this thing, this Stand. A spherical, legless lower body rose up into a thin waist and pronounced breasts that, given the discoloration and shape of the various metallic bits that made up the Stand's body, seemed to be covered in a bra. The long, mechanical arms of the Stand ended in two light-pink hands with odd divots dug into the palms of it. A white, beehive-esque 'hairstyle' was on top of the Stand's mouthless, noseless head, its eyes being in the shape of a pair of fashionista glasses.

Cinderella had formed behind its Stand Master, its hand raised behind itself as Aya busied herself trying to sound like she was preparing something.

"Now be very still and keep your eyes closed, darling. This makeup is very hard to apply… I wouldn't want my hands to slip."

With that, Cinderella swung with its odd hand, right into the side of Nora Valkyrie's face as it reshaped her features bit by bit by bit.

* * *

Makeup that could help her find love…

Could it be real?

As Nora stepped out of the Salon Cinderella, she took a glance over at a nearby window, washed to a mirror shine so that she might look at her reflection one more time. It… certainly looked the part, if she was being honest. The girl in the window looking back at her, while she certainly resembled Nora Valkyrie in some way… Gods, it was still so different! A little bit of lipstick, presumably, made her lips practically pop with a ruby red sheen, her eyelashes fluttered as some eyeliner and eyeshadow seemed to redefine the shape of her eyes into something more… dare she say it, come hither? Whatever massage that Aya did, it must've paid massive dividends on her face because her cheeks didn't seem quite so round, her jaw not quite so strong. Her nose still sat pretty as a picture in the center of all of this but everything else? It might as well have been an entirely new person…

A hot person, absolutely, but still.

The thought caused Nora to almost break out into an excited smile but she quickly squashed it. Yes, she looked hot. Steaming even… but it could've all been a trick of her own eye, of course. What mattered was whether or not other people felt that way about her… whether Ren thought that about her after this. That was the big test; whether or not someone with that many degrees on her wall could make Nora Valkyrie look even more beautiful than Pyrrha or Yang wasn't in question. If it would help her find love? Now that was what hadn't been proven.

So Nora sighed as she started to walk down the street again, though her distraction only served to cause her to stumble into a stranger. The young man in front of her groaned, sounding annoyed, before he glared at her.

"Hey look, there's plenty of sidewalk for everyone, so why don't… don't you… ahh…" The young man's eyes went wide as he took one look at Nora's face, the girl giving a slightly sheepish smile as she scratched the back of her head.

"Hehehe… sorry about that, wasn't looking where I was going." Nora gave a quick bow as an apology only to be surprised when the young man in front of her violently shook his head.

"N-NO! Please, forgive me for being so rude, I should've been more attentive!" Nora blinked, a little surprised by this reaction, as the young man pointed over to a nearby cafe. "Please, let me make it up to you; maybe I could buy you a coffee."

…

What? Nora blinked at this, glancing over to the cafe and then back at the young man in front of her. Was he… was he asking Nora out?

Her.

Nora Valkyrie?

…

A smile slowly crept up onto Nora's face and, seeing this, the man smiled back at her, figuring that he'd successfully wrangled himself a date.

"No thank you!" Said smile immediately dropped into dejected shock as Nora immediately walked around that guy and started walking off. Nora shifted her head side to side, still smiling. One guy, one guy had asked her out, out of the blue, just after seeing her face! Still, Nora couldn't discount the possibility that he would've been willing to ask her out even before the make up. Once was an accident, after all. So it was with trepidation, though trepidation that was slowly being consumed by Nora's natural bubbly attitude, that caused her to practically run into a second guy.

"Oh my gosh! I am 'so' sorry!" Nora said, speaking in a dramatic tone of voice as she shook her head. "I'm just so clumsy today! Can you forgive me?" The guy, seeming a bit annoyed at first, looked up at Nora. Almost like magic his annoyance immediately faded into nothing as his eyes went wide and his mouth went dry.

"O-Of course! I'm sorry, I should've been watching where I was going! Besides, accidents happen right? Listen, if you have time, how about we go-"

"Sorry, don't have time, thanks for forgiving me!" Nora immediately ran past this guy, not even looking at his dejected expression as Nora's grin grew wider. Okay, twice, but twice was just coincidence right? Nora's run slowly sped up as she ran right up to some third stranger on the street, grabbing him by the shoulders as she turned him to face her.

"You, me, go out to get some coffee, sound good?!" The guy seems shocked and dismayed for a moment, having been so bodily grabbed out of nowhere, but immediately blushes when his eyes lock onto Nora's face.

"Oh my gosh! Well, I mean, this is so sudden and I do have a job to get to… but you know, for someone like you, I'd gladly make some time for-"

"WOOHOO!" The man immediately screamed in surprise as Nora cheered, the bubbly bomber having bodily thrown the guy up over her head and behind her as she immediately broke into a sprint, charging off toward the airdock.

"... Hey! Where are you going? What about our date?!" The third guy screamed after her, Nora just having turned her head to beam a smile at him.

"I'M GOING TO GO GET REN TO ASK ME OUT!" Nora cried out before she continued sprinting, dead set and determined to not let her half hour run out before she could show off for Ren and finally, 'finally' get him to ask her out!

"... Aww, that's sweet. Good luck… wait who the Hell is Ren?"

* * *

"Nora's been gone for a while…"

Jaune's words broke the silence in Team JNPR's dorm room. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a very noticeable thing as very rarely was JNPR's dorm room so silent. Lie Ren, the usually withdrawn young man that he was, rarely spoke up when not spoken to and only did so to address a point or topic of conversation he was interested in or thought could use his two cents. Most other times he was either studying or, far more likely, sleeping. Jaune and Pyrrha weren't loud chatterbugs either. Even before the Dance the two of them would engage in light conversation that usually didn't get animated as the two were generally shy and awkward individuals. Now, after the Dance? Well, the conversation dried out slightly. Not completely, as Jaune and Pyrrha did still talk, but too often the subject would drift to the Dance and trying to hammer things out once and for all. If there was even anything to hammer out, in all honesty.

Nora, however, usually ensured that the dorm room 'never' stayed quiet long enough for any of them to break it. The bubbly bomber, so friendly and active, usually did her best to converse or otherwise hang out with her friends, often going on and on as the hours eked by. It was fun and it usually ended up keeping the otherwise socially awkward teens from just drifting into their own corners. In a sense, Nora was the actually socially functional glue which kept the team on terms from day to day.

With her gone for so long though the silence had been heavy and noticeable. So much so that, when Jaune had finally broken it, Ren 'actually' stirred from his nap, having opened an eye to look over at Jaune and Pyrrha.

"Yes she has been. Must have gotten distracted by something." Ren remarked as he continued to lay back in bed. Jaune nodded, though somewhat hesitantly, as Pyrrha just looked over at Ren.

"What I think Jaune means Ren is that… well, Nora seemed a bit off when we were hanging out today. Like she wasn't in her usual good spirits. To have her gone for so long… well, maybe there's some kind of a problem?" Pyrrha's remark had only drawn a slightly amused chuckle from Ren who sat up completely in his bed. Nora had acted somewhat peculiarly after everyone had agreed to just hang out for the day, something that had become increasingly obvious as she walked away to just do her own thing. Nora, usually the life of a party and someone who was always happy to hang out with others, seemed a little down as she left to go off and do her own thing. For her to be gone for so long had worried Jaune and Pyrrha.

Not Ren though.

"Guys… trust Nora. She's fine. In all the time I've known her, Nora's hasn't had a problem that she wouldn't talk about. Anything less than some kind of fight or something dangerous has never even phased her. Nora's fine; she probably just had a few things on her mind she wanted sorted or something she wanted to buy in town. Trust me, whatever it might've been, she can handle it. Just trust her." With that Ren laid back in his bed with a slight plop, Jaune and Pyrrha having both looked at each other. They did trust Nora… but they had also been dimly aware of the fact that Ren was wrong to a very important degree; there was something that Nora had been most definitely not sharing with Ren, something that he seemed to not notice at all.

"... Ren, listen, maybe-"

"Hey guys, I'm back!" Jaune and Pyrrha flinched as they heard Nora's voice from the other side of the door, perky and energetic as ever, as Ren just smiled over at them.

"See? What did I tell you? Completely fine… that's Nora." Both Jaune and Pyrrha shared a look, the partner pair having just shrugged at that; they guessed that their magenta eyed teammate was right, in the end. Soon enough the door slid open, Jaune and Pyrrha having looked to the front to greet their teammate…

Only for Jaune to choke slightly while Pyrrha's jaw dropped, a look of surprise etched on both of their faces as they saw… well, Nora obviously, but somehow 'not' Nora at the same time. While the partner pair would never say that Nora was unattractive, indeed she was pretty enough out of their group of friends… the Nora that walked through that door had a face that just stopped them right in their tracks. Jaune immediately slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from saying anything stupid while Pyrrha just continued to gawk at the 'very' confident Nora Valkyrie who leaned on the open door as she looked down at Ren.

"... Did Nora… go out and get her face done up or something?" Jaune asked, blinking at that, while Pyrrha just nodded dumbly.

"She did… oh gosh, Jaune, do you think this is it?!" Pyrrha muttered, very excitedly, as Jaune fished around his pockets for his Scroll.

"Hold on, let me get a camera to record this! 'No one' is going to believe us…" Jaune continued with the pair's whispering as they both watched the scene as it unfolded before them. Nora reached a hand up to stroke at her short hair, giving a lovely smile to Ren as he continued to lay down on the bed, having just raised a hand in greeting to Nora without having turned to look at her. Seeing that Ren had likely been settling down for a nap, Nora decided to get his attention a bit more directly.

"Heeey Renny~! How are you doing?" Nora did her best to try to purr the greeting like she'd sometimes seen Yang do, Jaune and Pyrrha having choked back some slight laughter at the sight of Nora as she tried to be flirty, of all things. Still, silly as it was, the partner pair rooted the girl and her sudden shift in attitude, going along with her sudden makeup job, on. Finally Ren slowly raised his head as he turned it to take a look at Nora. As soon as their eyes met, Nora couldn't help but feel her heart soar; this would be it. Ren would take one good look at her and, like those other guys, immediately feel smitten by her! His feelings would awaken, he'd realize that he loved her as much as she loved him, and then they'd finally be together-together! No more worrying about him turning her down, no more worrying about a destroyed friendship, just Ren looking at her like-

"Hey there Nora. Doing fine, just settling in for a nap. You know, the usual. Welcome back, by the way." Ren had replied casually as he smiled at his friend, that having been all he said before he turned his head back to the ceiling and laid back down against his favorite pillow.

-like he normally looked at her…

What?

Nora visibly faltered, the young woman having nearly fallen over as she nearly slipped on the door. She quickly corrected her footing, keeping herself up as she looked down at Ren. That… that couldn't be right. Every single guy she'd come across on the way here had been staring at her, fawning over her, trying to get her to go out with them. The makeup had worked, she'd 'known' that it worked! She'd seen it first hand!

So why wasn't Ren so immediately awestruck with her? Why did he seem to resist her in this way. Was she… was she just not doing enough? Was she just not making it clear enough? Maybe that was it; after all, all those guys who'd seen her on the streets only knew Nora as a perfect stranger. Ren had known Nora for so long… maybe he was just used to how she looked normally? Maybe he really didn't take time to see how different she looked! That was it! All she had to do was to try to be flirty, like Yang could be or like the way she'd seen in movies!

Self-assured of her plan, Nora quickly put it into motion. Leaning with her back against the door, Nora sought to pose like she'd seen some young women do on magazines and in films; one arm lazily hanging over her head while she brought her other hand up to her face, her index finger extended as she placed it against her lips. Unfortunately for the inexperienced Nora she had… mistaken some placing and thus actually took in a whole knuckle of her index finger as she tried to give Ren a come hither stare.

Jaune and Pyrrha, as supportive as they had been trying to be, had then been equally doing their best as they tried to keep from laughing.

"Ren… Renny~... don't you notice anything different? Like, about me?" Nora quickly blinked several times, doing what she could to try to bat her eyelashes like she'd seen in the movies. Ren turned his head on his bed, not raising it from the pillow, as he turned to look at Nora. Surely Nora and her expert, seductive attitude would break Ren this time! Surely he'd see how good she looked and-

"You look fine as always Nora."

-and break her heart in two.

What… but, how? The makeup, the other guys! Heck, even Jaune was blushing looking at Nora in between concealed laughter! So many people had looked to Nora like she was a whole different girl and yet, here Ren was, still treating as if she was still the plain looking girl who couldn't turn his head if she tried! Nora's confidence floundered, her posture wilting, as she looked at Ren. Pyrrha and Jaune just looked at each other, the pair confused as they looked between Ren and Nora. How was Ren 'not' noticing how directly Nora was coming on to him? Why wasn't Nora just asking him out and getting it over with! She'd clearly had the confidence, so why not just get it over and done with and put it out there!

The two had practically, silently pleaded with Nora to do just that, to put that confidence she'd had to work. To ask Ren to be together-together with her… yet she didn't. They watched as Nora's fold completed, the girl just stammering for a moment before she coughed into her fist.

"O-Oh! Would you look at that, uh, seems like I've… forgotten my Scroll at a shop I stopped at! I'll be right back for dinner guys, save a chair for me!" As Nora did her best to conceal just how surprised and hurt she'd been by this sudden turn of events she ran out of the room and down the hall, intent on heading back to the Salon Cinderella. Jaune and Pyrrha just blinked in completely disbelief as they looked over at Ren, expecting some kind of answer…

"Hurry back Nora, it's one of your favorite's today. I'll do my best to save you a spot if you don't' make it back in time." Was all he'd said before he resumed his nap.

"... Wow, maybe he really 'doesn't' like her that way…" Jaune muttered in disbelief, Pyrrha just as stunned as he was as she shrugged her shoulders in disbelief.

* * *

Aya Tsuji kicked her leg slightly as she read her book, seated on one of her more comfortable chairs. Playing at being a Fairy Godmother wasn't an easy feat; it took a lot of people skills, a lot of reading the mood of the young woman, or in some cases men, who came before her and, finally, figuring out what exactly was needed. Some young women were… well, she'll be kind and call them unpleasant, and needed a quick Aesop in order to help find their love. Patiences, kindness, understanding, what have you. In the end it wasn't what was on the outside that drove their loves away from them but what was on the inside… her challenges and hardships would need to be constructed on teaching them that particular lesson as harshly as she could…

One favorite gamble she liked to play in this was the 'Cinderella' lipstick of course. Apply every thirty minutes, except when you're asleep, and you'll maintain your beauty. A lie of course but a carefully constructed one; the truth was that by the time they were asleep she was as well and Cinderella, well, it wasn't an automatic Stand. The truth was that it wouldn't take long after she fell asleep for the effects of her Stand to wear off…

Oh but how difficult it was for young women, lost deep in the thralls of love, to reapply that makeup every half hour on the dot. It was hard enough to keep up such commitments as a busy young person. But self-absorbed, selfish and crass young women in love to boot? Ah, it was guaranteed they'd forget or that they'd miss one of the deadlines. So, when they were both asleep, the effect would just naturally wear off…

Well… there was one exception to it wearing off. Just one though. But no amount of falsely generated flesh would hold up over time…No. Only the real deal would do. She'd learned that the hard way.

Shuddering, she put this thought to the side and continued on with her previous train of thought. It wasn't fun to play a wicked Fairy Godmother, but it was sometimes necessary.

Then there were those kind hearted souls who were just… well, genuinely unpleasant to look at and would remain so for much of their lives. Like the young woman who came in before Nora Valkyrie. They were good and kindly people, don't mistake her, but… well, to be frank, they weren't pleasant to look at. Now, her Stand could fix that for a time but unless she grafted another person's face in place of their own, it wouldn't last. So… she made adjustments. Little fixes here and here. Things that would, in the moment, change their luck. Not for long… but just for long enough for their kindness to win their prospective loves over.

If not, well, she stayed true to her guarantee of a refund.

She smiled as she recalled her earlier case; Nora Valkyrie. Her own adjustments had been bound to run out around twenty minutes ago. The girl seemed like an excitable, rambunctious sort so she had no doubt that she'd be back. It would be fine, of course; Nora Valkyrie wasn't the sort she needed to teach a lesson. She wasn't a strictly ugly girl either… quite the contrary, the little Miss Valkyrie was a pretty girl and, as Aya's little secret, bound to get prettier as she finished off the last of her growing.

A too round face would even out as she finished her teenage years and that strong jaw only seemed as much due to the angle it was taking. Thin lips and eyes could always be accentuated with just a minor touch of makeup, so that wasn't the issue that she had made it out to be either. Plain, perhaps, but plain in a pretty way. Inoffensive but not eye catching.

Sadly that tended to be enough to cause some young men to fall off the trail. She had no doubt that this Ren fellow that Nora had spoke about had feelings for her… goodness knows, the sort of love she could feel oozing off of Miss Valkyrie when she spoke of him couldn't have been created out of nothing, with no emotional support to those feelings. Young men, however, could be quite dense… especially if they've been around a woman long enough to get comfortable with her.

Ah the cold comfort of consistency and routine. The siren call of doing nothing and staying safe. While Nora would bloom naturally on her own in time… it was no surprise that the girl herself held so little confidence. If, after all this time, Ren truly hadn't expressed any sort of interest in her, what was the poor girl to think? What was she to do but turn her doubts inward, toward herself. Toward whether or not love was worth risking a friendship that had gone on for so long?

Cinderella had less restructures Miss Valkyrie's face entirely than brought out its innate qualities, really shine that natural beauty the girl possessed underneath her more bubbly, childish exterior. She had no doubt that Ren would have done something during this half hour… but she also knew that Miss Valkyrie, nervous, skittish and passive as she was being about this, wouldn't pounce upon it.

Beauty was not what held Miss Valkyrie back in her pursuit of love but confidence. The will to risk everything for what her heart truly desired. While her Aesop form this Fairy Godmother wouldn't be so harsh as a girl who was truly rotten to the core, a lesson did need to be learnt. Still, she'd thank her later.

She heard the front door to her shop open, a smile on her face as she closed her book. Right on cue. She turned in her seat just in time to see Nora, her original face having pushed past the medicine and minor adjustments she'd made to it, looking her dead in the eye. Distraught and unhappy… much as she expected.

"Miss Valkyrie, a surprise to see you again so soon darling. Most customers usually wait till the next day to come back around my shop you know. It gives them some time to think over the results." Aya began, looking to begin this next stage in her dance with her Godchild… but something was off. That answer spurned not eagerness to get more of the makeup, not hatred like in some… but more sadness. The girl's eyes welled up slightly as she ran an arm across them, pulling herself back together.

"Doctor Aya… your makeup didn't work on Ren. He treated me just the same as he did before…"

…

Oh dear. Aya internally sighed as she put a hand on her cheek. Well, it seemed as though she messed up somewhere along the way in applying her Stand's power… perhaps she really wasn't so good with the CGI in her computer? She had thought she'd managed to adjust the aesthetics of Nora's face just so that it would be a knockout for her to attract this Ren, and frankly any man she came across, with just a wink… but it seemed that wasn't the case. She'd made an error in one of her calculations or in her adjustment of Nora's facial symmetry and had cost the girl her opportunity…

Nora wouldn't be a fool; anyone would take this as her trying to cheat them. Rightly so, getting a procedure done without it producing any results would make anyone feel as such. She wouldn't take a second procedure and thus wouldn't move along… a shame. She had actually rather liked this girl's particular story.

"I see. My apologies, it seems I must've made a mistake changing your luck along the way. It seems my makeup didn't have an effect after all. Rest assured that your money is ready to be transferred back into your possession right here and right now and you won't-"

"That's the thing though Doctor Aya! Your makeup did work!"

…

"I'm… sorry, Miss Valkyrie. Phew… I'm afraid I don't understand. You said that my makeup didn't succeed in helping you secure Ren's love. How did-"

"Yeah, it didn't do that but… like, every single guy I came across from here on my way to Ren tried to ask me out! They thought I was really beautiful! Your makeup worked but… it just didn't work on Ren! Why didn't it work on Ren?"

…

How?

Aya honestly blinked as she rested her cheek in her hand and stared back at Nora Valkyrie. How had this happened. Cinderella changed the facial symmetry of a person in order to present them at their most beautiful, changing their aesthetics so that they can be truly appealing and stunning, shifting their luck in love. If she'd done it right, no one should've rightly resisted Nora and she had no reason to doubt that this was a lie; why would Miss Valkyrie say that it failed with Ren but succeeded with other men?

…

Was this just too weak? Aya hummed to herself as she tapped her chin. That… hadn't been the most extreme use of Cinderella's power, to be sure. She usually started small, giving a taste and testing the waters, before going forward with any further changes that would help seal the deal, or at the very least set up for it. It still usually worked or had some effect… but had this young man, Ren, just resisted it somehow…

…

"Tell me, does your friend Ren possess any unusual abilities. Perhaps something that would affirm his mental strength…" Nora wiped away at her tears, hiccuping slightly as she nodded.

"Y-Yeah… Ren's Semblance lets him diminish his emotions. It's really good for staying hidden from Grimm…"

And for unintentionally weakening the effect of Cinderella. Aya hummed as she kicked her leg. Interesting; so Mr. Ren had some kind of Semblance that dampened his emotional responses? She didn't imagine he kept it on at all times… though, as a Hunter-in-Training, perhaps he did? Even if he didn't, it could possibly passively enforce the same effect on him. In either case, he'd be more resilient to Cinderella's effects; whatever love that might try to claw its way out of his heart at the sight of Nora Valkyrie's face would be easily squashed under such circumstances. Yes, this must be it…

That boy… Aya amusedly chuckled to herself as she felt an emotion kick up. Goodness? Was she feeling slighted? Someone had in some way managed to defeat the effect of her Cinderella, kept her from fulfilling her desire to be a Fairy Godmother and had deeply, if unintentionally, upset her Godchild in Nora Valkyrie.

Why yes, she was feeling slighted! Amusing, to say the least…

But now it was personal.

"Look, Doctor Aya, your makeup worked just… not on Ren. I'll let you keep the money if you want, but I think I just need to take the hint and-"

"Darling, don't you worry." Nora hadn't been expecting the sudden, supportive tone of Aya to pop back up, nor was she expecting the woman to so suddenly walk over and grasp Nora by her hands, that kindly smile on her lips again as she lead her back into the room. "Your friend Ren sounds like a tough customer, a difficult nut to crack… but I assure you, not an impossible one. You've found your love dear, it's clear… but my makeup can help you capture it."

…

There was an odd way that Aya spoke. So confident, so sure of herself. Despite her soft, breathy tone, there was a certain conviction to her words that made them sound strong.

"You… you're sure? I mean, I'm just…"

"Darling… have you ever read the story of Cinderella before?" Nora blinked at this question before she gave a quick nod; of course she had. Growing up there'd been plenty of little story books at the place in Vale she and Ren had grown up in with that story included in it. She'd practically come to know it from front to back. "Phew… you know, growing up, most girls I knew wanted to be Cinderella. To be carted away from their troubles by a Fairy Godmother who would lead them to the love of their life.

"Me? I wanted to be the Fairy Godmother; I wanted to be able to help people find their loves, to move into a new and wonderful place in their lives. To love and to be loved, honestly, openly, truly, is one of the most magnificent things a person can have. Phew… the idea of being able to give that to people, to let them experience it for themselves, it was a dream for me. So I've honed my skills, my knowledge and my makeup." Aya reached her hands up to Nora's cheeks, resting them on her side. Nora blushed, the woman having again broken into her personal space… but, well, she was kind of getting as into this discussion as the doctor was.

"You are a Huntress… you have decided to sacrifice your time and your potential health in order to save people Miss Valkyrie. Phew… as the Fairy Godmother could not allow Cinderella's good deeds to go unrewarded, I cannot allow such an attitude to go unrewarded. If you will give me another chance, I promise that my makeup will see to it that Lie Ren's feelings for you will manifest."

Nora 's mouth hung open a bit, the bubbly bomber having been almost totally sucked into Aya's understated enthusiasm.

"Oh, but the payment…"

"I do believe I promised you a refund if I failed… well, this time, let's call it deferred; if I don't succeed this time, then you won't have to pay me a single red cent, Miss Valkyrie. Would that put you at ease?" Nora just nodded slowly, still being pretty well floored by Aya's offer, her honest belief in wanting to help her and Ren… really, really like each other. It was just too much for the young woman to take in all at once. "Then allow me to walk you through this next phase."

It was simple enough; on top of more extreme modifications that Cinderella would make, or as she phrased it to Nora the different makeup and massages that would be applied, she'd bring out the full shine of Nora's beauty throughout her entire body, essentially resculpting her until there was no way anyone could resist her looks, lease of all this Ren. Here is where the usual script diverged for Aya, though; usually this song and dance was reserved for those who needed to learn a dire lesson about how their personality served to keep their loves away but, every so often, the same procedure was useful for young girls like Nora in order to strive them on to make an active step. If they failed then, well, she could manage the blowout later, especially if they failed because they stayed too passive, too unconfident to move forward with their love.

The change was simple but direct and oozing with the Fairy Tale charm that Aya strove to infuse into everything she did.

"The makeup will fade in time as well, Miss Valkyrie. Your chance at permanently shifting your luck, to being able to keep Ren's love, is all determined upon one thing, phew... a kiss from this person you love so dearly."

…

"A-A KISS?!" Nora's face turned beet red at that, going even darker than her hair as she stared over at Aya.

"It's a long and complicated process involving your hormones and how they interact with the makeup and massage." A lie but girls this age usually went for it… truth was half of those degrees on the wall were just for show, mostly to convince anyone who stepped in that she was an authority whose every word was worth hanging on about. Good acting and conviction was just as often a necessary skill as a Fairy Godmother as the magic that made it all possible, after all.

The lipstick was meant to play against the patience of those girls whose insides reflected poorly on their beautiful exterior; a way to force them to confront their own personal failings, how they had been the ones holding back their pursuit of love. To inflict such a thing on girls like Nora, girls who lacked the confidence to go for love, was cruel, too cruel, even for a wicked Fairy Godmother. True love's kiss, however? A test of their resolve; either they would succeed, kiss their love and find that the romance remained even after the makeup faded on its own or they would choke, in one way or another… and from there it was anyone's game for how it'd end up.

For Nora, a Huntress and, from what Aya could tell, a kind girl this was what would yield the necessary results.

Nora looked back down to the floor, her cheeks still red as she absorbed this. Aya, meanwhile, busied herself with a few pots and containers; Cinderella needed none of this, in truth, but it was good to appear busy and appear like she was setting medicine up so that she wouldn't come off as suspicious. When she'd hear Nora's answer, she'd get to work with-

"That… that doesn't sound like something makeup can actually do… that sounds like a Semblance. Or… or a Stand."

…

Silence pervaded the room as Aya casually turned around to face Nora. The girl was still blushing heavily, of course, but her turquoise eyes were now locked with Aya's as the aesthetician turned to face her fully. Hmmm… she had taken Nora too lightly. While the girl could be bubbly and a bit thick, it seemed she was smart enough to be aware that something about all this wasn't right.

"... I guess I shouldn't be surprised; those changes from before really did feel pretty extreme just for some makeup and a massage. You have a Stand, right?" Nora reaffirmed her question, keeping her gaze on Aya. After a moment Aya released a small breath as she nodded.

"I doubt you'd believe me if I said no." Nora pretty much nodded at that, as Aya figured. "It is interesting that you are aware of them… then again, given recent goings ons, I'm not terribly surprised. Yes, I have a Stand; **[Cinderella]** , who allows me to do everything as I've described it to you." Well, not exactly; there were the limitations she went over in her mind. Nora, however, didn't need to know any of that.

"I see… I'm guessing you got it from The Arrow?"

"Ah, an Arrow? Is that what it was? I just remember that I was struck by something some time ago and that, soon after a fever came and went, that I awoke with Cinderella at my side with her not inconsiderable abilities." Nora kept her eyes on Aya, looking for a sign of a lie… which, to be fair, Aya knew there was. She'd known about The Arrow and the man who had possessed it. Still, the less Nora knew the better; that was behind her. Her job now was to help this young woman.

"... Did you really mean what you said? About being a Fairy Godmother and wanting to help people?" At that, Aya Tsuji just smiled warmly as she walked over to Nora, looking her in the eye.

"Phew… darling, you can trust that everything I said then and there was the honest to Gods truth. Every word of it; I only want to help you find true love with this young man you hold so dearly in your heart. Trust me…" Nora looked down to the side as Aya said that, biting her lip. On the one hand, she was a Stand User not affiliated with The Frontier. That usually meant trouble and, even when it didn't, it was a good idea to at least tell someone about it, right?

On the other hand though, Josuke and the others had come across Tonio's restaurant and found him to be a friendly sort with an unlocked Stand. Aya also could've done worse to Nora earlier when she had left herself vulnerable to the woman's Stand. Surely if she were bad or had evil intentions she would've hurt Nora then and there, right?

Then there's what she promised… Ren and her, together-together…

"Okay… I'll trust you… as my… Fairy Godmother?" Nora couldn't help but snort slightly as she said it. "Gods, it sounds so silly when I say it." The bubbly bomber giggled as Aya just smiled, Cinderella appearing behind her as the pretext of the makeup and massage fell away.

"Indeed. Now then, time for me to do my work…" Nora nodded and got ready… this was it. The moment that would decide everything.

"Phew. I'm going to need you to strip for me, completely."

…

"WHAT?!"

* * *

"Damn, that's cold…"

"I know…"

Yang bit off a bit of meat from her fork as she listened in to Jaune's recollection of what had transpired back at the Team JNPR Dorm room, the remaining members of Team JNPR and JOJO having joined Team RWBY at the table as they all discussed. Ren was relatively off on his own side of the table, a bit removed from the conversation so as to allow for easier gossiping without him overhearing it, though between Ren's usual tired state and the loud chattering of the dinner rush crowd, they might've easily expected him to have not heard them regardless.

"So she gets dolled up for him and he doesn't even react, not even a little bit… and she still didn't ask him directly? Shit, this is gettin' really fuckin' sad now." Okuyasu groused slightly as he took a big old bite of his dinner. "I mean, really, she had the confidence to swagger in there but she got stuck when that bastard didn't react… and that lucky bastard didn't respond! Fuck's sake, this is pissin' me off more and more just hearin' about it." Weiss lightly punched Okuyasu in the shoulder along with Koichi, the pair doing their best to restrain the loud, scarred teen before Weiss looked back to Jaune and Pyrrha sympathetically.

"Can't say I'm haven't been where Nora is… kind of. The situation with Neptune was a stinger but, jeez, I only knew him these past couple months. Nora's known Ren for ages and he actually didn't give any kind of response when she dressed up for him? That must've really hurt…"

"Okuyasu is kind of right though; Nora had the opportunity to go on the offensive and she didn't. It is still kind of partially her fault as well." Blake remarked as she looked up from her book, Ruby just frowning as she looked across at her Faunus teammate.

"Yeah but… come on. Would it have killed Ren to show even a little appreciation? That couldn't have been easy for Nora to do…"

"Well… I don't necessarily want to be the one to throw this out there, but it could just be that we've been reading this whole situation wrong and… well, Ren's really just not interested in Nora that way." Yang remarked as she chewed on a bit of tough meat, a frown on her face. "It's kind of unfair to beat him around if that's the case. If the guy isn't romantically attracted to her, then he's not romantically attracted. It sucks for Nora but, well, it is what it is, right?"

"Jaune and I have been starting to suspect much the same thing and, while you're right that Ren doesn't owe Nora a return on her feelings… he could at least 'say' something to that effect, don't you think? Tell her that he doesn't like her? As unfair as it would be to expect Ren to like Nora just because she likes him, it's pretty unfair to Nora that Ren doesn't say anything at all… I mean, he can't 'actually' just not know at all, can he?"

"... I dunno. I mean, he is partially sleeping through the lunch rush and us gossiping about him. I think a lot of things can manage to go in one ear and out the other for Ren…" Koichi remarked dryly, the young man's more confident personality having solidified in the days and weeks after his unlocking of Act 3.

"Oof, harsh. True, but harsh." Okuyasu nodded in agreement with Koichi, along with the rest of the table.

"It just kind of stinks. I mean, you should've seen Nora. She looked really upset. She got some makeup done and did her best to look as good as possible and Ren just blew her off. I mean, it looked like she spent some money to get this done. You wouldn't believe it." Pyrrha nodded in ready agreement with Jaune… only to notice that the table, and indeed almost every single table surrounding them, had gawked in a direction behind them, their jaws unhinged as they blinked in surprise.

"Errr… I think we can believe you two just fine…" Ruby remarked, the silver eyed girl not quite believing what she was seeing. At that Jaune and Pyrrha finally turned around… and both of them just joined everyone else in gawking. Walking through the dining hall was Nora, having finally returned to Beacon Academy… and lo and behold, she was 'gorgeous'. Like, she had been pretty before but… something about her entire body now just screamed of something totally out of this world. It was hard to describe what features, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, just exuded this raw physical attraction but as far as everyone was concerned it it seemed to all the world like Nora Valkyrie had sparkles surrounding her and waving about with her every movement.

Jaune was practically choking at the sight before Pyrrha managed to quickly slip one of her gloved hands over his eyes. "Thanks Pyr…" Jaune offered weakly, honestly grateful to have had his gaze torn from the sight before him. Pyrrha just nodded dumbly, a blush on her cheeks as the Tournament Fighter honestly felt completely inadequate stacked up to her teammate, a feeling that was being shared by every other woman not just at their table but in the entire dining hall. Young men from all across the dining hall were falling out of their chairs in their attempt to try to keep up with Nora's movements across the room, eyes glued on her as they all just took her in as much as possible. If it weren't for the fact that everyone at Beacon was well aware of Nora's preoccupation with breaking legs, more than a few of them might've bolted from their seats to try and get a word in edgewise with the young woman.

Koichi had covered his eyes with him own hands, looking to maintain some dignity for himself should Neopolitan have been watching from somewhere and Okuyasu just gawked right alongside the rest of the girls at the table, blown away.

"... Holy shit." Several girls at the table elbowed Okuyasu in the ribs to keep the scarred teen from speaking up further, though they couldn't help but share a similar sentiment to him. They just couldn't believe what they were seeing, it was all just so ethereal and unreal.

However, absolutely none of this mattered to Nora Valkyrie in that moment. All the attention, the hungry stares, the jealous looks, the absolutely blown away expressions of her various friends… none of it was on her mind. Nora Valkyrie was a young woman on a mission; that mission was to show Ren what she looked like, show him that even a plain girl like her could be beautiful… to finally be liked by him as much as she liked him and then to finally wrap it up with something she'd been dreaming of doing ever since her hormones started going crazy at the start of puberty; kissing Lie Ren on the lips and making this dream, this wish come true from her Fairy Godmother, a reality.

There was no possible way this could fail now. There was just no way; even Nora, as shaken as her confidence in herself had become after years of Ren not noticing her, of him not returning her not so hidden feelings, couldn't help but feel this in her soul. Having looked at herself after Cinderella went to work, Nora had been as every bit blown away by her physical appearance as everyone in the dining hall now was. It hadn't taken a great deal of effort to tear herself from her own reflection, of course, Nora wasn't a narcissist… but damn, had it been distracting.

There was just no way Ren wouldn't respond to this. He couldn't. Not know, not after all the hope Nora had poured into this.

By the end of today… no, by the end of lunch, she and Ren would be together-together. It would 'finally' happen.

It had to.

Nora coughed softly into her fist as she stood just a couple feet from Ren, smiling gently as she did her best to keep her beating heart under control. This was it, this was the moment.

"Hey Ren…" Nora spoke, a smile on her face that just beamed for the room to see.

This was it; the moment of truth.

 **-To Be Continued- Nora Valkyrie's Vision of Cinderella (Act 3)**

* * *

 **A/N: Oh God, school's finally over for the summer and I actually have my first Master's Degree, finally. I'm exhausted. Anyway, good to have this out there and good to have finals over. A quick heads up on the schedule; I'll be looking to speed production back up to the previous schedule(s) so that we might be able to get back on a ten day, or better yet the old five day, update schedule because it's been slowed down for a while. I feel like now that University's done for the next few months I'll stand a better chance of doing that but I suppose we'll see.**

 **For now, Ye Gods, after all those papers and getting my Master's Degree, I just need to go ahead and chill a bit. I'll see you all in either 5 or 10 days top for the final Act of this particular Arc. Looking forward to it and I'm glad to be continuing our story!**

 **Until then, hope you all have a good time!**


	61. Nora V's Vision of Cinderella (Act 3)

Beauty the likes of which made Weiss, Pyrrha and Yang drop their jaws in awe. Pure, unadulterated desire which oozed off of her and attracted the attention of so many in the room. A shining beacon, a light so powerful that you would've had a far better chance of staring into the sun without going blind. This… this is what it felt like, Nora knew. What it felt like to be truly beautiful.

Still, to Nora, this feeling wasn't the end game. This wasn't what she had gone to Doctor Aya for. This feeling was new and immense and almost overwhelming, but it was not what Nora was here for.

No. A means to the end. As far as Nora was concerned she could've been struck ugly if that would've been what it would've taken. After over a decade of knowing him and nearly four years of knowing that she wanted him, to share a future with him more beautiful and meaningful than even their friendship, all of this, this sense of wonder and power that she held over others that looked upon her after Cinderella had done its work, meant nothing compared to that. Compared to the struggle. Compared to the hope that now threatened to burst forth from her chest along with her erratically beating heart.

This was it.

This was the moment where she and Ren would be together-together.

"Hey Ren…" Her voice was no different save for the confidence that now rang through it; Cinderella's work having given Nora a sense of presence she hadn't felt before. Slowly but surely she watched as the apple of her eyes, the very focus of her affections, turned to face her, a slight, Renny smile on his face as he sought to greet her. The moment of truth. The time for Aya's magic to shine…

And Nora saw it. She knew she saw it. The second those magenta eyes laid upon her, the second they had the opportunity to take her in, she watched as they went wide in surprise. Ren's mouth threatened to go slack for a moment before he quickly closed his mouth. She could see it; the heat rising in his cheeks, the awkward swallow from his mouth having gone bone dry.

It'd worked.

It'd absolutely worked!

"N-Nora. Hey… you're looking well." Nora smiled as Ren spoke; though he spoke with his calm demeanor, it was clear that Ren was putting forth some care not to stare.

"Thanks Ren, I'm glad you think so… I do try my best to take care of myself after all." She watched as Ren closed his eyes for a moment and, in an almost imperceptible shift, Ren's skin turned a slight hue of grey for a moment. Nora frowned for a moment; his Semblance. Like Aya and she had discussed as a possibility. For the first time since she left Aya's office she felt nervous again; was this it? Was this the turnaround? Would Ren's Semblance get in the way of their love again?

Nora watched as Ren opened his magenta eyes once more and soon felt her heart soar as, again, Ren's face seemed to glow slightly hot! Inwardly the young Valkyrie couldn't help but cheer! There were no breaks on the train this time, no storm that would unsettle this ship from its port. Cinderella had been unleashed to its fullest and now not even Ren's Semblance, passively or not, could stop it.

Nora smiled at Ren; he was being a gentleman of course, trying not to stare, trying not to be so obvious. Ren always had a mind for manners and had always been the one out of the two of them to employ them in any given situation. It wasn't necessary now, of course. Ren could be as open and honest as he pleased; it was all Nora wanted right now. All she could've possibly wanted.

This was their moment. She had her palm open for Ren, the invitation was extended… she needed him to take it. Every move they'd made ever since that day in Kuroyuri, it had been together. As much as she might've dragged him along the path when he was sleepy or where he would hold her back when she wasn't being careful enough… the two of them had always done everything together. Every step they'd taken, every decision made, it was made by both of them.

If they were going to take this new step forward, Nora was going to do it with Ren at her side, saying yes, saying that he felt the same way about her that she felt about him. She needed to hear it…

She needed to hear it.

"Still Ren… surely I'm just not looking well, right?" Nora giggled playfully, a sound that made several young men surrounding the table swoon. Even as Pyrrha blocked off his eyesight with her carefully placed hands, Jaune covered his own ears, the rest of the table watching and listening with baited breath as they all leaned forward.

Ren still seemed quite nervous as she looked to the side, scratching his cheek.

"Ah… well… that's true, I Nora. You look… good." Nora's smile stretched across her face, drawing in her breath as she prepared to sway Ren further closer to the truth. "... As usual."

…

What?

Nora's eyes, reshaped to perfection by Cinderella, blinked as Ren spoke. "I'm… sorry Renny, what was that?" Ren looked back up at Nora, doing his best to offer a smile.

"You look good as usual Nora."

… No.

No. No, no, no. Nora didn't look good as usual. Nora looked better than usual. She looked more amazing than usual. She looked different than any Nora that Ren had ever seen before. Beautiful, the embodiment of the female form, love and wonder on two legs as it strode across the floor. The very embodiment of her feelings for Ren. That wasn't usual…

A too round face was usual. Too muscular arms were usual. Boring eyes that didn't draw in, an appearance easily ignorable by most young men. Usual Nora… no, usual Nora wasn't here.

Usual Nora could never get Ren to notice her.

The Nora of the now, beautiful as she felt, had managed to embarrass Ren! She'd made his cheeks go red and had him avert his eyes! This Nora wasn't usual…

This Nora could get Lie Ren to say that he… liked liked her as much as she did him.

"Come on Renny… you can't possibly mean that, right? I mean, look at me." Nora did her best to recover from that slight trip, the best and most winning smile she could manage on her face as she lightly flipped some of her hair back, a gesture that left many knees weak in the crowd. Any other man would've fallen to Aya's spell, completely taken in and ready to do whatever she asked.

All she wanted was for Ren to say it. Inspired by her appearance so that he could finally, 'finally' be ready to join her. Be ready to take that step that she'd waited so many years to take. Side by side. Together.

So when Ren looked slightly confused yet still in somewhat good spirits, she couldn't help but feel that pit in her stomach start to grow again.

"Can't possibly… of course I mean that Nora. Why wouldn't I?" Nora's mind swam in her head as she looked at Ren. This wasn't right. This just wasn't right. Why? It'd worked this time! Ren had used his Semblance and failed. His eyes were looking about so as not to stare at her! He was being so polite, the gentleman that Ren had been for as long as she knew him. His face, his face was red from embarrassment! It'd worked! Aya's make up… her make up…

Embarrassed.

Ren was embarrassed.

Not because of her…

But of her.

It could be amazing; how one little thought could sink itself into you. How one traitorous little doubt could immediately latch onto you and not let go. How it could poison you from the inside out and turn whatever confidence you'd had into a weapon to bludgeon yourself with.

He was embarrassed. Turquoise eyes scanned the room… everyone was staring. While so many guys were watching her and were plainly smitten with her, there were more eyes that were just watching the scene play out. Wanting to see what happened next… either out of jealousy or morbid curiosity, they watched.

All of them. Eyes on her and Ren…

Watching her make a scene in front of Ren.

How confidently had she walked across that lunch room, drawing attention to herself as she approached Ren? How embarrassing must it have been to watch herself flaunt herself so close to him? Ren wasn't looking away because she inspired feelings in him… he was trying to spare her.

He didn't activate his Semblance in an attempt to cool his heart… he'd done so to try to cool his thoughts.

Try to think of a way to stop her from making a fool out of both of them.

Nora felt these thoughts eat away at her, growing bigger and bigger and forcefully beating away at her at every chance they had, tearing her down from the heights she and Aya's Stand had managed to build herself up to.

Fool.

What a fool, they said.

Nora felt desperate; she needed to take this chance! She needed this to work! She wanted so badly for it to work! She thought it would. She really, really thought it would. With that, Nora opened her arms to Ren, metaphorically and literally leaving herself open to him, as she did her best to offer the most warm, the most welcoming, the most alluring look that Cinderella made possible for her.

"Ren… doesn't seeing me like this make you feel anything new? Doesn't it make you feel different about me?!"

There was a silence that hung heavily in the air. The moment of truth. Everyone at the table, all nine of their friends, knew it. Everyone waited with bated breaths to hear it; to hear Ren's answer.

Ren looked confused and somewhat dismayed at Nora's question, the young man awkwardly scratching at his cheek as he looked off to the side.

"Nora… I… I mean… no, I don't feel any different about you than I normally do."

Those breaths immediately exhaled in a heavy blow, forced from their lungs like a punch to the gut. While it hadn't been directed at them, their minds and bodies did so out of the need to cringe slightly as they felt sympathy pains. Because looking at Nora Valkyrie, watching the slight shift in expression on her face…

It was hard 'not' to feel the way her heart broke upon hearing those words.

Nora's body language faltered as she awkwardly put her arms down at her side, the young woman looking off as she fidgeted and worried over herself. "O-Oh… I mean, of course, right? That's great news, Ren… glad to… glad to hear it…"

Still, despite how it might've looked to her friends… Nora Valkyrie didn't feel bad. No. After all, that was the antithesis of her being Nora, right? She was all grins and good stories, a source of positive energy for her friends… even in the most dangerous situations, Nora Valkyrie didn't flinch or falter. She'd only ever cried over friends and people she cared deeply for dieing…

So what? Ren didn't like her that way. Didn't like her like her… didn't feel anything for her despite what Cinderella did. He didn't feel any different looking at her right now… and that was a good thing, right? Nora had walked up and made a fool of herself in front of everyone and, despite putting up with that as usual when it came to her shenanigans… Ren didn't feel different.

They were going to be friends forever.

Friends. Forever.

Nora didn't feel sad… but… Nora didn't feel happy either.

She felt…

Numb.

"Uh… listen, I'm… actually not all that hungry right now you guys. So I think I'm… I'm going to go ahead and turn in. I'll see you guys in the morning." With that Nora Valkyrie walked off. Didn't run, no, she wouldn't want to draw even more attention to her stupid self after all this. She walked off, trying to at least save some dignity for Ren while she walked away. Lie Ren watched as his lifelong friend walked off, a frown on his face as he watched her go.

"... Damn. Guess you were right Yang. You kind of called it…" Okuyasu whispered over to the blonde brawler who merely frowned as she sighed.

"Forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy for being right…" The young woman remarked, her expression marked by a slight cringe as she still felt sympathy pains for the young woman.

The rest of dinner carried itself on with nary a voice speaking up at the table. While the dining hall was able to get back to its usual routine once Nora had left, the three teams sat in not so amiable silence upon Nora Valkyrie's exit. A combination of sympathy and desiring not to say the wrong thing about Nora or to Ren having all but halted most other conversations. Lie Ren himself seemed deep in thought as he turned to his food, the young man picking over it instead of having fallen back asleep.

By the time the three teams broke up for the evening to do their own thing, JNPR had found that, true to her word, Nora seemed buried in her own bed, a blanket burrito having surrounded the usually bombastic young woman as she just remained quiet. Jaune and Pyrrha, feeling that this was precisely the 'wrong' moment to stick their noses in, decided to leave Nora be till morning.

Lie Ren, on the other hand, seemed to have been similarly stunned to the rest of his friends as he watched the unmoving, bundled up form of Nora. For the first time in so many years the sharp young man seemed bereft of direction; he didn't fall to his bed to sleep and didn't get to work on this or that thing that needed doing, both of which were tasks that Nora would have drawn him from in order to speak with him at this time of night.

For the first time in a long time Lie Ren honestly felt lost.

Still, everyone could at least hope that the morning would bring better tidings. That once everyone had time to sleep these emotions off, to just have some time to think, that maybe something could be resolved. That they could talk this all out and continue on being the friends they had been up to this point. That something hadn't irrevocably changed as Nora so long feared…

There was hope that opportunity would rise with the sun.

* * *

Instead the rising sun had only brought them one sight; an empty bed with no sign of Nora Valkyrie anywhere.

"Yeah no, when we woke up she was just gone… no, she's not completely dropped off the face of the Earth; we've tried calling her and, while she is ignoring us, her Scroll's still on. The tracker on it says she's somewhere in Vale's Commercial District too so we don't think she's actually in trouble but… well, it is just a little unsettling, you know? Usually Nora's the second to last person up besides Ren and to have her so far out into town already… she must really be upset." Jaune had placed a call once the rest of his Team had gotten up and sorted, figuring out exactly where Nora was and where to find her if need be.

Their Scrolls were well featured; thanks to the GPS built into them it was easy to track down members of your Team if you all got separated or if, Gods forbid, something happened to them. The feature had come in handy for quickly reassuring Pyrrha and Jaune that nothing too terrible was happening… still, it was such a dramatic shift from the norm that it left both of them slightly frazzled.

" _Do you think it might be a good idea for the rest of us to catch up to her? Could be she just needs a friendly shoulder to lean on…_ " Ruby's voice buzzed on the other side of the line, Jaune glancing over at Ren, the young man sitting with his hands folded and his head resting on them before he looked back to the Scroll.

"... I dunno. This 'is' Nora… if she wanted to be alone then it might just be for the best to leave it at that, especially if she's still… you know nevermind." Jaune's voice cracked, the young team leader doing his best to not throw shade in Ren's face while he spoke. "Point is… Nora would've asked us if she needed help, right? So… I dunno. Maybe let her have her space, figure out what's what and then wait for her to come back? Does that sound like a good idea Ren?" Jaune asked, casually, as Pyrrha looked over to where Ren was sitting… only for her eyes to go wide.

"Uh, Jaune…" At that the blonde team leader turned to look at the bed his other teammate had formerly occupied and, to his surprise, found him 'gone'. Not off to the side, not buried under his covers, but 'gone'.

"... You know, I forget that he can be pretty stealthy most of the time…" Jaune muttered as Ruby blinked in confusion.

" _What? What happened to Ren?_ " Jaune sighed as he looked back to his Scroll.

"Gone… probably going after Nora himself." At that Ruby cringed, along with the rest of her teammates.

" _Is… that a good idea?_ " Blake's voice could be heard calling out from the other end of the line. The knight and the tournament fighter both looked at each other, the partner pair giving each other worried expressions as, for a moment, they both tried to think about all this.

"... Honestly, I have no idea…" Seemingly at once they both sighed, their frustration with the situation evident.

* * *

It was a beautiful day in the City of Vale. At least, that was what Aya thought. The sun had risen quite high in the sky even so early in the morning, the sign of the coming Summer, and so many people had been out and about. Honestly, as distant as Aya could seem given her demeanor and way of speaking, the woman did enjoy these quiet moments with other people in the morning; after all, one wouldn't aspire to be a Fairy Godmother without wanting to help their fellow man in some way or another.

Still, Aya was also preparing herself; hardening her core for what she knew might come. Nora Valkyrie almost assuredly failed to grab a kiss from Mr. Lie Ren. It was an easy enough tell; even with all the power in her hand the girl lacked the basic confidence to reach forward and grab Lie Ren in such a manner. She imagined that the boy would find himself taken in by Cinderella's best work of course; even with a Semblance like that in hand, Cinderella was a powerful Stand when it came to the effect it could have on others. The beauty it could produce would shake even the most even tempered of minds.

Yet despite this, there was one simple fact: Nora Valkyrie was afraid. Whatever failings Ren had in noticing her affections, the fact remained that Miss Valkyrie lacked the wherewithal to go after what she wanted. Even if Ren professed his feelings… she honestly doubted in Miss Valkyrie's resolve to take that kiss for herself.

She expected to see her here today as Cinderella's effect would dissolve and her new face would fall away. From there… well, it was a matter of pushing the girl to where she needed to go. Nora Valkyrie's failings weren't ones of malus or of her outer appearance, as she was appealing both inside and out. No; it was in a lack of courage. An odd thing to say of a Huntress but true nonetheless.

Today wouldn't be easy but, if all went well, it would leave everyone happier than they were before.

As the door slammed open while Aya was preparing her office, she knew that the time was now. Aya turned slowly to face Nora and, for a moment, she honestly felt a chill run up and down her spine. Nora's body had worked itself back into its original shape without Cinderella's Stand Power holding it together from range, the lightly muscled body of a powerful Huntress stood with both shoulders facing her. Nora's bangs had fallen down into her hair, obscuring her face from Aya's line of sight. There was a certain tension in the air… for a moment, the doctor felt that she was well and truly in danger. Something about this frustration that palpably rose from Nora… an unspoken anger that just radiated out from her and filled the room.

Still, Aya stood her ground and waited for Nora to approach, the loud footfalls of the powerful Huntress having practically stomped her way over toward Aya as she stood there, arms crossed. She wouldn't speak yet, lest it break this tension and cause Nora to act on her emotions… as much as she felt fine doing so for other young women, this was a volatile time with a potentially volatile person. There was no sense in rubbing salt into her wounds…

When, moments later, Aya found two fists tightly coiled around her collar, having practically jerked her head down as they made the grab, one could understand if Aya Tsuji had momentary doubt. Wondering if she was well and truly about to be struck.

She felt so much anger from her with such burning heat that it threatened to burn Aya itself.

Yet, after this, Aya was not struck. She wasn't harmed. The fire of this anger wasn't even turned on her in a burning inferno.

Instead Nora Valkyrie seemed to use her grip on Aya to support herself, dragging herself closer to the older, more mature woman as she cried over Aya's chest.

The poor dear.

"Phew… Nora. Look at me." The girl's breath hitched as she heard her continue to sob, but the Huntress did as she asked and raised her face to look at her. As she thought; whole chunks of spin were missing from around Nora's face: her eyes, mouth and cheeks sunken as what remained of Cinderella's work dissolved into little more than ash. Tears had filtered into these places, pooling and then pouring forth from these sunken areas of skin. It was a little disconcerting to see but Aya shook her head.

"Phew… my dear, I told you didn't I? That you needed to kiss your dear boy in order for Cinderella's effect to stay in place? I'm sorry that you didn't follow through after the help I gave, but-"

"It didn't work…"

…

"Pardon?"

Nora took a quick, shallow breath as she tried to reign in her emotions, lowering her head back down to Aya's chest as she continued speaking. "It didn't work… Ren didn't respond to Cinderella's effect. He didn't respond to me… he said… he said he felt the same about me as always."

…

"Phew… Darling, surely that isn't the case? I mean, Cinderella-"

"Worked flawlessly on everyone else again. It's not you Doctor… it's Ren. It's me… it just isn't going to work." Nora choked again as she continued to mewl into Aya's form, the beautician staring down at the young woman, thoroughly stunned. That… that wasn't right. Cinderella's effect, no matter the Stand or Semblance, should've taken effect. So how…

"It's fine though… you don't have to worry about it… because… because this is good news, right? It's the best news someone could get, when you think about it." The girl practically choked on her words as she looked up at Aya, a wide smile on her face. "I was being dumb… after all this time, I wanted Ren to feel the same way I did. To say that he wanted to be together-together with me. We'd always done everything together, after all… so I wanted to hear it from him. I wanted to hear that he wanted it. I wanted to hear that he wanted me.

"He doesn't though… he just… just doesn't. Even when I walk in trying to look so pretty, making an idiot of myself by strutting around like I look half as good as Weiss or Pyrrha or Yang… he doesn't get embarrassed because I'm pretty. He gets embarrassed because I'm being dumb. As always; just stupid and silly and… and that's why he doesn't want to be with me like that. He's smart and I'm a brick, he's calm and I can't stop shouting most days. He's handsome and meanwhile I can bench press three of him.

"But… but none that makes him feel any different about me." There's a laugh at that as Nora keeps up her smile. "I can act like a total moron and Ren will still think of me as his best friend in the whole world. No matter what I do he won't shout at me or call me stupid or anything! He'll always try his best to be nice and to support me and… and that's great, right? Ren could have so many better friends than me who'd suit him more! Who'd be smart like him or who'd let him sleep or who'd be quiet so he could think for once… it's great! No matter how awful I am, Ren will always think of me as his best friend!

"How much more can someone ask than to be with their best friend forever? That's… that's what it's going to be! I should be happy…" The facade had been cracking throughout the entire rant. Even as Nora laughed, she watched as that frown slowly turned, a deep, pained frown marring the girl's formerly pretty features as more and more tears spilled, painting lines down her face as they flooded forth.

"So… so why aren't I happy? Why can't I just accept that this is the way things are and be happy that I'll always have my friend!? Why… why can't I be better?" Nora muttered, fully burying her face in Aya's chest. "Why can't I be someone that he'd… love. Why aren't I good enough? Why am I still being so stupid about all this?!" Nora took a deep, shuddering breath as she continued to bury her head in Aya's chest. "... Why can't I be happy for us? Why can't I be happy for my friend… why, why, why, why, why, why-" The muttering continued on as Nora just sobbed into her, Aya finally getting over her surprise as she reached up to pet Nora on the head.

Why indeed?

Not why to any of what Nora had said… the girl's feelings for the boy were strong. Over a decade of contact, of sharing a life with him and being in love for so many years would leave anyone feeling like this. Nora's feelings weren't unjustified… her pain wasn't silly.

No. Why hadn't Cinderella worked? The boy's Semblance couldn't have possibly withstood Cinderella's effect at its strongest. No mind she'd come across had been able to overlook the pure beauty she could bring forth. Even if the boy truly felt nothing for her it should have worked.

The boy couldn't have felt nothing for her though. These emotions, these feelings oozing forth from Nora Valkyrie… they weren't the silly, stupid mutterings of a girl who fell in love too quickly. These were decades of emotions building up, a bond that hadn't been severed in over a decade. Aya Tsuji believed in this, believed in love… she couldn't believe that Nora's emotions had just come from nowhere.

Judging by this Ren's behavior he did treasure her, at least. If what Nora said was true, then he did value her deeply. So why not? Aya's mind ran through the various possible reasons… Well… it's true that he could love her and value her. Still… if he wasn't inclined, it was possible that there was no amount of Stand Power Cinderella could throw at him that would make his body respond…

Aya kept herself from palming her face. Something Nora hadn't told her, likely because Nora herself didn't realize it. The only way she could think of that Ren wouldn't have felt anything under Cinderella's power was if women held no sway for him. The only way she could think of that would've prevented LIe Ren from responding to Cinderella's effect was if he was gay. Cinderella couldn't change something like that no matter how much Stand power it threw at him.

… Well, this was a complete failure on her part. The poor boy was probably distraught seeing his friend in such a state with no reprieve for her, likely never telling her so as not to break her heart, and Nora didn't piece it together. It wasn't kind but it was a fair enough point…

She was going to need to fix this. What she'd inflicted on this poor girl she'd done so hoping to turn into her happily ever after… to continue on with the charade was pointless cruelty. Her face would be fixed and Aya would sit her down and… explain things to her.

It wasn't her fault. None of it was her fault. These things were just decided before she could have even known the boy.

"Phew… Listen to me. It's going to be okay. I'll fix this all up… I promise. You won't have to worry about anything-"

"Nora!"

A sudden slam and the crack of feet against wood brought their attention to the door leading to the office, the sight of Lie Ren staring at the scene ahead of him, eyes wide with surprise as he met Nora's gaze, now revealed to them. Immediately, and Aya had meant 'immediately', Nora had started covering her face as she looked off to the side, trying to remove the tears.

"U-U-Uh… who is this Nora you're talking about, I don't-"

"Nora, even if you weren't wearing your usual outfit I'd have been able to recognize you…" Ren commented dryly, though without much amusement to his voice as he walked into the room, his fists clenched as he looked at Aya. He didn't have his weapons on him, much to Aya's relief as the look on Ren's face was decidedly 'cold' when he'd taken in the full extent of what had happened to his friend's face.

It probably didn't look all that good either; Nora bawling in a room alone with her, her face essentially ruined beyond most possible recognition.

"What did you do to her face? How… am I to assume that you're an enemy Stand User?"

"Ren, wait, it isn't Doctor Aya's fault!" The young woman ran over to her partner as she stood in between himself and Aya, the beautician watching the little scene carry out before her. The worried and simultaneously deadly cold expression on his face as he switched between looking at Nora and looking at her, the care he was taking in handling her…

Perhaps Aya hadn't so thoroughly ruined this as she had thought. The doctor's mind whirred a mile a minute, same as the words pouring out of Nora's mouth, as the older woman sought a way to force this train back on its tracks.

"Not her, Nora, you can't possibly be defending her for doing this to you!"

"But Ren, it was all my fault! I'm the one who came here, I'm the one who didn't listen to her, I'm the one who tried to-"

"Make a deal with me. Which she did." The doctor spoke up, a sudden shift in her tone that seemed to surprise even Nora. The soothing, breathy voice had given slightly, a harsher tone now sitting at its edge as Cinderella formed out of Aya's back. "Miss Valkyrie came to me looking for a solution to a problem… and I gave it to her. For not following up on the terms of our agreement, yes, I did that to her face, young man." Even as a slight, grey glow came over the young man his fists clenched as he stepped forward to approach her, obviously trying to keep himself even tempered with his Semblance. "Ah, ah, ah, not so hasty."

With those words Cinderella's hands swung through the air, dozens upon dozens of faces pouring forth… all of them an approximation of Nora's true face. If Aya was going to make this work she was really going to have to sell this performance.

"Still… your sudden appearance and care for her has left me intrigued, young man. So, let me lay out the stakes for you: Nora Valkyrie's true face is gone. I destroyed it as part of giving her the beauty that you saw yesterday." Both Ren and Nora's eyes went wide at that, Nora having looked especially betrayed, as Aya looked upon them both. A white lie, of course, but a necessary one to sell the tension on this. "However, my Stand Cinderella has every face it's ever worked on memorized and copied into it, allowing Cinderella to recreate it at a moment's notice… so I suggest you not be so hostile."

At that not so subtle threat she watched as Lie Ren honest to goodness backed off, just ever so slightly. The boy was deeply protective of her… given their history that wasn't a surprise. It was also encouraging. "However, she made a bargain with me and I shall not let breaking that deal slide so easily. If the young woman wants her face back… she'll have to pick it out from this crowd. Listen well Nora Valkyrie: if you can find your true face in this crowd, Cinderella will reapply it to you and you'll be back to normal, same as you were and had always been before you met me.

"If, on the other hand, you pick the wrong face I will still apply it… but you will find that you will always feel incomplete, a face ill-fitting forever plastered to you." Nora swallowed slightly as Aya took a seat, kicking one leg over the other. "So do take your time in picking, Miss Valkyrie. This is only the face you'll be stuck with for the rest of your life."

With that, the faces hung in the air, practically surrounding the two as Nora cautiously looked about them. The truth was that Aya didn't have a strong expectation of Nora knowing which face would be her own. Even Aya, beautician as she was, would have trouble picking her own, exact face out of a crowd of very similar looking ones. It wasn't something a lot of people, even those mindful of their appearances, paid a great deal of attention to… for someone like Nora who might've feared herself plain or thought little of her appearance day to day, she probably had even less of an idea.

No, this was meant to get Nora to finally reach out to Ren. To ask him for something, to ask him to help her in this time of need. To break out of her shell and be vulnerable to him; that she needed him of all people right there and then with something as personal to her as her own face. Now, she in no way expected Ren to know which face was hers either. The truth even was that-

"None of these faces are Nora's."

-none of these faces were…

"Huh?" Both Aya and Nora spoke up at once, both women a bit stunned as Ren spoke so suddenly. The young man's magenta eyes scanned the various faces that now surrounded the pair of them, his eyes carefully tracking each one before he turned back to look at Aya, firm confidence in his expression.

"None of these are Nora's. Is this some kind of trick?" The young man crossed his arms over his chest; even with the restraint he was trying to enforce it was clear that he was increasingly done with Aya's gimmick.

"... Ren… are you sure? I mean… it's a lot of faces. I don't even begin to tell if mine's here or not." Nora muttered to herself… though why should she be surprised in such a case right? Ren had always been so much smarter than her, of course he'd figured it out before she could have…

"Nora." The young woman looked back up at her partner and saw a surprisingly warm smile on his face. "I have spent nearly every day for the past twelve years being woken up by the sight of your face. There were days when you were the only person I'd even see. Trust me… I'd know your face if I saw it."

Trust him… the person who'd made her feel so hurt over this past day. Who'd made her bawl her eyes out to someone who two days before, had been a perfect stranger? It would've been a hard request to swallow if it had come from any other person…

"... Doctor Aya. None of these faces are mine…"

But it had come from Ren. Even after all of this, there hadn't been anyway Nora would've let go of her faith in him.

Aya just stared, slightly stunned for a moment, before she raised up a hand and snapped her fingers. Cinderella quickly swung its arm through the air, producing a face from its hand as it did so. The others hanging in the air all faded away as Cinderella pushed this face toward Nora, the skin and features slipping into the gaps that Cinderella had previously left behind. Nora blinked a couple times, the effect feeling quite odd… before she turned to face Ren, a worried expression on her face.

"Did it work?!" Nora asked, turquoise eyes wide as she awaited Ren's response. Ren just gave her face one quick glance and, with a smile, he nodded.

"Yep. Welcome back, Nora." An immediate spring of relief formed in Nora's chest as she sighed, the young woman not having gone to look at her reflection after this reassurance from Ren. It had all been made right, then. Her stupid mistake hadn't cost anything. "Now, if you'll excuse me Nora…" Ren took a step forward toward Aya only to be stopped as Nora held onto his hand.

"Ren, no." Nora said, firmly, as she kept a grip on Ren's wrist, while the young man just looked back at her.

"Nora, you can't be serious. After all that you're-"

"It really was my fault Ren… Doctor Aya was just doing what I asked her and… well, she did give me my face back didn't she, so she kept up her end of the bargain…" Nora sighed as she looked over at Aya, the older woman watching the pair with interest as Nora then turned to Ren, her face twisted into an apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry Ren… I made a mess and you had to come in and fix everything… I'm so sorry…" Nora bowed her head slightly, Ren having just watched her carefully for a moment.

"... No. No, I'm sorry Nora." The orange haired young woman looked up to face her partner, a saddened look on Ren's face as he looked down at her. "... Jaune and Pyrrha were right yesterday. Something was wrong and… and I didn't notice. Out of all of our friends, I should've been the one who was able to notice that something was wrong and that you needed some help… but I didn't. So no, I'm sorry I let this go on, Nora."

"... Why didn't you notice?" Nora asked, looking up at the young man she'd known for over a decade. "Why didn't you notice that I needed you… emotionally, Ren?" Nora bit her tongue slightly as she mentally berated herself. Still a coward, even now. Still Ren just sighed as he looked down at her, a slight smile playing at his lips.

"... Nora… I guess… I just got used to you not needing me, Nora."

"... Huh?" Nora asked, her voice cracking a bit as Ren frowned.

"Nora… before we even met you'd been alone for a while. Orphaned but… surviving. All on your lonesome. Then after Kuroyuri… you were always the one who kept us going. Whenever I'd drag my feet or I'd feel too sorry for what happened… you'd be there to lift me back onto my feet, smile and babble away. Even if we barely understood each other… I knew you were trying to lift my spirit. You never needed that from me though. You were Nora Valkyrie; eternal battery of optimism and determination. No matter what happened when we were kids you were always ready to keep going forward… even when I started to doubt what we saw during our adventures with the Stardust Crusade, you never let that stop you…

"You never let anything stop you and, no matter what, you'd always make sure I'd be moving right alongside you, even if I didn't have it in me to do so by myself." A deeply saddened expression crossed Ren's face before he continued. "Nora… the last time you needed me was under that house… and after that, I've been the one who's needed you…" Ren sighed as he looked off to the side, trying to shake that feeling fof. "I guess it just got easy to feel complacent with that. To think of you as invincible and me as… baggage."

…

"You idiot…" Ren flinched a bit as Nora started crying again the girl, somewhat painfully, having pounded her fist into his chest as she stepped forward into him. "What kind of stupid… of course I've needed you. I've always needed you. Saying that kind of stupid garbage to my face… I don't want to hear that from you ever again… I need you Ren. I've needed you for as long as I've known you…"

"... I'm sorry. I won't forget. Promise." Ren muttered softly as he, tentatively, put his hands on Nora's shoulders to try and be supportive. Only to be blindsided when Nora wrapped her arms around his chest, bringing him into a hug.

"You'd better not… you made me cry you jerk…" Nora laughed slightly at that, Ren having relented as he returned Nora's hug. The two stayed like that for a moment before they separated, both with awkward red blushes on their cheeks as they did so.

"... If you don't want me to hurt her, that's fine. Let's just… get out of here?"

"In a moment? I've just got something to say to her first, okay?" Ren fixed Nora with a serious look as she spoke, though the magenta eyed young man soon relented as Nora fixed him with an equally serious look. Ren made for the office door as Nora approached Aya, the beautician… smiling, weirdly enough, at the pair of them as she watched Nora approach.

"Doctor Aya… I want to say I'm sorry for dragging you into this. You can keep the money from the first run through if you want." Nora sighed as she looked back over her shoulder at Ren. "... Maybe Ren and I won't be together together anytime soon or, heck, ever… but… well, I think we'll be okay. So… yeah, just… sorry?" Nora said again, feeling ever so slightly awkward for having dragged this perfect stranger into her issues.

"... Oh, Nora. Nora Valkyrie… you're a very silly young woman, you know that?" A short 'Hey' escaped Nora as she frowned, puffing up her cheeks slightly as Doctor Aya had so casually insulted her like that. "... Still, I think you'll be my favorite Godchild for a long time yet and that your story with Ren will be one I'll remember forever. Phew… Go, be happy darling." Nora just blinked, confused at that, before she smiled at Aya Tsuji. The two parted, Nora having run back over to join Ren as the two departed Aya's store. Soon enough the beautician herself exited her store, watching as the pair strode down the street together, side by side.

It really was a touching, if decidedly silly, story that Aya Tsuji had on her hands. She'd been honest when she'd said that she wouldn't forget Nora or the young Lie Ren.

She'd also been honest when she'd said that Nora was a silly girl… then again, Aya supposed she'd been silly herself. After all, how could she have not guessed it when she'd been considering why Cinderella had no effect? Especially now when it was so plain to see. As the pair walked off, Ren having slowly placed his hand on Nora's shoulder to support her while the young Valkyrie beamed him a smile, Aya couldn't help but laugh at herself and how silly she had been in all of this.

Of course there was no way that Cinderella would have had an effect on Lie Ren. No amount of Stand Power in the world could have made him love Nora Valkyrie more than he already had.

 **-To Be Continued- Bound By Blood and Destiny (Act 1)**

* * *

 **A/N: Alright then. For the crowd here, sorry for this taking so long and being a day late over the 15 days that you might expect over the latest. squid_foot and I were doing line edits for a project that I work on for the Pa treon that we run called Shonen Phone-In, a first impressions review of seasonal anime, so I lost track of time.**

 **Furthermore this chapter is also probably quite the surprise for a good number of you due to its length. While I made a larger announcement over on Spacebattles, the short and long was that when I was outlining this chapter I realized that to make it to the 10,000 word mark that I'd need to put in between 2,000 - 3,000 words worth of filler. Needless to say this would've damn near ruined the chapter and, for those of you who read Joseph Joestar: Hamon Hunter and check out the reviews, you all probably are aware that I counseled lolrus on not being stuck with writing a lot if it means sacrificing flow and readability of his work.**

 **Well I'd be a major hypocrite if I said that without looking at myself and how my insistence on the 10,000 word mark was hurting the content of my story, so I decided to look over it again and, in the end, made the decision to just focus on outlines that focused on what I was going to put into a chapter and not on how many words it was going to be. From now on expect that not all chapters will reach the 10,000 word mark (but I doubt they'll ever go below the 5,000 word mark as I'd like to actually move the story along and have each chapter have actual content for you all to enjoy).**

 **This chapter is the start of that. I'm also probably going to spend the next couple weeks reorganizing my outline so that it fits on this new model rather than the 10,000 words model that had defined, and forced some fat onto, the story previously. I doubt it'll take more than a week or two before I get back to work so if you'd like to stay updated, keep an eye on the spacebattles thread. Or don't and just wait, that's fine as well.**

 **Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all next time! Later!**


	62. Announcement - A Month and A Half Hiatus

Hmmm, it's interesting what you end up coming across as you work on your outline.

So a little bit of background; to refresh those who've only recently joined us, or for those of you who've forgotten, I've stated throughout the process of writing Beacon Is Unbreakable that the series was largely outlined and plotted out from the very beginning and while such a statement is broad and unwieldy at first glance it always largely held true. Largely; some sections of the plot were more properly outlined than others, mostly because getting down into the specifics of how certain fights would go exactly wasn't in the outline which extended some scenes out or cut some short in terms of the outline. However, broadly speaking, the outline was by and large complete.

That's been largely true even as we've reached this point in the story. You see, in the gap between the Tournament and The Battle For Beacon (and thus the effective end of Beacon Is Unbreakable) and The Breach, I had a few goals in mind.

A. Give some proper finishing set up between Nora and Ren through a Cinderella-inspired arc. (Completed)

B. Give light to the current fate of Roman Torchwick as we move into the tournament

B.1. Use this to help set up for the ultimate conflict as it concerns Neopolitan and her position in this conflict.

C. Finish some set up as it concerns Jaune and Pyrrha, focusing slightly on Jaune as Pyrrha's position vis-a-vis canon has largely been changed (arguably for the better) with Amber not quite dying anymore.

D. Address what I've considered to be one of the core relationships of this part as we move into our climax.

E. Deal with the arrival of... hmmm, I guess what you'd call our last few Principal Antagonists for this Part, Adam and Weather Report.

F. Help to bridge the gap between the Duwang Gang and the CRWBY as the latter are finally let in to the secrets of the Joestar lineage.

G. Deal with Joseph Joestar's departure from his immediate place in the plot.

Now that sounds like a lot and that's mostly because it is but in the vague outline I had working together I had these elements largely themed together so, in my mind, it was by and large handled and I could work on the far sexier, far larger projects of more thoroughly outlining the Tournament and The Breach, the latter I knew was going to be difficult for me as a nearly pure-Action arc and the former connected to The Battle For Beacon which is the finale for this particular fic. So the outline for this hasn't been touched in a long time and while I was overall pleased with Cinderella I do think the fact that it was working off an older outline showed.

This became more apparent as I returned to this part of the outline: part of it was my effort to help bring the outline in line with the policy that 'hey, not every chapter needs to be 10,000 words long' and part of it was that this would be the bulk of what we're moving into with these next couple/few arcs of the story (a lot of these points are interconnected in the arcs themselves). A big challenge returning to this has been putting together, in my head, how this is all going to fit together in what 'specific' order. The general idea's always been there in the outline and laid out in bullet points not too dissimilar to the ones I've laid out above but then a general idea can be a fuzzy thing that seems more manageable the further away from it you are.

So it's been that once we've gotten here I've had a bit of a time wrangling all these ideas and concepts together and with this year having been what it was I'm not gonna lie it's left me somewhat exhausted. 2017 was a particularly good year for RBA in part because the opening of the year itself was pretty easy on me; from January to May I was blessed with perhaps the most dirt-easy semester of school I'd ever had in my time in University despite it being Graduate work (it's probably quite easy to tell that the particular gravy train ended in the Fall of that year as that's when our schedule started to slow down). It also helped that it was the beginning of the story and I didn't quite stress so much on fitting everything together and tying everything up because... well, it was the beginning. I could take things at their own pace and just keep them moving forward.

In contrast Fall of last year and Spring of this year kicked my ass good and hard because I was preparing for the finality of my Master's work (and successfully completing it) on that particular degree and because we're approaching the end for this particular story and, while we've tied up a few loose ends here and there, we're getting to the point where all these plot lines are converging and I'm needing to tie them up here and there while also getting ready for this particular finale.

Tying them up so that the end of this fic will be satisfying, to the degree that it can be (but we'll discuss that more once we reach the end) as its own story is paramount and so the stress to perform has increased as compared to before when we weren't reaching the crunch of the story. To that end, as I've finished redoing the outline to match with the new policy on not stressing word count I've been coming to instead stress over the above bullet points on the plot outline and I'm finding the inspiration/readiness to move onto it lacking. It's a feeling none too dissimilar to what was hitting around August of last year mixed in with a little stress about dropping the ball this late into the game.

To that end I'll be calling for a Month and a Half Hiatus. The reason for the length is simple; while I have spent the past half month trying to work on the update and thinking deeply about RBA and reworking its outline, I haven't put forward any actual content in half a month. To that end, it's only fair that I treat that as part of this hiatus.

I hope you all understand and I'll be grateful for your patience. To those of you who've only supported the Inkasters for this fic and not any of my other content, feel free to pause payments on you know what site should it please you.

Until Early August, I hope you all have a great summer. Expect a post in the thread on Spacebattles to alert when I'll resume work on this fic.


	63. Bound By Blood and Destiny (Act 1)

"Waitings fuckin' the worst…"

For once, Okuyasu spoke for nearly every person in that room. The crowd of teenagers groaned a bit as they all leant back in their various seats, the gang having gotten together to hang out a bit in Team JNPR's dorm room in order to just shoot the shit. The problem was the shit they had to shoot was increasingly the same points of discussions they'd had for the previous few weeks. Not because they didn't enjoy their time together or didn't have other things going on but just because of the subjects still hanging over their head, what lay ahead and the fact that… well, small talk came short in this lull.

The school year was over and, by all accounts, those staying at Beacon were just waiting out the Summer until the Vytal Festival. Most years this would be fine; after all the lull in the time between the Tournament and the official end of the School Year was meant to be taken as a time of exploration and cultural enrichment by those students who had transferred over to the school hosting the Tournament.

The problem this year was the back to back to back attacks that had occured in Vale relating to this. The Dance had been utterly impossible to cover up, Red Hot Chili Pepper and its fight at the docks had been equally a non-starter for keeping quiet about with the light show that the electric Stand. Finally there was no hiding the fall of the Walls of Vale and the fact that Grimm had flooded into the city. There was absolutely no obfuscating that or declaring that it wasn't as big a deal as it appeared. So rather than happy students filtering out of Beacon ready to participate in the culture of Vale, many were hanging around the dorms out of a sense of safety in numbers.

For the core group of Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO, or at least two members of that trio, it was more a concern about everything they knew about and what they were supposed to do next. They'd helped to save the day, or at least keep things from getting worse, they'd thwarted plans and Team RWBY had even assisted in capturing Roman Torchwick… but now what? The summer lull was positively killing them. No information was coming out of Torchwick's damn near comatose state

In other words-

"Yeah, not gonna lie, being hung up on a rope and having to be told 'Please wait patiently while we figure out who exactly is trying to kill us' isn't exactly a fun thing to be stuck doing." Yang frowned as she leaned back in her own seat, her golden mane flowing back over the seat as everyone nodded with the scarred and blonde teens.

"Should we go visit Josuke, then?" Koichi asked, the young man blinking curiously as he leaned forward from his own position against a wall. "If we're just sitting here and all I feel like we could have better uses of our time…"

"Josuke looked rather exhausted after the last time we were there." Ren commented calmly, surprising everyone whom had assumed that the young man had been asleep on the bed, his eyes closed and his breathing so still. "A little break so that he can actually take time to recover wouldn't be ill-advised…"

"He's still getting visited by the old man though, right? So is it that much of a problem?" Nora asked, frowning slightly as Jaune looked over with a wince.

"Nora, I think talking to his… er, distant… huh I was gonna say father…" Jaune's visage immediately twisted up into a slight panic, as if realizing the social faux pas he had immediately stepped into.

"Joseph." Pyrrha, however, had been quick on the save. "I think what Jaune's trying to say is that talking to Joseph is a little more important than talking to the rest of us." The blond knight heaved a sigh of relief at that as the rest of the group nodded, though some absolutely more hesitantly than others.

"Well then what are we gonna do? It's not like-"

 ***Knock, Knock, Knock***

"-wow I didn't even have time to jinx it…" Ruby commented idly, the silver eyed girl clearly surprised as the rest of the room glanced around. Blake, after a while, was the one to stand up and walk over to the door. She opened it and revealed, much to everyone's surprise, one Jotaro Kujo standing on the other side, his usual resting face presented to all as everyone straightened up.

"Oh, Jotaro, hello!" Blake said immediately, the young woman offering a slight bow as she did so. "Is something up? Did Torchwick wake up, is there-"

"No news yet I'm afraid. Torchwick Isn't up yet… but they seem to think he might wake up soon." Everyone heaved a sigh, all of them visibly relieved, as Jotaro's eyes scanned over the room like a hawk… before falling on Ruby. "I just came to borrow something."

"Oh, what did you come to borrow exactly?" Ruby asked with a slight chirp, the young woman tilting her head to the side as Jotaro stepped into the room, moving over people just laying on the floor, to stand over the silver eyed young woman.

"You."

"Eh?"

Everyone just blinked in shock as Jotaro immediately picked Ruby up by the hood of her cape, the young woman's legs easily dangling as Jotaro, a mountain of a man, seemed to have no trouble lifting up the diminutive.

"... Mr. Kujo, as much as you are… well, our senior, I feel like it's inappropriate for you to just walk in here and grab one of our team leaders like- and you're walking away." Weiss frowned as Jotaro immediately started walking back towards the dorm room door, casting his eyes back at the group.

"There's a particular task I need her for today. It's something her particular set of skills would be able to help with and, concerning the current sensitivity of the situation, it's best that I grab someone in the know about everything that's gone on. She'll be back before dark."

"Okay, but you still-"

With that Jotaro closed the door behind him, Ruby's meek cry of 'Guys?' just getting cut off by the door itself.

…

"You know I feel like I should be panicking more over your boss effectively kidnapping my sister." Yang said with a frown, brow furrowed as she just crossed her arms. "... But I'm more confused than worried. What the Hell just happened?"

"... Don't mind Jotaro. If he really feels like he needs you for something or… well, if you need to hear something from him, he… kind of tends to do that." Koichi offered awkwardly as Weiss looked over, utterly perplexed.

"What? Just… kidnap people and drag them off without their permission?"

"Eh she'll be fine. You guys have gone on a mission with him so you know what he's like. Ruby'll be fine!" Okuyasu offered as he leaned back in his seat, Koichi just nodding softly as the rest of the group looked at each other.

"... You know it only rarely occurs to me that you guys basically are from an entirely different culture than us. But when it does it hits hard." Blake commented dryly, the black cat Faunus picking her book back up as the others nodded.

"Still… I can't say that Okuyasu's wrong. Jotaro was very dependable during the mission and was an effective member of the group. I trust his judgement… I just kind of wish that he wasn't such a stand-offish jerk about it." The Schnee Heiress shook her head as she said this, as Nora just gave a nice, wide smile.

"But Weiss! Being standoffish and rough around the edges is like 90% of Jotaro's charm!"

"She's not wrong." Ren remarked idly as Nora beamed a smile back at him.

"... The fact that you guys can say that so nonchalantly kind of scares me." Jaune chuckled nervously as Yang offered only a small laugh.

"I dunno. I'm more scared by the fact that they're kind of right." Yang said with a bark of laughter as she stood up, stretching herself out as she winked at the rest of the group. "Well not for nothing but if my sis is gonna get kidnapped then I have a few niceties to take care of myself. When in Mantle, right?" Yang walked off, leaving everyone just a bit flabbergasted… though Blake only arched an eyebrow, having come to know her partner all too well.

"You're up to something…"

"Obviously! I'll catch you guys later!" With that Yang herself made her exit, leaving the group to just sit around in the room on their own, utterly flabbergasted by the two displays one after the other.

"... Well at least she was honest about that." Pyrrha remarked oddly, tilting her head a bit as Okuyasu just groaned.

"Ah man, you know what, screw this. At this point I don't care what we do, I'm just gettin' anxious. If Ruby's gonna go do whatever with Jotaro and Yang's got plans, then we should just get up and get movin' too. Can't stand just stayin' in this dorm anymore." Everyone looked at each other as the scarred teen bitched and groaned about the current situation… but in the end none of them really found it in them to disagree. Well, almost none of them. Because as Okuyasu moved to stand up one gentle, pale hand raised up, holding itself out to motion for him to stop.

"Weiss? What's up?" Koichi was the one to break the new silence, the grey haired young man curious as Weiss just stared dead on at the two Frontier Huntsmen, an intense look on her face.

"... Just something I got reminded of, having Jotaro walk in here. Yang helped remind me too… she had some niceties to take care of and… well, it might not be niceties on my part but it is definitely something I've wanted to take care of for a while now." At that everyone seemed intrigued, leaning in as they watched the Heiress. "You guys told us to wait before when you gave us a brief summary, that it wasn't important to get into the specifics of it… but well, now we have plenty of time to hear it. That birthmark Jotaro showed us; what the Heck is going on with it? With this… Family Curse?"

…

Immediately Koichi and Okuyasu clammed up, the two Frontier Huntsmen going slightly pale as this topic was being brought up now of all times.

"A-Ah, right… the Star…" Koichi offered, glancing off nervously as he twiddled his thumb.

"Right yeah… Joestar Family Birthmark and the… er, curse associated with it. That… that was brought up alright." Okuyasu pulled at the collar of his uniform, the bling he'd embedded into it jingling slightly at the motion.

"Are you guys not allowed to talk about it or something?" Nora asked, leaning forward slightly as she put her head in her hands. "I mean if you absolutely can't it's cool, it's just… well, you know." Nora fidgeted about a bit, showing off her obvious curiosity and excitement.

"... Well… uh… I don't think… I mean, kind of but… well, it's not like it's forbidden to talk about generally, it was just… you know, advised. Not to share it with… uh." Koichi fumbled as Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Strangers?"

"... Yeah…" Koichi replied meekly as Jaune frowned a little.

"You guys really still can't consider us strangers at this point, right? I mean… after everything we've been through together?" Okuyasu grit his teeth slightly at that, the young man tearing at his short hair as he though this over.

"Course not! You guys are our friends and… yeah, you've been through all this shit with us and helped us out… it's just… fuck, you know? This stuff's kind of a big deal where we come from. It's… basically the entire conflict that made the Frontier what it is. What made Morioh the last settled place there. It's… kind of hard to talk about, you know?"

"Look, we understand that it's an important part of your culture and pretty vital to the Joestar Family. Surely though something that happened so long ago, even if it translated to a… a 'curse'-" Pyrrha gestured with her hands, "-wouldn't be a vital threat to talk about."

…

Okuyasu's and Koichi's silence in response to that was damn near deafening.

"... Unless this whole secret does have something to do with what's going on today." Ren quietly said, the young man turning to face Koichi and Okuyasu fully as even Ren's interest seemed peeked.

"It… might. We don't know for certain but… well, at the very least the ramifications of what happened are behind the current situation." With that Weiss nodded as she slapped her hand on a nearby desk, causing everyone to flinch a bit.

"All the more reason for you two to tell us then. We're as much a part of this as you are, you can't deny that anymore. We have a right to know about something so vital, especially if it endangers people we consider our friends." Weiss shook her head as she leaned back in her seat. "I might not be onboard with this idea of a Family Curse… but if it's so terrible for Jotaro and Josuke then we should know about it. At least so we can know what we're getting into."

…

"... Okuyasu? Can you think of any reason not to tell them?" Koichi asked, causing the scarred teen to bark out a slightly tense laugh as he scratched his cheek.

"Come on Koichi, you have to ask? You're the smart one out of the two of us; if either of us would have a good reason to keep our lips shut it'd be you." The young man just nodded calmly at that.

"I figured… just thought it'd be good to check, considering I had nothing too." With that the two young men heaved a dramatic sigh, exhausted and beaten, as they turned back to the rest of their friends. "Alright… listen, we'll tell you guys what happened. The whole thing about those birthmarks and the curse behind them."

"But ya'll are gonna have to take our word on a lot of this stuff. You gotta believe us no matter what we say."

"... Well come on, that seems a little unreasonable Okuyasu, why-"

"No, Okuyasu's right." Koichi commented, drawing everyone's attention as he leaned forward. "Look… you're free to ask as many questions as you feel are necessary at any point in time. That's completely and truly fair and we have time for it." The polite, earnest Koichi shined best here as he offered a very sympathetic, tired smile. "However… what we're going to be telling you is kind of batshit crazy." The more forward Koichi, however, finished it off. "I'm serious, the stuff you're gonna hear about… well, about Him especially? It's going to be surreal."

"... Even by the standards of the Golden Arrows and Stands?" Blake asked, seemingly dumbfounded by the very notion.

"Yes. Even by those standards, this story is going to get weird."

…

"... Should we be drunk for this?" Nora asked, causing Okuyasu to bark out a laughter as everyone just seemed to be slightly on edge with how serious Okuyasu and Koichi were being about this.

"Probably but too late for that now." With that Okuyasu and Koichi looked at each other, tense expressions on each of their faces.

"... How do we even start with this?"

* * *

"Oh Brothers… I honestly can't believe she managed to sneak out of there without being spotted by someone in your family…"

"Well what can I say, as much as I pride myself on my own resourcefulness your mother… well, you didn't get all of your brains from me." The older Joestar commented to his estranged son, the elderly man taking a moment to pause before he took a sip of his water. "Just most of them."

Josuke smiled and, honestly, if he felt like he had more energy he would've torn into the old geezer for having said something like that. Trying to act really cool like that, someone needed to take him down a peg. However, at that moment, it wouldn't be Higashikata Josuke. Instead the young man, hair still flat and skin somewhat pale, just leaned back in his hospital bed. These past few days the doctors had switched up his regimen, now focusing more on getting him out of bed than making sure that nothing was internally wrong with him. While Josuke was grateful, have no doubt of that, the young man couldn't help but be weary too.

It was rough getting as messed up as he was. Honestly, the fact that Crazy Diamond couldn't fix him just stood out like a sore thumb in moments like these where he could fix up everyone else just fine but he was forced to stay put in a hospital bed.

Stand weakness could be a load of bull sometimes.

"I take it you have something else on your mind, Josuke?" Joseph finally asked, setting his glass of water to the side.

"... Agh.. it's just a little bit of everything you know. This whole situation is just… well, not great." Joseph cackled slightly at that, rapping his left hand against the wooden counter to produce a metal ring.

"Can't say I don't know the feeling. I was stuck in bed for what felt like ages after everything with Kars went down. Trust me, 'recovery' is even worse when you're getting over the loss of an arm and having a new one attached. Might've been the peak of Atlesian Tech at the time but, hoo boy, did that come with some surgery."

"Hell, according to Jotaro you even died once, yeah?" Joseph nodded at that… though that just made Josuke blink. "Actually, bringing that up, that did always raise an interesting question to me." The young man did his best to lean forward as he looked over at Joseph. "I've always been told that a Stand's power can't be used to bring someone back from the dead. Gods know I've learned that the hard way with Crazy Diamond." The older Joestar nodded at that as Josuke tapped his chin. "So… how did Jotaro bring you back to life with Star Platinum anyway?"

"Ah, that is an interesting story with a great deal of finesse and detail underlying how I was able to escape the cold, cold clutches of death, Josuke." Josuke nodded at that, eagerly leaning forward. "... We have no idea."

…

"Okay, I'd ask you to pull the other one but I feel like it'd hurt." Josuke said, feeling more tired than annoyed, as Joseph shrugged his shoulders.

"Brothers above, that's the truth. Jotaro more or less acted on instinct with his plan to try to revive me. It's true; Star Platinum had no means of using its various powers to revive me. I was well and truly dead, my Soul left my body and my Stand was destroyed. Jotaro witnessed it all himself. Yet still he was able to bring me back from the next life with… well, I guess some rather extreme CPR is the best way to put it, considering he had Star Platinum pumping my heart."

"So… you're not exaggerating, you really have no idea."

"Not a clue, though there is a theory that I've always been partial to." Josuke leaned forward again, his curiosity peaked, as Joseph stroked his chin. "DIO's blood… it's always had strange properties ever since he put The Mask." The word was so vague but, to anyone born and raised in Morioh, they knew right away which Mask was being spoken of. "People who took part of it became like him, closer to Grimm than man, and were strengthened by it. I never directly saw it myself with The Pillar Men or Straizo, but when it was described to me…"

"... You figure that it had some small effect on you."

"Heh, you really did get my sharp wits." Joseph said with a cocky grin, Josuke again just shaking his head as his estranged father looked back down. "Still, yes. While there was a great deal of my own blood in DIO's body at the time, there was no separating it out from his own. Even with all the injuries Jotaro would've inflicted on him, all the blood he'd have lost, some small bit of it would have been inside of him… and thus would've been given back to me in turn."

"Well you don't have red and black eyes or pale skin so…"

"Indeed. If it had any effect it would've been small… but even for a man as fit as I've been my entire life, I'm living a lot longer than I should be Josuke. Especially given what I've put this old, haggard body of mine through. I don't feel different and I don't seem different but… well. There's too much that fits about the situation for me to write these suspicions off."

Josuke just swallowed a bit nervously, listening to the elder Joestar speak on this matter. Now that Josuke was looking… well, he wasn't sure if he was just spooking himself or if he was honestly seeing them. Looking deep into the old, world weary eyes of Joseph Joestar, Josuke could swear that amidst the deep sea of Joestar green, specs of red and black could be found in the old man's eyes.

Though that mood, that fear, was quickly extinguished as the older man just looked over at him.

"Enough about that though. Too serious to speak over while visiting." Joseph clutched his hands around his cane as he watched Josuke nod. "Hope you haven't been too lonely. I know the treatments must be a pain and I probably would've gone stir crazy just sitting around like this when I was your age. Your friends been visiting you?"

"Yeah, they have been actually. They try to keep it on the regular but… well, after everything and with how long this ordeal with Roman Torchwick's taking, almost everyone seems a bit more on edge than usual. They haven't been by in a few days." Josuke admitted, the young leader heaving a sigh. It had been a rough few days; sure, he understood why they hadn't come by, the doctors were renewing some of his Dust treatments to help close up his stitches and, Hell, in a few days he was set to get them removed in a rather grueling process. He knew they might be by in the next few days but being so far apart from his friends was kind of torture for the young man.

"Ah, they set to meet you today? If so I can mozy on along, wouldn't want to cramp you kids and your style." Josuke cringed at Joseph's description but shook his head.

"Appreciated but no. They haven't called ahead to confirm anything so I really don't think they're-"

"Yo, JoJo! Sis got kidnapped by Jotaro and everyone else seemed intent on sitting around so… thought I'd bring by some… provisions."

The two Joestar family members blinked as the door opened up and, who should come through it but one Yang Xiao Long. The blonde paused awkwardly in the midst of her entrance, lilac eyes blinking at the two Stand Users as a small standoff ensued.

…

"I didn't come by at a bad time, did I?" Yang asked, awkwardly, pointing out the door. "Cause I can totally leave and-"

"No no, it's quite around Miss Xiao Long. I was just leaving; gotta get back to my station in case Roman Torchwick finally wakes up after all." Joseph said, calmly, as he stood up from his seat, dusting himself off as he looked over at Josuke. "Not expecting company, eh?"

"I wasn't lying, old man." Josuke muttered as he glanced off to the side, already not liking the look Joseph was giving him.

"... You know your grandfather and I liked blondes-" Before Joseph could even finish his thought a hospital pillow was batted upside his head, the old man cackling as he rushed out the door before another pillow was thrown at his back.

"Useless old… urgh…" Josuke, a slight blush on his cheeks, collapsed back a bit on the bed, the effort having drained him somewhat as Yang just watched Joseph run for the hills.

…

"Wow, already fulfilling the 'embarrass kid' requirement. Guy moves fast to fill in, huh?" Yang shrugged her shoulders as she closed the door behind her, the black haired young man shaking his head as he sighed.

"Yeah, kind of a pain in the ass." Josuke let his hands roam up to his hair, sighing ever so slightly as he looked over at Yang. "Listen, I hope he didn't skeeve you out or anything. He's kind of-"

"It's cool JoJo. Like I said, embarrassing the kid is just kind of a dad thing. Gods know my dad's done it plenty of times for me to just kind of get used to it… well, get used to it from other dads that is." Yang admitted, coughing awkwardly to herself as she lifted a plastic bag.

"Anyway, brought some stuff over. Figured you've got to be going a bit stir crazy with just hospital food and junk so, you know."

"Pretty sure that's kind of against the rules." Josuke commented, crossing his arms as he looked over at the plastic bag. In fact he was pretty much 100% certain it was against the rules; the hospital made their food the way it was and provided what drinks they did for a reason. Bringing in outside stuff probably wasn't cool at all…

"So you're saying you don't want it?" Yang asked, coyly, as she threatened to hold the bag back as Josuke just barked out a surprised laugh.

"Now hold on, i didn't say that!" The teen admitted as the blonde brawler shook her head, dumping most of the contents on the bed in front of him. Most of the contents were to be expected; the little snack cakes he and his mother loved to eat, the cola that he found so delicious and a lot of other little snacks. The one thing he was pretty surprised by was the comb that was dumped out in the mix of it, causing the young man to tilt his head to the side.

"Figured you of all people would be going crazy without a comb to style your hair with so, ta-da! You're welcome!" Josuke chuckled ever so slightly; though he did appreciate the gesture… well, he kind of had to rain a bit on Yang's parade.

"Sorry Yang but unless you've got some hair gel in that bag I don't think that comb's gonna do me much good. A pompadour Isn't exactly something you come into easily." He'd learned that lesson the hard way back in the day. However, as he said this, Josuke couldn't help but notice the sly grin on Yang's face, the young woman picking up the come and twirling it around in her fingers.

"Poor, poor JoJo. You have thought yourself the master of your hair but clearly you have much to learn, young student." Yang flipped a hand through her hair as she spoke, the grin still on her face. "Today I'm going to teach you the magic of styling your hair with just water! An ancient art passed down through my family."

…

"For how long?"

"Well, starting with me, but a tradition has gotta start somewhere right?" Josuke just blinked in disbelief at that as Yang waved him over. "Now scoot."

"Uh… hmmm…" Josuke mumbled to himself, obviously nervous and pretty tepid. The idea of someone else touching his hair was kind of… uncomfortable. No one touched his hair, not even really his mom. He styled it himself and he took care of it. Putting it in someone else's hands… well… it felt like he was endangering his precious, precious hair. Seeing this hesitation Yang just scoffed as she put her hands on her hips.

"Come on JoJo. Look at my beautiful head of hair. Are you really saying you can't trust me, of all people, to handle your hair?"

"I'm not saying that…" He was thinking it, for one. However, as he looked over Yang's hair… well, he couldn't deny. It was clear how much work and effort Yang put into maintaining her hair. The diligence and hard work was clear in how voluminous and shiny it was. The ends of her hair flowed all the way down her back right to her butt and, despite all this, it looked like there was nary a tangle or a split end to be found in the entire waterfall of gold. It really did look amazing. Maintaining all that hair probably put his own work on his pompadour to shame, if he thought about it rationally…

'Jeez… trust my friend who's obviously done a lot of hard work on her own hair and knows what she's doing… or continue to not let anyone mess with my hair. Choices…' In the end, as irrational as Josuke knew he could feel about his hair sometimes… he did miss his pompadour. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"If something starts happening that I don't like-"

"Then you have absolutely free reign to call up Crazy Diamond and 'Dorarara' me into a wall."

"I wasn't gonna say that…" Josuke muttered, glancing off to the side as Yang just grinned like a wolf at him.

"You were thinking it though. It's cool; I think the same thing when people mess with my hair." Well that was comforting at any rate. So Yang quickly went off to fill a cup with water while Josuke moved over to the edge of his hospital bed, the snacks and drinks set out for the both of them as the formerly pompadoured teen, reluctantly, made room for Yang to get to work. It'd be a long process of course, and Yang knew that to some degree; just styling hair with water took a long, long time to get things right and, to make Josuke's hair up into something even vaguely resembling his classic pompadour would be even more of a challenge.

Still, Yang Xiao Long wasn't bluffing when she said she knew hair, she certainly did. She'd be up for the challenge, it'd just take time and… well, she could really stand to fill that time with something to chat about. What though; they were all kind of talked out from the last time she and the others visited and it wasn't like anything too exciting happened since then? Things had just been so slow, all the waiting for the next move to be made. Okuyasu wasn't wrong that it was boring and a drain on her nerves, even if 'peace' was technically what they were all aiming for.

While Yang did her best to try to think of a topic, she quickly combed a bit of Josuke's hair up and away from his shoulder as she prepared to set it, giving herself a good base to build his pompadour back up. As she did so though she noticed something just out of the corner of her eye. Something barely obscured by the shoulder of Josuke's hospital gown…

A purple star.

The Joestar Birthmark… or the Joe-Star as she'd taken to privately calling it. Privately because, in truth, nobody understood her comedic genius but Okuyasu and she was waiting for the right time to crack this bad boy out.

Still, seeing it there, it did remind her.

"... Say so… sorry for bringing this up out of nowhere but… well, couldn't help but notice… this little guy right here." She used her elbow to roughly tap the position on his shoulder, figuring that Josuke would know what was what. The teen froze up a bit at that, awkwardly scratching his cheek.

"Oh? Yeah… it's a, it's a birthmark." Yang nodded at that, though it was clear Josuke wasn't trying to talk too much about it.

"I know, Jotaro showed it off… and uh, explained some stuff about it."

…

The silence in the room soon became deafening, all but for the sounds of Yang dipping the come in the cup of water.

"Ah, he did huh?"

"Yeah; it was just after you left the meeting involving the old man coming. He explained the connection and… well… a curse. Didn't go much more in depth other than to say there was a curse but, you know."

"Right." Josuke frowned, keeping himself from leaning forward so as to not interrupt Yang's work on his hair. "I'm guessing you're wanting to know what's up?"

"Eh, Jotaro said he'd explain it later so you don't have to…"

"I don't have to… but I feel like there's a 'bit' coming." Josuke said with a slight chuckle as Yang sheepishly nodded.

"But… being told that your friend's entire family has this bloodline curse with a birthmark associated… well, I'm not gonna lie, been kind of dying for an explanation. That sounds like… you know, magic. More so than any of the Stand stuff or whatever. At least that makes sense on a Soul-based level. This…" Yang struggled to find the right words, but the black haired young man quickly stepped in.

"I understand. It's bizarre even by the standards of what you guys know." Yang nodded, the blonde leaning over Josuke's shoulder to be able to get a good look at him.

"Yeah… but still, if you don't want to say, that's fine. Jotaro already promised it and-"

"No… no. It's fine. You're doing me a favor right now and… well, it's kind of about time." Josuke muttered as he brought his hand up to his chin. "You all have been a part of this and… on some level, it affects you all too. You don't have to be a Joestar to be afflicted by our curse. That's something a lot of people have had to learn the hard way." The room remained heavily silent as Yang sat back, breath baited as she paused her work on Josuke's hair. The young man, however, just heaved a sigh.

"How do I even start though…"

* * *

"Huh? You brought me along to hunt… Grimm?"

Ruby was very much befuddled as she and Jotaro walked through the various, abandoned streets of Vale. Following the attack on the city numerous parts of the city had been left largely empty due to the damage done. The Grimm rampage alone had taken a toll on numerous buildings, the monster's hatred of humanity pouring out onto even the structures built by humans as blocks of the city were wrecked and destroyed by the monsters. However, they alone didn't account for all of it; with the destruction of the wall blocks of concrete, stone and steel rained down upon large sections of the city.

Crushing, destroying, pillaring and otherwise causing great havoc wherever its pieces would land. Thus many residents of these areas were left without suitable homes to return to while construction, or reconstruction rather, took place. In the meantime, the city streets remained empty, hollow and lonely…

"Yes. There've been reports that Grimm remain within Vale, especially in these empty sections of the city, following 'The Breach'." Jotaro spoke of the unofficial name of the catastrophe in practical air quotes as he and Ruby scaled a huge pile of rubble that used to be a residence. "Before the city sends in construction crews to deal with these areas, they want them cleared out and declared safe. No sense sending workings to potentially dangerous areas before they know they're safe. Given the range on your scope if we spot any Grimm I knew you'd be able to take them out from a distance, even if they started running. That range will help to make up for Star Platinum's own relatively limited range."

…

Okay, that made some amount of sense but… well…

"I mean… why did you agree to it? There's other Hunters in Vale, especially now after The Breach. There's also Atlesian soldiers and… even if it had to be you, there's plenty of other Hunters who're just as good at taking shots as me, if not better." Heck, she was only a first year after all. "So I'm just… kind of confused I guess. I'm not sure why you brought me here."

…

Jotaro looked down at Ruby, the young woman flinching under his gaze.

"T-That isn't to say I don't believe those reasons at all, I'm just saying that it doesn't feel like that's… you know… the whole... truth?" She was just gonna shut up before she-

"Well… you're perceptive at least. You're not wrong."

…

"I'm not?" Ruby watched as Jotaro nodded, scaling one end of the rubble and nodding for her to come over and join him.

"We are gonna be hunting Grimm, but it was more just an excuse to get away from Beacon. I signed myself up for it and asked that I be allowed to bring someone with me. They accepted and so I came by to grab you."

"... Okay. So… why exactly?" Jotaro nodded at that, looking back at Ruby as they both scaled down the side of the pile of rubble. As they walked along the giant of a man heaved a sigh as he looked back at her again.

"During our time over in Mountain Glenn I had an opportunity to talk to your team… or rather, most of your team. I never got the chance to get around to you… mostly because I figured you didn't need it. Your sister talked up your dreams and drive and no one seemed to argue. Heck, Ozpin seems to think highly of you and your abilities as well." Ruby couldn't help but smile at that, nodding fervently.

"Well yeah! There's not a thing in this world I wanna be more than a Huntress! I want to be a Hero that saves people and does my best to protect everyone!" Jotaro's gaze narrowed ever so slightly at that, the large man pointing back at her.

"So I've heard. So that being the case… why let Oyecomova live?"

…

"E… Excuse me?" Ruby couldn't quite believe the question being posed to her. Oyecomova, the terrorist they fought who tried to help with The Breach. Jotaro was asking her… why she…

"You had a chance to finish him off and take your shot. Killing him would've taken a piece off the table and potentially saved who knows how many more lives in the future. So why did you stop yourself?" Ruby awkwardly rubbed her arm at that, glancing off to the side.

"I mean… isn't that obvious? He's a human being, a person. I couldn't kill a person. That's just not what we do. We're supposed to protect people-"

"Even people trying to kill or harm other people?" Jotaro asked, causing Ruby to frown as Jotaro just stared at her for a hard second. "That's why we're here. I don't care about whether being a Huntress if your dream or not. Don't care about your drive. Those are fine things to have on your own. I am here to tell you that this attitude, this idea that you aren't going to harm any people in this fight, in this war to protect humanity… it's a load of shit that's only going to get you or your friends hurt… or worse." Ruby visibly flinched at that, turning her silver eyes on Jotaro as she frowned at him.

"I really can't believe you'd say something like that! After what everyone's said about your family, after what everyone's said about how great of heroes you all are, that you are, you're going to try and tell me that heroism and not hurting people's… 'a load'?" She wouldn't use the rest both out of propriety and not wanting to repeat that lost part.

Or worse. Only one thing he could've meant.

Jotaro just looked back at her, turning his shoulders to face her fully. "Is that really what you think you see when you look at me? What you think I am after all those stories? A Hero?" Ruby nodded, almost defiantly, as Jotaro heaved a sign. " **Yare yare daze** … you couldn't be further off from the truth."

Ruby didn't budge, didn't leave her ground, as she kept facing Jotaro, the man and father staring down at her before turning."You think you understand my family, our place as Heroes, after hearing some stories…

"I have a story to tell you, then. An important one…"

* * *

"He was a legend, a man seemingly sent by Destiny in order to save everyone in their hour of need! From a long line of proud, honest, noble men and women he was descended and those qualities shined the brightest in him! He's the greatest of the Three Founders, the man who slew his brother, born of the Brother of Destruction himself… the man who made Morioh the community it is today.

"Jonathan Joestar, our founder… and the man with whom the Joestar Curse, sadly, began."

* * *

"They didn't talk about it much… but, well, it was bound to come up eventually. Everyone in Morioh looks up to them. Everyone in Morioh believes in them. My grandfather was no different in that regard and he passed that appreciation down to my mom. When she met Joseph, she fell in love with the man of course, I have no doubt about that… but, well, there was probably still a lot of that awe. Of a lineage that stretched back to a great man. However… we all learned that the family is more complicated than it looks. That the Joestars aren't as perfect as everyone thinks, even beyond the quirks of someone like Joseph or Jotaro.

"Still… they're not who I'm talking about. However imperfect the family is, and however quirky the guy at the start of this curse might be… well. He's still a hero to me and my family. He's still… well, my family too, I guess.

"Jonathan Joestar, my great-grandfather, the man who really started the current Joestar lineage… and where the Joestar Curse was inflicted upon us."

* * *

"Robert Speedwagon loved him… and when the time came when he was no longer alive, he wanted people to appreciate him. The struggles he went through, the obstacles in his way. His life wasn't easy; his mother died when he was young and his father placed high expectations on him for leading the family into a new generation. It's a lot of weight to put on a young man… especially when you're constantly comparing him to some creep. He struggled to make friends with kids his age and grew up in a rough spot; born too high for the lower class kids to really respect him, but not a high society guy himself. According to my grandfather, my great, great grandmother said his table manners were atrocious.

"Yet it'd be him that everything would fall on. The man who would shoulder the weight of all those struggles… every last decision that had to be made, every last sacrifice asked for. In the end he died too. Robert Speedwagon wiped the slate clean… but we remembered him. Not as just a legend, but as a man.

"He was the son of a high strung father, descended from nobility, whom destiny put a great weight onto. He began the Joestar Curse by deciding to take up destiny's call. He was named many things by Robert and the people who followed him… but he was a man with a normal name. A nickname even; one taken up to try and fit in amongst the kids he'd try to play and box with.

"Jonathan 'Johnny' Joestar."

* * *

 **A/N: Woof, been a long time, been a long time.**

 **Okay so for those of you who don't keep up with the SpaceBattles thread, short version; I've been going through a few rewrites of the Beacon is Unbreakable outline for the past few months as I've been trying to change some things. Chapter lengths so that they won't feel so bloated as I try to cram in words to hit a 10k limit I had dumbly imposed, restructuring the story so as to keep it from dragging on, etc.**

 **I've also started a couple other projects that took off unexpectedly. One of them you've been bound to notice, My Huntsman Academia which I post fanfic versions of the Quest updates here with the help of my editors Shovern and Wind-Waker, and a Spider-Man Quest that I have yet to ask for editors of (as it's still too early into the Quest). They kind of unexpectedly blew up in popularity so they ended up taking up more time because I was finding it difficult to work on Beacon is Unbreakable.**

 **Which is the last point; with Beacon is Unbreakable winding down, with less than 25 chapters to go I reckon, i've been finding the difficulty of working on it growing. I'm having to wrap things up and make sure everything's tying together in a neat bow, which is much harder to manage than setting things up and letting them play out. I get nervous and uncertain working on this because I want the ending to be of good quality so that it'll feel satisfaction when the last chapter's posted. So I've just struggled hard with Beacon is Unbreakable.**

 **But finally, we have a new chapter out. I'll try to at least make future installments more regular than this past drought, hopefully once a month, but I'm going to take what time I need considering the above.**

 **Sorry for this having taken so long and I hope you all enjoy! Later!**


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